If you haven’t already, please do have a look, and of course like, subscribe and comment if you enjoyed the videos. I know we’re all short of time nowadays so I try to keep the running time down – Agincourt comes in at under 10 minutes, with the Dwarf painting at 25 mins.
Crackcon 6 – the annual convention of the Plastic Crack Podcast – was thoroughly enjoyable as Pete and I ran two back-to-back games of ‘Over My Dead Body’, a Trojan War scenario for Midgard.
The venue (Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby) was rammed with quality games, all being played in a great atmosphere.
The charity raffle and merchandise also raised £2000 for the Brain Tumour Trust in memory of Paul Sawyer – a wonderful gesture.
Behind the scenes, the Chronicles of Midgard supplement is currently in layout, but no news on format or release date yet – all this will follow! I’m also beavering away on various PDF ‘goblet-size campaigns’ that should see release as soon as Chronicles makes it out of the door.
Oh, and I finished the castle gates I’ve been working on – apparently I need a mini cat now to make use of the cat flap!
I ran this scenario for the first time at Britcon in August 2024 just as Midgard Heroic Battles was about to head to press for eventual release in November.
Scenic background by Jon Hodgson Backdrops and used with permission. You’ll note that the final Midgard logo and measuring sticks aren’t in use – we had to keep them under wraps until nearer release!
It was a big event, definitely one of the top Lardy Days on the UK circuit, and slightly nerve-wracking as I would be introducing some of the regular Lard gaming veterans to Midgard for the first time.
I needn’t have worried – it was a blast – and the response was excellent. However, on the eve of pulling the game out again for the Crackcon 6 event, I realised that I’d never shared most of these photos. So here you go!
With the death of Hector, many Trojans felt that their last hope had gone. The stone known as the Luck of Troy had been stolen away in the night by the cunning Odysseus of Ithaca. What hope was left for the beleaguered golden city?
However, one morning, the sun burned brighter than usual; a column of armoured warriors arrived, guided by Paris himself. These were no ordinary soldiers but Amazons, the famed warrior women who lived far away near the River Thermodon. Bred for battle, they carried bronze spears and swords, but also shot arrows from both chariots and horseback.
Welcomed through the gates, the Amazons were feasted and celebrated with the best provisions that Troy could muster. Priam himself presented their Queen with a silver-hilted sword, and Penthesilea told her tale to the astonished Trojans. “We are here to aid you in your noble cause of driving off the Achaean locusts. I, Penthesilia, daughter of Ares, will use this sword to slay Achilles himself! Since accidentally killing my beloved sister, Hippolyta, I have no wish to live in dishonour. Let us take up arms and fight to free Troy and gain eternal glory!”
And so, the following morning, with a blast of bronze trumpets, the Scaean Gate opened and disgorged a horde of Amazons. Sun glinting on their helms and arrow-tips, Penthesilea led her warriors to meet Diomedes of Argos, first out of the Greek camp. A single combat was agreed between Podarces, brother of Prothesilaus (the first Achaean to be slain in the campaign) and the Amazon champion Bremusa as the others rushed to battle.
The chariots of Achilles and Ajax the Great could be seen in the distance. The women of Troy watched spellbound from the towers of Ilium: who would triumph?
Having seen the floor plan for The Other Partizan show yesterday, I think everyone’s in for a treat if you can make it to Newark Showground on October 12th! We have managed to shoehorn three Midgard Heroic Battles games into the hall this time around.
This mini extravaganza is back-to-back with a 28mm version of the Battle of Agincourt, just in time for the 610th anniversary and featuring Paul Scrivens-Smith’s colourful collection of Perry Miniatures, on their first show outing following their return from the USA.
I’ve spent several days recently making a heavily-ploughed field with puddles, which is considerably less glamorous…
Next door to us at DG18 we have Mr Peter Dennis of Peter’s Paperboys who will be using Midgard to introduce an exciting new project – beautifully-drawn as ever! We are bordering on the Lard Zone, where there will be three fabulous games showcasing some of the other Too Fat Lardies/ Reisswitz Press rules. And, of course, the TFL stall where you will be able to buy your copies of Midgard or whatever takes your fancy.
These are the new ‘Classic Fantasy Battles Grand Scale’ range from Wargames Atlantic of which you get 246 minis in a box for £32.50! I really enjoyed the previous Orc release (see my painting video on these here) and have immediately bought a couple of boxes of the Dwarven Host for Midgard Heroic Battles.
I’m basing these on 80 x 40mm bases for Midgard – you can see the process in the Orc video. I shall undoubtedly get a Dwarf painting video put together at some point in the next few weeks.
Photo backgrounds are Jon Hodgson Backdrops, in this case from the A3 original backdrops book.
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be invited by Tamworth Wargames Club to run a Battle of Bosworth 1485 game in Tamworth Castle’s great hall. This was quite an experience and I’ve put together a 15 minute video about it which you can see on the Mogsymakes YouTube channel – please do have a look, and like and subscribe if that’s your thing. We used Midgard Heroic Battles for the rules with a custom scenario (which I’ll hopefully publish at some point in the future after some further play testing).
The chums & I took our Battle of Five Armies game for its second outing to the Colours Wargames Show in Newbury, UK, last weekend. It was a brilliant day out and a pleasure to see everyone to chat about Midgard Heroic Battles and Tolkien.
I’ve used the footage and pictures from the weekend to create a video of the game for the YouTube channel. Please do have a look and let me know what you think! Views and subscriptions are greatly appreciated.
I recently read this wonderful series of historical novels by Ian Ross which really kick started the project. These are very well researched and highly recommended!
Having tried out both Hairfoot and Wartnose Jousting, Mike B and I decided to get some all-goblin bouts in down at the club.
In case you’d missed it, Hairfoot Jousting is a fun little game from Joseph McCullough and Osprey Games. It’s a very low figure count game that plays in around an hour, so ideal for drop in/ drop out games at a show or a club night.
Axeman, Bellend and Pothead – Mike’s second team (3D prints painted by Mike Bradford)
The first half of the book is about Hairfoot Jousting – a sport played for cheers and laughs by halflings riding twee oversized animals. However, turn into the second half and you find Wartnose Jousting – essentially the same set of rules, but re-skinned for goblins jousting each other for jeers and pain. Mike and I had both felt drawn towards the goblins so that’s what we were playing with.
Game 1 saw us taking on the challenge of the Spikefoot Run – a race/ combat event in which both sides take a three goblin team, designating two as the ‘runners’ (who have to complete laps of the arena) and one as the ‘blocker’ who has to, you know, whack the other team.
The main piece of scenery required for the scenarios is something to demarcate a 75 cm diameter arena. This doesn’t need to be anything special – Mike used a set of standard wargaming walls from Treefellas. Of course, being a goblin arena, there were also some unpleasant obstacles, including some spiked fences and pits that Mike had knocked up.
Hairfoot/Wartnose Jousting uses a very entertaining (if somewhat random) movement system. You begin your move by pointing your mount in the direction you want it to go, then roll a D6. There are six templates and you get one of these according to the number rolled! If you run into an opponent, you can whack them, hopefully causing Endurance loss, and if you run into an obstacle, you lose Endurance (though you gain a Jeering token as the crowd laugh at you. Get ten of these and you can trade them for a dice reroll).
Once you get into it, it’s not quite as mad as it sounds, as there are some special rules for each mount that can help you to plan your move. Frogs (being bouncy) can jump over obstacles in your path, avoiding damage in many situations. Cockroaches (being tough) ignore damage from running into obstacles. And several creatures have the ability to swap between different movement templates, giving you just a little bit more control. If you’re charging an enemy, because the templates are 60mm wide (the same width as the bases), you’re likely to hit them even if the direction wasn’t quite what you planned.
Anyway, back to the Spikefoot Run. My three challengers were Skulwig, riding a frog, Prince Charming (on a centipede) and Erbert on his trusty cockroach. Skulwig and Charming were sent to be the ‘runners’ (having some special rules giving me a bit more control over movement); Erbert was the ‘blocker’ as he could run into obstacles without damage.
Both pairs of runners set off, ricocheting off walls and obstacles as they progressed. Erbert had some success as a blocker, taking out one of Mike’s runners, and both sides progressed to rack up two laps apiece. Whoever could take the third lap would win it. Unfortunately, my runners had taken so much damage from their inept navigation of the course, Skulwig soon dropped out. Charming was limping towards the line when he was felled by a random event – a hail of pine cones from the spectators which did for his final point of Endurance! This left Mike with one runner in the race and he was ruled the winner.
Skulls on sticks, quickly created from spare parts from the Wargames Atlantic Classic Fantasy Skeletons box.
Game 2 involved a more formal joust with the Boneyard Arena scenario. This involved a bit of a tourney spiced up with five skulls on sticks; there were bonuses for hooking the skulls with your lance, and if a single jouster managed to hook three skulls, they were the winner and the game was over. This sounded like a big ask but I thought I’d give it a go.
Skulwig, Sir Orrid and Kashan the Mighty!
For this game, I fielded my complete team of frog-mounted riders (inspired by the art of Brian Froud – you can see a short video about making them here) converted from the official Northstar Miniatures for the game. These were Skulwig (yellow pennon), Kashan the Mighty (white pennon) and Sir Orrid (red pennon). Mike put out three unpleasant types wearing/ wielding different kitchen utensils – Pothead, Bellend and Axeman.
The game got off to an exciting start as both Skulwig and Axeman managed to hook skulls but started to settle down as we then kept missing (you need quite a high dice roll to pull it off – I think we’d both got lucky at the start). Attrition was lower in this game than usual as we were mostly focused on trying to hook skulls, though Mike’s goblins seemed to be hitting the wall an awful lot. I eventually figured out that this was down to Mike trying to gain ten Jeering tokens to be able to get a re-roll in order to hook more skulls! Typical goblin tactics :-).
Once Skulwig had hooked the first skull, I’d decided that he’d go for all the others, while his team mates concentrated on blocking the opposition. This soon paid off as Skulwig got his second skull.
However, by now Mike had got his ten Jeering tokens for a re-roll and just beat Skulwig to the skull by virtue of his initiative roll. However, even with the re-roll, he just failed to do it and Skulwig pulled it off, winning the match. At which point the goblin and frog-men supporters invaded the pitch.
This was a lot of fun and a great diversion from the more serious projects that I’d been working on. It’s not a hard game to learn and, if you can cope with the lack of total control over your mounts, is a brilliant choice for a club night when everyone needs something lighter. We will definitely play again!
Skull no 3! Skulwig is victorious and the pitch is invaded (Toadmen by Bifrost Miniatures/ Warbases)
Following a successful trip to the Joy of Six show at the weekend, I’ve added a full picture report of our Midgard Heroic Battles game.
This was an excursion into Glorantha (the world of the Runequest RPG) with chums Matt and Tom using 6mm miniatures and terrain (background by Jon Hodgson). Have a look here!
mogsymakes 