Friday, 21 November 2025

First Age Middle Earth - Midgard Battle Report

 Like many others, we've been playing Midgard since it came out a while back (recommended!), so decided to give it a multiplayer, rather than the one vs one gaming we'd been using it for. 

Having grown familiar with the rules meant hosting became a lot easier too, so we plumped for a classic First Age Middle Earth fight.

No real scenario, but a large Orc force from the North had moved down and found themselves against an alliance of Dwarves, Elves and Men. Straight fight it is!

Table Layout:



Deployments from both sides. Dwarves mainly held the alliance centre, with the Elves attempting to swing around, and the men holding the flank, whilst the Orcs opposite went with full frontal attack on all parts










Both sides send out a champion to duel in front of the lines.

The dwarf prince finds himself struggling almost immediately, before getting hacked down in the second round of fighting. This sends a bad omen throughout the alliance, whilst the Orcs jeer and get beery.

Accordingly, the Dwarves hold back and give the Orcs take an early peppering of archery - which doesn't slow their advance in the least.








Elves begin pushing around the flank to try and enact the agreed on plan. However, their general was having trouble remembering *exactly* which battle and game system he was currently in, so they ended up moving slower than anticipated. Much to the muttering of oaths later when this was realised.



Orcs opposite begin moving up and trying to disrupt the Elf lines.


The Orc line advance continues, as the chariots and warg riders start hitting the Human force and causing plenty of panic for the General.





Humans continue to hold, whilst the Elves advance and Orcs bring through more reinforcements on the flank, attempting to break the Human side of the army and turn on the Dwarves in the centre.







At this point, the Elves begin pushing through and engaging in combat, not doing badly, which makes the Orc line begin to divide to counter this attack and fend it off. 

One of the Orc generals also weeps in terror when he finds out exactly how ferocious a Son of Feanor really is!





Humans continue to hold their own, in spite of repeated charges.




Orc lines begin turning to face the potential threat to their centre


Crucially, the Dwarf general either ignores, doesn't hear or is scared of the orders/pleading he gets at this point to advance on the reduced Orc centre!



Taking full advantage of this, the Orcs commit fully to the centre


Orc reinforcements from the centre prevent the Elves breaking through


HUGE fight in the centre, with challenges, oaths and clashing melee.


Elves forced into the defence now.


Humans having their own stuggle, so the line is turning into a mess of individual fights rather than a coordinated whole.




And with that, we called time and counted the Reputation

Alliance - 13
Orcs - 16

Narrow win to Angband.

Was a really great game, even accounting for mistakes with the rules and mix ups which happen.

Thoughts on Midgard at this scale - it works, and it does work very well. We had 900 points a side, which we decided afterwards was probably too much, so will reduce that a bit in future. Game flowed v well, and once people got into the swing of it, nothing huge really cropped up and all the mistakes were detail ones that'll come in time.

I think one giant army, with three large contingents, per side will be quicker and easier, rather than the sub contingents we tried.

Not sure whether its worth going with one giant pool of rep per side, or tracking the individual army reps in an alliance? Academic really in the overall score but useful to know who let the side down (Dwarfs missing the signal to attack - I'm looking at you!)