Midgard Bronze Age Playtest AAR

I have been speaking to James Morris for some time about his forthcoming rules Midgard. I have been looking for rules for my Bronze Age collection for some time and with Midgards focus on Heroes and heroic warfare these rules look like the may fit the bill.

So with that in mind James kindly invited me to join the playtest group and Chris Charlton set up a  game at the East Leeds club with Kev and his lovely collection of Bronze Age North Europeans. I was pleased to find as we played that Kev is an archeologist so had a real insight into the period.

Each side has heroes; leaders and can also have Shamen, your side starts with a number of reputation points which can be increased or decreased by heroic (or not) behaviour, so wounding an enemy in single combat will add reputation to your sides pot but refusing single combat or getting yourself killed will remove repuation.

The rule set also have an innovative move sequence which I like. More on this when James is ready to release the rles, I wouldnt want too many spoilers.

This is quite different to you go I go and works really well.

I hope we might see the rules published in 2022 and I can see a niche for this type of game in the market so hope it will do well for James.

Chris had organised two forces from our collections and mounted mine on movement trays as the units frontage for Midgard is quite important. Everything is measured in "Spear Throws" including units frontages, for 28mm figures a spear throw is 120mm. If I enjoy this as much as I think I will, I will need to rebase all mine as movement trays are a bit clunky and dont look very nice.

Our armies were evenly matched, I had the greater numbers whilst Kev had the more aggressive troops. One advantage I had was more cavalry and chariots so I loaded one side hoping to take advantage of this.

We marked might points with MDF disks so you can see my Hero below had 4 might points which made him a pretty full on hero.

We used glass pebbles as reputaion points, I guess you could mark this any way you want, I am imaging once published the rules will have bespoke markers you can source.

First move my chariots and one unit of light horse closed with Kevs only unit of horse quickly infliciting a casualty with javelin throws.

For the rest my units remained stationery and Kevs trundled forward, each unitmoves one spear throw but can move a second one if it passes a command test, Heros can spend a might point to allow a unit they are with to re-roll a command test.

The number of troops to a base doesnt really matter, skirmish units like these Javelins look better spread out whilst the heavier warriors look the part shoulder to shoulder.

Kevs troops already have really nice movement trays for the rules, I like these a lot.

It oesnt happen often but my first round of melee three sixes from three dice sees me winning.

Unfortunately my chariots though are seen off by an adjacent unit of Wariors with double handed axes who join the fray and are then forced to push on after their sucess . At the end of the round I have lost a unit of chariots and Kev a unit of horse we both lose a reputation point, my unit of horse is now engaged with the Hero trying to fight them off alone. 

In the next round Kev wisely issues a challenge which I accept, however his hero has 4 might points and mine has just 1, the outcome was never in doubt. I roll on the Hero death chart but it doesnt end well and I lose a reputation point.

In the meantime the warriors and skirmishers have closed elsewhere and missile fire has taken a heavy toll of both sides. It takes me quite a while to get my head around using Heroes properly and Kev gets the better of most of the combats early on as a result. On the right I turned my cavalry around hopeing to move them across my rear and into the gap I have created there beating Kevs cavalry. Instead I end up with a comical Grand old Duke of York secnario with them turning back and forth and refusing to pass initiative tests.

Gradually as I get a better handle on how to use my heros and use my larger numbers of skirmishers and warriors to gang up on units of Kevs on the left I start to get the better of the battle on that side. On the right however Kev destroys a couple of my units and breaks through my line.

Its a close run thing but by 10.30 Kev has lost his leader and a couple of heros along with some of his better troops, his reputation pot is almost empty and we call it narrow victory for me. I got lucky but learned some valuable lessons about both the rules and playing Heroic warfare in general.

A great playtest with some lovely figures and great company, thanks Kev and Chris and also James for allowing us to play test the rules. More to come on these in the near future I feel.

40mm 60th Rifles Complete

These were the first of my 40mm units finished, the 60th Rifles were an obvious choice for me. Rifles are an iconic unit for Peninsualr and the 60th much more colourful than the 95th.

So with all of these guys painted I set up a little photo shoot in the bedroom. Nothing fancy, towels, a church and some trees. I may make a bit more effort next time. French and Spanish to follow, first up 60th Rifles

Three six man units each with a commander so 21 figures for gaming. I picked a bunch up cheap figures mainly standing firing so you will see in later images that I have spares that will need to go at some point.

These are organised for Sharp Practice so skirmishers in units if six with a leader. This unit has the Officer as their leader and a mix of trouser colours.

This second Group has a bugler as their leader, I have used quite a bit of the regulation blue trousers as they go really well with the colour scheme and then just a few browns and greys thrown in.

The third unit has a Seargent with fixed sword bayonet to lead them, again slight mix of trousr colours.

Lastly those I will use with the 9 "spares" that will probably be sold. Not a fan of lots of the same figure and three units is plenty to represent a company of rifles.

I have also based the first comanders for the rest of my British troops, the Seargent and redcoat officer are for the 88th Connaught Rangers and I have a lot more of these guys to do. The Rifles officer is 95th and I have enough unpainted rifles for a single unit of these guys to give me added flexinbility in games.

The seargent is the only figure from this lot not to be from Perry Miniatures and is a Sash and Sabre figure adding welcome variety to the figures.

More to come from this photo shoot and creeping closer to enough for a small game in the near future.

40mm Spanish Peninsular Progress

 I have managed a decent ammount of painting over the festive period with most focus being on my Spanish Line for the 40mm peninsular side project which seems to have taken over my life a little bit in recent weeks.

With 8 already complete these here bring me very close to completion, so if I can get a few more French Ligne we would have enough for a small game.

The colour combination for this unit is ideal and one of my favourites, I have however been keen to try and get units looking as diverse as possible, so the three different figure shave been really useful for the Spanish. To illustrate how different the same figure can be with these I have split them into the three figure packs, starting here with the figure in waistcoat and breaches. This probably has the greatest variety, you can see that as well as the head varients (including one nicked from the uniformed Guerilla figure) we have choices of sleevless waistcoat and one waistocat with sash. With a bit of variety to the trouser and shirt colours this gives a lot of variety to the pack.

This figure in uniform overall trousers has less variety but still has different water bottles and the odd figure with waistocat peeping out under the coatee. Add the head varients and different trouser colours and we still get a decent mix.

Lastly breeches and coatee, again mainly the difference is trouser colour and some with no stockings, however the one figure with a blanket over the shoulder again adds something, there is another one of these and the blanket on that will contrast with this one.

I have also made a start on my French Ligne. I intend to have probably 32 line infantry, mainly marching in habit, but with a smattering in sleeved waistcoat as here. Oddly these heads all have the later pompom that is semi hollow, as I am doing the earlier period I am popping some greenstuff in the middle to give them earlier pompom except these two who have had there's removed before I got them.

The Spanish Officer looks suitably arrogant striding forward and the red sash and longer coat tails set him off rather well.

The coin he is mounted on is a King George Shilling but as its been based onto its too hard to clean up so leaving at as the base.

This chap will be supported by a couple of NCO's to keep the troops in-line.

Whilst completing this post I managed another 4 figures, three of the Spanish, one the other guy with a blanket over his shoulder, and one more French Ligne. This Spanish unit has 4 more figures to go before its completed and then just needs basing.

Just goes to show if i hang on to a post for long enough I will have to add more to it, the last 4 Spanish are completed taking the unit as a whole to a point of painted, just the basing to do and they are ready for action. Flags are from GMB designs and think look nice even though they are designed for 28mm figures. Strangely these are smaller than the British flags for the 88th but larger than the French flag.

Great progress, hopign to get these based shortly and have a little photo shoot of finished units.

Latest Sikh Regulars

With lots of 40mm Peninsualr posts thought I would breka it up with an unpublished post on some Sikhs I did a little while ago. These guys will take me to two full brigades each of 2 regiments each of those of two battalions.

Some of these images are a little dark so apologies guys.

These guys have a darker uniform than some of the other battalions so provide a nice contrast. 

The pinkish turbans are bright but not overly so, happy with that balance for now.

These figures are all Studio iniatures and some of the nicer figures from their early releases, taller and slimmer than Foundry they really need to be in seperate units. 

This lot were spare from Colin Ashtons lovely collection, thanks Colin, hope you like how they came out.

I also had this British officer back at the same time, really useful figure, the frock coat making him generic for any unit.

Another Perry Carlist Wars officer his uniform is non the less ideal for India. I wont need many more command figures now I think.

Ok thats it for these guys, the collection still has a way to go, its not the beginning of the end but perhaps the end of the begining.

40mm French Grenadiers & First Peninsular British

I continue to be enthused by the 40mm Figures and make a little steady progress. I managed to kick off this weeks work with some more French Grenadiers and my first British line, an Officer of the Connaught Rangers.

I plan a small formation of Grenadiers, two groups of 8 with a leader, this takes me to 9 figures and the Leader so I will probably focus on a few more of these over the weekend, see if I can get a formation complete.

The British officer is the first of my redcoats, I have a lot of these some what by accident. I picked up a bunch that were part painted from ebay, the previous owner had done a nice job but I needed to make them match mine so used his painting as a base coat and changed the facing colours so I could have the Connaught Rangers. I will try get a few more of these started once I complete the Grenadiers.

They are all Perry's 40mm and the seperate heads allow me to create a bit of variety in the unit along with different coloured trousers and shako covers, the odd figure in a different pose such as the middle figure at porte and the odd fiure in sleeved waistcoat like the right hand Grenadier will add to that variety so it hopefully doesnt look like a bunch of the same figure.

So with a head start and the wind behind me I have managed to get a fair bit completed, these French Grenadiers now mean I actually have 16 complete, this reaches my goal of two groups of 8 Grenadiers for the French.

The guy with the bayonet at charge seems to be looking at everyone else wondering why he is the odd one out. The different shako and trouser colours seem to have done the trick in making these all look like individuals I feel.

Alos managed to finish the last four 60th rifles. That gives me four units and enough left over for a unit of 95th as well.

This officer is really quite nice, done as 95th partially as I already have one for the 60th and partially as the company of 6oth and the small group of 95th along with the yellow faced British have a strong resemblance to the Sharp forces, the six 95th being the chosen men, the South Essex had yellow facings even though mine will be the 88th Connaught Rangers and in two of the stories Sharpe is supported by Sweet Wiliam and a company of 6oth. Just a bit of fun but nice all the same.

I have also painted the first three British line. The middle figure is Perry and the other two Sash and Sabre. I had my doubts about Sash and Sabre but they are easy to paint, lots of character and came out quite well. I am not convinced they scale well with Perrys mind you which are much slimmer. The British marching centre company figure is much of a muchness with the various heads not actually giving much variety at all. No idea if I can or will mix these in the units, decision for when I have a load more painted I think. Most will be in white trousers with some other colours mixed in.

Before posting I managed to finish a bunch more British Centre Comany troops, a Sash and Sabre Seargent who I really like and 5 Perry Privates who also came out really nice, the slightly off white of the Seargent and one of the privates adds a little mix, more browns and greys mixed in as we go but white will be the pominant colour.

Finally a picture of all 16 French grenadiers stuck to bases ready for basing media to be added. I may get some more painted before having a go at the basing. A few more British then get stuck into the Spanish next.

Nice to see pretty much completed units starting to come out, not a million miles away from enough for a small game.

See you again soon.