Back in April 2025, John Savage ran a superb early Italian Wars game inspired by the Battle of Fornovo in 1495.
I initially expressed my concern that it was a bit late for Midgard, but he talked me round! It turned out to be the most-requested hosted game of the event and was an impressive spectacle to boot.
John has kindly penned us a pair of 300 and 400 point lists for the French and Italian League Forces, including all manner of blokes with pikes, some guns and a bear mascot as well. There are also new Traits for Pike Blocks and Hatred which might adapt well to other settings.
Well, it had to happen. I’ve finally put Mogsymakes onto YouTube. After the success of the videos recorded by Too Fat Lardies last year for the release of Midgard Heroic Battles, I knew that I needed to generate some content myself. This is all a bit of an experiment at the moment, but please do have a look and Like and Subscribe if you’d like to see more. Find the Mogsymakes YouTube channel here.
Currently there are three videos up covering Miniature Photography, Painting Plate Armour and Movement in Midgard Heroic Battles.
I’ve been travelling a lot over the last few weeks and also working away on the Midgard campaign supplement, so not as many updates as usual!
Last weekend saw me paying a visit to UK Games Expo in Birmingham – my first trip. As reported to me by everyone else who has been, it’s huge! Mostly board games but a good spread of RPGs, miniatures, dice, tokens and accessories of all kinds (plus Viking/ Saxon reenactors as seen here). It’d be great to get Midgard Heroic Battles along there in the future if I can.
Jon Hodgson of Handiwork Games was also there selling his fab range of RPGs and background books – nice to catch up with him and meet author Malcolm Craig too.
Annie of Bad Squiddo was doing a sterling job of selling capybaras, turkey men and a whole range of lovely minis.
The following day, I was back on the train heading to visit illustrator and Peters Paperboys creator Peter Dennis. I’d been invited to run an introductory game of Midgard for him and some friends and decided to plump for a refight of the 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge.
Everyone got stuck in with great fervour, resulting in an even greater bloodbath than the historical version! Hardrada and Tostig both died heroically, but so did Harold Godwinsson, thus leaving not many options to hold off Duke William. Fortunately, a random dice roll decided that the Norman fleet had been hit by a storm and William had gone to the bottom with his ships. Tolkien might have approved of that.
Showing the speed of assembly of Peters Paperboys, I made a Saxon 14-Unit Force plus Heroes in five evenings prior to the 1066 game. With a proper basing job, the effect of these 2D minis is exceptionally good.
Painting has been at a minimum as I’ve been hammering the laptop keys on various Midgard projects. However, being inspired by diorama-style whole unit basing, I’ve pulled my very old and disused Viking force out of the loft for a possible revamp.
And in the midst of all this, I also managed to take a trip to Wales to visit Gareth Lane (Lord Raglan). We played through a 2-game mini-campaign set in the Hundred Years’ War using his stunning 28mm collection and a few small rules tweaks for the later medieval period.
Arthur and banner bearer by Gripping Beast (metal 28mm), Derfel and the Wolfshields converted from Victrix, Gripping Beast and Oathmark plastic kits. All backgrounds by Jon Hodgson Backdrops and used under licence.
“I wanted the bards to sing of Derfel Cadarn at Mynydd Baddon. I wanted men to look at me and say, there is the warrior who broke the wall at Mynydd Baddon, I wanted the power that comes from reputation. A dozen men in Britain had that power; Arthur, Sagramor, Culhwch were among them, and it was a power that superseded all other except for kingship. Ours was a world where swords gave rank, and to shirk the sword was to lose honour.” – (Excalibur, Bernard Cornwell, 1998)
Heck! It’s nearly time for Partizan – best finish off basing those figures then! This year’s game is a dive into the early medieval ‘Arthurian’ age using Midgard Heroic Battles, for which I’ve been working on a number of hero vignettes and a couple of new units.
Supposed to be Arthur’s greatest victory, Mount Badon is much debated by historians. Fortunately for us, a previously lost account of the battle was discovered in the 1990s in a monastic archive that had somehow made its way to Massachusetts, USA. Saint Bernard of Cornwell, a prolific if mischievous scribe of the 13th century, had translated and transcribed what he claims was the eyewitness account of Derfel Cadarn, one of Arthur’s lieutenants in the battle.
St Bernard places the battle at Little Solsbury Hill, overlooking the city of Bath (then Aquae Sulis), so we have followed his version in almost all the details of our reconstruction. That said, it must be admitted that some of Saint Bernard’s descriptions of weapons and armour have been described by a noted military historian as ‘complete cobblers’, so have been omitted from our tabletop in favour of more plausible equipment. On the other hand, the war dogs of the Saxons have been left in on the advice of Ridley Scott’s personal historical consultant and Darren of Gripping Beast.
Our scenario follows the events described by Saint Bernard, in which the Britons have been trapped on Mount Badon by two Saxon armies under kings Aelle and Tewdric.
However, the sudden arrival of the men of Gwent, led by Lord Sagramor and Tewdric, begins the battle with an attack on King Aelle.
Derfel Cadarn and King Cuneglas of Powys hold off the Saxons of Cerdic and the traitor Lancelot until Arthur arrives with a daring rear attack from his horsemen. The final British contingent to arrive is the Blackshield Irish accompanied by Merlin, which seals the fate of the Saxons. That’s the plan, but will it play out like that?
Hi! It’s been a busy couple of weeks though it may seem quieter than usual online. I’m working away on multiple projects, none of which are quite ready to come out yet!
The current issues of Wargames Illustrated and WSS magazine both carry articles by myself for Midgard Heroic Battles. WI 449 contains my musings on using Midgard for Irish Mythology, whereas WSS 135 has a possible scenario for the Battle of the River Idle in 616 (alongside all the usual nice stuff in those mags).
Getting a final draft of the Midgard campaign system is taking its time. As ever, there’s all kinds of tweaks that need making. I’ve also been testing the latest versions of the new scenarios.
Next weekend, Sunday 18th May, is our big local show, the fab Partizan at Newark Showground, where we’ll be putting on the Battle of Mount Badon for Midgard Heroic Battles. I discovered last week that no-one in the group has Derfel’s Wolf Tails, so much sticking and painting has been taking place! And I’m quietly glad that I saved all the wolf tails from my Oathmark goblin sprues…
By request of Nick Eyre, some pre-release Hairfoot & Wartnose Jousting figures have also made it onto my painting table. It’s getting busy on there! (Finished figures shown with Jon Hodgson Backdrops).
Here follows a brief account of Midgard Moot 2025, a day dedicated to playing Midgard Heroic Battles in a variety of settings. I’ll leave it to others to fill in the details of great deeds and heroic toy soldier action, but suffice to say that I was delighted with how it ran. Whoops and cheers could be heard emanating from the games at regular intervals which is always a good sign!
After a few unavoidable absences, we had 30 players and seven game hosts attending, running two themed campaigns and five hosted games. Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies/ Reisswitz Press also attended to film the proceedings, though it is rumoured that the presence of chocolate Hob Nobs was also a motivating factor.
Here’s a quick run down of the games that were on offer.
Hosted games
Italian Wars 28 mm
Bringing a historical scrap loosely based on the 1495 Battle of Forrnovo, John Savage pulled off another spectacular game. Both games were very close, with a French and Italian victory apiece, and frankly it was just a treat to look at.
Battlefield of Degsastan 15 mm
Matt Moran stepped in at the last minute to run this epic early medieval clash from 603 AD between the kingdoms of Northumbria and Dal Riada. Using Wiglaf and Forged in Battle minis, the game used an 8 cm Spear Throw and was played on a 3 x 4’ board.
The Old World 28mm
Jeremy Short put on a wonderful fantasy game set in the Old World using his stunning Warhammer collection from the 1990s.
The Old World about to run, though BASH manager Ian is busy taking pizza orders and trying to deter Dave from ordering a Hawaiian!
Teutoberger Wald 9 AD
This game, based on the infamous loss of three Roman legions in Germania, was run by Mike Wilkins. One player was so enamoured with the period that they booked to play on this all day!
Lord of the Rings 28mm
Matt Slade is well known for hosting brilliant games at both shows and Lardy Events. This was no exception as he ran a clash between Rohan and Isengard.
Themed Campaigns
Middle-Earth: Of Eorl And Cirion
This campaign, organised by Dave Hunter, took place 500 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings, with Gondorians and Eotheod (Rohan types) fighting off an Orcish invasion. Much fun was had in the initial two games before all the forces combined for a big 3 vs 2 battle to decide the campaign.
“Rings of Power campaign next time? HAHAHAHA!”
Arthurian Britain: Warlords of Dumnonia
Returning to my roots, this campaign was somewhat inspired by Bernard Cornwell as the Saxons under Aelle mounted an invasion of Arthur’s Dumnonia.
After some initial hard-fought battles across fords and hillsides, the Saxons were beaten back and then destroyed in a series of last stands. Heroic stuff!
Awards
While by no means a competition, there were a number of small awards presented at the event for mighty feats that had been spotted by game hosts during the event.
Food for Ravens – Paul Welsh . Not many players can manage rolling three double Ravens in the course of a day, but Paul broke the stats and did just that! 🙂
Food for Ravens – Lee Sanders. I’m informed that the Orc known only as ‘Numnacka’ perished early on in the battle with the Rohirrim with an unparalleled display of dice rolling. No wonder Tolkien didn’t mention him.
Battle Smiter – Andy Hawes. Not content with stunning the Saxons in the Arthurian campaign with his beautifully painted Britons, Andy’s commander gamely accepted a single combat in the first game and was gone in 60 seconds.
Battle Smiter – Jamie Tattersall. I’m told that the Swiss brought a cute and cuddly bear along to the Italian Wars game which didn’t survive its encounter with Jamie and his French. Shame!
Get In! – Pete Harris. Pete showed admirable fighting spirit during the Battle of Degsastan and also succeeded in rolling a 6 for his Hero’s ‘Today We Fight To Win’ Trait, thereby ensuring victory and a place in the chronicles.
Get In! – Neil Shuck. As well as smiling all day long (and well into the evening at the curry house ), Neil hurled himself into the spirit of the game and was noted for charging everything in the Old World battle.
Hold Fast – Ian Hemingway’s Hero Cormac single-handedly held off an entire wing of the Northumbrian force during the Battle of Degsastan. Heroic!
I Foretell Mighty Deeds – Paul Bedford. In another display of heroic defence (or statistical improbability), Paul’s Romans managed a jaw-dropping 18 out of 24 hits on a unit of German warriors during the Teutoberger Wald game. Auf Wiedersehen!
Mightiest Host – randomly drawn from the other game hosts (easier than trying to pick a favourite), Jeremy Short took home this prestigious trophy and is apparently now equal with John Savage on major title wins!
Massive thanks to Gripping Beast and Warbases who both chipped in generously with prizes to accompany the awards. A huge thank you also to Boards And Swords Hobbies who provided a great venue and looked after us impeccably during the day.
Cheers to everyone who came and especially our game hosts who put on such a great show for the players. Discussions are already underway about running Midgard Moot 2 next year. Watch this space!
I’m not at Salute 2025 tomorrow but if you’re there, go and check out:
Too Fat Lardies (TM 12, at the back of the hall) who will of course be stocking copies of Midgard Heroic Battles, token sets and have a great range of games running in the Lard Zone.
Wargames Illustrated (TL 02) who will be carrying the latest WI including a Midgard article and scenario for Irish Mythology. It’s so new and shiny that even I haven’t seen the finished copy yet!
Warbases (TE 08) who will hopefully have their Midgard Raven dice as well as their usual range of MDF goodness.
Midgard Heroic Battles will be at other shows later in the year, though – we’ll be at Partizan (Newark Showground, May 18th) with a large 28mm Arthurian Mount Badon game. Later in the year, I’m very excited to be heading to Colours (September 6th) with a reprise of the mighty Battle of Five Armies. See you there!
It’s been another busy week! I managed to make time to get my recently finished Jim FitzPatrick minis from Lucid Eye photographed in front of some of the latest Jon Hodgson Backdrops, and I’m delighted with the results. You can read the full article here: https://mogsymakes.net/irish-myth-lucid-eyes-official-jim-fitzpatrick-miniatures/
I also forwarded the photos over to Jim FitzPatrick himself, who sent a lovely reply which has made my day. To hear from one of the artistic greats of my teenage years is an absolute privilege!
Sticking with the Irish theme, I also had confirmation from Wargames Illustrated magazine that my article about Irish mythology and a Midgard Heroic Battles scenario for the Second Battle of Moy Tura will appear in WI 450, due out in April at the Salute show (sadly I can’t be there in person this year).
And just by coincidence, I managed to fix up a chat with Gerry from On Table Top in Northern Ireland about Midgard and my plans for this year. As soon as I hear, I’ll let you know when the video will be out. Cheers!
I’m delighted to say that the Midgard Heroic Battles rules will be showcased at the Hammerhead Show next weekend (March 1st, Newark Showground, UK).
Please note that this is only half the map of Hammerhead! For full details, see the Hammerhead website.
Hot off the back of winning two industry awards (Wargames Illustrated Best New Wargames Rules and On Table Top Best Miniatures Game 2024), you can find our games either side of the Wargames Illustrated stand.
Photo by Matt Slade
Matt Slade and friends will be running a Lord of the Rings ‘Scouring of the Westfold’ game on GB23, using super-sized 28mm Units with a 24 cm Spear Throw. Matt has been digging into his extensive Lord of the Rings collection for this and has even been incited to paint up more from the lead pile.
Morris & Chums will be running two games on table GB25 (number of Chums permitting).
6mm Siege of Troy. Background by Jon Hodgson Backdrops, used with kind permission.
On GB25 you’ll find two of the games that featured in the rulebook, the Siege of Troy in glorious 6mm and Against the Frost Giants in 28mm, featuring the return of the Rainbow Bridge.
Against the Frost Giants in 28mm; background by Jon Hodgson Backdrops, used with kind permission
Come and play Achilles, Hector, Loki, Freya or Thor in some heroic battle action!
Freya (a Bad Squiddo mini) leads the charge!
In terms of traders, top Midgard supporters Warbases and Gripping Beast will also be in attendance alongside other opportunities to buy the book and stock up on your tabletop goodies. Baccus 6mm (providers of most of the Trojan War minis seen in the game) will also be present, as well as Coritani/ Magnetic Displays, suppliers of all my magnetic sabot basing materials. I can foresee money changing hands!
My finished Grom’s Goblin Guard (original Citadel Miniatures, 1984) photographed in front of a Jon Hodgson Backdrop (as are all the shots in this article)
I’m not generally given to nostalgia, and I’ve tried to avoid the Oldhammer tendency of gamers of my age to go and re-buy their teenage collections of Citadel Miniatures from Ebay, but I crumbled when I saw these! In two separate lots in 2023/4, I picked up the original models for Grom and 15 of his goblin guard, one of the very first Regiments of Renown (RR3) issued in 1984.
In 1984, I was a whole 12 years old. Having just started playing Warhammer with the first edition boxed set (when it was billed as ‘the mass fantasy battle roleplaying game’!) and being a big fan of goblins, I had to get these. Over a couple of years, I managed to get hold of the whole regiment (4 boxes with the different command models) and painted them in glorious Humbrol enamels.
A rare photo of our 1980s game replaying the Siege of Middenheim. Alongside the plethora of Dave Andrews card buildings, original Mighty Fortress and generous use of expanded polystyrene found in a skip, my original Grom’s Goblin Guard are just visible to the left of the balsa wood siege towers.
They saw action in numerous games of Warhammer 1st and 2nd edition on the family table tennis table (fortunately a useful dark green colour) and saw action in the Blood Bath at Rorke’s Drift campaign and our own version of the siege of Middenheim before being sold off during a house move in adult life.
Nevertheless, these little chaps had made an impact. The monopose Perry-sculpted models were nothing compared to what was to follow but if there was a set that encapsulated the best bits of my early gaming days, this was probably it.
Hard as it is to believe in these days of Games Workshop PLC, when Citadel released new models back in the 80s, they didn’t all have rules, and codexes were in the distant future. Some models were released for non-Warhammer systems (e.g. the fab Dungeons and Dragons range) or without a games system at all (such as the much-loved Lord of the Rings models, or the Michael Moorcock minis). Absolute anarchy!
If I recall correctly (and I may be wrong), they were introduced with a little black and white booklet which came with the ‘Forces of Fantasy’ supplement for 1st edition, and then received updated statlines for the 2nd edition in the Spring 1985 Citadel Journal. I loved the little back stories that the studio writers had put together for each regiment and this was definitely an influence on my early creativity.
Anyway, back to the plot! Having got hold of some original models, what was I going to do with them? There was a part of me that wanted to relive my Humbrol enamels days, basing on a 20mm square of mounting board with Tetrion filler and bright green paint, but I decided against it. Although my original orc and goblin army was sold off many years ago, I’ve more recently collected a more Tolkien-based orc force for my games of Midgard Heroic Battles set in Middle-earth, so I decided to go for a colour scheme to match. After trying out a test model, I got down to work on the whole unit.
After cleaning up the minimal flash on these ancient goblins, each one had a black undercoat which was followed by a dry brush of gunmetal for the armour base. I tidied this up with some black acrylic and painted the skin in traditional layers. Colours used included a variety of khaki tones – always good for orc flesh. I don’t usually bother with eyes, but these had quite bulbous ones which were’t too hard to pick out with a dark red and yellow highlight in the centre.
I tried to vary the skin tones, helmet colours and fur tunics as I went along to give some variety to the miniatures. Taking inspiration from Tony Ackland’s original artwork, I also added some shield designs to some but not all of the models.
I hadn’t been able to get hold of an original standard bearer model and decided that I didn’t really fancy selling a kidney some of the prices being asked on ebay, so I made a snap decision to do a conversion instead. This consisted of drilling out a trooper’s hand and adding a greenstuff standard.
To create the bones seen in the original Dave Andrews art and on the mini, I robbed a couple of femurs from a plastic skeleton kit by Wargames Atlantic. WA have also recently produced a werewolf kit which had a perfect clawed hand to place on the top of the pole, which gave me a nice chance to mix old and new in the same unit!
With all the models finished, I decided to base them as a single group on a 120 x 60 mm unit base (using my favourite 2mm MDF round cornered bases from Warbases, as usual). This would allow me to arrange them in a diorama fashion and offer them some protection from handling.
To add some undulation to the base, some of the back rankers were raised up on a piece of 5mm foamboard to give the impression of standing on higher ground.
With everyone glued down, I then used my usual basing paste (see my Wargames Atlantic orcs article for details) before dry brushing and adding tufts, static grass and some grit.
The final touch was an original Citadel plastic shield, painted up as one belonging to Bugman’s Dwarf Rangers, another Regiment of Renown who had history with Grom and his friends!
Photos have been taken using Jon Hodgson Backdrops. I’m not sure which is my favourite, but it’s great to have some 1980s goblins back on the table!
mogsymakes 