Midgard is a quick-playing wargame for recreating heroic battles from the Bronze Age through the Medieval Period with the option of including fantastic sorceries and creatures. The rules are easy to apply while still remaining tactically deep, and the list building is wonderfully flexible. It is written by James Morris and published by Reisswitz Press, an imprint of TooFatLardies, a wargames rule company that focuses on command and control.
Whether you’re interested in playing Arthurian Britons defending their kingdom from the Saxons, Thor and the Aesir vying against the Frost Giants for control of Asgard, or Tolkienian Elves attempting to hold back a tide of Orcs, Midgard works well for it. The rules do not attempt a perfect simulation of Dark Ages or Early Medieval combat, rather they take a heavy dose of inspiration from legends and sagas, allowing your heroes to step away from the clash of shield walls to meet each other in glorious single-combat. Reputation gained or lost during these shows of bravado may turn the tide of battle.
If you’re looking for a game where heroic personalities shape the flow of a battle without dominating it, Midgard is worth a closer look.
The Rulebook
The rulebook itself is well-written and produced. The art is suitably thematic and there are nice full-color diagrams to help guide you through gameplay. The photography is excellent, and does a great job of evoking the feel of the game and its setting. The rulebook also includes twelve sample army lists that cover a wide variety of periods and setting. I’ve found that the sample lists are well thought out and are an excellent jumping off point for building my own armies.
Generally the rules are written in a very clear way, though I have encountered at least one situation where there was a bit of ambiguity around something basic in resolving shooting (Are the number of shooting dice halved for range penalties before or after bonus dice are added?). Thankfully the melee rules that come later in the book explicitly state an order (halve first, then add bonus dice) so the intent is perfectly clear. It’s a pedantic nit-pick, but be aware that you may need to interpret this sort of situations during play.
What Do I Need to Play?
You will need some miniatures appropriate to the period or genre that you’d like to game. The default assumption is that you’re playing with 28mm-ish miniatures, but the core game scale is quite flexible. As written, most units are based on 120mm x 60mm bases with eight 28mm infantry per base for a formed unit. Missile skirmishers are based four or five miniatures to a 120mm x 60mm base. Some units like war machines and cavalry may be based on deeper trays, but it doesn’t strongly impact gameplay.
Midgard isn’t a game that requires casualty removal so go ahead and put as many miniatures of whatever scale on 120mm x 60mm bases you like to represent conflicts at a more epic scale. Personally, I already have a collection of individually based 28mm miniatures, so I made 3D printable sabot trays to field my existing collection.
To give a sense of the game’s scale, an example 300 point Dark Ages or Ancients force might have:
- 3 heroes to lead the army
- 6 units of infantry (called Warriors) of varying quality with shields and spears or other hand weapons (eight to twelve models each)
- 2 units of Skirmishers with bows or slings (four models each)
- 2 units of cavalry with shields and spears or other hand weapons (six to eight models each)
If you already have an army for Hail Caesar, you’ll likely already have all the minis you need. A Saga warband isn’t quite big enough – you could probably combine two Saga warbands to make a force for Midgard. A Dux Britanniarum warband is nearly large enough, requiring only a few extra units.
You will also need a sparse amount of terrain. A couple clusters of trees, a few standing stones, and some hills will cover you for most battles. Forces in Midgard choose to make battle in relatively open areas, so most of your terrain will end up on the far edges of the battlefield.
To simplify gameplay, the game defines a 120mm “Spear Throw” as its core unit for measuring distances. You will need measuring sticks that are 2 Spear Throws, 1 Spear Throw, and ½ Spear Throw. Too Fat Lardies provides very attractive looking full color measuring sticks, but there’s also a nice STL option if you’re into 3D printing. Nothing magic about any of those options though – you could easily cut down some bamboo skewers to the appropriate measurements as well.
You will also need various tokens to help with keeping track of the state of the game. The full color tokens from Too Fat Lardies and their STL tokens don’t cover all the required tokens, so I’ll include a few suggestions here:
- 20 Reputation tokens – green glass beads or period-appropriate reproduction coins
- 10 Mighty Deed tokens – blue glass beads
- 5 Charging or Winning markers – TFL tokens, STL tokens
- 1 Shot marker per unit or hero armed with a missile weapon – TFL tokens, STL tokens
- 10 Stamina Loss markers – a loose painted “dropped” shield, red glass beads
Finally, you will need twelve six-sided dice, as well as one or two extra d6s of a different color.
Gameplay Overview
In Midgard, battles are won or lost based on your reputation. Each force begins the game with a number of reputation tokens determined by their force composition, typically 8-10 for a standard 300 point game.
Reputation tokens are gained when your heroes perform heroic deeds, like leading a charge, defeating another hero in single combat, or completing scenario objectives. More reputation is gained when you take bigger risks – charging your Army Commander into combat or challenging a higher-level Hero in single combat is the sort of things that bards will sing about for ages to come and will grant you additional Reputation tokens.
Reputation tokens are lost when your forces show themselves to be cowardly or incompetent. When units are destroyed or flee off the board you lose a number of Reputation that scales to the cost of the unit, typically 2-3. You also lose a reputation when your heroes refuse a challenge to single combat, leave their unit while it is still in melee combat, or otherwise attempt to avoid being bloodied.
Once one side has lost its last reputation token, the game is over and the other side claims glorious victory.
Depending on their level, Heroes have 1-4 Mighty Deeds that they can spend each turn to perform great feats of leadership or heroism. They can spend them to allow units nearby to move more reliably by allowing them to reroll failed command checks. If the hero is attached to a unit, Mighty Deeds can also be spent to add additional dice to shooting or melee attacks. They can also be spent to allow heroes to avoid taking injuries during melee combat, but this is thoroughly unheroic and comes at the cost of a reputation token. Mighty Deeds pose an interesting resource management problem – will you act aggressively and burn them all to seize the momentum during a critical moment, or will you keep a few in reserve in case you need to save a key hero from losing his last wound?
In each battle, one force is the Defender and the other is the Attacker. On each turn the Attacker moves his entire force at once, then melee is fought with the Attacker given the option to challenge opposing heroes to Single Combat. Then the Defender does the same – moving his entire force and fighting melees. Finally, the Defender and Attacker alternate firing missiles from units that have not yet shot during the earlier movement phases.
The “Attacker goes, Defender goes” cycle will seem fundamentally familiar from other games, the key difference in Midgard is that the Attacker always gets to move and fight with his full complement of Mighty Deeds so they generally get to dictate the flow of battle, whereas the Defender gets to react to the state of the battle knowing that they will get their Mighty Deeds back before the Attacker will go again. The result is that the two sides behave subtly different from one another in a way that reinforces the feeling of the Attacker being the aggressor in the battle.
Units may make up to two moves in their movement phase. A fresh unit gets one move automatically, and must make a 3+ command test on a D6 to perform a second move. This often results in your battle lines fragmenting at just the wrong moment before coming into contact with the enemy. Thankfully, nearby commanding heroes can make movement more reliable by allowing units to re-roll their command checks by using one of their Mighty Deeds.
The mechanics of movement are rather simple compared to many unit-level wargames. Infantry have a basic movement rate of one Spear Throw, and cavalry have a basic movement rate of two Spear Throws. Most units may move their full movement rate straight forward and move half their movement rate in any other direction. Formed infantry can move one Spear Throw if they’re marching directly ahead, or a half Spear Throw if they’d like to move diagonally or backwards. Skirmishers and Light Riders are more maneuverable and always move their full movement rates regardless of direction.
Outside of point blank range, missile units tend to distract and disrupt instead of actually damage the enemy – the number of dice rolled is halved if you’re firing at units that are more than one Spear Throw away. By the time your opponent is close enough to effectively damage with missiles, they’re also within range to charge you! This may come as an inconvenient shock to players that like to line the back edge of the table with elven archers, but you will probably not succeed at shooting your opponent off the board before they can come to grips with you.
Single combats between heroes are quick and bloody, though sometimes not-quite-lethal affairs. When two units with attached heroes meet, the acting player has the option of issuing a challenge to single combat. If the challenged hero refuses, their side loses a reputation token. If they accept, the heroes step away from the general melee and fight against each other in single combat. The heroes fight three quick rounds of melee, with the winner gaining some reputation. This may result in the death of one or both heroes, but that’s part of the fun. I highly recommend building at least a few of your heroes as decent fighters, otherwise your opponent will be able to bully your weaker heroes by challenging them to single combat when they cannot possibly win.
Both sides fight at the same time during melee, rolling a number of dice equal to their Combat Dice statistic, ranging from 12 dice for Heavy Infantry to a mere 6 dice for skirmishing Shooters. Heroes can choose to put themselves at risk and add additional dice based on their level with the option of spending their Mighty Deeds to add even more dice. Combat dice score a hit if they roll a 5+ and the unit that charged in or won the last round of combat rerolling 1s. A point of Stamina damage is caused for each time the number of hits exceeds the enemy’s Armour value. As an example, causing five hits on an Armour 3 unit will cause one point of stamina damage with the remaining two hits being discarded. Causing six hits on that same Armour 3 unit will cause two points of Stamina damage. Units typically have 2-4 Stamina and are destroyed when their last Stamina is gone.
A unit forced to fight in an unfavorable melee will only roll half dice – this can occur when they are fighting enemies to their flank or rear, if they are fighting in rough terrain, or if they have lost half their Stamina. Combat dice are halved for each modifier that applies, effectively neutering even the most elite warriors.
Once melee hits have been rolled, nearby friendly units are able to lend aid to the combat by providing Support Saves, which allow you to cancel out hits from your enemy. This is the only source of saving throws in the game, and is quite important to keeping your units in the fight. Tempting as it may be, charging your elite cavalry into a fresh enemy without supporting units is a recipe for disaster.
The loser of a combat is pushed back, potentially causing disruption and additional Stamina damage if they’re pushed back into another unit! Units are only able to support combats within a half Spear Throw, so supporting units directly behind the battle line are a liability. This strongly encourages players to place supporting units side-by-side or diagonally to the rear of other units. This gameplay mechanic naturally leads to players forming their units up into mutually supporting walls or checkerboards of infantry, which feels entirely appropriate for the ancient and early medieval periods.
Flexible List Building
List building is simple and flexible, allowing you to easily stat out units that will work with your existing collection of miniatures.
Every army will have at least three heroes, each leading a detachment of soldiers. One of these should be the overall army commander, with the other two serving as subordinate commanders. Heroes are given Heroic Traits to give them additional abilities in combat or when leading troops. Given the heroic nature of the game, I would recommend building most of your characters with the assumption that they will get involved in a single combat during the game, though you also have the option of building noncombatant characters that specialize in inspiring the troops or wielding powerful sorcery.
For filling out the rank and file of your army the game provides a series of generic unit templates, like Heavy Infantry, Formed Archers, skirmishing Shooters, Medium Cavalry, or Knights. From these basic templates you mix in various Traits to provide color and additional battlefield abilities. Your elite fighters may have extra armour as well as Spears as Tribute, allowing them to roll extra dice in melee if they haven’t taken any damage. Unmotivated levies may have reduced armour and be Reluctant, requiring them to take a Command Test for every movement action.
Midgard’s flexible list building allows you to bring your fantasy armies to the table as well. Generally this seems to work best when the army shares the same trait among most units in the army to give it a distinct flavor. Fleet-footed and dependable Elves might be Drilled, allowing them to move twice without a command test. Unruly Chaos Marauders or Orc Warriors are Impetuous, making them unable to resist making a ferocious charge. Shambling armies of undead soldiers are Relentless and are impossible to push back. Despite using the same unit profiles, fantasy armies built out this way behave differently from one another on the table without the need for individually customized army lists or reams of special rules and exceptions.
It’s worth having a discussion with your opponent before building lists to ensure you’re thematically building armies for the same era and level of fantasy elements allowed. Some of the more fantastic elements, like Flying monsters or heroes wielding powerful Sorcery, can strongly impact the flow of the game and have the potential to leave more historically-grounded forces feeling a bit unprepared. Keep in mind that Midgard is intended as a narrative game, not a tournament game, so you’ll generally have a more enjoyable experience if you don’t try to over-optimize during list building.
For sample armies, list building helpers, and tweaks for playing the game in different periods, take a look at the resource section of the author’s website.
Changing the Game’s Scale
If you already have armies that are based differently from Midgard’s default 120mm x 60mm blocks, it’s very easy to adjust the game for your collection by replacing the Spear Throw measurement with however wide your already-based units measure. As an example from my own collection, Warmaster infantry stands are 40mm wide, so you can use them to play Midgard by treating your Spear Throw measurements as 40mm instead of 120mm. Stands based facing the short edge, like cavalry, need to be doubled up to keep a 40mm unit width. From there play the game on a playing area that’s roughly one third sized and everything will work as normal without any other rule changes.
Let Battle Commence
Overall, I strongly recommend giving Midgard a try. The rules are easy to teach and apply without being shallow – perfect if your clubmates aren’t always the best at juggling really fiddly rules. Once both players have a feel for their army’s traits, games tend to play quickly and smoothly. The flexibility in list building gives you the option of reusing the same set of rules for playing many different periods, with the caveat that it may fit best for periods where missile fire is relatively ineffective. It’s really just the thing if you’d like a no-fuss set of rules that let you play out a full, exciting battle to its conclusion in just a few hours.
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