Mortal Gods - Mythic: Part 2

Well … Part 2 has taken its time to arrive! But … here we go – Mortal Gods - Mythic Part 2!

When, along with numerous others, I started to play Mortal Gods I thought to myself ‘this is great, I love it! But wouldn’t it be cool to play Jason & The Argonauts’? Footsore Miniatures & Games also had this in the back of their minds and hence Mortal Gods – Mythic was born. An ‘optional’ (and that is a very VERY important point to make) add-on to the game.

Four factions, Hera, Hades, Zeus and Heroes, models representing fantabulous beasts, The Hydra, a Minotaur, a Cyclops and Medusa and her sisters – gorgeous! To go deeply into any other than the faction I purchased would be disingenuous and purely speculation as to stats and cards etc so let me stick to the facts.

I backed the Kickstarter for the Hera Faction to the tune of … well a pretty penny! (I refuse to put something in public that my good lady may read and use in evidence) For my hard-earned cash the promise was as follows:

Mythic Rulebook

Faction Cards

Priestess of Hera (Metal)

Medusa (Resin)

Stheno (Resin)

Euryale (Resin)

Temple Guard + 1 Metal Mini and bespoke Heads & Shields (Plastic / Metal / Resin)

Harpies (Metal)

Backers at a set level (once again I wont discuss… see above for financial and personal safety excuse) were gifted a resin alter and an objective piece bearing the Golden Fleece.

Now any wargamer / painter will tell you that value is immaterial compared with the desire to own a piece … a load of tripe, to be honest! I have 2 kids, 4 dogs, and a better half to support so my hobby money is always directed towards bang for my buck. The contents of this pledge certainly hit that mark and I will tell you why.

Quality:

The quality of the sculpts in respect to the resin miniatures is simply stunning, it harks back to the stop motion creations of Ray Harryhausen. Well proportioned and extremely well cast. In fact, I had next to zero flash to remove from any of the resin minis and after a quick wash / test fit and application of glue, I was away.

The Temple Guard are from Victrix Miniatures and show the quality we have come to expect from them. The inclusion of Resin Helmets to allow each mini to have a unique look was a stroke of genius, not one miniature in my Temple Guard has the same helmet, which adds some real flavour. The metal mini for the Temple Guard in the Hera faction is actually a female hoplite which is also a nice departure from the all-male domination of the battlefield.

Volume: Do I feel that I have the right number of minis for the cost? Once again, yes – but the right amount. Footsore were clearly not throwing ‘freebies’ around like confetti. That sounds like a rebuke, but it is NOT!

I would hasten to add, each backer at a financial threshold received the Alter and Golden Fleece. I have pledged on (well numerous) Kickstarter campaigns where I have had free miniatures thrown at me as a backer which actually offered nothing to what I was intending to back and, in several cases, delayed fulfilment. The essentials of the cards and rulebook included in the pledge must not be underestimated, they aren’t free to produce and are vital components. Volume-wise I declare myself happy.

So …. Overall, yes I am happy with the swap for my cash so far. Minis of high quality, the correct amount and all with unique character.

So the Rules … what about them? Ok the rules for Mythic actually do not break with the original Mortal Gods rule set but enhance, them to allow beasts etc to be fielded fairly. I will run through the main additions:

Mythic Défense: This is an ability to show that a hero or monster can always roll its defence dice when attacked. It won’t stop wounds and will NOT stop your new shiny from dying but does add to their survivability.

Fear: No man in his right mind wants to walk up to a Hydra and stab it with a pointy stick willy-nilly … there will be an element of fear for the individual trying to take down a 20ft tall beast with more heads biting men’s heads off than the average end of night drunken Hen Party in Hull. Various levels of Fear exist relative to the size of beast or basing. This is overcome by a roll on the attacking parties courage stat and is not ‘hard’ to achieve but we all know the more times you roll dice, the more times you will fail, so it is a nice little mechanic that once again adds flavour to the situation of combat.

Factions: I have already named the factions but there is a breakdown of each faction, how it is intended to play and how each of the units / monsters is intended to play. Try using Medusa as a tank at your peril (I found out the hard way she is a support unit!) The factions are however all fully represented within their card deck. Each give named characters and monsters, their points and stats. All colour coded to allow an ‘at a glance’ reference for ‘purity’ … now let me just explain this to you.

Mythic Factions are designed to be used from their own card deck AND (very important this) AND allow you to take units from the CORE set! So, you can add a unit of Archers / Slingers etc from the Core set of cards to your force but NOT a unit of Athenian Marine Archers… very important that bit. 

While a Mythic Faction remains ‘pure’ it allows your units to use their Mythic Defence etc and various other faction goodness. However, if it is not a ‘pure’ faction you lose this ability. So, let’s say you’re a Spartan player and want to take Jason & The Argonauts in your army you can – please do! But you will lose his Mythic Defence ability and he just becomes a double hard Lochagos or Character… Did I mention that’s a very important bit to remember?

Ok, minis covered, rules covered … what more is there to do?

That’s right … play a game and see if its still a satisfying experience…