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.

And today I’m catching up! More soon.

Magazine coverage of Midgard has also started, with articles about gaming Homer’s Iliad with Midgard in Wargames Illustrated 444 and a one-page discussion of what inspired me to write the rules in the back of Miniature Wargames 500.

The Midgard Heroic Battles Official Facebook Group has been a hive of activity, with players posting their own Force lists to the site. I have posted four additional ‘official’ lists as well, covering the Wars of the Roses and the Ancient British and Early Imperial Roman Forces that we used in playtesting. These are available both on Facebook and on my Midgard Heroic Battles page for free download, as is a MS Word Excel Force Creator document.

The official STLs to 3D print your own Midgard measuring sticks and tokens are now also available as a paid download with both personal and commercial use covered. Full details of where to do this are again on the Midgard Heroic Battles page.

Finally, if this wasn’t enough and you’re not bored of the sound of my voice, there are more podcasts to listen to while you’re painting. The Too Fat Lardies Oddcast came out first, in which I was grilled on John Keegan and other topics linked to Midgard such as the national goblet shortage before being unceremoniously chucked out of a tower window in the ‘defenestration of Lard’ section of the show! (Sidney Roundwood is now off the Christmas card list!)

This was followed up by an appearance on Henry Hyde’s Battlechat where I was treated much more gently but we still had a great conversation about games design and Midgard (of course). (Note that this is initially a patron only chat, it’ll be free to listen to at a later date).

Lots more happening over the next few days, but I’m going to take a break now. Cheers!

James

Sunday 19th May saw myself, Tom, Pete, Andy and Martin crawl out of our beds far too early and get on the road to the awesome show that is Partizan at Newark Showground. Setting up on the edge of the Lard Zone, we put up our double-headed game format to promote my forthcoming Midgard Heroic Battles rules. It’s all very well telling people that your rules will work with any scale of miniatures, but it’s far better to show them!

So this time we had Trojan Wars in 6mm back-to-back with a battle from Tolkien’s Silmarillion in 28mm. This also neatly showcased the fact that Midgard can be used across the spectrum of historical, mythical and fantasy gaming.

Jon Hodgson (of Handiwork Games and Jon Hodgson Backdrops ) had kindly granted us permission to use two of his pieces as backdrops for the battles, so we had a lovely vista on both games.

Once I had micro-managed every single miniature and piece of terrain into its correct location, we had a quick team briefing and then got stuck into the games. While it’s fun to have two games on show, of course, it’s double the work for manning them, and we try to have games being played as well as being available to talk.

I played through several turns of the Silmarillion game with Pete and Andy in between chatting with everyone passing by, so the battle moved at a leisurely pace on my side of the table.

Tom and Martin took the Trojan Wars game so I apologise for the lack of photos of this – Tumhalad was taking up most of my attention!

I didn’t see the action develop in the Trojan Wars game but understand that Hector challenged Achilles to single combat, and found himself being dragged three times round the walls of Troy by his heels…

Back to the Battle of Tumhalad…the Orcs deployed on three sides of the battlefield, with the Elves of Nargothrond trapped with the River Ginglith to their backs.

Surrounded, the Elves elected to throw their archers forwards and harass the Orcs as they came on.

The game featured an Elven watch tower that had been taken over by Orcs and was now manned by their drummers creating an almighty racket!

Yet more Orcs arriving from the North!

Here we have some of the Peter’s Paperboys Orcs taking part in their first Midgard game. They said that they were worried about feeling a bit flat, but were soon made welcome and no-one mentioned their 2D qualities!

Although the Elven archery felled the front ranks of the Orcs, more came on and Glaurung breathed fire upon the Noldor.

Glaurung piled into the Elven ranks but the Elves held on for a minor victory, having more Reputation tokens in their goblet at the close of play. A few more turns might have settled it, but that’d best be played out at a club night rather than a show!

Thanks for all our helpers for today and especially everyone who came and chatted – I hope we have some Midgard news for you soon.

Second of the games that we’ll be bringing to Partizan on May 19th will be our version of one of the battles from the First Age of Middle-earth. The Battle of Tumhalad, which took place in the year 495 of the First Age, only merits a short description in Tolkien’s works but heralds the destruction of the Elven underground realm of Nargothrond.

The Silmarillion states that ‘in the autumn of the year, biding his hour, Morgoth loosed upon the people of Narog the great host that he had long prepared; and Glaurung the Urulóki passed over Anfauglith, and came thence into the north vales of Sirion and there did great evil. Under the shadows of Ered Wethrin he defiled the Eithil Ivrin, and thence he passed into the realm of Nargothrond.’

‘The warriors of Nargothrond went forth, and tall and terrible on that day looked Túrin…as he rode on the right hand of Orodreth. But greater far was the host of Morgoth than any scouts had told, and none but Túrin defended by his dwarf-mask could withstand the approach of Glaurung; and the Elves were driven back and pressed by the Orcs into the field of Tumhalad, between Ginglith and Narog, and there they were penned.’

‘On that day all the pride and host of Nargothrond withered away, and Gwindor son of Guilin was wounded to the death. But Túrin came to his aid, and all fled before him; and he bore Gwindor out of the rout, and escaping into a wood there laid him on the grass.’

This doom-filled account fits nicely with one of the scenarios in the forthcoming Midgard Heroic Battles rules, so I’ve adapted The Last Stand for the forces of Morgoth and Nargothrond.

The Elves are holding a ridge, hopelessly outnumbered and attacked on three sides by the Orcs. However, they can still win a moral victory if they can hold on and protect Orodreth, Lord of Nargothrond, until sunset (or Turn 6 of the game, if you prefer).

The Elven Force is, of course, commanded by Orodreth, but Túrin Turambar is the real warlord, having urged the Elves of Nargothrond into open battle. Armed with the black sword Gurthang (‘Iron of Death’ in Sindarin) and wearing the Dragon-helm of Dor-lómin, he cuts a frightening figure as the only man in the Elven ranks.

Our third main commander is Gwindor, a maimed Elf who has been rescued from Morgoth by Túrin.

The Elven warriors are a variety of formed archers and spearmen with a considerable mounted wing. Heraldry is the emblem of the house of Fingon, though Orodreth and his bodyguard bear one of his uncle Finrod’s symbols.

The Orc host is great fun to field, not least because the commander is a fire-breathing dragon! Glaurung- the first, wingless dragon of Middle-earth – originally emerged from Angband in FA 260 but was beaten back by Elven horse archers.

By FA 455, he was fully grown and led Morgoth’s forces in several major battles. As a sentient creature, for game purposes, we have treated him as a Monstrosity Unit with a Level 3 Major Hero permanently attached.

I have added various lowly Orc captains, but Glaurung is the star player here. The model is a heavily converted toy by Schleich which I covered in a previous blog article.

The rest of the Orc host is composed of a huge variety of miniatures from mine, Martin and Pete’s collections.

We’ve all enjoyed converting various plastics from Oathmark, GW, Warlord, Wargames Atlantic, Gripping Beast and many others for that uniquely orcish look.

I’ve chosen to give the Orcs a low armour value for game purposes, which means that they die in droves but can potentially swamp the Elves with more warriors, which feels about right.

There are a few Orc archers that we’ve massed into formed units (it’s interesting to note how many characters in Tolkien are killed by Orc arrows) and some wolf riders to act as scouts.

Anyway, we’re looking forward to see how the scenario plays and to a great show at Partizan! Hope to see some of you there.