More Mucking About With Midgard

        In yet another round of Midgard playtesting The Housemartin and I sat down to play a very similar game to the last one. Housemartin is one of the best rules-analysts that I know, he has a capacious memory and a swift kenning of the implications of rules on the manner in which the game plays. He has had the rules in his hands for a couple of weeks so I fully expected a learning experience as we played.  We had resolved to fully check the text of the rules as we played to ensure that we understood the rules and that we conducting the game in compliance with them. 

       Even with the large armies and constant rules checking we were done inside three and a half hours. I had decided to take pictures after each player activation was completed rather than at the and of a full turn to better illustrate the action. In all the pictures south is to the left. The battle narrative is told from the position of the Saxon commander (me).

 

the armies ready for battle, Saxons are overweight to their right with all the Huscarls (as well as a Champion and a general) deployed there, the Britons are  also heavy on their right loading all the knights and most of the cavalry there

 

upon reading the rules archery seems weak but we found that it can disorganize the enemy's approach and inflict the odd casualty (it is particularly dangerous to Heroes as they must test for injury even if the unit takes no Fatigue damage) the constant drizzle of arrows certainly made my approach moves more complicated

 

having had my flanks crushed in the last game I over-reacted and piled all my horse and two weak foot units into my southern flank and two units of my best troops on the northern side, this only partly worked, in the north Housemartin cancelled my best troops with two units of average cavalry, to the south my aggressive approach stalled his much more powerful force by making them fight on a narrow frontage, my "hammer blow" central attack was disrupted by poor Command checks exacerbated by constant missile fire from the Briton archers

 

 

 

both leaders on the southern front engaged in combat repeatedly, surviving many near-misses in hand-to-hand fighting, the Saxon general had a couple of units rout away from him but miraculously survived to be rescued by another  units advance, the Briton knights with an Armor and Fatigue of four were spectacularly had to crack

 

 

I finally realized my huge mistake and began advancing the Huscarls to drive off the Briton horse, in the center the breakdown of my advance left my assault on the hill badly disjointed, Housemartin made particularly good use of Supporting units in combat enhanced by the +2 Support dice for holding an uphill position

 

having been involved in combat since the opening moves of the game my Saxon general in the south finally buys the farm, without his extra dice the Saxon cavalry stand no chance against the well-supported Briton horse and they flee exposing the infantry, knowing that he no longer has anything to worry about to the south Housemartin deftly commits his reserve troops on the hill to grind my Saxon foot, even with my general leading them they begin to give way

 

 

Housemartin pushed forward on the south, costing me precious Reputation points as he routed one unit after another, in the center he punished another Veteran foot unit with missile fire which broke their morale and sent them fleeing to the rear while to the north the Huscarls marched ever so slowly toward the Briton cavalry, things were looking decidedly grim for the Saxon cause

 

 

after fighting every turn since the opening moves of the game the knights facing my foot in the south finally gave way and retired from the fight leaving the impetuous foot to charge the next layer of fresh Briton troops, in a desperate attempt to draw away Supports I was forced to engage the rest of the troops in hand-to-hand combat, this only "sort-of" worked, in the center things went poorly for the Saxon troops, despite the assistance of my general the foot trying to gain the hill broke and fled while the rest marched poorly once again (I couldn't afford to spend Heroic Actions to get them to re-roll their second move attempts as I needed the extra dice to buff my unit in combat) the only bight spot for the Saxons was that the Huscarls had managed to catch the Briton horse flat-footed and battered them in melee, breaking one and driving the other back

 

 

 

in the south the Saxon foot defeated the Briton horse but the other unit lost to the opposing infantry, Housemartin turned his surviving knight unit around trying to decide which Saxon unit to destroy from behind, in the center Arthur and his retinue decided to attack my light infantry unit while his pestilential missile troops beat up another of my infantry, to the north the Briton cavalry had failed to Disengage and were destroyed in melee with the Huscarls, the loss of the infantry in the south required a transfer of Reputation points from the main general to keep the southern Saxon tribe in the fight, both sides were nearing exhaustion

 

 

 

despite the success in the north the Saxon plan was now reduced to "hoping"; the Huscarls were marching south as fast as possible but clearly had no chance of arriving in time so my only remaining choice was to throw everything into the fray and hope for some lucky dice rolls, the Britons were as nearly battered as my force and if I could break a unit of two the battle could still go my way, it was not meant to be, in the south the two cavalry units fought each other to extinction but that meant that the southern force was now exhausted (only one Reputation point left and none available from the main general) in the center my general led a victorious charge while another infantry unit charged uphill against the Arthur's Hundred (a gamble that did not pay off)

 

 

the success of the Britons on the southern front, combined with their stalwart defense of their hill in the center, now paid dividends; the Saxon left flank was destroyed while the Briton troops now turned northward with violence in their hearts, the leftmost unit of Saxon foot were overwhelmed and routed while on that blood-soaked hill the Saxon general was called out for individual combat by the Briton Champion, this went in favor of the Briton as he put an exclamation point on the Saxon defeat

 

       This was an interesting game. The separation of the larger Saxon force into different tribes with individual Reputation pools created resource-management concerns for the Saxons despite having an advantage of nearly twenty-five percent points-wise. A stricter understanding of movement rules made the forces less supple than in earlier games and, to my mind, gave a better feel to troop movement. Missile fire rarely inflicted a Fatigue point but the constant need to execute a Command test ate up Heroic Deeds and disrupted my advance rather badly. The Housemartin's cunning use of supporting troops and his refusal to be tempted from his hill tipped the scales decidedly in his favor. In all it was a most satisfactory game.

 

 

for The Housemartin and his heroic leader!