Midgard Moot 2 Report 25.4.26

On a sunny Saturday in April, the second Midgard Moot took place at Boards And Swords Hobbies. With a full house of 45 players and 10 games hosts, it was quite an experience.

Downstairs, our hosts were busy running games in particular settings for Midgard Heroic Battles. Each game had a morning and afternoon session with 3-5 players, ranging from beginners to Midgard veterans. The level of effort that had been put into each game was nothing short of stunning, with beautifully painted minis, lovingly constructed scenery and, in some cases, customised tokens and measuring sticks! Along with the enthusiasm of the hosts, this created the perfect environment for gaming with laughter and cheers throughout the day.

The hosted games were as follows:

Jason & The Argonauts – a glorious 28mm romp through Greek myth inspired by the classic movie, ably hosted by Mike ‘Hobnob’ Wilkins and Paul Scrivens-Smith.

The Battle of the Southern Watchtower – a nineties-style Old World 28mm fantasy clash with superb dragons, a giant and watchtower, all created and hosted by Neil Shuck.

The Battle of Hastings 1066 – Matt Slade’s epic 28mm take on the Senlac Hill battle of October 1066.

The Legion of the Ninth – John Savage ran this stunning 28mm game with Romans attempting to rescue their comrades from the wicker man in the snows of Caledonia.

The War of Dwarves and Dragons – Dave Hunter presented another cracking 28mm Middle-earth game with some challenging decisions for the players. What made this even more impressive is that Dave transported the entire game by himself on the train! Chapeau, sir.

The Clash at Jarnfjall – Gareth Lane (Lord Raglan on the socials) brought this astonishing game which he created from scratch in less than a year. An absolute feast for the eyes, it was also deservedly popular with its players and won the Mightiest Host award.

Glorantha – set in the world of the Rune Quest RPG, this 6 mm game effectively demonstrated the advantages of playing with smaller scale figures as Argrath White Bull took on the Lunars next to the River of Cradles. This was presented by Matt Moran and Tom Webster-Deakin.

Upstairs, I ran the From Athelney To Ethandun campaign. With sixteen participants, each playing three games over the course of the day, this campaign used the Muster Rolls and scenarios featured in Chronicles of Midgard. Each player brought their own Force.

Game 1 saw Alfred’s Forces mounting various attacks on the Danes occupying Wessex using the scenarios Too Eager, The Red Ford and Landwaster.

Unfortunately, the Saxons weren’t at their best and clearly needed some encouragement, with the Vikings winning six out of eight games!

Unperturbed, Alfred mustered the rest of the fyrd in Selwood Forest and marched the entire army out to meet the Danes in a full scale battle, which we split into two for game purposes.

As umpire, I also dished out the bonus cards at this point, allowing players to take a little something extra into the coming battle with them. Kings Alfred and Guthrum both took to the field in person, alongside their greatest champions and banner bearers. Sell-swords, holy relics, skalds, priests and mead were also on offer to boost the performance of the troops!

Both battles were going to be 4 v 4 affairs but with each player only having a game area of 3′ wide. This meant that we could simulate a shieldwall with wall-to-wall spearmen, but resolve it fairly quickly without players missing out on the action. Each 3 x 4′ area was fought as a separate battle using the rules for Scenario 1: Battle in Midgard Heroic Battles, though a Force breaking in a particular area would give a Reputation token penalty (of -1) to its friendly Forces on each side, and a +1 bonus to its enemies.

The first battle took place at Edington, one of the most likely sites for the 878 Battle of Ethandun.

Alfred and Guthrum were both present on this field and both survived, though the Danes lost in every sector of the battle bar one.

The second battle was raging at Bratton Down where the Saxons had to mount an uphill attack on the Danish camp. Despite this apparent disadvantage, the men of Wessex stormed the slopes in short order, driving the Danes before them as all four games turned into Saxon victories. History was repeated!

The third game was the Saxons mopping up Danish resistance. Three of the Forces were despatched to besiege the Viking fort at Chippenham, two of whom were successful.

The other five scenarios used Last Stand and involved the Saxons hunting down the surviving Danish leaders, with variable success – several of the Vikings successfully cut their way out on their escape to the midlands.

However, Alfred himself cornered Guthrum, who refused a request to surrender and instead issued a challenge to single combat. Fortunately for Wessex, Alfred was still in his prime and cut down the Danish leader. (I’m informed that Alfred fell later on in the battle, though his Divine Intervention Trait allowed him to survive and reign Wessex for many years to come).

In any case, it had been a highly entertaining campaign with many stories to tell.

With the gaming concluded, we headed to the function room of a local restaurant. Tales of great deeds were told and awards presented; many thanks to Warbases, Gripping Beast and Eureka Miniatures UK who generously supported us with prizes.

This year’s winners were:

• Food for Ravens – Dave Weston. British Champion Homoerotix heroically took on a unit of Roman cavalry, and died
• Food for Ravens – Theo Street. Theo managed to slay all of his own Heroes in Glorantha
• Hold Fast! – Mark Barker. Awarded for ‘dragon thrusting’ in the Old World game. No further questions
• Get In! – Phil Crebbin. For dragon slaying
• Get In! – Stuart Jordan. Awarded for bold, and successful, charging of the shieldwall as the Normans at the Battle of Hastings
• I Foretell Mighty Deeds – Simon Beale. Managed to get Jason killed in 20 minutes in the Argonauts game, a new world record
• Battle Smiter – Ryan Lavelle. Not actually a fix, but Alfred did take down Guthrum in single combat while Ryan was in charge of the dice
• Mightiest Host – Gareth Lane. For a stunning Norse myth game!

Professor Ryan Lavelle of the University of Winchester then delivered a short but informative talk on The Perils & Pitfalls of Anglo-Saxon Wargaming. As well as being an academic specialising in the early medieval period, Ryan is also a gamer and had played in the campaign earlier in the day, so the talk was very relevant to our audience.

Having tackled the issues of Anglo-Saxon mounted warriors and the lesser-spotted ‘Great Fryd’ (sic), it was time for feasting and drinking to round off what had been a fantastic day. Although it took me a couple of days to recover, I’m already planning Midgard Moot 3 for 2027! Cheers to everyone who attended in such a great gaming spirit and I look forward to seeing you next year.

Photos by Pete Jenkins Photography with extras by James Morris

Many thanks to our fantastic venue hosts, Boards And Swords Hobbies