Midgard: Elves and Vikings vs Orcs and Beasts

I like Midgard!

Midgard is a game that caught my eye even before it was released. I bought it almost immediately after it hit the stores, but family matters (my daughter was born!) made me put it aside for a while. Well, we tried it last Friday and it was a blast! 

   

Orks and Evil Humans (Bactrians)

I assembled two armies with this handy website and I really enjoyed kitting out different groups of units. https://apps.iwouldliketorage.com/midgard-forces/#/. Figuring out how to use three different collections of miniatures together and fuse them into a Midgard army was all part of the fun. My Middle-Earth orcs, classic Warhammer Beastmen and historical Bactrians came together into some kind of First Age Middle-Earth meets Warhammer commanded by me. An alliance of men and elves, consisting of Vikings, Goths and Elves formed the forces of good and were controlled by Merijn. 

Skirmishers rush forward at the start of the game 

Midgard is all about heroes and how they interact with formations of regular soldiers. This is something  I've always missed in other rank-and-file rules like Fantastic Battles and Warmaster. Heroes in those rules functioned mostly as commanders and could give some small combat bonuses at best. In Midgard, on the other hand, the actions of your heroes can really turn the tide of the game.

Another thing that make these rules unique is the reputation system. You start with a pool of reputation points. You lose reputation when your units get destroyed. When all your reputation is gone, you lose the battle. Sounds simple enough, right? But there are other ways to lose re
putation, for example: you also lose reputation when your heroes act cowardly. And that's not all: you can also gain reputation when your heroes act according to their heroic status, like charging the enemy or winning a duel. I can't say I've ever encountered a system like this in a wargame, especially not in a rank-and-file game. 

The battle itself was very straight forward. Two armies lined up in front of each other with some small woods and rocks in between. A tiny farm on the elven right flank was the only sign of habitation on this field of future carnage. 

Evil cavalry charges as the first combat of the game.
Formed elven archers loose arrows at close range.
Killing many riders. The Elven hero fights like a true champion.
The riders are forced to retreat. 

Both sides had roughly equal sized forces. A large core of infantry and skirmishers and four heroes each. The forces of evil had some human cavalry and a unit of trolls (who would only do some stiff walking, no fighting at all). The forces of good had some formed archers and knights. All the cavalry, both good and evil, was deployed opposite of one another and would come into contact during the battle.

The game started with a general advance by the light infantry while the evil cavalry surged ahead. Archers pelted them with arrows, and this angered the Bactrian cavalry greatly. They charged the archers through a hail of arrows and fought them in close combat.  Their charge did not inflict much damage though, and both the arrows and the enemy hero supporting them killed many of the evil riders.

Ungors lurking in the woods.

The game continued with cavalry charges near the farm and a general advance in the center. Skirmishers had a few back-and-forth exchanges and both sides suffered losses. The Beastmen infantry failed miserably in their first charge. They tried to capture a spot of rough ground and broke at first contact with the enemy commander and some archers. 

Near the woods on the evil right Ungor light javelin throwers disappeared into some trees. They managed to hold out in the woods for the rest of the game, slowly luring enemy infantry away from the main fight. Viking warriors, to their dismay, later reported they were not only pelted with spears but also with excrement.

Beastmen javelinists throw sharp sticks and poop at Viking infantry.

Elven knights after their last successful charge. 

The game was won at the farmstead. Elven knights won victory after victory against the evil cavalry and infantry. Charging them down and breaking their formations. A single combat was called between the Elven hero and the evil Human hero. The Elf won easily, gaining Merijn some well deserved reputation. Meanwhile, my forces were greatly weakened by the loss of the evil human infantry and their commander. The Orc center could no longer hold its position with all those horses on his flank.

Elf and Orc infantry fight each other to the death!

All the cavalry in their flanks scared the Orc general, and he ordered a swift advance: "Because enemy cavalry can't attack your flank when you are running far ahead of them". Wise words from the Orc. And so he charged with all his orcs following close behind him. His subordinate fought a duel with the enemy general but the fight was unfair. The Orc did manage to mortally wound the enemy general, taking him down soon afterwards. In the following melee the Orc infantry was broken, assailed from many sides by fresh elven re-enforcements.

I must say I really enjoyed Midgard. The Heroes and the reputation mechanic felt flavourful and had a great and lasting impact on the game. Every loss of a unit hurts as you physically have to remove reputation tokens from pool. Taking risks is important because it grants you more reputations if duels and mass combat go your way, but these same risks can turn against you and this will cost you dearly.

The rules for maneuvering felt logical, and I especially liked the way armour worked. A unit is only damaged if the enemy scores a number of hits equal or greater than the armour value of the unit. So knights with armour 4 need a lot more hits to get hurt then meek skirmishers with armour 2.

I'm personally looking forward to my next game of Midgard, but I'll leave you with Merijns thoughts on it:

I see the potential of the rules, but I found them a bit hard to wrap my head around on a first try. I came from preparing a game of Ravenfeast
to learning Midgard, which is consideringly more complex. Nothing out of the ordinary to be sure, but the contrast was a bit overwhelming. I didn't read the book myself, which didn't help. This way, I wasn't completely convinced by some parts of the rules. Specifically the reputation system and the way that the same player (the attacker) always has the initiative. I didn't quite understand how the reputation system was meant to impact the flow of the game. Should I purely focus on gaining reputation, or does the system play out naturally if I just focus on destroying my opponents army? Also, because the charging unit gets a bonus in the melee and you can lock units in combat, is it fair that the attackers always goes first? I'm hopeful though, that on a second try and after I've read the rules myself, these questions will be satisfyingly answered. 

The victorious elven center. With the Orc general isolated and afraid...

Beastmen still standing at the end of the game. They fought some enemy skirmishers and infantry, but did not manage to reach the main fight in time.

Cheers, 

Barend