I was flattered to be the guest on the Yarkshire Gamer podcast (until I answered ‘Leeds’ to one of the quiz questions, anyway ) recently.
Ken and I talked about all kinds of stuff, I put him right on the early medieval period, and we had a grand old chat before being joined by Richard Clarke towards the end to discuss the development and publication of Midgard Heroic Battles.
28mm miniatures by Gripping Beast, Foundry, Footsore and Crusader. Background used under licence from Jon Hodgson Backdrops. Banners by Mogsymakes on WargameVault.com
Tickets for the Winchester Shieldwall event on Saturday 21st November are now available! Join us at the University of Winchester for a day of miniature gaming and talks focused on the warfare of the Viking Age.
À Montfort! À Montfort! is the second Goblet-Size Campaign for Midgard Heroic Battles. Using the campaign system from Chronicles of Midgard, this historical 41-page supplement delves into the Second Barons’ War in which Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, took on King Henry III and his son Lord Edward.
Containing background, maps, five new scenarios and Muster Rolls for the baronial and royalist forces, this PDF supplement also contains options to play À Montfort! À Montfort! as either a linear or map-based campaign.
The scenarios cover some of the main fighting in 1264-65, including Henry III’s attack on Northampton, Simon de Montfort’s attempt to take Rochester Castle, Lord Edward’s raid on Kenilworth and, of course, the climactic battles of Lewes and Evesham. As a bonus, ready-to-play opposing Force lists are included for each of the new scenarios.
A copy of Midgard Heroic Battles and Chronicles of Midgard are both needed to use the contents of this supplement.
I’m very pleased to say that the second Goblet-Size Campaign for Midgard Heroic Battles is nearly ready. Richard has been burning the midnight oil finishing off the layout while I’ve been drawing maps in a medieval monk-style and checking all the statlines with a red pen!
The campaign contains a brief historical background, five new scenarios for the fighting of 1264-65 and a Muster Roll for both the royalists and baronial forces as well as profiles for all the main leaders such as Simon de Montfort. There are also options to play À Montfort! À Montfort! as a linear or map-based campaign using the system from Chronicles of Midgard.
À Montfort! À Montfort! will be available as a PDF from Reisswitz Press – I’ll let you know as soon as it’s out.
I’m very excited to be helping Ryan Lavelle of the University of Winchester in putting on a new one day event themed around Viking age warfare.
The format is similar to Lardy Days/ Midgard Moot, with two hosted games but also a couple of talks about the connections between wargaming and historical research. Game systems on offer will include Midgard Heroic Battles, Strength & Honour, Comitatus/ Shieldwall, Pillage and others with some very experienced hosts and several games authors.
Everything will be provided and no previous experience is needed – just book in, turn up and play. More details on Ryan’s website.
Tickets are expected to go on sale from 7th August. Miniatures shown by Footsore, Foundry, Crusader and Gripping Beast; background by Jon Hodgson Backdrops; photos by Pete Jenkins & James Morris.
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?
The second Goblet-Sized Campaign for Midgard Heroic Battles has now finished play testing and will be on its way to layout soon. Having already released The Iron Valley fantasy campaign, this time around it’s a very historical affair dealing with the Second Barons’ War, covering the period 1264-65. I’ve been busy photographing Paul Scrivens-Smith’s fab collection for the campaign – here’s an out take from that session (background from the Skies book by Jon Hodgson Backdrops).
We had a brilliant time in Sheffield on June 28th attending the Joy of Six event, a very friendly affair involving nothing but 6mm games!
Matt, Tom and I had an enjoyable day running our Battle of Grizzly Peak game set in Glorantha (the bronze-age fantasy world for the Runequest RPG) using Midgard Heroic Battles.
Rapier Miniatures 6mm Trolls painted by Tom Webster-Deakin, Jon Hodgson Backdrop
I also took some photos of Simon Stokes’ wonderful 6mm Battle of Lewes forces (all Baccus 6mm minis painted by Simon) and will hopefully include some of these in the forthcoming Second Barons’ War Goblet-Sized Campaign.
6mm Baccus Minis painted by Simon Stokes, Jon Hodgson Backdrop
There’s a number of new Midgard Heroic Battles videos made by Midgard fans doing the rounds at the moment – I can’t watch them all, but I did enjoy the Crusty Colonel’s solo play throughs of the From Athelney to Ethandun campaign. Not too long and gives you a good idea of the narrative within the Chronicles of Midgard campaign system. You can see his latest episode here.
I built a load of these when the Oathmark goblin slaves kit appeared, but only finished them this week! Here are three units of Orc archers built using a mixture of plastic kits. There are a number of GW LOTR Goblins, Orcs and Uruk-Hai in there alongside Oathmark and Wargames Atlantic Goblins and Warlord Games Orcs.
Each unit is based on a 120 x 60 mm round cornered 2mm MDF base from Warbases. I’ve got so many individually-based Orcs that I thought I’d just make these into mini dioramas for Midgard Heroic Battles games.
The paint job is pretty rough and ready but I wanted to get 36 done in a very short amount of time (looking back at the pics I can see a few missed mould lines, but it’s the overall effect I’m after).
) recently.
