I bought Oathmark in a sale at the local bookshop back end of last year and am finally getting around to trying them. Like with a lot of other rules, I am playing with 15/18mm figures at 60% scale using a printable ruler scaled down to 60% when I printed it out. This makes my normal 70cm x 50cm gameboard the equivalent of 46" x 33" which is a small table for Oathmark. At this scale my 5'x3' dining table will be more than large enough for a large game if I ever get around to that.
The armies for this test game are cobbled together from the stuff I have been painting for Five Leagues from the Borderlands. They are far from optimised armies, but my opponent is cool with that, so it's ok. I am also not using the kingdom building rules which offer significant and exciting opportunities for cobbling together unusual fantasy army combinations. If I get on with the rules then that will be the next step to add, along with bigger monsters and spellcasters, plus the rules from the expansion books.
Not every battle in Utavoll involves the Thrappled Lemmings, despite what the Lemmings themselves will tell you. Sometimes local warlords fight or the Dusklings (Orcs) come down from their mountain fastnesses in larger numbers and attack the settlements in the flat lands. This happened recently in the large valley north of Fikaby. The village quickly mustered every able-bodied fighter and set out to stop the Duskling rampage before it started. The humans (502 points) managed to muster:
- 1 unit of 11 Soldiers
- 1 unit of 10 Archers
- 1 unit of 5 Heavy Cavalry
- 1 unit of 20 SpearOrcs
- 1 unit of 10 BowOrcs
- 1 unit of 10 Wolves
The Dusklings had the advantage of the ground and outnumbered the humans. Their archers occupied a hill on their left flank. The spear phalanx was deployed with the archers on one side and a rocky spire on the other, thus ensuring they could not easily be flanked. The wolves were deployed between the rocky spire and a woods. The humans were wholly in the open with their heavy cavalry ready to take on the wolves, their archers in the centre and their soldiers facing the Duskling archers.
I diced to see how much terrain to use (2-4 pieces) and where to place it. The dice favoured the Orcs. I then diced for deployment and placed the units appropriately. The deployment actually kind of makes sense. The BowOrcs will try to shoot up the human soldiers so that the phalanx can easily take them out. The wolves will try to stop the human cavalry. They have numbers but the cavalry will be fearsome if it charges first. I'm not sure how the archers and infantry will cope with each other, but I shall find out. The armies are starting closer together than they would on a full-sized table so the action will start sooner and there will be less manoeuvring.
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| Dusklings/Orcs at the top of the photo. The blue beads mark unactivated units |
Turn 1
Humans win the initiative.
The human archers activate successfully and fire at the Duskling archers who are just in range. 2 hits.
Duskling archers fail to activate but still get to shoot at the human soldiers. The humans form shieldwall but still take 1 hit.
The human soldiers fail to activate and march forward with their shields held up to defend themselves.
The Duskling phalanx fails to activate and marches straight forward towards the human archers.
The heavy cavalry races forward towards the wolves.
The wolves fail to activate and edge slowly towards the heavy cavalry.
Turn 2
Dusklings win initiative.
Duskling archers fail to activate and shoot at the human soldiers. The humans form shieldwall. 1 hit.
The heavy cavalry charges the wolves and scores 8(!!!!!) hits. The wolves score 0 hits in return. Despite the horrendous damage, they pass their morale but are pushed back 1"!
The Duskling phalanx fails to activate and moves straight forward towards the human archers.
The human archers activate and shoot at the phalanx. 2 hits.
The Dusklings have nothing left to activate, so the human soldiers activate and pivot on their officer before marching towards the flank of the Duskling phalanx.
Turn 3
Humans win the initiative
The human soldiers charge the Duskling phalanx in the flank. 4 hits. The Dusklings score 1 hit in return. Both units become disordered and the phalanx is pushed back 1".
The Duskling archers activate and shoot at the human soldiers. 2 hits. This is enough to break the soldiers who flee the field. The human archers watch their fleeing comrades with contempt as the Duskling archers advance off their hill to support their own phalanx.
The human archers activate and shoot at the Duskling phalanx. 2 hits.
The wolves activate, pivot on their leader and race off in an attempt to flee the heavy cavalry.
The heavy cavalry activates, wheels to face the wolves and charges them in the rear. 9 hits. The wolves are roadkill and fail to hit back in return.
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| The amber bead marks disorder, which is not a Good Thing |
Turn 4
Dusklings win the initiative.
The phalanx fails to activate and ambles towards the human archers.
The heavy cavalry moves forward and then wheels to attack the Duskling archers in the flank.
The Duskling archers fail to activate. They pivot on their leader to face the oncoming heavy cavalry. With any luck, they will get a good shot off before they are trampled underfoot.
The human archers activate and shoot at the phalanx. 3 hits. This is too much for the phalanx, which disintegrates and flees.
Turn 5
Humans win the initiative.
The heavy cavalry activates and charges the Duskling archers. 10 hits (!!!!!). The archers are roadkill and are so busy dying that they fail to hit the cavalry at all.
Game over. The humans win.
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| They think it's all over... |
Conclusions
That was fun. The basic system seems simple enough. I like the use of two dice for activations and morale tests, with success being if either die rolls high enough. That reduces the randomness of the game a bit. Of course, it still did not help the poor Duskling/Orc force who failed more activations than they passed.
The fixed number of dice for combat was a bit weird. I took an age checking it up, because the heavy cavalry get 2 dice per figure, but even then, they only get to roll 5 of them and all adjustments start from that 5, so defenders with a shield then reduce that to 4 dice. They still stomped everything they faced, and their high armour rating meant that they took no casualties at all.
Morale is a two step process: first disordered and then destroyed. Passing activation means that you lose the disordered status, which is where the Duskling phalanx went wrong. I like this process and I like that morale recovery is built into the activation system. It's simple and neat.
I am sure I got things wrong, so I shall read the rules again and try another game before moving on to adding characters and spellcasters to the game. This looks like a good way to use more of the figures I have painted for Five Leagues from the Borderlands and to encourage me to paint yet more of my unpainted lead pile. It also looks like a system that will work well solo, possibly with the Charles Grant Programmed Wargames Scenarios book, which has lain untouched on my shelf for an absolute age. It could even form the basis of a mini-campaign.
Speaking of campaigns, another element I particularly like is the move away from monoracial armies. Sure, you can build an Orc/Goblin force or an Elf force, but the campaign system is built around territory instead. Your capital defines the dominant race in the area but you then choose other territories to fill out your kingdom and it is your territories that decide who is in your army, not your leader's race. Maybe your human capital city is ringed around by Orc and Elf suburbs, and then you have a Dwarven city outside that. As the leader of your kingdom, you can then recruit soldiers of any of those races., so Elves could be standing alongside Orcs and Dwarves in a total subversion of more usual fantasy tropes. This is neato!
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