"Chaeronea 338 BC - using Midgard!" Topic

Yes, today we tried a historical refight of Chaeronea at the club, and had a very close game! If you want to see who won this time, please go to this link

Enjoy!

Herky, thanks for the report- entertaining as usual.

Would you care to post a report on Midgard in general? How you've found it, unique features, pros & cons? I've read reviews but it's always better to read the opinions of someone you respect AND who have used it multiple times.

TBH I doubt I could convince my pals to change rules again. I'd get lynched.

Thanks Ochoin! I was introduced to Midgard by a friend at my club.
It is essentially designed to reproduce 'Heroic' warfare (Think Dark ages and Trojan War) – but works perfectly well for historical battles. One thing is it is fairly abstract, with comparatively few troop types, though texture is added by the various traits you can give them (or their commanding Hero/General).
An example of a trait would be 'Spears for Tribute' – a Warrior unit with 12 combat dice is in contact with a similar unit to front, so the trait adds 2 combat dice to their total (needing a 5,6 on their D6's to hit) so long as they are at full strength. The unit which causes most hits is the winner and pushes the enemy back. Both units have an Armour value, between 2 and 4 normally, so the number of hits the unit suffered divided by the Armour causes 'Stamina' loss. Most units of Infantry have 4 Stamina, Cavalry 3 and skirmishers 2, when their Stamina is gone, so is the unit. (there are lots of things I haven't mentioned here for simplicity!)
It sounds complicated but is really easy to pick up, though takes a lot of effort to really get mastery of.
Believe me, though, it gets really addictive when you start playing.
One thing that is really good is the Reputation system. Armies start with a pot of reputation counters, and lose these as units break, or if a Hero does dishonorable things like leaving a combat, and gain Rep counters for Heroes charging with a unit, mostly.
I could write a lot more, but I think that is a start, I hope it makes sense to you!

Oops, forgot to mention when a force is at 0 Reputation, or less, at the end of a turn the side with the lowest Rep loses the game!

Nice looking game and thanks for your thoughts on Midgard – we are looking at different Ancients gaming systems and this is very helpful given your experience with the rules

We've used Midgard for various historical games. We struggle to get the balance of traits correct. I don't suppose you'd post the army lists you used?

link
This blog post has my notes and army lists from two convention games I hosted using Midgard. The first was historical with Vikings vs Saxons. The second battle added a fantasy twist using the same armies plus giants and dragons.

I'm thinking of using Midgard next for a Crusades based game. I'm interested to see how more shooting would change the game play.

We've used Midgard for various historical games. We struggle to get the balance of traits correct. I don't suppose you'd post the army lists you used?

Most of my lists are on the Midgard Facebook page files link
James Morris, the author of the rules is planning to put some of my lists on the resources site link

Alternately…

If you want them direct, please E-Mail me at richardbradley5@gmail.com and I will send you them direct!

We struggle to get the balance of traits correct.

This is why I won't be using Midgard for ancients. I read the rules, the traits I need are all missing. I'd have to make up nearly everything, then playtest and adjust my house rules and custom traits, etc. ad nauseum until I'm satisfied. IRL that process usually takes years, and there are too many fully fleshed-out ancients games already. If a version of Midgard gets published covering my favorite ancients sub-periods, I'll take a second look, but I can't justify all that work myself.

I'm much more keen to try Midgard for early Medieval gaming (e.g. Vikings and Saxons, as just mentioned). It's never been a very fun period to play in most rules (not a lot of tactics going on…), but the Midgard approach with heroes and stuff looks very promising.

I read the rules, the traits I need are all missing.

I am sorry to hear that. If you let me know what Traits you think are missing I may be able to help. I started Midgard and found I, too, was trying to find the best way of making troops act historically. I asked on the FB page and got some pointers and realised the balance of traits and troop classifications is far more subtle than I had thought. For example Peltasts are just 'Skirmishers (Light Infantry)' and Companions are best done as 'Heavy Riders, Knights'. Even Sassanian heavy cavalry work as Medium Cavalry with Mtd bows and 'Spears for Tribute' (Savaran) and Warriors, Armour 4 (Cataphracts) as I worked out for myself!

The Traits list for Midgard really needs to double in size. Until then, the game (while fun) is going to be limited to 4-5 pairs of armies. After that, everything will feel like a duplication.

'Heavy Riders, Knights' works for Companions, but it is also the same stat line as Norman Knights or late medieval knights or a "Flight of Dragons".

Every elite unit has Spears as Tribute. There are limited options to make any other type of unit.

I think its no less limiting than WRG in practice, but horses for courses I guess!