Oathmark - Who's Playing?

[BZ]

Thanks for sharing! He has some beautiful artwork! And if You take a look in the Oathmark books, You can find some other clues for future releases too: Elf Heavy Infantry, Orc Infantry, Goblin Light Infantry.
https://oathgrave.blogspot.com/2021/01/25-future-of-oathmark.html?m=1

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Dwarf light infantry box art:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/AqdxrN

Also mentioned in the North Star newsletter as the next plastic set.
http://downloads.northstarfigures.com/newsletter/newsletter242.htm
I do hope there are separate picks etc, for the other armies engineers.

I am surprised no one on the future sub-forum has mentioned the female crew and mercenaries plus scavengers in plastic.
The latter might be of use here as well.

[2010sunburst]

It’s in their DNA, and never far away….the war cry of the angry dwarf…..HI HO!

[BZ]

If somebody is interested, I just finished a short series about the Oathmark supplements:
https://oathgrave.blogspot.com/2021/07/oathmark-battlesworn.html
https://oathgrave.blogspot.com/2021/08/52-oathmark-oathbreakers.html
https://oathgrave.blogspot.com/2021/08/53-oathmark-bane-of-kings.html

[Nord]

I played my first game yesterday, basic units to start just to get a feel for the rules. The five combat dice cap has me scratching my head. What is the point of taking more than three in a cavalry unit?

[BZ]

I played my first game yesterday, basic units to start just to get a feel for the rules. The five combat dice cap has me scratching my head. What is the point of taking more than three in a cavalry unit?

The cap of five is good to avoid buckets of dice, and its compensated with the rank bonus.
More than 3 is good becouse of bonuses (rank and morale), and durability.

[Ogrob]

The morale hit for having a partial rank is very noticeable. I'm always torn between playing with 5 strong or 10 strong cavalry units myself, but that +1 for a second rank very rarely lasts long. I wonder if perhaps six or seven might be a good number to preserve the front rank just that little bit longer.

On a light dwarf note, really excited for these. Haven't started painting my halfling/dwarf force yet, need some dwarf rangers to join the ranks. Hope we get to see some previews soon.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Nice to see more Dwarves coming with mining tools.  Always struck me as the most appropriate weapons for Dwarven militia, and they'll be handy for RPG and Frostgrave use too.

Also for chasing evil queens with a sideline in apple peddling, of course. 

I am surprised no one on the future sub-forum has mentioned the female crew and mercenaries plus scavengers in plastic.
The latter might be of use here as well.

More grist for the scifi board than this thread, but yes, good to know they're coming.  Stargrave's existing kits have been fun to work with and more variety will only make that better.  The metal characters look pretty good too.

That tease of the Crusader fantasy characters is intriguing too. 

[Nord]

Getting the extra point of morale for a full rank is a good thing yeah, but spending so many points to achieve it ? Think two units of three cavalry would outgun one unit of five or six pretty much every game. Convince me otherwise 😁

[BZ]

If You want to min-max it, then You're probably right. But Oathmark is not a compeptitive game, its not really made for that. Its more a fun, narrative ruleset.

[Ogrob]

Try it and let us know! I think morale penalty will be killer, but my record in this game is abysmal, so what do I know?

[Pattus Magnus]

Don’t forget that an army can only take a maximum of 4 units of the same type per game. There is also the issue of command and control- each of the 3-figure units will have to make its own activation test and getting them to act cohesively will be a problem.

Most important, I suspect the 3-figure units will also get shot down in a hurry by archers... cavalry in Oathmark hit hard but they don’t soak up casualties any better than infantry (some advantage in Def, but still 1-wound each). To me, the extra figures in an Oathmark unit are there to make sure the unit is still throwing 5 dice by the time it makes contact.

And the other thing to consider is that the friendly units near the 3-figure cavalry units will have to make a morale check each time one gets wiped out, so you’re increasing the risk of cascading panic. You could probably get away with that for a mainly elf army (the soul-less brutes have great activation numbers), but human or goblin units nearby are likely to head for the hills!

[BZ]

All valid points! I play Oathmark without the kingdom building part, so I forgot that limitation. And yes, cavalry is pretty well protected with 12/13 defense, but a lucky shot is enough, to make a 3 health unit crippled. I still think that more small cavalry units can have a bigger impact, than one bigger, but only with luck, and only on the beginning of thr battle.

[Pattus Magnus]

Oops, just re-read the morale section and I’m wrong- units don’t automatically make a test if a nearby friendly unit is wiped out (unless the lost unit contains a character with the command ability). The nearby units do make a test if the small cavalry unit fails a morale test, though, which could still pose problems...

[BZ]

And humans can fail relatively easily...