Midgard - Late Romans v. Saxons

 With the physical release of Midgard just around the corner (you can order your copy from Too Fat Lardies here) Martin and I decided it was time for another game without the soothing presence of James to explain how it actually all works. So armed with the most up to date QRS and a relatively recent copy of the playtest rules we each picked an army and set to.

This was my force, a 300 point Late Roman list. I had a single unit of armoured comitatus spearmen, backed with two units of mixed spears and archers, this was the core of my force and commanded by my level three general who'd bought along a champion with him, for those awkward challenges. I backed this up with two more identical commands - each consisting of a single unit of regular spearmen backed up with a pair of militia type spears and screened by slingers. Each of these was led by a lvl two commander.

Before the game began the Late Roman general urged g=his champion forth to issue a challenge to single combat. One that was taken up by the Saxon level 1 champion.

The Saxon struck first wounding his opponent, but the blow was returned in the second round. In the final round both warriors struck at the same time and both champions fell dead to the floor!

With that out of the way, the Late Roman general ordered a cautious advance.

As the Saxons stood ready.

I was pushing some shooting forward, hoping to break up the Saxon advance - I knew thy had the advantage at close quarters.

Eventually the lines clashed - I'd hung back at first, meaning the Saxons couldn't get the first charge in. Although Roman shooting had little effect I did at least get most of the charges in, which gave me an advantage in Reputation.

Even my general charged his way home.

The Midgard grind soon began with neither side making an early breakthrough.

On my right things were leaning my way.

My reputation was health, bolstered by early charges, whilst the Saxon reputation was bleeding away.

It appeared the Saxons had flanked a Roman unit, but then we remembered how it's supposed to work...

Casualties were beginning to mount (the shields indicate lost Stamina)

Here you can see the Saxon chargers in their correct position - still adding plenty to the fight, but not quire as devastating as a full flank charge.

The Late Roman left was hanging in the balance.

But in the centre the Romans more than held their own.

A Roman spear unit was wiped out but their leader bravely elected to fight on.

The Saxon centre was crumbling.

And although the left was being driven in the invader's reputation was all gone and Britannia's fields would remain civilised for a while longer!

 

That was great fun and after an initial turn of feeling our way we were soon rattling through the rules.

If you're interested I made another short video that captures some more of the game

Great to see the game finally coming out, looking forward to my copy arriving!