""Of Gods and Mortals" rules, any info?" Topic

I' m tempted by this new set of rules by Osprey.
Did someone play this game? Infos to share?

It's written by the Song of Blades & Heroes author, & "uses the same engine". Here's the blurb on the Ganesha Games site
link

I know it was discussed on the Songs yahoo group too.

Pre-ordered the rules, got a few friends into the "period", and already made up two warbands with movement trays before I even laid eyes on the rules.

Other than the fact that is it based on the "Song" engine (which I have never played but have read great things about), what I gathered is that there once was a Faith tracking mechanic that has been abandoned (you now just need to have at least 3 followers or something), and that it looks like it was originally planned to be released with more factions.

link

"Factions represented in the rulebook include: Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Japanese, Aztecs, Pre-Islamic Arabs (Arabian Nights), Norse, Celts and Chinese. For every army list, a list suitable models from various manufacturers and scales will be included. New armies may be added as free PDF add-ons, keeping the game fresh for years."

"The faith level of the warband is tracked with dice at the side of the table. When the faith level is at the maximum, the army is bolstered, priests may invoke miracles and curses, mortal troops activate at +1, and so on. When the faith level is severely reduced, the power level of the god is reduced too, and priests may not perform miracles or use spells. When the faith level drops to zero, the god disappears and all the troops still in play must make a rout test."

Presumably the four factions dropped from the final edition will be released as free pdfs later – Osprey has a standard page count for their wargames series, it seems.

Here are my Norse dwarven and Fomorian (don't think they are in the rules, but I'll proxy) warbands:

Uh, Amazon says this will be released Oct 22. Are we talking about Andrea's OTHER new rules, BATTLESWORN? Or something else? or am I/Amazon confused?

No doc mcb, we' re talking about "Of Gods and Mortals" by Osprey. I' m tempted by the topic and the miniatures

@Pedrobear, nice "army"

@Black Cavalier, thank you

Okay, I plan to buy it when it is out -- and I assume someone has playtested it -- but it is a couple of months before release, right?

The Amazon blurb is somewhat out of date (and damned if I can get them to change it!). Of Gods and Mortals (OGAM) is based on the Song of Blades and Heroes system, but introduces new mechanics and rules to make it stand apart from that predecessor.

Warbands are smallish affairs, with a God leading the force, a few Legends, and a couple of units of 4–8 Mortals being the norm – e.g. Thor, Fenrir, a Dvergar Weaponsmith, two Valkyries, a unit of 8 berserkers and a unit of 4 skirmishers.

Changes since the Amazon blurb include the reworking of the faith system as mentioned above – there's no tracking of levels or faith points, but the interplay between Gods, Legends and Mortals remains, and each must rely on the other to work effectively.

The rulebook contains Celt, Greek, Norse and Egyptian lists (totalling 37 Gods, 45 Legends and 53 Mortal units). The 'missing four' (Chinese, Japanese, Aztec and Pre-Islamic Arab) haven't really been forgotten (I know for a fact at least two are fully developed, so keep an eye out closer to the October release date). As suggested above, this reduction was due to space constraints, but we did make sure that the book includes a full unit builder that allows you to stat up your own pantheons, adjust existing units you think should be represented differently, and create whatever new units you like.

Fomorians and Dvergar ARE already included in the book, so those two cracking armies shown above should be really easy to field.

There's some more detailed discussion, including an example of unit creation, and some photos of more sample warbands and the forthcoming North Star OGAM figures here: link

Cheers!

Phil Smith
Commissioning Editor
Osprey Wargames

That's GREAT news to me Phil!

One more question: Does OGAM use the same measurements and markers as SOBH? I am trying to decide if I should by the SOBH templates from Litko. Thanks.

Really thank you Phil

Marzio.

The measurements are the same as for SOBH – Short 7.5cm, Medium 12cm, Long 18cm – and all of the Litko counters are usable. There is one additional 'state' (for which a counter could be used) – Awed. This works like Transfixed to a degree, in that it limits what a unit can do, but it is a distinct effect, with different in-game results, and stems from magnificent displays of godly might.

I can add that there will be an Osprey-sponsored tournament in Rome, Italy in the first weekend of December at Ludica, Rome's largest convention. So I plan to have tournament rules available as a free PDF at the end of November.

I suggest preparing a 2 x Medium stick which is helpful in the deployment phase.

Also, watch out for official miniatures and army deals on Northstar's website link

I've never played "Song of Blades and Heroes", but I am head-over-heels in love with this game.
I'm still painting up Greeks and Egyptians for it and I will be painting up Japanese mythological creatures to augment my Feudal Japan armies to use with the Ganesh Games army lists.
My friends are painting extra Norse and Celts to augment their SAGA forces for OGAM, and the campaign rules look great. Took me about two hours to makee up measuring sticks. I've never used any before, but I like them a lot.
As a sales point for my interest, I realized years of roleplaying with fantasy miniatures meant I had a huge menagerie of the monters in the game, and since I run my RPGs in mythic Greece I was able to play the game from Day One, now I'm just filling in gaps.
It's fast, it's reasonable and it's a lot of fun. I recommend it without reservation.

Hi! Just a quick note to let you know that Of Gods and Mortals has its first supplement (Celts) and a few other things besides! If you're interested in mythological skirmishing or historical/mythological fantasy in general, I hope you will check it out. Here are some links:

OGAM rulebook at Osprey: link

OGAM Celts PDF from Ganesha Games: link

OGAM Celts paperback from CreateSpace eStore: createspace.com/6843251

OGAM Celts author's notes: link

OGAM Facebook group: link

Osprey Google+ community: link

North Star Miniatures official OGAM miniatures: link

Hope to see you around the OGAM community!

Graeme