Featured

New blog: mogsymakes by James Morris

Many years ago, Big Red Bat guru Simon Miller asked me why I didn’t have a blog to support the various games that I took around wargames shows. “Why would I want a blog?” I asked him. “You’ll get followers,” came the reply. I laughed.

I don’t really do this to get followers, but I love swapping ideas and photos with other gamers around the world. I seem to post on social media every week or so, only then to find myself unable to find my own pictures, battle reports or words of advice just a few weeks later. Questions like this crop up all the time: “Have you got any size comparison pictures with different manufacturers?” “What was the paint recipe you used on your wolves?” “Has anyone had a go at converting Elf cavalry/ Cretan gendarmes/ Sikh sappers?” “How does Muskets & Tomahawks II play?” And often, I say, “Yes, but…just let me find it…” Hopefully mogsymakes will go some way towards helping out with these senior moments of social media.

My chum Scrivs claims that one of his main reasons for having a blog is to be able to find his paint recipes several years down the line; I can confirm this, having used several of his colour schemes after looking them up online! I’ve gone for something in between a blog and a website, in that I have different pages and sections where I will hopefully archive posts to make them easier to find. It is still very much in its infancy, so any helpful suggestions about improving access and layout will be quite welcome.

And so, I find myself following Simon’s sage advice: get a blog. I hope you enjoy it!

Announcing Mogsymakes Banners

After years of hand-painting my own banners, I decided to scan my latest creations and make them available for download at Wargame Vault: https://www.wargamevault.com/en/browse?keyword=mogsymakes

There are initially three sets available, all designed for Saxons and Vikings.

There’s also a short video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nSE26PnEJl4?si=1Yhj1E7aBg1oeLCp 28mm minis in these examples by Pulp Miniatures, Footsore, Artizan & Gripping Beast.

You can see the banners page with full details here.

Midgard at CanCon 2026

The mighty Australian gaming convention that is CanCon ran over the weekend of 24-26th January 2026 at Exhibition Park in Canberra, and I was delighted to see photos of so many Midgard Heroic Battles games running as part of the Lard Zone. My budget hasn’t allowed a trip yet but the enthusiastic game organisers have provided me with enough information to put together this post!

An array of games ran over the three days in multiple different settings – exactly what Midgard Heroic Battles was intended to do!

Faramir’s Last Charge was a 40mm spectacular battle set, of course, during The Lord of the Rings.

Middle-earth had a second visitation with a 28mm game based on John Savage’s Fords of Isen scenario, as featured in Lard Magazine 2024.

Ragnar Skwigelf (AKA Darren) and his mates have been play testing some of the new scenarios that feature in the forthcoming Chronicles of Midgard supplement and decided to showcase one. ‘Scale the Walls’ was an absolute beaut, featuring an early medieval clash with Welsh and Saxons in conflict over a superb fortified town.

Andrew Bishop and his friends ran three different games over the three days using their extensive miniature collections to produce some epic battles: Vikings vs Normans, Goblins vs Dwarves and an Arthurian fantasy mash-up . Love the big units!

Huge thanks to David Williams, Ragnar Skwigelf, Jason Dickie and Andrew Bishop who contributed photos and ran the games along with teams of their chums. To see the effort you’ve put into running these – along with the wonderful minis and terrain – is an absolute joy. Cheers!

Tlingit vs Russians – First Battle Reports & Video 26.1.26

After picking up the Tlingit vs Russians project again, I wrote a couple of scenarios for Osprey’s Rebels & Patriots. Tom, Pete and I played these through at the Soldier Shack a couple of weeks ago. R & P works brilliantly for this and we all enjoyed the two games, with the Tlingit and Russians winning one apiece.

I’ve created a short video which you can see here, and Tom has two picture battle reports available on his blog – first game and second game.

You can see the Tlingit vs Russians project page here – more to come!

Tolkien Page Update & Orc Host Video

The Tolkien’s Middle-earth page of the site has finally had an update, including the addition of a much-needed page for the Orcs! I’ve also linked some of the key Middle-earth battle reports for Midgard Heroic Battles that had been hard to find on the blog.

Not only that, but there’s also a very short video covering the Orc host! My son has helped me out with this and the website update as part of his Duke of Edinburgh’s award.

New Video: Midgard Notebook – Combat

I’ve had very little time to dedicate to the YouTube channel recently but I recently found a few hours to film a few Midgard combat situations that might be of interest to both new and regular players – you can see it here. Do let me know if there’s anything you’d like to cover in future episodes and please do like and subscribe if you’ve enjoyed any of the content.

The other news from today is that I’ve been writing the index for Chronicles of Midgard, but I didn’t think that was a very exciting headline 🙂

Midgard Moot II

Hi everyone, just a heads up! I’ve been getting the line up confirmed for the second Midgard Moot event which is due to take place at Boards And Swords Hobbies in Derby, UK on Saturday 25th April 2026. This event was terrific fun last April and we’re looking to make it even better in 2026!

Bookings don’t open till January but click here to see the details of the games and campaigns.

20251105 PJ 2468 Vikings – burning village