Oathmark - Is this my new fantasy battle game?
Oathmark – A Return to Fantasy Mass Battles
When I first started playing miniature games way back in 1989, I started with Warhammer Fantasy Battle: 3rd Edition. I initially tried to make a dwarf army, but the cost of the metal miniatures was more than the young teenage me could manage. I then settled on the Undead because I could get a whole plastic army in a single box!
For the next six editions of the game I used the Undead. Along the way I also tried lots of other armies, most notably the Empire and the Ogre Kingdoms.
Eventually, the Old World gave way to the Age of Sigmar. I have collected armies for Age of Sigmar (AoS), but I miss the blocks of infantry and cavalry that Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) had. Additionally, I have my old armies sitting in their cases in the loft and, at present, they seem unlikely to see the light of day again.
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Then, the other day, I stumbled across Oathmark, a mass-battle fantasy wargame published by Osprey Games. This game uses the classic fantasy races of Orcs and Goblins, Elves, Dwarves, Humans, and Undead.
When I started researching the game, a friend lent me the rulebook. As soon as I began reading it, I realised that the army-building choices were remarkably simple and it had a feel of 3rd Edition WFB.
The troops for each race follow a similar pattern. There are, in most cases, light infantry, infantry and heavy infantry, cavalry, and monsters. In a similar way, troops have access to hand weapons, spears, two-handed weapons, and bows.
Finally, a fantasy game would not be complete without heroes, and these are included as well. These heroes do not seem overpowered but instead help to buff nearby units.
The game also has a feel of Warmaster, a game produced by Games Workshop in 2000. I say this because, to use a unit during a turn, it needs to pass an activation roll—something I found remarkably similar to the command rolls in Warmaster.
North Star produces a range of miniatures for the game, but as the races are so generic, miniatures from almost any company could be used.
Based on this idea, I intend to use my old Undead and Empire armies to try the game out. Then I would like to build an army from scratch. This might finally be the opportunity to scratch that fantasy battle itch.
The miniatures produced by North Star are true 28mm scale.
This scale matches Games Workshop’s Lord of the Rings range. I mention this because Oathmark uses square bases. Importantly, the base size matters in this game, but equally, the base size determines the movement tray size.
You could easily use round bases of the correct diameter and place them on movement trays with the appropriate footprint. The only issue I can see with this plan is that cavalry and monster bases may end up being the wrong dimensions, although that is something I can figure out later.
By having the miniatures on round bases, I can also potentially use some of my Age of Sigmar miniatures.
I am really looking forward to playing this game, but for now I have my enthusiasm for mass-fantasy battle games back.
All I need to do now is find someone else willing to play! If you live in the South-East of England let me know.
I intend to write more articles on Oathmark as I dive further into the game.
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If you have any questions or thoughts, please drop them in the comments below.
Bye for now.
What's that base texture? And where did you get the troll?
ReplyDeleteLooks good.
Forgot to add a name... Matt
ReplyDeleteHi Matt,
ReplyDeleteThe Troll is Mollog from Games Workshop Warhammer Underworld.
The base texture for the goblins is putty smoothed over the base. I wanted to make them look like they were still in the caves. You can see my Night Goblins on a different post.