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.