Starting with Oathmark

[Historiker]

Greetings to you all fellow ladies and gentlemen prone to glueing fingers together,

back when Oathmark was announced or rather when I became aware of it, I decided that this would be my Fantasy-Army game of choice. The earthed and toned-down design (I believe Tolkien-esque is often said) style of the miniatures immediately appealed to me.

Having missed out on Warhammer Fantasy Battles back in the day and not wishing to join the abomination that is Age of Sigmar (just my opinion, please keep enjoying the game if it is fun to you!) I followed the development of the game with some interest.

Since then quite some time has passed and today my parcel full of rules and miniatures finally arrived.

First impressions:

The rulebook looks and feels fantastic. Clear layout and great paper and printing quality (done by a company called Bell & Bain Ltd in Scotland).

Unfortunately the expansion called "Battlesworn" which I also bought is of a different material quality with the ink smelling somewhat funky (or just normal, for people who love comic books, which I don't) and the paper not having the same matte quality. This particular expansion was printed in India and I do hope hat Osprey will be printing most of their stuff in Scotland (although this could mean producing more hardback collections and there could be business related reasons for smaller and therefore otherwise to be produced expansions).

Anyway, the book and the miniatures look fantastic and judging by the first pages the book makes an easy and elegantly written read.

About this project:

Since I will be playing on a smaller table as well as PWork Wargaming mat and because of it being my fix for WFB and LotR wargaming I will be basing most of my miniatures on smaller square bases. This difference from the official basing won't matter as I am only gaming with my friends at my place anyway and there is also great sabot bases around. So expect to see lots of 20x20 here!

Below you can see an picture from the first batch of assembled figures which might be of interest for all people wondering whether you  make these work with 20x20 without lots of modification. You can, you only need to occasionally switch the order in the rank when shields and weapons bump together. I certainly will keep using this basing.

The coming months I will probably just build and prime and maybe try out some color schemes, so please expect no extensive kitbashing or painting here for some time. What I will do however is providing my experiences with the game while reading through the rules and playing some small test-games.

So far I am quite happy with my new purchase and I think that this new project wil provide lots of fun and relaxing hobby time for me. If something of interest comes out of this for you fellow hobbyists that would be the icing on the cake.

All the best and stay safe during these troubled times!

Historiker

[sir_shvantselot]

Looking good and thanks for the views on this new game. Not sure who else is playing round here but have so many old school minis I could use.

[Knight-Captain Tyr]

Looking great. Increasingly annoyed I don't have a group to try this with! Will follow your work with interest.

[Mr. White]

Also following. Oathmark/Rangers of Shadow Deep is going to be my focus in 2022 (I'm a patient and deliberate hobbyist) so am following Oathmark threads with interest.

I'm also drawn to the aesthetic of dark ages/tolkeniseque fantasy. I love the LotR style of fantasy, but am not too keen on playing licensed games for several reasons. Anyway, Oathmark is right up my alley and I've never _really_ played Rank n Flank style games. I built and painted a small Betonnian army for a WFB tourney back in 2004, but I had no idea what I was doing. I'm looking forward to putting together two small/medium armies for this for casual games.

Regarding the books, I hear the core book is fantastic, but the expansion is lower quality, to include a lot of reused art from the core. I find this odd. I have all of Osprey's Dracula's America books and all three are outstanding with the two expansions having original art within. I was surprised to hear this about Oathmark.

Anyway, really looking forward to what you do here, so thanks for sharing!

[Historiker]

Yes, I have to admit that I was baffled about the reused artwork as well.

I hope this is just a small blunder caused by wanting to quickly publish a small expansion and that future expansions will offer the same outstanding quality as the Core Book.

One more word on the miniatures as I am just now assembling more figures while listening to podcasts: At first glance the kits seem very straightforward but it was a very pleasant surprise to me that you can achieve lots of characterful poses and stances for the figures. So far I only have done very, very minor conversions - exchanging a bow arm for a shield arm and such - and the army variety looks lovely so far.

Will be a daunting task to paint all these models though

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice start on the army.
I have not seen the first supplement, but I am surprised with them reusing art.

Good luck with the painting (I can sympathise - just undercoated three more ranks of Gnolls, and have three of elves awaiting basing).

[Historiker]

Many thanks!

In regards to the plastics I have now assembled 15 Human Infantrymen, 5 Human Archers,  5 Dwarves and 4,5 Elves and have to say that the figures are really a joy to assemble.

Although the pieces are very straightforward, the finished units look quite dynamic.

They also form nice and tidy blocks with the 20x20 bases (only occasional shuffling in the ranks necessary). I will post some more pictures once I have assembled more archers.

Very much looking forward to seeing your Gnolls! As I only undercoat by brush I will probably spend many evenings listening to podcasts 

[Historiker]

Greetings fellow Oathmark enthusiasts and peeps who want to be,

so the first plastic infantry box set is assembled and  the humans have mustered their humble forces.

I decided to not build spearmen this time and build 15 bowmen and 15 warriors with hand weapon and shield. This means that I will be able to push around two nice and chunky blocks in the first games.

Now I will put on some podcasts and slowly but surely put some black Vallejo Brush on Primer on these little dudes and after that it is on to the elves and dwarves. Once I have assembled a few longbeards and / or pointy ears I would theoretically be able to host some test games.

This brings me to my first impression of the rules.
Having just started a new job I did not have time to read a lot of them but what I have read and skimmed over so far really makes me want to play this game quite some. Here are some things I especially like:


- The Activation system adds a nice little bit of battle uncertainty without crippling the player who has as occasional bad roll (on a failed activation you get one simple action instead of two actions).

- The core mechanics seem very straightforward and designed to enable quick play without constantly looking at references. The only thing I did not particularly face was the how a roll a certain value above a target number can mean scoring more hits. I tend to forget these numbers but then again, it is not that much of an issue for most people.

- I really, really, really like the material quality of the core rulebook and the clarity with which the rules are written. Apart from a small but interesting formatting error (an image overlapping a text) this book seems perfectly produced and I like it right down to how the pages smell (which also led me to criticize the supplement, but then again, I'm weird that way).

[Hobgoblin]

- The Activation system adds a nice little bit of battle uncertainty without crippling the player who has as occasional bad roll (on a failed activation you get one simple action instead of two actions).

Ha! I'm writing up a similar preview for my blog and have used almost exactly the same phrasing!

I'm similarly enthusiastic too, and agree with you on the other points.

Good to see your forces coming on.

[Mr. White]

Fellas, you guys are making me want to bump this from a 2022 project, to 2021...

I've currently got a few other minis in the queue plus a house move next summer. I was hoping to clear those goals before starting in on this capstone project.

[Historiker]

@Hobgoblin: It is a nice mechanic, indeed. It contains just enough uncertainty without being frustrating. The postapocalyptic Skirmish Game This is not a Test has a similar mechanic where models have to take a Stat Test before activation and only getting one action when failed. There it goes even further and has the player keep activating other models when passing the test. This however I can't imagine for an army game. There has to be somewhat of a me/you/me/you effect there.

@ Jack: Sorry for instigating! I can relate to your situation because I actually physically packed away all my other projects to focus on this one until my Vampire: Chapters Kickstarter and the Blood & Plunder: Raise the Black Kickstarter arrive next year. So my hobby is planned until this time next year...I hope 

If I were you I would start the project now and leisurely paint up some stuff. Since this is an army game it will take a while before one can even consider playing a painted game (at least at my painting speed...and my painting skills are not very impressive). Just focus on a box you are particularly interested in and have a go 

[Mr. White]

Ha! A game try, and you almost had me convinced. I've got to stick by my guns though or I'll end up another hobbyist with piles of lead/grey choking me out. I'm avoiding that this go around.

I spending these COVID months to get all the Blitz Bowl teams painted (check my thread on it) and 2-4 Blood Bowl teams. The plan (hope) is that when this situation lifts I can run Blitz Bowl leagues out of the house and use my Blood Bowl teams for local tournaments. While I'm playing those next year...I can work on Oathmark during my paint time.

[Historiker]

I salute your willpower!

Before Oathmark there were several attempts from my side to structure my hobby activities and to settle on the project for the timeframe mentioned. Then I decided that Oathmark would be, well, an oath mark 

[Hobgoblin]

A few first impressions of the rulebook here.

[Hobgoblin]

Does anyone happen to know what new beasties are included in the Battlesworn supplement? I've been on a bit of a rebasing spree, and I'm wondering if there's anything I have kicking around that might fit in with the new additions (and prompt me to buy that book, of course!).