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Author Topic: Oathmark - Who's Playing?  (Read 64018 times)

Offline Mr. White

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Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« on: October 06, 2020, 04:20:33 PM »
The game looks great, and it seems there's an expansion book out. I don't see much chatter or many images out in the wild. I can imagine COVID has struck a blow, but is anyone building up forces? playing? have thoughts?

Andrew_McGuire

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2020, 04:38:34 PM »
I'm not playing, but planning to, with some reservations. I've read the rule book and like the mechanics. I don't care for the lack of differentiation in troop quality, e.g. all human spearmen units are identical, though this should not be difficult to amend. I'd assumed that the first supplement, Battlesworn, did this, but it's limited to allowing a specific unit to develop to elite status over a campaign. This is a step forward, but I really think a provision for troop quality should be standard, as it is in most battle rules.

Another gripe I have about the supplement is that it recycles a lot of the illustrations from the main rule book. These are mostly full page, and take up a lot of the book. The amount of new content scarcely warrants an entire book in my view, and I hope future supplements are far more substantial.

As I don't care for the human infantry produced by North Star for the game, I will be using historical miniatures from several sources and periods, so that I am not limited by the game's provision of a single human faction. Fortunately a big part of the game is the creation of one's own kingdoms, so this is not problematic.

Offline Pattus Magnus

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2020, 04:49:40 PM »
Yes indeed. Oathmark was the sole face-to-face game I’ve played in the past few months and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Since then most of the figures I’ve painted have been for Oathmark forces. I’m planning to play it a lot more once Covid risks drop (my usual opponent is very careful about exposure).

I found that it plays smoothly and interactions between unit types make sense. The alternating moves during each turn go a long way toward staying engaged. I like the kingdom-building too.

The only real limitation is that the forces are limited to the four main human/ demihuman types (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs/goblins) and a small selection of monsters, and points values are fixed, so it isn’t quite an open ‘sandbox’ system where you can create any army you own.  Some of that may change in future supplements (undead are apparently in the pipeline). That said, with a little thought players can probably make do with the existing army lists by changing some names. Want a chaos beastmen force, just use the orc list and change the names on the troop types and kingdom areas... Skaven, do the same with the goblin list. Some folks may complain that reskinning the forces loses some of the flavor from an army, but I think often the ‘flavor’ rules in fantasy games are just changed names anyway, and when they are substantial changes it tends to contribute to weird rule interactions.

Anyway, those are my impressions so far!
« Last Edit: October 06, 2020, 04:52:01 PM by Pattus Magnus »

Offline Tim Haslam

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2020, 06:00:41 PM »
I love the rules and the feel to the game.
It’s feels very traditional fantasy, plus I like the lack of gunpowder or late medieval weapons. It’s more Dark Ages, if that makes sense?

The figures are superb.

I’ve sadly not yet played a game, due to the virus.
So I can’t comment on game play, but it reads well.

I’ve still managed to build a complete Human force and Dwarf force, all 2000pts and more.

I’m sure some official ‘events’ will be planned as soon as we get past this mess we’re in.

I hope so, I’m desperate to capture some of that old fashioned weekend gaming.
A millionaire trapped in a peasants body!

Online Ogrob

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2020, 07:03:46 PM »
Played a bunch of games over the summer and it does indeed play well. Campaign system seems decent. I haven't read a lot in the new book yet as my work schedule is more allowing of skirmish games at the moment.

Eagerly awaiting more plastic releases, the elf light infantry were great.

Online armchairgeneral

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2020, 07:40:38 PM »
Very tempted as I like the Tolkienesque vibe of them. Managed to resist so far due to other projects but I believe there are orc/goblin heavy infantry coming in the New Year which could push me into the abyss of mass fantasy megalomania.

Online armchairgeneral

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2020, 09:06:35 AM »
How many figures a side gives a good game?

Offline Knight-Captain Tyr

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2020, 09:14:38 AM »
I've been very tempted by it but can't find anyone in London (UK) to get a game with. Not that it's the best time for pick-up games, but still. My 'main' games are Kings of War and Vanguard, so something like Oathmark would seem to make sense as a 'midway' game bridging the gap between real mass battle and skirmish.
" ... the seventh wave of Thrall stumbled and climbed over the slippery, piled dead and Mazzarin saw The Watcher with them and at last knew the number of his days."

-Thrall Flavor Text, Myth: The Fallen Lords

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2020, 06:36:22 PM »
I have to admit I do like the Oathmark Human infantry, and the Fireforge Northmen Warriors (and the Fireforge historical figures) and they will be supplying the man power for the various human factions

http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com/search?q=Oathmark&updated-max=2020-08-22T16:53:00%2B01:00&max-results=20&start=9&by-date=false

I am building armies at the moment.

I have not quite got two armies of any side painted yet (I have one Elf mini army assembled and working my way up to a Gnoll mini army).

I have seen rumours of plastic skeletons for Oathmark.

Online Ogrob

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2020, 06:41:50 PM »
How many figures a side gives a good game?

Depends. I'd say 50+, less if you have elves or a lot of cavalry. More if you play Goblins. We have played 1000 pts, 1500 pts and 2000 pts and I definitly think the bigger games run better but it works just fine at 1000.

Skeletons were just previewed on North Stars facebook page:

Offline twrchtrwyth

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2020, 07:33:47 PM »
A couple of lads at the club have it so I'm about to buy it, I'll probably pick up the expansion as well.
He that trades Liberty for Security will soon find that he has neither.

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Offline Mr. White

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2020, 03:54:03 AM »
Does the game have rules for gnolls? It would seem the plastic gnoll box for Frostgrave could be a cool unit. What about ogres or trolls?

And it sounds like you can easily mix and match units to make forces. So like humans, elves and dwarves vs Orcs, goblins, and skeletons?

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2020, 07:43:38 AM »
Does the game have rules for gnolls? It would seem the plastic gnoll box for Frostgrave could be a cool unit. What about ogres or trolls?
No, but I am using the Orc stats.
http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com/search/label/Gnolls
I am hoping to post some work in progress shots of the Gnoll Linebreakers this weekend.

What I would like is some plastic hyenas to replace wolves.

Ogres and Trolls are in there, plus giants.

And it sounds like you can easily mix and match units to make forces. So like humans, elves and dwarves vs Orcs, goblins, and skeletons?
You could have humans, elves, dwarves, Orcs, goblins, and skeletons Vs humans, elves, dwarves, Orcs, goblins, and skeletons if you can get eligible terrain in your kingdom (and have the next supplement).

Online armchairgeneral

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2020, 08:14:11 AM »
Depends. I'd say 50+, less if you have elves or a lot of cavalry. More if you play Goblins. We have played 1000 pts, 1500 pts and 2000 pts and I definitly think the bigger games run better but it works just fine at 1000.

Skeletons were just previewed on North Stars facebook page:


Thanks for the reply. Most of my stuff is multibased. Can you play it without figures being on individual bases?

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2020, 12:48:59 PM »
Thanks for the reply. Most of my stuff is multibased. Can you play it without figures being on individual bases?
By design it uses figure (and most important row) removal to track casualties and effects. If you can manage the tracking process you can use your figures.

 

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