Skeleton Guards for WoE (Oathmark Revenants)

'Tomorrow' became 'the day after tomorrow', because, real life, but here they are.

I experimented a lot with Citadel Contrast Paints on these, had to highlight the purple with a drybrush and shade the 'skin' and a few details with Agrax Earthshade, but all in all a relatively quick and easy paintjob.

The metal parts are Agraxed Vallejo Old Gold; works a charm for bronze!

I shall have to build and paint five more of these to max out the Skeleton Guard unit for Warlords of Erehwon, but right now my butterfly mind has set itself on getting some LotR stuff ready, and preparing for some Sellswords & Spellslingers (I have to make a new set of cards, as I cannot for the life of me remember where I've put the set I made years ago - AND the printed deckholder 😒 )

Reinforcements Have Arrived!

Last weekend I ordered these two items from Miniaturicum in Germany, and they arrived during today's game.

Ten of the the Revenants are destined to become 'Skeleton Guard' for Warlords of Erehwon (they wear some kind of ancient armour) - among other purposes along the way.

I already washed the sprues and started cleaning up the first five, so that I can get a minimum sized unit ready for use as soon as possible, although I shall probably not get them done in time for Wednesday

'Oathbreakers' is necessary for using Undead forces in Oathmark, and I haven't completely given up on that game, although I find that it plays a bit too slowly for massed battles.

I look forward to reading the rules and get an impression of how the Undead work in the game, and maybe try out a smaller solo game to get a hands-on experience.

More for the Plastic and Lead Alps

Earlier today, I received my June order from North Star Military Figures. The Gnolls are (primarily) for my 'remixed' version of Rangers of the Shadow Deep, the Goblins for mixing in with my LotR Orcs (and providing extra archer arms for the Gnolls), and the Halflings are for my 'Frodo's Quest' Shire spin-off (more about it in a later post).

The Hell Crows are for RotSD (some kind of Crows, the name eludes me right now), and the Frostgrave Barbarian with the two-hander is for Emil's Sellswords & Spellslingers warband.

The Magmites and the Thief are just bonuses, but I shall probably find some use for them.

Oathmark: 2500pts, Isengard vs Human-Elves Alliance

Wednesday I played yet another game of Oathmark, this time Emil commanded an alliance of my Gondor, Rohan, and High Elf forces against the same Isengard army that I used against Ulolkish's Dwarves.

This time I decided to try a refused right flank, and a sweeping left flank attack with some Wargs and Warg Riders through the woods at the far end of the table,

The first turn was mostly 'Forward unto Battle', except for my Shaman, who failed his Activation Roll on three dice...

Turn 2 both armies advanced, and my Shamanmade his signature move and laid out a Smoke screen to prevent the High Elf Archers (blue unit facing my right) doing their thing.

In Turn 3 I moved a bit further forward than first intended in the center to get the units there protected by the hill (my Shaman had failed his activation, and thus had not been able to conjure up more Smoke).

Turn 4 saw the first real fighting.

The Rohan Swordsmen burst through the Smoke and into the Dunlendings and breaking them.

Which resulted in my Shaman suddenly finding himself in something of a predicament.

But my Orcs moved forward and thus offered some protection.

The Elf Linebreakers smashed into the Uruk-Hai Pikemen, and did not fare well.

The battlefield at the end of Turn 4. The sunlight falling in through one of the roof windows was quite annoying at this point.

We did not play through Turn 5, - when the Elven Bowmen marched past the smoke, they were attacked by the Wargs and Disordered - and soon after they were Broken by Orcish arrows, which made my opponent toss in the towel.

AT this point we had been at it for about 4 hours (interrupted by me picking up Anna from school), and Emil clearly found this amount of time too much for a game.

As I have stated in an earlier post, one of my concerns regarding Oathmark is the pace of the game, especially because of the somewhat clunky combat rules, and both of my two latest games have, indeed, lingered on (well, the last one would have, had not Emil given up) beyond a reasonable  time span.

My only fast game was the 2000 points played against Kevin, and that one contained  far less units. I think a 'Mass Battle Game' as Oathmark is proclaimed to be should be able to handle at least a score of units aside without lasting more than an evening, and I cannot see that happening with this game.

I still have to play more games and get better acquainted with the rules (although I had to look up a rule only once or twice during this game) before I decide whether to keep Oathmark as a 'go to' game, go back to tweaking God of Battles, or maybe even do a mash-up of GoB and Oathmark, as suggested by Ulolkish.

Oathmark: 2,500pts, Orcs & Goblins vs Dwarves

Yesterday, I played against Ulolkish's Dwarves (augmented by 19 minis of mine) in the garage attic.

We played on the large table, so allowed for setting up 12" in from the table edges.

On Turn 1 we mostly used Forward unto Battle - except for my Shaman (Lvl 3) who laid out some Smoke to cover my advance on the left.

NOTE: We have house-ruled that 25x25 units-of-one have no facings/can turn freely to see/move in the direction of the player's choice. The main reasons for this is that it seems odd and cumbersome that a single person has to suffer the same maneuver restrictions as a body of men in formation.

This may make Spellcasters too powerful, as they can cast more spells than usual, and I am toying with the idea of allowing some kind of dispel/nullify counter action by an opposing wizard to balance it out.

On Turn 2 my Shaman laid out some more Smoke, and the Dwarven Archers started moving around it (and in behind the flank unit.

Apart from that, the turn saw only general advance.

Turn 3 saw some blood drawn by bowfire, and the battlelines were closing in.

- And the second Smoke screen dissipated.

Turn 4 saw some real action all over the battlefield, with units charging and counter-charging. On my far right it looked as if the Dwarven flank was about to be turned.

But the flank held, supported by the Runesmitth (Lvl 5) who rained death on the Wolves of Isengard in the form of a Lightning Bolt.

We had to turn the remaining Smoke aside to avoid getting the Uruks entangled in the cotton.

Turn 5 made it really clear that I need larger units for my Isengard army. Had some of the units surrounding the Dwarven flank unit, I might actually have annihilated it and been able to start turning the flank. Instead, the unit held its ground, and with the continued support from the Runesmith and the Archers, it was a real pain...

Turn 6 saw my lines worn  ever so much down, and the stubborn little buggers on my right still refused to die.

My Shaman conjured up a new screen of Smoke in an attempt to minimize losses to the Dwarven Archers.

On the left much fighting had occurred, situation still inconclusive, but I was way behind on points.

But when in Turn 7 the Runesmith broke my remaining Wolves with a Lightning Bolt, and Cascading Panic disordered some of the nearby units, I did no longer see Victory withing reach (and it was getting quite late in the evening), so I called it quits.

We did not count the Victory Points/losses, but I am quite sure that the Dwarves had more points remaining on the table than my army. I really need to get some various types of Orcs (Oathmark: Goblins) painted, especially Archers as I feel heavily out-'gunned', even by only one large unit of enemy bowmen, but also to bring more staying power and Rank Bonuses to the table.

This game took an awful lot of time, about five hours if I remember correctly, and I was suffering horribly from 'combat fatigue' towards the end (headache, could not remember/calculate Target Numbers, etc.). It surprised me that it took that long, as my last game (2,000pts) lasted only two hours all in all, but of course my many small units in this game slowed down things considerably.

I am playing a game tomorrow on the same table with the same list against an army made up of my own Gondorians, Rohirrim, and High Elves commanded by Emil, and I have been contemplating using different tactics to see if I can gain an advantage tht way.

Oathmark 2000pts, Elves vs Orcs and Goblins

As previously announced, Kevin and I played a game this evening. I had laid out the table, so as soon as Kevin arrived and had his army out of the boxes, we could start placing our units on the table.

The first turn we used the Forward unto Battle rule to get things moving. I made my first tactical mistake by timidly turning  my Mounted Rangers in behind my battleline - they should have hung around on the flank to make a dangerous counter-attack later in the game, but, well...

My second mistake was to advance too fast in the center, but I was afraid that the Goblin Archers would wither down my few units too fast (I still think archers are too effective in this game). As it were, my infantry got stuck in way too early for my Archers and Rangers to have had enough impact on the rather large force I was facing.

The end of Turn 2:

My Linebreakers broke the Goblins in front of them, and then my Spearmen tried to do the same with the Orcs, but, alas..

Abysmal dice rolling on my part, well done by the Orcs.

I sadly do not remember what broke the other Orc unit (those to the right of my Linebreakers), but break they did... It may have been my Mounted Rangers shooting at them, but I am not sure.

I was beginning to feel a tad of pressure on my position.

My remaining Spearmen were annihilated by Goblin bowfire, and my Linebreakers defeated and pushed back the last Orc unit, but were Disordered in the process, which meant that I coiuld not exploit the wide open unit of Goblin Archers the following turn. My Archers (left flank) were suffering bad casualties, and my Rangers were just about to be caught by the Gobbos on the right.

This was the situation before the last turn. I did not take further pics, but my Rangers were charged and lost more than half their numbers, my Mounted Rangers moved forwards and fired at the Goblin Archers in front of them, without hitting a single time (5d10 rolling 5 or less, go figure), and my Linebreakers shook off the Disorder but could no move to contact an enemy unit. The two remaining Archers were killed off. When the Linebreakers then lost half their number to bowfire, I conceeded the battlefield; my Mounted Rangers were too far away from the Goblins on the left to reach them, so they would most likely be halved or worse before making contact, my Rangers were only 3 strong, and the Linebreakers faced annihilation by the Orc Wsrlord and his retinue.

Thoughts on the game:

This one played rather smoothly. I think that having way fewer units than in my solo test game contributed heavily to the faster pace, as units had more space to maneuver without ending up at strange angles facing each other - but looking up stats for combat was of course much easier, too, because I only had to look at my own roster this time.

The Champion Dice had some impact on some of the fights (we only had the commanders being able to use it - plus the Troll, but it never succeeded in catching an enemy), and the extra Activation/Morale dice provided by the Commanders was also quite prominent - especially for the Orcs/Goblins. We did not use the Death of and Officer option, but I shall add it to my next game.

I still think that calculating the variable Target Number for every to-hit-roll feels a bit 1980, but we were actually doing it without having to look up the modifiers after a few turns, so it can be lived with, as not slowing down the game all to much (it still may if rosters consist of several pages - this game I only had one page).

Movement:
Because of the few units, maneuvers were mostly made to swing around terrain features, and there wasn't any occurrences of units being pushed deep into the rear lines (as there were none), so I did not see any awkward situations this time (but from my test game I know they can and probably will occur in large games).

I think I would still prefer a system with some range modifiers for shooting, but I have not played enough games to assess the overall impact on the game of such a change.

Morale had a significant impact on the Orcs/Goblins, with several units breaking, and panic spreading. It is a feature that I rather like, although it may sometimes come down to a few bad rolls whether your army stays fit for fighting or runs away.

The game today took about two hours, including placing the armies on the table (I had prepared the table/terrain in advance, but it had taken me less than 10 minutes), which is faster than I expected, but we had relatively few units, did not use more than one character each, and we had no Wizards. Next game I play, I shall add more Characters, and let Champions kill off Officers. I have not yet even read the rules for Magic, but I think I shall start out with a single low level Wizard in one of the next games I play.

Overall:
It feels like Oathmark is better balanced than God of Battles. Playing Undead in GoB, I often faced enemy units I could hardly scratch, because of the many dice they roll regardless of the number of hits scored on them (elsewhere on this blog you may find my musings about how to possibly mend some of the worst flaws of that game, but I never got around to trying them out, yet), but in Oathmark it rarely feels impossible to damage an enemy unit (some cavalry units possibly excepted - I have to play some more). The possibility to roll only five or four dice for attacks somewhat evens out the difference between elite and standard units - which can be both good and bad. My abhorrent dice rolling may have made the elite Elves seem somewhat underwhelming, but if the dice had fallen more normally statistically, the game might have hung more in the balance at the end.

I am still not sure if this will be my go-to fantasy battle game, as I still have some reservations regarding some of the rules, but today's game did not put me off. I shall try to get a game against Duregar/Ulolkish arranged within an overseeable future - probably Middle-Earth themed.

Oathmark Solo Test Game, Turn 8

I finally found some time to wrap this up (sort of), so here is what was to be the final turn of my solo test game of Oathmark.

The Warg Riders managed to contact the Minas Tirith Archers, this time actually drawing serious blood, and forcing the Humans back in disorder.

The Warriors then wheeled back before slamming into the Warg Riders, who were not able to fight back very well, and were pushed back.

The Trolls were still unable to comply...

The Dwarven Archers broke the Dunlendings closest to them - I forgot to roll for Cascading Panic.

The Orc Archers (Goblin Archers) managed to take down a single Dwarf.

I had forgotten to mark the Minas Tirith Warriors as activated, but luckily the Dice Gods had me covered when I tried to activate them.

The Dunlending Spearmen failed their activation roll and stayed put.

The Dunlending Militia smashed into the very small unit of Dwarf Soldiers, but got mauled.

The psuhback send ripples right back through the Dunlending lines.

The Rohan Archers failed their Activation Roll, and thus had a +1 to TN when shooting at the Orc Archers...

...but never the less all but annihilated them.

At this point I could see no use in continuing - Saruman's invasion had been brought to a halt - for now.

The last couple of pics show the battlefield as it were when I called it quits.

Thoughts on the game so far:

It is NOT as simple as God of Battles - far from!

To me, the mechanics seem a bit clunky; I, for one, cannot memorize the stats and special rules for every type of unit, and I have to look to the roster and meticulously calculate Target Numbers every time some interaction occurs, which slows down gameplay considerably. In GoB, I really only had to memorize one stat for each type of unit, and 'rank bonuses' were sort of worked into the number of dice rolled (depending on unit size). Tomorrow evening, I have a gaming session with a live opponent (2000pts), and after that I shall have a better idea of how the game flows.

Movement: Some really quirky situations arise when units are close together, and one is trying to make contact, and I think some houseruling/consensus of rules interpretation will be necessary to avoid heated discussions when battles hang in the balance.

I like the way some of the Special Rules work - especially Charge (X), which forces you to carefully position shock units before committing them to battle. The Brace rule (spears) can seem a bit meh, but I think that careful positioning of spear units to take some of the air out of enemy shock troop attacks can be the key to success in many battles.

Missiles: Brutal!
I still think that defensive tactics will be very hard to cope with. Place a line of Spearmen units in front, a line of archer units close behind them, have some crack troops (Warriors and/or Linebreakers) guard the flanks, and the enemy should have a very hard time cracking your position. Of course, if the enemy has a lot of Elven Archers and/or catapults, you may want to reconsider your tactics...

Terrain:
I think terrain is not going to be very popular. Having to halve one's move is not nice when facing enemy archers, as it gives them even more chances to decimate your units before you can reach them.
Some units have 'Nimble', which allows them to ignore terrain movement penalties, and as mentioned before, I really think that Wolves/Wolf Riders should have this special rule. As it is now, some Elves on foot move faster through rough terrain than those quadrupedal predators, and I think that is weird and just wrong.

I already toy with the idea of making a house rule that lets units assume 'mob'-formation to gain Nimble, but get an Activation/Morale penalty, lose rank bonuses, and have TN+1 when fighting (but maybe force enemies to shoot at them at TN+1) while in this loose formation. This would make it more viable to play games in dense terrain, which to me is more interesting than a large open battlefield. But it is too early to introduce this, as I still have to learn all the ropes of the game (although I do have the rules ready in my mind).

Overall:
I am in two minds about these rules.
The game works, although I fear that it runs too slowly for my taste. I like the versatility of army composition. and with the right additions (Oliphaunts. anyone?) it may cater very well for Middle-Earth battles like the one I just snailed my way through. I think some of the peculiarities are really weird, and will have to be houseruled in order to not create awkward situations too often; it can be done, but it is often harder to find consensus on house rules than finding a ruleset all can agree upon.

Well, as mentioned, I am playing a 2000pts game tomorrow evening, and I shall of course record it here, as always.