So as I approach Tentcon 2025 and running the Battle of Clontarf I’ve been thinking about how to build the opposing units on each side. The Irish were lightly armored and numerous whereas the Vikings were armored and had fewer men. In Midgard every unit rolls D6’s to hit, seeking to get a number of hits equal to the enemy’s armor value to do one point of stamina. So roll 8D6 against an armor 2 enemy and for every two hits you’ll take a point of stamina. Here’s some (partial) unit profiles made in the excellent fan made online unit builder:

Here we have the most extreme difference: I’ve given the Vikings the highest armor in the game and the Irish the lowest. I also gave the Irish some shooting capability. Now, of course, the Irish unit is worth half as much. The base value of either unit is 21 points but once I modified their armor they went up and down by five points–roughly 25% of their base value. This seems reasonable. The Irish could field 3 units for every 2 units the Vikings field. We’ll keep that back of mind as we move forward.

The Vikings will roll 12 dice at full health and 6 dice at half health. The Irish will roll 10 and 5, respectively. They hit on 5+, so let’s look at their probability to hit at some relevant values:

• 2 Hits: One dead Irishman
• 3 Hits: One dead normal soldier (not involved in this example)
• 4 Hits: Two dead Irishmen; one dead Viking
• 6 Hits: Three dead Irishmen; two dead normal soldiers
• 8 Hits: Four dead Irishmen; two dead Vikings

So we notice a few things:

• At half health, the Irish cease being a threat to the Armor 4 Vikings
• Further, the Irish shooting (5 dice) is basically not worth trying to use against the Vikings
• At 2 Armor, the Irish are vulnerable even to half health Vikings
• At full health the Irish will harm the Vikings less than half the time while taking stamina damage 94% of the time

This doesn’t look great. Even with a 3:2 ratio of Irish to Vikings, I doubt the Irish are pulling a win here. Given the uselessness of their shooting, I’d probably make them the exact same warrior profile, just with less armor. This would allow them to roll 12 dice, giving them a 60% chance of knocking wounds off the Vikings–but that may not be enough. Looking at some of the options available, I could bump them to hitting on a 4+ (Brutal) or give them two more dice while at full health (Spears as Tribute) which could help even the battlefield.

But those options add special rules to a learner game, which I want to minimize. Let’s go a simpler route: we shrink the gulf between them. The Irish get 3 Armor and the Vikings get 4–or we go 2 and 3, respectively.

I strongly favor the latter. At 3 Armor, the Vikings become somewhat susceptible to shooting. We can give the Irish +1 Shooting Dice (Marksman) which will also give them +1 dice on the charge for their javelins. This gives them a 30% chance of knocking off a wound by shooting the Vikings so now the Irish can be distinguished by merit of their javelins–which fits the history quite nicely.

The Vikings become the straightforward brutes that they should be–meaning I can put the less experienced wargamers on that side of the board. The Irish will carry just enough nuance to hint at the potential diversity of forces possible in the game.

Extending this outward, I would bring units of Irish Skirmishers that fling rocks, etc. at 6 dice a shot. Again–they have some potential to do harm to the Vikings. The Irish now have a game of managing a battleline that wants to get close but not necessarily engage. The Vikings want to charge into battle and win glorious victory. To add to this I’ll likely give the Vikings Berserkers that hit on 4+ and have 2 armor. They’ll die fast but likely punch a hole in the Irish lines quickly.

And there we go! A little bit of dice math gets us into a far more reasonable force composition. I believe it’s possible to do an Armor 2 force against an Armor 4 force but it requires the usage of special rules to really even the playing field for less experienced players. I do believe we’ve highlighted a potential gap in the rules: plain Armor 2 units against plain Armor 4 units is a disaster waiting to happen. This should only be an issue if you really build simple armies without options and skills, so I don’t consider it a massive flaw. It’s just something to watch out for.

This was all prompted by a conversation I had on the Facebook Midgard group. I asked for advice on running a 2v2 game and was told directly by the author that it would be best to do 450 point forces with simpler units rather than my more complex 600 point forces. This makes sense to me. After sketching the armies, I’m at 450ish points per side which each player controlling 6-7 units including heroes.

Further considering my parameters: I have 3 hours to both teach and play out this game. With armor 2 and 3 units, we should see the number of units on the board fade quickly and help to guarantee the game length while still promoting different playstyles.

It’s always worth looking at dice math when looking at a new system–that’s a lesson I’m learning again and again. I’m thankful I did this review with some prompting from the game’s creator: I feel as if I’ve averted potential disaster and I have the game far more on target.

Now, back to painting. I have around 40 Vikings still needing their colors. The Irish are done (as seen throughout this piece) and are a big upgrade over my previous Irish force. I’m increasingly excited for this match. Midgard may not enter my club’s regular rotation but I can see it being a game that gets played as an event piece. This time it’s Clontarf–next it’ll be something in Portugal.

Or, you know, I’ll do something crazy and veer off into running 4th Edition 40k or something. It’s me–who knows?