The Great Northern War with Midgard?

 Inspired by Keith McGlyn's posts on the Midgard FB group, I picked up a back copy of March's Wargames Illustrated, which published an article on expanding Midgard Heroic Battles to refight the early 18th Century.

As I had picked up shed loads of basically painted figures for the Great Northern War some time back, I thought I'd put together two forces and give it a go. The armies had been created from 12mm plastic miniatures from the Risk Boardgame, which are not very detailed, so the simple paintjob suits them fine.

So here are a few pictures from the game. I played the Russians and Colin had the nutty Swedes (this was a pre-Poltava battle).

The two armies face off, the Swedes are at the top of the picture.

 Out on the flank, the Swedish cavalry rushed forward. the Russian dragoons, knowing they were out-classed, decided to concentrate on the end of the Swedish line and charged.

While the Swedish infantry advanced the Russians just held their ground, bombarding the oncoming Swedes with their artillery.

The first melee, and as I was charging I got to reroll any melee dice rolling 1s for hits. I rolled three 1s, and here is the results of my reroll!!

Not unexpectantly, the Swedish horse were victorious, but I did succeed in killing the Colonel (level 1 Hero) leading one of the counter-charges. Quite historical, Swedish Officers heroically leading from the front to victory, but paying the price.

The melee continued in the next round, with a unit of Russian dragoons being destroyed in one fight, but the Russians winning in the other, pushing their attackers back (the advantage of concentrating on the end of the Swedish line was I had a lot of supporting units around me, whilst the Swedes were unsupported).

The unengaged Swedish horse were unable to come to their comrades aid, because I had thrown some infantry forward to pin the cavalry in front of them.

In the meantime the Swedish foot kept advancing and the Russians stood waiting for them.

Things were getting messy on the flank. The Russians dealt with the outnumbered Swedish cavalry, allowing then to turn onto the flank of the Swedish line.  The cavalry charge the annoying foot, routing one unit, but taking heavy losses and leaving themselves vulnerable to a flank charge by fresh Russian dragoons.

The Swedish infantry now paused just out of musket range and redressed their lines to allow straggling units to catch up. The Russian still held their ground.

In the next turn the Swedes charged all across the frontage!

The melee had mixed results, one Russian unit was routed outright and most were pushed back, although the Russians did have a couple of successes.

The fighting continued, with the Swedes definitely having the upper hand....

...except on the flank where the last Swedish cavalry unit was dying bravely, now surrounded by enemies.

At the end of turn 4 it looked like a clear win to the Swedes. The Russian Reputation was down to 1, while the Swedes still had 4.

Turn 5 was so eventful, that I neglected to take any pictures! At the end of the Swedish phase the Rep was Swedes 4, Russians -1. then in the Russian phase desperate charges regained Rep points and three Swedish units routed! Combined with two half-strength Russian infantry units somehow forcing draws in their fights, this meant we finished the game with the Russians snatching a close win by Rep 1 to Rep -2!

A fun game and it certainly had the "feel" of an early 18th century game. We were both happy and keen to try it again. it just shows the flexibility of these rules. It will be interesting to try an army like the Danes, so see if firepower based armies work work the rules.