Mercia sees off Welsh Raiders - Midgard Heroic Battles

 Colin and I managed to get two game of Midgard Ancient battles in this week, the second being an Early Medieval (that's Dark Ages for wargamers) clash between the Saxon Mercians led by King Penda against an unnamed Welsh warlord and his raiders. 

I was the attacker with the Mercians, so Colin deployed his Welsh first and I got to move first in Turn 1.

My centre and left hand commands rush forward towards the Welsh line. The (out of shot) right flank, led by Penda's brother Eowa, rolled appaling dice and just shuffled forward a little bit.

Penda with his hearthguard, leading from the front.

The left command, led by Penda's son Peada (that was his real name!).

The unnamed Welsh warlord stands with his hearthguard, awaiting the onslaught.

The Mercians crashed into the Welsh battle line, Penda led his hearthguard in the first charge, which really boosted my reputation score. +1 for a hero charging, +1 for first charge of the battle, +1 for Army commander charging and +1 for targeting the opposing army commander!

Peada, supported by Osric the Mercian Champion, charged into the welsh line opposite them. Osric challanged the opposing hero to single combat (gaining 2 extra reputation points, 1 for the challange and +1 for challenging a higher level hero). He started well, wounding the Welshman in the first round, the second round was a glorious draw, but Osric fell to his opponent's blade in the third and final round. Obviously his heroic death inspired the Mercians to avenge him, because the pushed the Welsh back, inflicting heavy casualties.

In the centre the gods continued to smile on Penda, as, despite suffering heavy casualties, his heathguard wiped out the Welsh unit of heathguard opposing them and the Mercian spearmen pushed the other heathguard unit back with a very bloody nose.

Now it was the Welsh player's turn to activate and on the, so far unengaged, right flank they charged into the Mercians, pushing them back.

The next turn followed pretty much the same pattern. By the end Eowa and his entire command had been wiped out on the right flank. But no Welshmen were to be seen elsewhere on the battlefield, save for the dead....

...and the Welsh warlord who struggled on alone against Penda's onslaught, surrounded by the bodies of his dead heathguard!

At the end of  turn 4 I still had 6 reputation points left, whereas Colin was into a minus score! A great victory for the Mercians, obviously Penda's alliegance to the old gods has paid off!

Geat fun, these are a really good set of rules, that we are really enjoying. Next week we are going to add magic into the mix with a couple of fantasy armies.

To be honest, these rules are probably not for everyone, but they seem to suit us.