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Author Topic: Oathmark - Who's Playing?  (Read 63984 times)

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #90 on: October 22, 2020, 07:10:25 PM »
BTW there was a two-part article by the editor a few issues back about building an Oathmark goblin army, using the official plastic figures, with a Tolkien flavour, on which I based some of my own previously mentioned concepts. While John Treadaway - the editor, in case you don't know - finds the goblins suitable for Saruman's Uruks - other than the scimitars, which I slightly misinterpreted as applicable to all orcs, leading me to deprive my own figures of any kind of sword - they are too tall, in his view, for orcs of Mordor. He gets around this by using dwarf bodies with goblin heads and arms.

It's worth noting that the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor are together contrasted with smaller types on at least a couple of occasions in the books: in "The Uruk-hai" and in the appendices ("the great soldier-orcs that at this time issued from Mordor and Isengard"). So, while Eomer says that the Isengard are the strongest and worst sort, there can't be much between Isengard and Mordor Uruks - or at least not much that would really register in 28mm scale! Also, by far the majority of the orcs encountered in The Lord of the Rings seem to be Uruks; only the small northerners from Moria (alongside Uruks there) and the tracker and reserves that Sam and Frodo meet appear to be smaller breeds. But gamers are often resistant to the idea, because decades of games have established the idea of an intermediate sort of non-Uruk soldier that makes up the bulk of the armies of Mordor - even though that's not supported by the text.

We got our first game of Oathmark in this afternoon. Very impressed: we got to grips with it much more quickly than with Warhammer or Chainmail, and even on an entirely open field, there was lots of interesting decision-making all the way through, which elevates it above both of those games. It's a clear, intuitive and evocative game, and I think it's got all the hallmarks of a tabletop classic in the HotT and Song of Blades class: where you've got lots of important decisions to make, logical results on the field and - best of all - little or no need to consult the rulebook once the game's underway.

One thing's clear, though: it's definitely a game with a hidden figure scale. The way the game played out made complete sense if you assume 1:20 pr similar, but not much at all if you assume 1:1 (which is what the rulebook states). It doesn't matter, of course, but I'm just curious about why the 1:1 assumption is stated at all.

Anyway, we loved it - and I'll try to get a proper review up on my blog shortly.

As for negatives, the only real quibble I'd have initially is with the points values. My son's unit of four ogres seemed tremendous value for 160 points. They destroyed a couple of tough units (orc linebreakers and wolfriders) for the loss of only a single ogre. The kingdom system may help here, of course, and points systems are always 'breakable'. I thought the ogre profiles were great, though: their impact matched their appearance.

Meanwhile, my Chronicle wolfriders were suitably vicious despite their enforced relegation to 'goblin' status (only orc personalities are allowed to ride wolves, which is odd as they can't lead orc foot units or goblin units under the rules as written).

I did intitially wonder whether cavalry were a little slow relative to infantry, but their superior move did make a big difference, allowing them to stay out of reach of charges and then slam back in again on their own turn to exploit their Charge (2) rule.

As I'm on holiday at the moment, we'll probably play again tomorrow - we're certainly both keen. I might try to get some more goblins finished off tonight so that we can field some beefier units; our biggest unit today was 12 strong.

Andrew_McGuire

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #91 on: October 23, 2020, 03:42:58 PM »
What would exclude halfling models from being produced?
Are there halfling units in the rulebook?

Sorry, I missed this earlier. There are no halfling / hobbity types in the main book or the first supplement, but that doesn't mean they won't appear at some point, particularly if there is a demand. I was simply speculating as to whether North Star would consider it worthwhile producing such figures given that many  players may be perfectly happy with the existing WA Halfling Militia. This is what I meant by 'business Realpolitik', which must be a factor in decision making. I doubt, for example, that a fantasy mass battle set would have been given the green light by North Star and Osprey had there not been a perceived gap in the market, and its possible that this thinking may also be applied to the potential release of figure sets. This, to repeat, is pure speculation on my part; perhaps halflings will be viewed as a race, like goblins, that simply can't be omitted.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2020, 03:57:12 PM by Andrew_McGuire »

Offline Historiker

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #92 on: October 23, 2020, 03:46:18 PM »
Sorry, I missed this earlier. There are no halfling / hobbbity types in the main book or the first supplement, but that doesn't mean they won't appear at some point, particularly if there is a demand. I was simply speculating as to whether North Star would consider it worthwhile producing such figures given that many  players may be perfectly happy with the existing WA halfling militia. This is what I meant by 'business Realpolitik', which must be a factor in decision making. I doubt, for example, that a fantasy mass battle set would have been given the green light by North Star and Osprey had there not been a perceived gap in the market.

As to the perceived gap: It is most definitely there. I know quite a lot of people who miss this style of game (most of them WHFB players) but never really warmed with what's on offer (KoW and the like). I am looking forward to showing them Oathmark and maybe getting them back into the fun of fantasy mass battle games - which is something I, as already said, unfortunately had not participated in in the past.
"The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as: Things just happen. What the hell."

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #93 on: October 26, 2020, 08:25:33 AM »
I had a quick look through the rulebook yesterday, noting the box art double page spreads.

Besides the boxes that are out, I noted Human Cavalry, Orcs and Dwarf Militia(!). Has anyone spotted any more?

Not that it guarantees there are matching boxes.

The Undead are on the North Star site (but currently out of stock - I assume not released yet).

I assume Nick will let us know when they are available.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #94 on: October 26, 2020, 11:23:18 AM »
I had a quick look through the rulebook yesterday, noting the box art double page spreads.

Besides the boxes that are out, I noted Human Cavalry, Orcs and Dwarf Militia(!). Has anyone spotted any more?


Goblin slaves and slave slingers towards the back!

Offline Mr. White

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #95 on: October 26, 2020, 02:17:29 PM »
The Undead are on the North Star site (but currently out of stock - I assume not released yet).

I assume Nick will let us know when they are available.

IIRC, I think there was a mention of a 'Nickstarter' on Oct 31st?

Offline Elbows

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #96 on: October 26, 2020, 09:11:25 PM »
I'd love to see more militia type kits as those are best for making dungeon crawl characters and the like.  I only own a box of Oathmark goblins, but I'm pretty interested in the skeleton box.
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Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #97 on: October 26, 2020, 09:23:38 PM »
IIRC, I think there was a mention of a 'Nickstarter' on Oct 31st?
I wondered about it, and Nick said they had never run one for Oathmark.

Offline Sir_Theo

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #98 on: October 26, 2020, 09:32:03 PM »
New undead and Oathbreakers preorders on the 31st October. No mention of a nickstarter though!

Speaking of which, I do love the art for Oathmark


Offline Historiker

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #99 on: October 26, 2020, 10:16:11 PM »
The general art design (and miniature design) for Oathmark is fantastic. Currently my favorite when it comes to fantasy miniature games.

Let us hope that this and the future books do not re-use art published before as was the case in the first supplement.

After the asbolutely glorious Core Rulebook the first supplement was a bit lackluster in production quality (reused art, print & paper quality) but I have high hopes that future supplements will be much better!

Offline Mallo

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #100 on: October 26, 2020, 10:21:52 PM »
I love oathmark. It was announced just as I was switching out from playing AoS and back into collecting armies for WFB and it very quickly hooked me and I ditched the WFB collection for oathmark instead.

I've sadly not had a chance to play, I've been painting as much as I can for it, but between a sci-fi project that had to take priority due to a deadline and with multi lockdowns messing up my final year at college- I've had to pack my table etc away to make room for my thesis hardware and working from home.

I love the artwork, I didn't realise just how much I missed the classic style until I started seeing the oathmark previews.

I've eager to get my hands on the new book, as the undead were on the the projects I had always wanted but never found time for when I was younger, so I've splashed out on an insane amount of undead and been painting them up.

Someone was asking about the halflings, we've been told that we won't see a halfling army list but we will see a halfling character in the future. But their enough flexibility in the army lists to use halfling models anyway.

Dwarf militia and Orc linebreakers were mentioned at the start of the year, but like most things, the pandemic has probably messed the release schedule up. The Ogre kit was the last kit I heard that was close to release (Not counting skeletons) so hopefully we will see them early next year.

There is another new book due out around march next year called bane of kings. If there are no chariot rules in the new skeleton book, it's probably safe to assume that chariots are coming in that one instead, as they've been mentioned as coming a number of times now.

I'd not be surprised if things like daemons & halflings to find army lists appearing in a magazine style supplement, much like the frostgrave one, though I'd expect the earliest we might see that is this time next year, due to Frostgrave 2 having more due out and then stargrave due out in April.

Offline Historiker

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #101 on: October 26, 2020, 11:34:23 PM »
Great to read that someone is as happy about this product and its good old times-vibe as I am 8)

Though I have bought and downloaded all Oathmark PDF and though I really did like the "Towncryer" when it came out for Mortheim, these days I rather like to collect my rulesets, especially something as classy as Oathmark, in physical form.

I therefore would rather like them to keep publishing more collected physical rules (plus of course a PDF / ePub versions) than having them produce lots of tiny bits to be downloaded and printed out.

There is nothing wrong with a few of these, but there is everything right with an impressive bookshelf!  ;)

Offline Mr. White

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #102 on: October 27, 2020, 12:06:52 AM »
So, maybe not a Nickstarter, but a pre-order deal on October 31st? Something or other seemed to be alluded to here, but don't take anything to the bank:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=127569.msg1612281#msg1612281

There is a buy any 5 Oathmark units get one free deal going at Northstar atm. maybe that's it?
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=14844

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #103 on: October 27, 2020, 09:15:22 AM »
There is a buy any 5 Oathmark units get one free deal going at Northstar atm. maybe that's it?
https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=14844
There goes this month's order...

Does that include the Skeletons? Still useful if it did not.

Offline Bloggard

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Re: Oathmark - Who's Playing?
« Reply #104 on: October 27, 2020, 12:34:35 PM »
oh bugger it, too-Tolkien-y or not, think I'm going to get into this ...

 

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