Midgard

What is Midgard

Midgard Heroic Battles is “a new tabletop miniature wargame rooted in the heroic leadership of Achilles, Boudica and Beowulf.” It’s written by James Morris and published by Reisswitz Press, an imprint of TooFatLardies. It came out on 18 November 2024.

You lead a force of warriors and heroes, and the pitch is that you “build their reputation and crush their enemies through mighty feats of battle.” It covers any setting where people fight with swords, spears and shields: “from the siege of Troy to the battle of Hastings, from the frost giants of Norse myth to the dwarfs of the mountain halls, from Arthur to El Cid.” Sorcery and flying creatures are in the core rules, so fantasy armies work too.

The game is “miniatures – and scale – agnostic,” so you can use whatever figures you already own.

How it plays

Reputation is your morale. Each side starts with Reputation tokens, 8 to 10 in a standard 300 point game. Heroes earn more by leading charges, winning single combats and taking objectives. You lose it when units break or flee, or when a hero dodges a challenge or leaves a unit in the middle of a fight. The first side to run out loses.
Heroes spend Mighty Deeds. A hero gets 1 to 4 Mighty Deeds a turn, depending on level. They spend them on rerolls for nearby units’ command checks, on extra dice in a fight, or to dodge an injury, which costs Reputation.
Attacker and Defender. The Attacker moves the whole force and fights, then the Defender does the same, then both sides take turns shooting with anything that hasn’t fired yet.
Everything is measured in Spear Throws. A Spear Throw is 120mm, the width of a standard unit base. Infantry move one Spear Throw, cavalry two. A unit gets one move for free and needs a 3+ on a D6 for a second one.
Challenges. When two units with heroes meet, the acting player can call out the enemy hero. Refusing costs Reputation. Accepting means three quick rounds of single combat, and the winner gains Reputation.
Buckets of d6. In melee, units roll up to 12 dice and hit on a 5+. Hits beyond the target’s Armour take Stamina, and units usually have 2 to 4 Stamina. The only saves come from friendly units lending support nearby, so lines of units that back each other up matter.
Traits make the army. Units start from generic templates like Heavy Infantry, Formed Archers or Knights, and you add Traits for flavour. Drilled units move twice without a test, Impetuous ones can’t resist a charge, and Relentless ones can’t be pushed back.

The default is 28mm-ish figures on 120mm x 60mm bases, eight infantry to a base. There’s no casualty removal, so you can put any number of figures at any scale on a base. If your armies are already based differently, Goonhammer’s review suggests setting the Spear Throw to your own base width.

How to start

Get the rulebook. The hardcover rulebook is sold direct by TooFatLardies, and there’s a PDF too. In the US, Brigade Games lists the 60 page book at $52. It has five scenarios, twelve sample force lists and an appendix for building your own forces and heroes.
Use the armies you have. A 300 point force is about 10 to 12 units and 3 or 4 heroes. You’ll need a few trees, hills and standing stones for terrain, and twelve d6 plus one or two of another colour.
Sort out rulers and tokens. You need 2, 1 and ½ Spear Throw measuring sticks. TooFatLardies sells an MDF token set, a bundle with the rulebook, ruler, tokens and PDF, and the ruler and tokens as STL files if you print your own.
Grab the free resources. The author’s resource page has a play sheet, a blank force roster, the February 2025 errata, a force creator spreadsheet, and extra force lists for periods like the Wars of the Roses, the Second Punic War and Sengoku Jidai.
Add campaigns later. The Chronicles of Midgard adds map-based campaign rules, 15 new scenarios and a full campaign, From Athelney To Ethandun, with Alfred the Great against the Vikings in 878 AD. TooFatLardies also sells shorter Goblet Size campaigns, like The Iron Valley.