Here’s a short report of last night’s very genial game of Midgard Heroic Battles with long term playtesting chums Paul Scrivens-Smith and Paul Welsh.
Following a fine dinner of tortellini (thank you PW), I was invited to play the (newly painted) Wood Elves against Scrivs’ Undead in the Forcing the Pass scenario from Chronicles of Midgard. Naturally, I was going to be defending the pass from the wooded hillside. I had something approaching a plan with the skirmishing archers protecting the woods on the left, spearmen and army general in the centre and the cavalry and hawk riders on the right to attempt a flanking manoeuvre.
The Undead commander issued a challenge as he approached which, uncharacteristically, I turned down, not wishing to risk critical Heroes so early in the game. The hawk riders were a great disappointment, hitting nothing with their arrows (one of the new rules that we’re testing increases the Undead’s resistance to shooting, but they barely needed it with my dice rolling!)
I did, however, manage to get the first charge in with my Army Commander. Fighting enemies with Aura of Dread is never fun, though fortunately I’d planned for this, with a Sorcerer close at hand with the Protection spell for extra support. Had I not failed my first two spell casting tests, it could have been very different!
With the centre engaged, my archers on the left in the woods came under attack from zombies and skeletons and held their own. My stag riders on the right really underachieved, initially causing some casualties but never really threatening the Undead flank. I poured Units into the critical battle into the centre but just could not break down the two Undead elite Units leading the attack.
Early in Turn 5, the Elves lost several Units and suddenly their Reputation dropped to -4. Challenging and slaying the Undead commander pulled it back to -1 (with Undead Reputation on 2) but ultimately it was all over and the Elven Force ran for the woods.
A corking game with great company and super minis, all provided by Paul & Paul. 10mm Midgard is rapidly becoming a favourite with the group due to ease of transport, storage and set up, not to mention the 3 x 4’ playing area. I’d love to have better dice, but when the game was this fun, who really cares?
mogsymakes 