"The Armies of Oathmark" Topic

Osprey Games and North Star Military Figures have now released their newest Mass Combat Fantasy System – Oathmark. In it, you build a Kingdom and wage wars against your neighbors. There are four core races in the book (Dwarf, Human, Elf and Goblin/Orc). Those races all get along within a Kingdom, but will fight for their lords against neighboring kingdoms.

Over on Must Contain Minis, I went through all of the races in the book and listed their advantages and disadvantages in the game. I also listed their unique units.

Come check it out… link

Article at… link

Great looking minis and sounds like an interesting set of rules – thanks for sharing!

Happy to share. Thanks for the comment Frederick.

Nice article, and I have a fair few of the Oathmark figures, but hardly any have hit the painting table yet. Looks like I will need to pick the rules up at some stage.

That's awesome Huscarle. Takes a while for my minis to hit the paint table too. :)

Thanks for doing this.

Thank you Coopman. Glad you find it of use. I have another post coming up that I think you will also like. :)

Nice summary. Thanks!

Thanks SeattleGamer.

Still waiting for my copy of the book to come in the Mail.

Pre-Order back in March.

That's a long wait Mithmee. This whole pandemic has made a mess of thing for sure.

Part two of the article at…
link

Geez. So it looks like Oathmark is going to require buying multiple army expansion books. I'm not happy about that. I know that I wouldn't "need" to buy them all, of course. But still…. what does everyone think about this?

@Capt Flash,

You get 4 armies in the main book. And with the ability to mix all 4 armies, you get a lot of combinations. So that's more than fair, I think.

Not a fan of army books. It is a marketing tactic borrowed from Games Workshop's Warhammer rules and marketing.

I still play 2e BattleSystem rules, based on 2nd Ed. AD&D rules. The single rulebook has instructions on how to convert armies/creatures not listed in the rules. You can make up whatever you want.

IMO, army expansions are not worthy of an entire book (mostly fluff, I would imagine). From a marketing position, it is a great way to sell products…

This also speaks directly to the fact that they are hoping to run tournaments, just like GW: churns more sales of all types of official products; players will want/need to conform to the official rules, nothing will be allowed to be created by the players, only official rules, mini's, etc., in the tournaments.

If that is what you want, enjoy! If you want to expand your home games, with different armies, you will need to look at several armies, and compare "official" armies to those you wish to add, and build your new army's stat's accordingly. In doing so, you will be participating in the design factors within the game, as you may need to make adjustments, over time, to make it balanced. To me, that is a lot of fun, as it requires me to dig into the game's rules, and figure out how it is put together, and why… Cheers!

For example, I created Lizardman Cavalry: I removed the bases of some plastic Lizardmen figures, and I mounted them on top of some Schleich Lizard toy figures, which happen to be about the correct size. I went to the chapter on converting 2e AD&D game creatures to 2e BS rules, and I have my stats for them. Are they balanced? Is it "accurate"? Pish-posh! I trust the game designer's efforts: as long as I follow his rules, I am 'legal', within the rules, as written. He also has a points system, so I just calculate their point value, and I am within the rules, as written.

I am not interested in tournaments. I play with my local friends, almost exclusively. I have run convention games, as well as played in them. I follow the rules, so I consider my games 'legal', per the written rules.

I nearly always hear players complain, "We can't win -- this scenario is not balanced!" I hear this, simultaneously, from both sides… LOL! By their own complaints, the scenario is virtually confirmed to be balanced. Cheers!

Thanks for the comments guys. Sgt Slag, I never tried 2e BattleSystem, but always wanted to try it back in the days when I played D&D.

2e BS is a great game, aside from AD&D RPG's. It can handle just about anything you throw at it. It is quite comprehensive, with a broad scope. It is also available from DriveThruRPG.com, for $3.79 USD, as a PDF -- currently on sale, normally $4.99 USD. Cheers!

Nice!