Midgard : Scenario 6 : Aftermath

This post is a brief summary of what happened in the last game of the campaign and how I felt the campaign panned out overall. I will also discuss a little about Midgard going forward for my various world settings (Britannia, Doggerland, Lord of the Rings etc.).

Midgard : Heroic Battles

The Final Reckoning scenario saw relatively few casualties on the British side compared to the Romans, but those that were casualties made for an interesting ending to the narrative overall.

On the Roman side, Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher was killed but the other two Roman heroes survived. The rest of the Roman army was reduced to just one unit of auxiliary spearmen, one scorpio battery and the onager - these would most likely not have survived another round of combat if the game had continued on.

The Britons lost relatively few units again, but the death of their army leader, Vellocatus, tipped the balance down to a Narrow Victory, thus securing the Britons fewer campaign victory points.

The Britons' losses (155pts):

• Vellocatus (47pts)
• 2x mounted warriors (32pts)
• 1x hounds (22pts)
• 2x Skyclad (32pts)
• 1x warriors 3 (22pts)

The Roman losses (189pts):

• Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher (43pts)
• 2x legionaries (68pts)
• 2x archers (58pts)
• 1x scorpio battery (20pts)

This final scenario made for a good ending to the campaign; the Romans won the campaign overall, but only narrowly. The objective was to get some troops home safe, and that was accomplished - but very nearly was not on a few occasions.

The scenarios, and numbers of troops available to fight in them, needed relatively little fudging to make them work together. I am going to mark this campaign as a successful one from that point of view. I will also mark it as a successful introduction for both myself and my son to the game of Midgard. My compliments to James Morris for writing a great game.

So, the campaign scenario order went thus...

1. Battle (book scenario 1) - played in May 2025
2. Encounter in the Mist (book scenario 4) - played in May 2025
3. None Shall Pass (book scenario 2) - played August 2025
4. Take the High Ground (book scenario 3) - played November 2025
5. Last Stand (book scenario 5) - played December 2025
6. The Final Reckoning (my own scenario) - played December 2025

Campaign take aways...

• A unit of Roman Legionaries is a very tough nut to crack, especially with the Spears as Tribute trait and a decent hero to lead them
• Being on a hill and having other units around to make those vital saving rolls when outnumbered is a massive boost for defending units
• The British units were numerous but quite brittle - Reputation got eaten up more quickly than I thought it would and games were soon over due to quick losses rather than tactics. Using a brittle force will require a bit more thought in future - at the end of at least two of the games the Britons were about to make the killing stroke but their Reputation ran out just prior to the plan coming to fruition

The future for Midgard in my gaming calendar

I will most definitely be using the game system in other settings as well as a few more Roman versus Britons/Celts games. I understand that a new, official, scenario book will be released for the game soon, so maybe those new scenarios can be used to tell the ongoing stories of Marius Pollux and Gaia Pomponia Thrax (a rename of this hero is on the cards after a very interesting discussion on the Lead Adventure Forum with member dadlamassu - here )?

As mentioned above, I am slowly de-icing my old setting of Doggerland - I have played numerous games and campaigns (play-by-email strategy games, AD&D etc.) in this setting over the years, and will be starting a fresh Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign later this month. This will then, hopefully, lead on to a mini-campaign using the Midgard rules to move the world narrative on a little further for maybe another D&D campaign in the future?

I also have nigh on a thousand of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings miniatures that are itching for more than Strategy Battle Game usage. I don't really have any completed armies, so that will be a task for me this year - to paint some miniatures for use in further games of Midgard.

In addition to the Lord of the Rings miniatures, I have several small forces of fantasy figures that need a bit of time on the table. These are part of another world I have in mind separate from Doggerland, Roman Britain and Middle Earth. More food for thought for those future battles and campaign world building.