Refighting Chronopia with Midgard 3

 Colin and I tried another outing with my Chronopia armies. This time I had tweaked the Devout list to give them a separate magic user, as the Army Commander had been too busy in the previous game to use and spells.

Turn One:

The Devout start off as the Attacker and move forward. The Stygian match them and I charge my unit of Great Warriors (Knihjts) into the end of the Devout battle line. Out of camera shot are the two lighter mounted units on either end of my line, who were intend the envelope the Devout armies flanks, but both refused to pass their second movement!

The Great Warriors charge! 

A view from the Devout side of the table.

Some outstanding dice rolling for the Great Warriors, wiping the Risen unit out in a single round of melee!

 

Turn Two

The Devout's turn to get aggressive. The fast moving Tormented charge the Warriors in front of them, the Soul Flayer Demon flys across the rocky ground and slams into the unit behind.

 

On the flank the unit of Swordsmen  turn and, passing their second movement test, charge the Great Warriors. Who fail to countercharge!!!

As expected, the Tormented push the little Stygian Warrior back.

As does the Soul Flayer Demon.

But, despite suffering casualties, the Great Warriors push their attackers back.

The Stygian turn and the Priestess casts a Weakness spell on the Cursed Axemen (reducing their armour). Then the Stygian Guardian leads the Embalmed in a charge into the reeling axemen. Gaining a good bonus of Reputation Points, Hero charging, Army Commander charging and targeting the enemy Army Commander. They wipe the Cursed out and their Commander runs to the safety on the nearby unit.

On the other side of the table the Starved charge the Greatswordsmne in front of them. The Starved are a bit of a one-shot weapon, very effective in combate but lacking in armour, so die quickly.

A view of the Soul Flayer from the unfortunate Stygian perspective, just before the Demon rips the last survivors apart.

At the end of Turn Two the Reputation is 8:5 to the Stygian army (I'd already turned the die over before taking this picture).

 

Turn Three

Blood and guts all over the place in this turn, as units fade away on both sides of the table. The Damned (nasty big beastie) charges into a fresh unit of warriors.

Devout Greatswordsmen charge the badly wounded Embalmed, killing it. This is a nasty shock for the Stygian, the creature is a loss of 5 Rep points!!! Somehow the unit facing the Tormented fight it to a standstill.

The Damned gets pushed back and the Staved and their opponents cut each other down, leaving the two Heroes to fight on. In the Stygian combat round the Heroes batter away at each other, taking a wound apeice, before the Stygian falls beneath his opponent's blade.

I manage to charge a fresh unit into the rear of the tormented and the creature is slain. But the battlefield is looking pretty empty now.

At the end of Turn Three we both had Zero Reputation. We decided to call it there, as neither of us could see a way that either side could make much difference in the following turn. A Draw, we had battered each other to a standstill.

A great fun game to play. Very bloody and fast. As neither side had any missile capability to speak of, it was just a case of getting stuck in to the gory business as quickly as possible.

Painting in January and February

 Intermittent mix of things so far this year. Illness meant that I didn't get a lot done in January, so I tried to catch up a bit in February. My plan was to crack on with the mass of minis in my Wildspire Miniatures "Realm Reforged" boxed set, but that has been derailed, by a new game that has grabbed my interest. Of course I'm a gaming butterfly sometimes.

Two armoured adventurers from the Wildspire set.

A batch of frozen rocks for my Jotunheim games.

A pack of Gnoll archers and a Pack Leader from the Wildspire set.

Support for the Wildspire Gnolls, "Dogmen" from Alternative Armies.

"Bring Out Your Dead!" a superb 3d print I picked up from somewhere online.

 It's screaming out for a role in a scenario somewhere.

I also returned to my on-going resorting/rebasing of my 28mm Late Roman & Foes forces. Moving on to the Roman cavalry now.

And as I had a few surplus cavalry, a quick partial repaint of tunics and shields...

Middle Earth Arthedain cavalry to patrol the Barrow Downs during the fall of Arnor.

Now my distraction. I've really got into the upcoming new sci-fi rules by Patrick Todoroff, Scrapjacks. These are all 3d print designs by Mr Big Tong.

My salvage team of "Jacks".

Some assorted nasties to lurk in the wreck, undead spacemen.

Cute little maintenance bots, not so cute when they are malfunctioning!

Scrapjacks - Trying a new system

 Ross came over for a game last night which gave me the opportunity to have a second try at Scrapjacks. This is a new set of sci-fi rules from Patrick Todoroff, due out in March. Patrick has put a free Quick Start Guide with a taster scenario on Wargames Vault  https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/500732/scrapjacks-quick-start-guide

I'd had one opportunity to play through the rules so I had a reasonable grasp of the mechanisms. Anyone who has played any of Patrick's other systems, like Exploit Zero, Zona Alfa, When Nightmares Come or Nightwatch will be familiar with the basics.

The premise is a solo or co-op game, running a salvage team exploring derelict space craft/stations. The Quick Start Guide includes a two-park scenario to familiarise you with the basic rules. There are 4 basic roles in the team, each of which has specific specialisms.

Starting off in the first MHU (Modular Habitation Unit) the crew split up and move quickly towards various POI (Point of Interest). The main objective is to hack a fried relay by the exit, so Buzz (our specialist hacker) ignores the POIs and heads straight for the dodgy panel. Wrecker gets to the closest POI and find a Maintenance Supply Cabinet. This is quickly broken open and contains a Power Cell, some useful kit and 2 pts of salvage. POIs may contain useful bits the Scrapjacks can make use of (like suit patch kits) and generic salvage that offer a monetary value. As the rest of the team spread out we roll for the first Hitch. After all the Scrapjacks have taken their turn you roll of the Hitch table, which could bring foes into play, or else some environmental hazard. We roll a Void Mould, a nasty substance that can damage suits we get 3 suit breeches.

The team has a pool of Air Charge, representing a mixture of air and power available to the crew. We were already down to 5 and unless repaired quickly, each suit breech loses an Air Charge at the end of each turn, so it's not good.

In Turn two we concentrate on fixing the suit breaches but and Wrecker realises that her suit is still leaking air. This means that the team don't move so far, and at the end of the turn some maintenance bots turn up.

Two malfunctioning bots , ready to clean the MHU of all unwanted organic material (which includes the Scrapjacks).

Wrecker's suit is still leaking air.

Buzz gets close to the objective, but there are two more bots nearby.

In turn three Doc repairs Wrecker's suit, then moves on towards the objective. Q.B. (the team's "muscle") kicks open the POI next to him, a Security Locker, grabbing the goodies inside, then takes down one of the bots with his riot gun. Buzz ignores the threatening bots to start working of rerouting the fried relay. The bots activate and move in on Wrecker and Q.B. , but fail to score a hit.

This is leaving Wrecker looking rather exposed.

Turn 4, Buzz completes the rewiring, so it's safe to exit. Wrecker moves up to join the crew. the bots attack again and both Q.B. and Wrecker are wounded this time.

A bot's eye view.

The Hitch roll brings on a team of pirates/claim jumpers, which makes thing look fairly hairy for the team, so we elect to move on to the next MHU. Unfortunately this means we have left two POI not investigated, so it's not looking like a very profitable start.

The second MHU has lost gravity, so we start off in zero-g. This make movement easier, but has a risk of damaging suits every time a Scrapjack moves, so we decide to restore gravity asap. Once that is accomplished the team move on towards the various POI. Our Hitch roll trigger's a Hull Shift witch wounds two of the team.

 Doc uses his med kits to stop the bleeding and we break into 2 POI, finding a Emergency Aid Cabinet and a Supply Crate. This replenishes a med kit and 2 patch kits as well as giving us some valuable salvage. We strike lucky with the Hitch roll of just "Uneasy Silence", which (literally) gives us breathing room. 

Moving on to Turn 3, we check out another POI and find another Maintenance Supply  Cabinet, giving us some more salvage and Wrecker gets to the objective. This just requires breaking into a wall panel and installing a beacon, and Wrecker is very good a breaking into things!

But the Hitch roll turns up more maintenance bots, two of which a very threatening to Doc, bringing up the rear.

Turn 4 and Wrecker blew open one of the hatches with a det-cord, them prised the other open with her wrecker bar, to complete the objective. With bots closing in we decided to call it a day and evac.

Good fun! We both enjoyed the games. Having played once already I was more comfortable with the mechanisms, allowing me the opportunity to make better use of my utility items. We had escaped lightly, but a bit light on salvage. Between the two MHUs we had only acquired salvage to a value of 6.

With a bit of time on our hands, we decided to re-set and play through the second MHU again. This time it was a much more dangerous mission. Between Void Mould, Hull Shifts and Toxic Gas, by the end of turn 4 we were down to 2 Air Charge and had 3 wounded. As more bots turned up we decided to let Wrecker do her stuff on the wall panels and then get out of Dodge. A very close call, however we had scored 13 points of salvage, more than double what we had found in the entire first run.

The Quick Start Guide is, as expected, quite basic. It's fun to play a few times, as each scenario is different, depending on the Hitch rolls. After a while I expect games will start to feel a bit "samey", but I am hoping the full rules will have plenty different options to give variety to the fun.

For me, Scrapjacks certainly has an Expanse-vibe, and I am looking forward to the full rules coming out (hopefully) in March.

BuckMoot - A Midgard Heroic Battles Gaming Day in Aylesbury

CALLING ALL MIDGARD PLAYERS

BUCKMOOT: A fun day of Midgard Heroic Battles games in mid-Buckinghamshire

When: 19th September 2026 10am - 4pm

Where: Walton Parish Hall, Walton Street, Aylesbury, HP21 7QX

Cost: £11 including tea, coffee and biscuits

Experienced and novice players welcome.

The hall has very limited car parking (we have arranged parking for anyone running a game), but there is a multi-storey car park across the road (daily parking less than £5).

The hall is less than 10 minutes walk from the town centre, bus and train stations and 5 minutes from the Aylesbury Travel Lodge (with other accommodation nearby).

The day will consist of two games, with a break for lunch. There is a Waitrose supermarket just 5 minutes walk away and numerous take away options in the town centre.

If you are interested in taking part, either hosting a game or just as a player, please contact me on BuckMoot@gmail.com

For those who want to stay on in the evening, the plan is to have a social evening in a nearby pub, details TBC.

More information will be published as it becomes available.

The format for the day will be a mix of historical and fantasy games, possibly in a mixture of scales. The players hosting each game will provide both armies and the scenario for the game. Once the selection of games has been finalised, I will contact all the players who have booked a place and ask for their preferences (probably top 3 or 4 selections). I will then allocate places in each game, attempting to match the player's stated preferences as much as possible.

Refighting Chronopia with Midgard 2

 Colin came over for another game of Midgard Heroic Battles, definitely my current favourite non-gunpowder rules set. We decided to take a break from the Wars of the Roses and play another fantasy game, as Colin wanted to go through the magic rules again. So I took the opportunity to get my old Chronopia armies on the table again.

We played the "None Shall Pass!" scenario, with Colin's Devout force defending two fords against my Stygian Hordes. With practically no shooting units on either side this was going to be a brutal hand-to-hand slogging match (I had one unit that spat acid at javelin range and that was that).

Colin positioned himself with two strong units, accompanied by his two heroes, sitting on the fords, each with a close supporting unit on either flank. By the end of Turn Two my  front units were close to  the water's edge.

My Venorm Spawn had missed doing any damage with it's acid attack, but the Priestess had been more successful with her magic, knocking down the armour of the axemen in the ford.

Turn Three, led by my army commander, the Embalmed moved up to charge across the ford, but fail to activate for their second move FIVE times, using up all the nearby heroes' Mighty Deeds to no avail. Look at all those ones!!!!

At the other ford my Starved successfully charged the Damned holding the ford. The Starved are desperate fanatics, but lacking in armour. I've counted them as Brutal, so hit on 4+, but only 2 armour, so they die easily. I was using them as a one shot weapon, intending to weaken the monstrosity holding the ford, before attacking with a fresh unit.

By some fluke the Starved win their melee round, pushing the damned back off of the ford. But suffer heavy loss due to their poor armour.

Colin takes advantage of my reluctant Embalmed and charges in his phase.

Despite the advantage of charging, I win the fight, aided by my leader's Legendary Weapon I inflict 5 wounds on the axemen, wiping them out!

This also forces Colin to roll 4 dice for risk to his hero, and he rolls 3 ones! He can only attempt to reroll one of the wounds using a Mighty Deed, so he will take a minimum of 2 wounds. As a level 2 hero, that means he is dead. That's a massive loss in Reputation for the Devout.

On the other ford my Starved finally fall is the Devout melee phase, but they have reduced the Damned to below half strength, so it is vulnerable to my next assault. At the end of Turn Three the Devout could regain a Reputation point for each ford they hold, but as I had push them back in both cases the fords are contested, so no bonus.

Turn Four and I bring up a unit of Great Warriors (heavy knights) who charge into the Damned.

They roll spectacular dice and cut the monstrosity down. They then used their Disengage ability to pull back and regroup.

The Embalmed charges out of the river and into the second rank of the Devout forces, winning the melee and forcing the Great Swordsmen back with heavy losses. The writing is on the wall for the Devout. In the Devout phase Colin charges another unit of Great Swordsmen into the rear of the embalmed. In the ensuing scrap, the Embalmed is cut down, but not before it has finished off the last of the Swordsmen in front of it. We each lose a unit, but it's too little too late for the Devout.

The final Reputation score at the end of Turn Four, +3 for the Stygian but -5 for the Devout. A comfortable victory for the Sygian army.

It was a fast and very bloody game and a lot of fun.

I thought Colin would have done better to have crossed the river with his Damned and forced me to fight on my bank of the river, then held the ford with another unit. He was concerned about having an isolated unit with no support, against a unit surrounded with support, but his Hero had Aura of Dread, which would have prevented me from gaining any support benefits from friendly units.

I found the magic worked well for my army, using the Priestess to weaken the enemy's armour before I closed in to melee. Colin didn't get a chance to cast any spells, as his Army Commander (and spell user) was involved in doing other things. We decided it didn't work to have a fighting general with magic, so I will change that in the army list for next time.