Midgard - An Introduction.

Midgard: Heroic Battles was launched in November 2023. Written by James Morris (Mogsymakes) and published by the Too Fat Lardies’ Reisswitz Press, it is a historical fantasy game for the age of heroes. Like most Lardies games, it is designed for a fun gaming session rather than competitions and is centred on leadership. It immediately gained a following, the Facebook group 2.6k (February 2025) and was voted the best new game of 2024 by Wargames Illustrated.

I watched and participated in the game at several wargame shows, so I was captivated before its release. Aside from the appeal of the rules, I also had a pile of figures that could be used for the games, ranging from Trojan War to High Elves. Some resided in a pile of lead, while others only required rebasing.

The Rules

The Midgard rules are a sandbox rule set where a unit or hero's essential attributes, attack, armour stamina, etc., are modified by traits to provide greater depth. This mechanism is not new, Fantastic Battles uses the same process. The average game, about 300 points, will involve 10 to 12 units and 3-4 heroes. The typical unit in 28mm will be eight figures so the army in size is similar to the Lion Rampart family of games.

Reputation 

The morale of the army is measured by its reputation. Each army starts with a reputation score, but this fluctuates during the battle, mainly due to the heroes' actions. For example, a hero throwing himself into a charge will earn a reputation, while if a hero abandons a unit while in combat, the army will lose reputation points. As the battle intensifies, units will lose stamina, making them more difficult to command, and finally, they will rout with the loss of those valuable reputation points. This system means no figure removal, which makes conversion from other systems easy.

Basing and Spear Throws

The suggested basing is 120mm wide, with the base depth primarily left to the model's needs. Other widths can be adapted for smaller scales and to accommodate already-based models. However, the basing has to be consistent, and the width (120mm) is used for measuring movement and shooting distances; i.e. 'On Spear Throw (ST)' = 120mm or the width of the base. Therefore, if a small base size is adopted, the ST gets reduced.

Mighty Deeds

The core of the rules, and what makes it unique, is the impact of heroes, including gods, sorcerers, priests and holy men, on the battle. There are four levels of heroes, and the hero's level is linked to their ability to perform mighty deeds. Mighty deeds are spent to boost morale at times of need, increase the fighting prowess of the units or activate some unique ability. However, these gifts come at a cost, and the casualty rate amongst heroes is high compared to other games, especially as rival heroes are prone to issue challenges to single combat.

Scenarios and Army Lists

The rules come with five scenarios and twelve army lists, including Greeks and Trojans, Arthurian Romans and Saxons, Dwarfs and Elves, as well as the armies of Thor and Loki. A points system is available to create your own armies, and a fan-designed force builder helps in this process. There is no campaign system, but one is currently being played and tested, so hopefully, there will not be an extended wait.

One last comment on this brief introduction to Midgard is the production quality, artwork, and clarity of writing are the best I have seen. 

Battle of Fenley Lay

I have played Midgard at shows, but I used basic set-up for my first home battle. I opted for the first scenario, ‘The Battle,’ a head-to-head struggle across an open battlefield. I chose a classic fight between Vikings and Saxons—a simple infantry clash with no magic or monstrosities. 

The Viking hero opened the fight by challenging any Saxon champion to face him in single combat. An offer the Saxons, who had planned a defensive strategy, refused with the resulting loss in reputation. The first phase of the battle was all about the Vikings. Moving quickly forward, they charged the Saxon line. Consequently, the Viking reputation grew rapidly as the Saxons began to struggle. 

The battle now became one of push-and-pull between the two shield walls. The Vikings had the advantage of better troops, while the Saxons' greater numbers allowed them to fight in depth while trying to put pressure on the Vikings’ right flank.

The Saxon (Right) and the Viking (Left) shieldwall at the Battle of Fenley Lay

The shieldwall fractured several places as the battle progressed, and the field was now littered with individual combats. The reputation of both sides began to leak away, and stamina and men were lost. Finally, the Saxon flanks attack began to gain some success against the more vulnerable Bondi, who started to flee the battlefield, and the Vikings lost their last reputation point. The ended with the Viking leader, Ivar the Boneless, still standing proud amongst his hirdmen, surrounded by a pile of Saxon bodies, although the day was lost for him.

Battle of Blood Ford

In my second test game, I introduced some terrain. The most important feature was a river running the table length with a wide Ford in its centre. To the flanks were some woods and broken ground. With their superior troops, this narrow frontage should favour the Vikings, but the Saxons had stolen a march of their enemies and were closer to the river and its Ford. So, the Saxons made a rapid advance to control the Ford. After an inconclusive duel between Ubba and the Saxon, Oswald of Theadford, the Saxons rushed across the river, hitting the Viking shieldwall and pushing it back along its length.

However, the Saxon joy was short-lived. While the Saxons continued to win in the centre, the flanks started to full back under Viking pressure.

The Initial Saxon Surge Across the Ford.

The battle swayed back and forth across the river, and the shield wall fractured into several smaller melees. As the Viking warband made ground on the flanks. Ubba was out for revenge following his earlier inconclusive duel. His household warriors cut through the Saxon left, leading their leader XX to be the fodder for the crows and the wolves.  Alfheah, the Saxon commander, and his warband broke through the centres, leaving a mass of bodies that they left in their wake, which included the Viking leader, Ivar the Boneless. The Alfhead's victorious Saxon attacked the Viking left flank, which collapsed as the raiders decided they had enough. A rare victory, if bloody, for the Saxons.

Some Closing Thoughts.

The game is excellent; it looks good, and I felt it captures the look and feel of the conflicts of the Early Middle Ages. Strategy is rudimentary due to the era's limited command and control capabilities. However, the game is designed as a sandbox game, so it can be adapted for many historical and fantasy genres. Lists, for example, are available for the War of the Roses. I have also seen debates on its unsuitability for the Italian Wars at the end of the fifteenth century. It is best not to approach Midgard in purely linear terms. Midgard is best suited when men led their own band of followers before the rise of the national state. Technologically, when gunpowder becomes a dominant force, and the opportunities for historic deeds are diminished, it also acts as a limiter. Therefore, while the rules may lose their ‘feel’ from the fifteenth century in Europe, they could be used for the Sengoku period in sixteenth-century Japan. 

Midgard also looks great on the table, so it's game to get those banners and standards out as they lead units and cluster around the army's heroes. I plan to try the rules with some 10mm armies, so I hope Midgard's appeal continues. 

Last, what is Midgard’s USP (Unique Selling Point)? Several fantastic sandbox systems are in the market, including Fantastic Battles, Lion/Dragon Rampart, and the DBA family. All have appeal, but Midgard places the heroes in the centre of the action, but here are no superheroes in these games; heroes will die. However, it’s through them that the game narrative is created, and in my opinion, what makes Midgard unique.

For me, the next stop is introducing some magic and the massive creatures of myth and legend and resurrecting my pile of lead and plastics to get more Midgard armies on the table. 

Pulp Alley & The Leopard

I recently finished my Tomb of the Serpent campaign. My next project is the Spectacular Adventures of the Leopard, a swashbuckling skirmish game set during the English Civil War. I have already played a test game, The Wayward Messenger, using the 7TV system. However, before setting out on this project, I decided to review what rules were available and which best suited my needs. Finally, I decided to use Pulp Alley. So why am I using a set of rules designed for the first half of the twentieth century for a historical skirmish game? As the Pulp Alley authors made clear, the Pulp genre included a wide range of environments, including gangsters, superheroes, fantasy, horror, and pirates, to name a few. So, in this first missive on my Leopard project, I will examine the rules I have looked at and why I went for Pulp Alley. As you will see, this is a very personal choice that fits my circumstances.

The Leopard, Aurelia St Simon and Aaron Bell (The Preacher)

Seventeenth Century Skirmish Rules. 

There are several good rule sets dedicated to the swashbuckling period, such as Flashing Steel, Glorie, and En Garde, to name just a few. All these games provide an excellent narrative for my campaign, but none are designed for the solo wargamer. Also, why I love collecting and reading rules; for my day-to-day gaming, I try to keep to a handful of core rules. Therefore, I decided to have a set of skirmish rules that  I could use for Indiana Jones-type adventures, gangsters in the 1930s and classic sci-fi settings. This led me back to the Pulp genre.

Pulp Rules - Cost 

In recent years, the pulp genre has become rather crowded with rules. Compared to other periods, all these rules can be obtained cheaply. Most have a free version or can be downloaded cheaply from Wargames Vault. 

Also, the figure count is usually less than a dozen, and most figure rules are agnostic in what figures can be used. Pulp Alley and 7TV have figure ranges, but they are unnecessary for playing the games.

Various supplements, scenarios, and cards add additional costs. Pulp Alley and 7TV have the most support for their games, so more supplements and cards to add to the core game. If you decide to go 'all in' with cards and supplements, this makes them the more expensive end of the spectrum.

The most significant cost is the need for nice-looking terrain. However, card buildings are available, and with careful planning, MDF and resin buildings can be used for other games.

Pulp - The Rules

Here is a brief summary of the rules I have examined. Click on the rules picture for link to the rules.

7TV (Crooked Dice)

7TV was designed to pay tribute to 1960s and 1970s television, focusing on campy adventures from fantasy to science fiction. Initially, each genre had its own supplement, but in 2023, Crooked Dice produced a core rulebook and now concentrates on producing serials (scenarios) that reflect the TV shows of the era.

The gameplay emphasises thematic missions and cinematic effects. Players build “casts” of characters using customisable archetypes. These are played on a set where the game recreates a TV episode. This can lead to odd play; for example, the set can move due to continuity errors.

Fistful of Lead (Wiley Games)

These rules are simple and quick to learn, perfect for fast-paced pulp action. They focus on minor skirmishes with individual character actions. The action deck (standard playing cards) mechanic introduces randomness and variety. The game offers flexible genre support, including Westerns, noir, and pulp sci-fi. Experimental solo rules, which are free to download, have been produced. Although their strength lies in multi-player games where they can handle numerous players (c. 10) without the game getting bogged down.

However, Fistful of Lead does not produce a deep storytelling experience, and the characters are underdeveloped for my tastes. I also found them challenging to customise for my Leopard adventures, although several genre/period supplements are available.

Perilous Tales 

This cooperative skirmish wargame centres around horror and exploration, perfect for Lovecraftian or supernatural pulp settings. The procedural scenario generation and simple yet thematic rules create cinematic challenges and a story-rich encounter, and they are specifically designed to support solo and cooperative gameplay.

Character design is limited because it is driven by predefined templates, which limits the customisation of games outside the horror genre. While all the games in this list are designed to create cinematic cliffhangers, in this instance, the mechanism that produces the excitement seems random, making tactics less critical than other pulp games. However, as a free game that introduces someone to pulp or for solo play, these rules are a winner.

Pulp (Osprey)

Pulp is one of the latest entries in the pulp stable and part of the Osprey Blue Book of wargames. Like all Osprey publications, the rules are cheap and well-produced. The rules offer a fast, streamlined game that is easy to learn, making it a good entry-level game. However, in terms of simplicity, the rules have lost depth in customising the characters, who are limited to archetypes.

Therefore, they miss the full storytelling potential of the genre with limited narrative depth and minimal customisation of characters.

Pulp Alley

Pulp Alley provides deep narrative gameplay, using dice and card mechanisms to represent plot points and random events. Together, these components produce an easy-to-learn game that is difficult to master. As I mentioned, the rules are designed to be highly customisable and fit with the variety of pulp genres. Character creation is good, although I would like more depth added to the character's background.
The game has solo rules and a unique card deck that produces engaging and exciting games, and it has one of the best dedicated communities of any game. The authors produce weakly, at least, videos to support their creation. While the cost is moderate if you want to purchase the cards (downloads are available), it provides an immersive experience into the world of pulp.

  

Comparing Pulp Rules

The rules choice is personal and designed to meet your or the club's needs. Therefore, the list below is designed to meet my gaming needs. I have considered the following factors: Narrative, Complexity ( I like simple to moderate rules), Flexibility, Solo play, Costs, and game/community support.

Narrative

My games must produce a good narrative that could make a good short story. In this category, Pulp Alley, 7TV and Perilous Tales edge this for me. The card mechanics in the first two add much narrative depth to the game.

Complexity

None of these games is particularly hard to learn; most are moderate to low in complexity. Boardgame Geek rates them in the mid-2s out of a total of 5. Fist Full is Lead, and Perilous Tales may have simpler systems.

Flexibility

Pulp Alley and 7TV can support any pulp genre. Pulp Alley nudges this category because 7TV's scenarios are more scripted.

Solo Mechanism

Only Pulp Alley and Perilous Tales have dedicated solo mechanisms. The other games' systems focus primarily on competitive skirmishes, so solo players must develop their own systems.

Cost of Entry

As I mentioned at the opening of this blog, the cost of entry is relatively low for this genre. 7TV is the most expensive, although they have merged most of the genre into one core book, reducing costs. Pulp Alley offers a lot of free stuff, but it will increase if you want to buy the cards and other add-on costs. For those on a tight budget, Perilous Tales and Fist Full of Lead, with downloadable rules and a few add-ons, have the edge on costs.

Support

One of the oddities of solo Wargaming is that you still want to feel part of a wider community. Therefore, online support is an essential aspect of the game for me. Support includes activity communities, forums, and online engagement. In this respect, Pulp Alley is the winner with its Facebook community, weekly videos, and games.

Conclusion

Pulp Alley was the final choice for playing my Leopard campaign because of its flexibility. I only had to write minimal changes to reflect seventeenth-century technology, its solo play capabilities, and the production of a strong narrative. In my Tomb of the Serpent campaign, the characters became more 3-dimensional as the story progressed. However, here, I had to design my own adventurers, so I wanted a clearer picture of the background of my main characters. How the Leopard, his friends and foes came to life will be the subject of the second blog in this project. 

Workbench 2025

Well, it is time for my self-indulgent post, where I quickly review my activities this year and look forward to the forthcoming year with its usual bucket full of projects.

2024 Review

Overall, I have been much better at getting games to the table this year, playing fourteen games. This meant more blog activity, which has started to attract a form of following. As usual, I became distracted by some new rules and periods. Midgard, Rangers of the Shadow Deep and the Dystopian Wars are the most notable. Whilst I try to stop myself from launching into new rules and projects, I just cannot help myself. A common affliction for most wargamers and something I will have to live with and the storage problem this involves. 

I have also been ruthless in trying to reduce my games; this includes Saga, Dystopian Wars, and Spaceship Gothic. These are not bad games, but they are the ones that appealed to me the least. A gull that I hope will become part of my gaming. 

Looking Ahead

In 2025, the idea is to concentrate on 4 projects.

1. Pulp Alley and the Adventures of the Leopard. My Tomb of the Serpent campaign ended in December, and the Mace Institute will take a break for a while. The next campaign will follow the adventurers of the Royalist spy, the Leopard. The events will follow on from my test game, the Wayward Messenger. 

The Leopard takes on Parliament’s troopers in the ruins of Wythboune Abbey.

1. Midgard. These rules came out late in 2024, but I had played them at Britcon and liked their versatility, so after playing a few test games, I will put some campaigns together as part of James's campaign test environment. At the top of the list are Mystic Britain (Arthur versus some Dwarf invaders) and the Great Army of the 870s. Later development will be in my Shadow Wars setting, the Anarchy 1138-53, and when gods clash before the walls of Troy. However, these are painting projects for 2025.
2. Super Mission Force. My superhero campaign against the master of the gene, DNA, will end early next year. This will be replaced by a superhero adventure in a Stempunk London of the 1880s. This is an attempt to get some use of figures that have been set on the self for a couple of years. An objective that pervades my Leopard and Midgard projects as well. 
3. Simulations. These are epic historical clashes played on the tabletop. The following are planned for next year.
1. Mark Backhouse has produced and supplemented his Strength & Honour rules, which handle ancient warfare between Alexander and Hannibal. I have had some old 6mm miniatures for some time, so I will rebase and redeploy them. The Battle of Pynda is the first on the list.

The Macedonian Phalanx prepares to receive the advancing Roman Legions.

1. I will continue to work through the War of the Roses battle with a refight of Tewksbury.
2. My Peninsula battles project moves slowly forward, and Vimeiro is the first conflict to be played.
3. I am planning a semi-historical rematch of the Lucknow campaign during the Indian Mutiny. Here, the Sharp Practice rules will be used to fight the engagements. Therefore, I am not looking at big battles but large skirmishes and trying to capture the strategic and tactical decisions.

Ad Hoc Adventures

Kiss Me Hardy, one of my favourite games, will take a break this year. I am awaiting the second edition, and in the meantime, I have decided to use a 1:700 scale, so there is a bit of modelling to do. Several single or small squadron actions will be attempted as the new fleet grows.

Rangers of the Shadowdeep, with its low cost and quick setup time, will be one of the main short games for 2025 as I continue with the adventures of Thalia Songweaver. In addition, a new fantasy city game, Traitors of Troll Gate, is due for release, which will serve a similar purpose. 

Big Projects.

Crusader battle is my attempt to adapt Strength & Honour to the first century of the crusading enterprise using some old 6mm figures. The other big project is researching the Italian Wars from 1494-1559. This is mainly a research project for 2025, but the ultimate aim is to refight some of these battles with some old 6mm I inherited from somewhere.

The Blog.

This blog has mainly focused on battle reports, which will remain because I like to write a narrative about my wargame adventures. However, I want to add more depth by reporting on my various projects in development and some of the campaign mechanisms I plan to use. In addition, I hope to do a few more rules reviews and, if I can get the download function to work, offer some download scenarios, etc.