Hi all! I’ve spent part of this week remodelling the Midgard Heroic Battles page on the site and have included a number of links to help out with FAQs, including: What is Midgard Heroic Battles? and a list of Key Facts and Game Synopsis, all illustrated with photos from this summer’s games. Hopefully this will answer a fair few questions and help to define what Midgard is actually about.

In addition, I’ve been getting the official Facebook page ready – watch out for another post on Friday 20th Sept to launch this with a link. And expect a daft membership question! (creative answers welcomed) 🙂

All the best

James

Looking for a break from Midgard and Xenos Rampant, Paul W and I decided to pull out Red Book of the Elf King for a fun Thursday night game, and it didn’t disappoint. This is a brilliant little set of rules by Rick Priestley, written back in 2017 to support Lucid Eye‘s figure range of the same name. Unfortunately, it has become one of those many games that has drifted off over the years – Lucid Eye are now selling an Elf King roleplaying game (which I haven’t looked at since it uses AI art, and I’m more of a wargamer than a roleplayer) but I don’t know what’s become of the miniatures game.

Anyway, Paul and I have all the minis, original rules and cards for the Red Book of the Elf King skirmish game, so it was no bother to pull them out to play a game. In my head it had only been about a year since we played, but upon checking my photo roll, it turned out to be two and a half years: tempus fugit!

Fortunately, it’s such a straightforward game that neither of us had forgotten how to play and there was only a tiny amount of rulebook-flipping.

The Star Fall scenario from the original rule book is always enjoyable so we plumped for that one. A chunk of star iron – which of course has great mystical properties – had fallen from the skies, so our two Elf circles (groups of 18 warrior companions plus a Thane, a magic-using leader) were squaring off to try and retrieve it.

Red Book of the Elf King uses a very cunning variant of the draw bag activation system where each side gets 1D6 counters, then a neutral 1D6 is rolled and added to both sides’ counters, meaning that you can expect 2-12 counters in the bag to activate 7 units over each turn of the game. If you have more than 7 counters, units can be activated more than once as long as every unit has had at least one token. Also, there are a number of glamours (spells) that can increase (and sometimes decrease) the number of counters in the bag, so what you get is an unpredictable and entertaining game.

You can choose various leaders and warbands for the game (one of the great features is that the Elf companions can serve as any one of the factions with simply a change of Thane); Paul choose Salian Trollblood (a Sting lookalike who terrifies all those around him) and I picked Alloysian of Vasterlant, who has the ability to redraw activation counters out of the bag thanks to some mystical sight. We’ve found that the ‘full fat’ Alloysian as written in the rules is a little over-powered, with unlimited counter redraws, so we agreed to reduce it to D3 per turn.

The game kicked off in earnest with the star iron deployed in the centre of the 4 x 4′ playing area, conveniently in the midst of a stone circle. Deployment was fairly even to start with, with both sides sending forth groups of companions (they always operate in units of three) to probe the area.

Spells are very important at this stage – each Thane starts with seven randomly-determined glamours. Clever use of these can give a serious tactical advantage, though a test has to be passed to cast them, which neither of us were doing very well at! I did manage to cast a glamour that allowed me to reroll any dice later on in the game which was a useful investment for the future.

Salian Trollblood’s companions made the best progress and got to the stone circle first, though I had some success in damaging them with rhud magick, a psychic ranged attack that can be made by all the Elves.

Each circle of companions has slightly different stats and skills – my special ability was Favour of the Hollow Fae, which allows them to add an extra dice to any ranged attack, so I was trying to get the most out of this. Being hit by rhud magick also forces a courage test which, if failed, results in a red penalty counter on a unit that inhibits its activations.

Having remembered that only the Thane has the power to carry the star iron, Paul sent Salian Trollblood up to the centre of the circle and started to drag it off towards his board edge.

However, he’d forgotten that carrying the star iron incurs an immediate penalty counter. Following a poor activation counter roll, this held him up just long enough for me to pull off a dastardly deed. In my deck of seven spells, I had found the ‘Dead Sun’ glamour.

The spells in Red Book can be pretty powerful – it’s a very sorcerous background, with a serious whiff of Moorcock and plane-warping, so it’s not a game to play if you don’t like anything more than the odd fireball in your fantasy games. The correct use of a glamour at the right time can be a game-winner, so I hoped this was going to be the case here.

‘Dead Sun’ is a tricky one to cast (needing to roll a 3 or less on a D10, though I had a Glamour modifier of +2 which meant that a 5 or less would do it). However, if successful, it would prevent Salian Trollblood and his companions from making any moves or ranged attacks for the rest of the turn, which was exactly what I needed to catch up on the opposition.

I fluffed one casting roll but managed it the second time with the benefit of my reroll that I had tucked away at the start of the game and presto! Salian’s circle spent the rest of the turn frozen while I rushed forward my Elves to surround him.

This swung the balance of the game; although Salian laid low a couple of my Elves, I had managed to wound him and keep his followers out of the fight. He dropped the star iron and had to concentrate on defending himself.

It was now the final turn of the game and Salian looked likely to win by virtue of more wounds and kills inflicted, but with a final rush Alloysian was able to overwhelm him and win the game.

Hoping not to wait two-and-a-half years before the next one! I have a yen to get my Trolls out and try out some of the different scenarios.

With our usual club having a week off, I decided to book in a game of Xenos Rampant with Paul W. Having only recently heard about 7th City Collectables, a local gaming store just a few miles away from me on the outskirts of Nottingham, I booked a table and pulled the poilus out of the loft.

7th City Collectables is a lovely venue, really well-lit and clean. For once, I didn’t have to adjust the light and colour balance on my pics! It was pretty busy when we arrived just after 7 as the previous Pokemon games were finishing but quietened down as the evening went on. I got a free drink with my table booking, which was a nice touch, and we got the toys out.

Paul has recently acquired a 3D printed Eldar-style landing port and was keen to get it out, so this became the main setting for the game. It’s not small! Back in the early days of 40K/ Rogue Trader, this kind of scenery was only available as bespoke handmade pieces and rarely seen outside of the pages of White Dwarf, so it was quite an experience to get to play on something of this size. (I think it made it all worthwhile for Paul lugging his two massive Really Useful Boxes into the venue!)

It also proved to be excellent for blocking line of sight and providing cover during the game, something that is very much recommended in XR due to the long ranges and power of weapons.

Forces used were our Weird World War One French and Germans. Both of these have their basis in historical minis that we collected with a number of more sci-fi units added. Paul’s Germans have rocketeers, a spider-like walker and (my nemesis) a horde of werewolves, my French have a mechanoid and their secret weapon, a huge hook-clawed xenomorph goaded into battle by some halberdiers and a baguette handler, naturally. (You can see how I made this force here).

As I had a diplomat mini in my box, I suggested that we play the VIP Extraction scenario from the XR rulebook. This VIP had got himself stranded on the docking platform and was waiting to be picked up by either side for the win.

This turned into rather a one-sided affair as my support weapons struggled against Paul’s superior types. I’d not noted the ‘engulfing’ special rule before that removes all cover bonuses for a mere +1 point, so my tactic of deploying my supporting weapons in cover was useless. Coupled with ‘armour piercing’ that reduces Armour by 1, and my futuristic Maginot Line crumbled in a matter of minutes.

I’d rushed forward some bold poilu light infantry to meet the VIP…they met the werewolves on the stairs…it didn’t end well! The werewolves did get to meet the hook beast and his baguettes a few minutes later, but by that point the VIP had fled.

Added to that, Paul’s rocketeers (moving 12″) had already zipped up to the platform and made their exit with the VIP. Game over!

This all felt a bit rushed so we re-set and played a different scenario with three different objectives to take and hold on the spaceport terrain. Following Paul’s sage advice, I changed my support weapons around to include ‘engulfing’ and ‘armour piercing’ so we had better parity in forces, and off we went.

I took less photos of this one but it was a much more evenly-matched game, and frankly I probably remembered how to play after a few months off XR!

My support weapons held the left flank while I carefully advanced the infantry forwards to the right, making best use of the cover. Some fortunate shooting pinned down one of Paul’s heavy infantry units on my right, making the advance easier.

The werewolves had deployed opposite the support weapons and mech on my left flank, which meant that they spent a large part of the game with their heads down waiting to rush the stairs.

Meanwhile, my infantry had made it to the central tower and were climbing up to the upper level of the spaceport. The first unit of poilus got shot off the building and fled, but I followed up by sending in the baguette handler and his ferocious beast, which quickly cleared the tower.

Although my support weapons were now taking casualties and the mech had suffered a terminal systems failure (rolling a double when at half strength is never good as a mechanoid in XR!), the infantry were in control of the main building and spread out to take two of the objectives. The Germans’ attempt to pin them with suppressing fire was ineffective, although the bloodied werewolves had finally pulled themselves together and taken the third objective.

With the turn limit reached, we diced for the value of our objectives, giving a deserved 6-5 win to the French.

Overall, a super evening’s gaming. XR continues to deliver a fast-paced game that you can play with any minis you like and doesn’t require too much rulebook-searching. The first game was a bit abrupt but once I had brought my force more in line with Paul’s for the second scenario, we had a very even and enjoyable scrap.

7th City Collectables is also a lovely venue and I will be certain to return!

Having started on a bit of a whim, the 28mm Trojan Wars project is finally about to make its first public appearance at the Lard Workshop as part of Britcon 2024 in Nottingham this weekend. What started as an impulse buy of a few Lucid Eye miniatures then turned into the acquisition of a full Amazon force, which of course needed some opposition. Over the last year, I have bought and been donated various secondhand miniatures that I have used to put together some Achaeans to take on the Amazons outside the walls of Troy.

After completing a number of units of spearmen and Achilles’ Myrmidons, I needed some chariot-riding nobles to back them up. The disadvantage of having acquired various secondhand lots was compatibility of the models, and while I will usually happily mix and match between ranges, the Lucid Eye chariots are of far more heroic dimensions than the Foundry ones.

Given that I had eight LE chariots and four Foundry ones, I decided to get all my Achaeans into Lucid Eye chariots. This meant putting Foundry minis in as crew which has worked a treat. I liked some of the Foundry heroes on foot, so some of those ended up drilled and pinned in as chariot-riding warriors as well.

Putting together metal chariots is always a faff, but much easier if you have the right kit. (Had I started this project today, I’d probably have gone straight for the newly-released Wargames Atlantic plastic chariots, but that’s one for a future article).

Fortunately, with eight models on the go, I could run an assembly line, cleaning and filing each piece as needed. Superglue accelerator was an absolute must!

Each crewman had a hole drilled into their foot and then a long piece of metal rod (cut offs from North Star spears) inserted, which served the dual purpose of a painting mount and a pin into the finished chariot. A couple of unfortunate crew members did suffer some ankle damage during this process, but fortunately many sins are hidden by standing inside a chariot cab!

I also took the time to drill out the drivers’ hands to hold reins; this is entirely optional, but I think that it improves the look of the finished model enough to be worth the effort.

Chariots were sprayed with Halfords Camo Paint dark brown, then highlighted with various acrylics. Red was the theme for my Achaean army, so I tried to add a red element into all of the models, which I embellished with patterns painted in black and white.

Horses also featured in the colour scheme, with co-ordinated blankets. The horses used were a mixture of Lucid Eye and Foundry from the bits box, undercoated with sprays and then painted using an oil wipe-off technique (you can see a better breakdown of this with my Amazon chariots here).

Crew were undercoated white and then painted with my usual mix of GW Contrasts and regular acrylics. I usually varnish before applying metallics, which I’ve found is especially important with shiny bronze-armoured warriors. The armour had a base coat of dark brown (GW Contrast Cygor Brown is great for this) and a coat of matt varnish. This was followed by a base coat of Vallejo Brass, a wash of Winsor & Newton Nut Brown ink and a final highlight of Vallejo Gold (with a very top highlight of Army Painter Silver in a few cases).

The six Achaean chariots are also accompanied by a couple of Sea Peoples ones – the same Lucid Eye models but with a different paint job. Possibly as the result of having drawn Portugal in the house sweepstake for Euro 2024, I’ve gone with a red and green combo for the Sea Peoples. I have dozens more of these miniatures in the lead pile so will be going for more.

To back up the chariots, I needed a couple more archer units, so some Eureka Miniatures found their way onto the painting table.

These chaps don’t have much in the way of clothes but were a quick paint job!

Lastly, I decided that Achilles needed a more mighty model than the Foundry one I already have painted (he’s nice but can’t really go toe-to-toe with the heroic Lucid Eye Amazons). I settled on the ‘Paris triumphant’ vignette from Redoubt Enterprises (now sold by Grubby Tanks).

I know that his equipment doesn’t exactly match Homer’s description but it’s the stance that’ll make him stand out on the table.

With these pieces finished, I now have a small but battle-ready Greek force that will be marching out at Britcon 2024 and also Ebor Lard in September. Looking forward to getting them on the table and into action!

(*If you missed Part 1, you can read it here)

As well as our Battle of the River Idle game, there were two other miniature wargames on offer at the event.

Grahame, Carl and a number of other stalwart members of the Peterborough Wargames Club had made the trip to Suffolk. They too had chosen to put on a version of the Battle of the River Idle 616, but using Lion Rampant 2 rules. LR was an excellent choice for this, being quick to pick up, fast-playing (the Peterborough team estimated playing time at 40 minutes) and also easily accessible in case anyone fancied getting into wargaming after the event.

The Peterborough Club game also featured an information board and book table – always useful when engaging the public.

Ernie and Richard of East Anglian Gamers returned from last year, this time putting on a skirmish scenario based on a waterborne raid gone wrong. ‘Back to the Ship!’ involved a feared Saxon warleader (popularly dubbed ‘Black Dog’ due to his choice of canine companion) attempting to escape the angry locals with his loot.

The game took place on a very smart custom-built board with a wooden frame which was ideal for withstanding the rigours of a participation game and the occasional high winds experienced at Sutton Hoo. Rules used were a simplified version of Dux Brittaniarum from Too Fat Lardies.

The games were busy virtually all weekend, but so was the painting room! This year, ‘Paint your own Saxon thegn’ took place in the stables block next to the games. Hobby heroes Gripping Beast once again provided the event with several boxes of their plastic Saxon thegns (thanks fellas!) which had been pre-assembled and undercoated by the team.

This area was phenomenally busy, with 123 models painted and taken away by members of the public over the two days. Huge thanks to Peter and Grahame who gave up their time to assist with this.

It wasn’t long before the painted miniatures began to appear on the gaming tables and we started to work them into games. Saxon champions ‘Whiteblade’ and ‘Red Shield’ fought it out at the start of one of the many Battles of the River Idle.

As well as the gaming and painting activities, there were a host of other things to keep visitors busy at the site, some of which we were able to sample in breaks from the game.

The site is exceptionally well-presented, with plenty of information panels.

As you walk out towards Tranmer House and the mounds, there are sculptures inspired by Anglo-Saxon art and metalwork.

The viewing tower gives a fine overview of the mounds which had sensibly been mowed around to make them more visible amongst the summer grass. (The mounds are all lower than they were 1400 years ago, apart from Mound Two – the site’s other ship burial – which was purposefully reconstructed to its original height after excavation).

My son and I took one of the longer walks through the woods and down to the River Deben, where you can look across the water to Woodbridge where the Sutton Hoo Ship’s Company are currently building a reconstruction of the ship from Mound 1. It also gives you an appreciation of how the ship got to its final resting place and the effort that must have been required to get it up the slope!

The exhibition hall is full of top-notch displays and artefacts, though my lad really wanted to play Hnefatafl – one of the interactive exhibits. Over two visits across the weekend, we managed to play through six games, with the king winning every single time!

I can highly recommend a visit to Sutton Hoo, even if you have only a slight interest in the early medieval period. It puts the treasures in the British Museum (replicas of all of which can be viewed here) into context and presents the site brilliantly.

If you fancy visiting for more Wargaming the Age of the Anglo-Saxons, we have a provisional date of 26-27th July 2025 for the next one! (Note that this is provisional – please check with the National Trust nearer the time for confirmation).

Following on from last year’s experiment with a one-day format, this year the Sutton Hoo team expanded the Wargaming the Age of the Anglo-Saxons event into a two-day event.

Having personally toured Sutton Hoo during the excavations in the 1990s, it has to be said that the National Trust have done an amazing job of presenting this site to the public and creating the facilities needed for a family day out. We were delighted to be invited back to help out with this event (and huge thanks to Tom, Pete and Oz who joined me in this quest!)

The brief was the same as last year – to provide and run engaging miniature wargames set in the 7th century for the visiting public. Andy’s recommendation was to have a team of four people to run each game, which was absolutely necessary under the circumstances, as we were busier than pretty much any wargames show I have been to!

Rules had to be fast-playing and quick to explain, so once again we went for my own Mead-Price rules (available here as a free download) which allow an early medieval battle to be played out in around 20-30 minutes.

There were three games available alongside the ever-popular painting table (‘Paint your own Saxon thegn’) which I’ll talk more about in Part 2.

We (Morris & Chums/ Mogsymakes) were reprising our Battle of the River Idle 616 game from last year. Being the only battle that we know that Raedwald – King of East Anglia and the most likely candidate for being the occupant of Mound 1’s ship burial at Sutton Hoo – fought in, it was the obvious choice.

Although details on the actual fighting are sparse, the build-up to the battle is fascinating and always helps to set the scene for our visitors. Aethelfrith of Northumbria was probably the most feared ruler of his day; Edwin of Deira, his rival, had fled the north and taken refuge in the court of Raedwald of East Anglia. Aethelfrith attempted to pay Raedwald to have Edwin killed, but instead, Raedwald (with persuasion from his wife*) decided to take an army north and fight it out with Aethelfrith.

*Edited 6.8.24 in response to Bruce’s comment below – thanks, Bruce!

The two forces met on the banks of the River Idle in Lindsey (Lincolnshire) and Aethelfrith – with a smaller army – was defeated and killed. However, the victory was clearly hard-fought, as Raedwald’s son Raegenhere also died, The victorious East Anglian king returned home to bury his son (Raegenhere has been suggested as a possible occupant of Mound 2 at Sutton Hoo, the second ship burial), while Edwin of Deira was now installed as King of Northumbria.

Our game divided each army into three commands, with Edwin (left), Raedwald (centre) and Raegenhere (right) in charge of the East Anglians. Each had an individual unit of hearthguard (marked with red tokens in the game). The Northumbrians were under the command of King Aethelfrith (centre), with the fictitious thegns Cerdic (left) and Wiglaf (right) on his flanks.

Following suggestions that Aethelfrith’s army was smaller than that of the East Anglians, we allocated him less troops, but allowed him four hearthguard units to represent the veteran warriors from his numerous campaigns.

This created a scenario which was more nuanced than you might expect for an early medieval battle, whereby Aethelfrith was on the back foot but could achieve victory with a strong central attack. Luck was ever-present, especially in the survival of the commanders – the biggest shouts of the day were reserved for players rolling the feared ‘Raven Dice’ and finding that their hero had fallen.

Within 15 minutes of the site opening, we were running our first game and were then busy until closing time. One game would finish with a group waiting to play the next one as soon as we had re-set and some families came back and played multiple battles! As well as interested visitors, we also had a number of experienced wargamers and their families dropping in which was wonderful to see.

We ran 11 games on the Saturday and a similar number on the Sunday, so well over 20 overall, the most that we have ever run a single wargames scenario! On the Saturday, the East Anglians had an 8-3 advantage over the Northumbrians, but this evened out to around 50/50 in Sunday’s battles.

I was especially pleased with how the visitors took on board the wargame as a narrative, with history being both re-created and re-written. Sometimes we had an exactly historical result, with Raegenhere dying but Raedwald being victorious; in others, we had a reversal, with Edwin being struck down by an arrow in the early stages of the battle, thereby changing the entire history of Northumbria! In one particularly memorable game, all three of the East Anglian commanders were slain and their army destroyed, which might have completely changed the face of Sutton Hoo.

We had a number of repeat visitors from last year which was wonderful to see. One parent reported that, on the back of the event, they had ordered some miniatures for their children, which was lovely feedback.

One change to the event from last year was that the Saxon re-enactment groups had been pitched directly next to the gaming area, which was perfect in terms of interaction. A number of re-enactors dropped by to enhance our games and even to play. Harry and Paul of Ormsgard booked in a game early on Sunday morning, for which Harry gamely wore his full kit depicting a Northumbrian warrior of the 7th-8th century.

Part 2 of the report will cover the other games and some more about the site.

In case you’ve not seen it, you can find my article Getting Started In Early Medieval Wargaming here.

It’s nearly time for our second visit to Sutton Hoo as part of the National Trust’s Festival of Archaeology. We are delighted to have been invited back to run miniature wargames based on the Anglo-Saxon period. This was one of my personal highlights of last year – you can see my full picture report here if you missed it.

The wargaming event is part of the NT Festival of Archaeology and the Sae Wylfings Anglo-Saxon re-enactment group will also be on site both days doing demonstrations and talks.

There are three games running this year, all of which are suitable for complete beginners or experienced gamers. First up is our own Battle of the River Idle 616, which pits Raedwald of East Anglia against the Northumbrians under the feared King Aethelfrith. This was very popular last year, using my own free download Mead-Price rules).

Next up is another River Idle game, this time run by stalwarts from the Peterborough Wargames Club. I’ll be interested to see this, as details on the battle are sketchy so there’s always room for plenty of different interpretations. Thirdly, there is another game called Back to the Ship (very appropriate for a famous ship burial site!)

In addition to this, Andy and the team will be running the ever-popular painting table where you can paint up a Saxon warrior of the period (plastic miniatures kindly donated by Gripping Beast, one of the main wargames manufacturers).

There is no additional charge for the event (beyond standard site entry to Sutton Hoo) and no need to book for the games – just turn up between 10:00 and 16:30 onm either day.

If any of this piques your interest, I wrote an article last year called Getting Started In Early Medieval Wargaming that might be handy. Hope to see some of you at Sutton Hoo!