Midgard Bellorum

My wargaming mojo has been pretty low of late, due to other hobbies and the fact that Autumn has taken ages to arrive, meaning there was still plenty of work to be done outside. However it has now made its presence felt this past week, so my mind has turned more towards wargaming, outside of reading that is. But more on this in another post.

Iain of caveadsum1471 fame mentioned Dux Bellorum in a recent post, a set of rules we played to death not long after they came out. However the problem was they led to rather dull games and went on for ages, especially if playing two Shieldwall armies. As Iain said, Midgard by James Morris possibly sort of fixed the issues but, not having played the game, only skimming the book, I thought it worth a revisit, especially as we have been enjoying watching House of the Dragon, which re-awakened a desire for some Medieval type games.

Rather than try and come to grips with Midgard, especially as I don't have any heroes on individual bases, I thought I'd try a simple mash up of the two rulesets, taking the action dice from Midgard but using the Dux Bellorum rules pretty much as written. Worth a try I thought, so I set up a very simple game, which is pretty easy to do with these rules, on a 2' x 2' table, just to get back into the swing of things and to see how my ideas worked out.

I like to add a bit of narrative to my games, so Deryck the Dangerous Dane has come raiding into Saxon territory, with the aim of getting some pigs for his bacon business, as well as plundering the local church. Standing in his way is Marmeduke the Mad Monk and his loyal band of followers.

An overview of the table, with the Danes at the bottom, the Saxons the top.

An old stone circle of the Old Gods and their shaman attached to one of the units.

Marmeduke is in the church praying, but the One True Cross is ready to help the faithful against the heathen host.

Defending the pigs.

Deryck and chums waste not time in closing with the Saxons and the combat breaks up as the battle ebbs and flows.

The shaman trying his best to motivate the Danes.

The One True Cross is not having the desired effect, as the Saxons are pushed back.

The Danish right wing ready to charge.

A view from the church where Marmeduke is praying for divine intervention.

As the battle rages on, the Saxons take early losses but are still in a good position.

Then suddenly the Saxon centre collapses and the Danes destroy the One True Cross!

The way is open to the church and the plunder contained therein.

The Saxons hold on on their left wing, but have lost too many units to effectively continue the fight.

"Foes to the left of me, foes to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you!"

The Saxon left wing about to make a fighting withdrawal.

Post Game Thoughts

A fun and quick little game that was just the ticket after quite some time away from the games table. I must admit I was rather rusty with the rules, but no surprise given how long ago it was I played the game! So initial thought on how things went as follows:

• Using a few simple additional 'action points' per formation sort of worked OK, as the centres had two to play with, the wings one. I deliberately kept them to only be used for movement or additional dice to roll in the attack and not for 'saving hits'. 
• I think in the next game I might allow one 'action' per Turn to be used to 'save' a hit, to prolong play, but need to have a think about this.
• Of course I could simply use the 6 points as written in the rules, but not use them for 'saves'. Again something to ponder.
• I remember when the rules first came out I was immediately struck by a sort of 'DBA vibe' to them, but without the dreaded 'Barkerese'! So another option could be using DBA action points, but using an average die to even out the points available to each side.
• In my games I like to try and run a mini-campaign, with a strong narrative, but I'm not sure how this would work with these rules. Probably quite easy to come up with something I'm sure. Again something esle to ponder.
• At least I did enjoy getting these figures out and onto the table for a game and fancy exploring the above more over the next dew weeks as and when time allows.
• Midgard, well I need to read up on these rules and maybe use counters or something like this in lieu of actual heroes, until such time as I might want to make some if the rules tick a few boxes. They seem to popular, which might bode well...

Right, that's it for the moment. As always thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.

Brenda From Bristol! - An AVBCW AAR

With Blogger really, really playing Silly Buggers at present, this post which had appeared, seems to have disappeared into the depths of the Internet, or wherever none 28mm Warlord Games, Bolt Action, Chain of Command et al posts go to wither on the vine. I know mine is not the only Blog to be affected, but it is a tad annoying (massive British understatement) to say the least. So nothing has changed in terms of content, but this 'update' might allow it to see the light of day once again. 

Well, this is the second go at trying to get this to appear...

With the distinctly Autumnal weather still prevalent here, it was yet another day when going outside to do stuff wasn't very appealing to say the least. Instead I decided to set up a simple BKCII game, as it's been ages since I played anything with these, one of my favourite rulesets. I've been mulling over an AVBCW campaign since last year at least, so took the opportunity to get some of these neglected forces onto the table.

The 'Fluff'

Local gossip has reported a broken down lorry at the hamlet of Bramley End, which is carrying the well known siege gun, 'Brenda'. Not sure on its exact location, the BUF and the Auxiliary Police Force have sent out some scouting forces to try and locate 'Brenda'.

So nothing fancy, but nice and simple background story for a quick game to get back into the swing of BKCII. Likewise, the forces chosen and the table set up was really just what I fancied having a play with and going for a visual look that I enjoyed.

The Table

You can see the set up below, all laid out on my 2' x 2' table, which gave me loads of room to move around whilst playing the game.

An overview of the table, with the BUF coming on from the left, the Police from the right.

'Brenda' on the broken down truck. I do have something more meaty in terms of engine and carriage to move her about the table during games, but not painted yet.

Bramley End and Frank the Farmer about to get a bit of a surprise.

The bridge leading to the hamlet.

The local stream that counts as fordable for infantry only.

The telephone box for those emergencies which might occur...

A view from another road into Bramley End.

The geese about to raise the alarm on the local allotment.

The Forces

Both sides had mirror forces, purely for ease of set up for me.

The Auxiliary Police Force.

The British Union of Fascists.

The Game

Captioned photos should give an idea of how the game played out.

The end of Turn 1. The BUF got the jump on the Police, but moved carefully towards Bramley End, not knowing what they might face. The Police did likewise but as they spotted the BUF, they failed to get any shots off.

The BUF armoured car takes post on the bridge.

The 'Beast of Bodmin' trundles forward towards the churchyard.

The Police's Char St-Chamond tank takes up position covering the junction at Bramley End.

More Police units moved into the outskirts of Bramley End.

The end of Turn 2. Both sides engage each other, with the Char St-Chamond and the BUF Armoured Car as both suppressed, as are some Infantry units, but the BUF lose an Infantry and MG unit to combined fire.

The BUF move up to the stream edge.

The Police come under sustained and effective fire from the BUF.

The BUF armoured car tried to retreat but was suppressed leaving it rather exposed on the bridge.

The BUF Infantry move towards the churchyard to support the 'Beast of Bodmin'.

The end of Turn 3. The BUF get an early advantage, KO'ing a Police Infantry and MG unit, but the tables soon turn, with the BUF losing the 'Beat of Bodmin' and their Armoured Car.

Having made it safely off the bridge, the BUF armoured car is soon brewed up by the Char St-Chamond.

The BUF advance into the churchyard...

... but see the 'Beast of Bodmin' brew up next to them.

The Char St-Chamond is not in too healthy a state though.

The end of Turn 4. The BUF are somewhat on the back foot, as they are unable to KO the Char St-Chamond with their ATR fire, but they do force the Police Armoured Car back, but are taking more losses in their Infantry, which they can ill afford.

All that remains of one BUF Infantry Company.

The BUF ATR armed Platoon are close to being KO'd, but are still a threat to the Police AFV's.

Both sides are in the environs of Bramley End.

The Police try to flank the BUF.

End of the Game

At the start of Turn 5, a Blunder leads to the BUF ATR armed Platoon in the churchyard taking hits that lead to it being KO'd. This takes the BUF over the breakpoint, and they pass the test, but discretion is the better part of valour and decide to sede the field of Mars to the Police.

The Police consolidate the positions as the BUF withdraw.

The Police standard bearers indulge in some Rythmic Gymnastics flag routines;)!

BT 'phone home. The Police report their success to their HQ.

Frank the Farmer heads off to find his traction engine so that he can shift 'Brenda' to a place of safety.

The Butcher's Bill

In the end it looked more one-sided than it was, as several of the Police units were close to being KO'd.

The Police on the right, the BUF on the left.

Post Game Thoughts

Well that was fun and great to get the AVBCW toys out for a game and to be playing BKCII again after so long. Some random musings:

• Yet again the 2' x 2' table produced a great game that still gave plenty of action and decisions to be made. It certainly didn't feel like I was playing on such a 'small' board.
• The KISS approach to force selection made things easy for me, having not played the rules for many a month. Again not over complicating things still made for a nice and challenging game.
• The 12-15 units per side showed that no matter the period, this somehow hits a sweet spot for a game, especially a solo one.
• I reckon the actual game itself took just over an hour to play, but with the note taking and photos, more like just over two hours.
• I do need to make a generic ABVCW roster, so I'm not constantly chopping and changing during a game. Afterall most of the stats are the same for each side, with just the AFV's and Aircraft being different.
• This has moved up the desire to play a narrative AVBCW campaign, but more on that in another post. Some painting needs to be completed first...

What Next?

Well tomorrow I'm off to my good friend Keith Flint's place for another game using his Startline rules, so expect a sort of AAR or photo dump in due course. After that I'm not sure as I've got a busy week and then it's Father's Day weekend in just over a week. As always plenty of ideas but will wait and see how the days pan out, so nothing planned.

As always many thanks for reading and any comments greatly appreciated!

TTFN.