A quick look at Oathmark

So I borrowed a copy of Oathmark from a friend as we’re always interested in a good fantasy game especially if it’s designed to allow freedom in force composition and background. As a note this isn’t going to be a review as such (some great comprehensive reviews on the actual game mechanics can be seen here and here) rather just some of my opinions having read through (but not yet played) it.

To start with it’s a nice looking set of rules, well laid out and easy to read. It has some beautiful artwork scattered throughout it (see above - reminds me of Paul Bonner in composition if not style) but noticeably whilst the game would be termed a rank and flank (massed units clashing in rank and file) the art work shows skirmishes where the combatants are intermixed, spilling over terrain features and fighting in whirling melees.

The game system is well written and presented in a straightforward manner. The basics of moving, fighting and shooting are covered with good, clear examples. There is a magic section with a range of spells and army lists for the races presented. The most interesting thing (for me) is the fact that you can freely mix races in your army that in many settings would be taboo. This is the great thing about not having a strict background to work from, whilst some people may not like the lack of structure it allows a very narrative and personal force to be built. Each race has a selection of generic options such as soldiers (light armour with hand weapons), warriors (as soldiers but with heavy armour), archers, line breakers (warriors with double handed weapons) and cavalry. They also have unique options such as specific monsters, war machines and the like. So whilst only humans have ogres in their parent list any race can take them if you want to because of the campaign system that comes in the form of a kingdom builder.

The kingdom map allowing your imagination to run wild and to create your own perfect fantasy kingdom.

The force you use in Oathmark is derived by the kingdom you build. The kingdom map is a series of concentric circles, the middle (usually) being your capital surrounded by two regions in the first ring, three in the second and four in the third. The outer ring is split into five areas or regions but is not initially filled in. You start by choosing a heartland for your kingdom from one of the presented races specific terrain lists, this is usually a race specific capital city which unlocks various options for troop choices in the game. Next you fill in the two regions surrounding it, unlocking more troop types (e.g. plains for human cavalry) and so on until you have filled all four of the rings. The good thing is that you don’t have to choose terrain (and thus troop types) from only one races terrain lists, as long as you meet the specified conditions you can choose whatever terrain you like and thus unlock any model choice you are interested in. It’s a neat little system (very similar to my friends idea and system we have used for campaign games). You can find a pdf of the kingdom creating rules here provided very helpfully before the games release by Osprey. It’s probably easier to let you read them rather than copy it out here.

An example army list provided by Osprey publishing to give you an idea of force size and points cost.

For me this is the best part of the whole book but that is also the problem I have with Oathmark. It just seems incredibly lightweight, you can’t change the armament of groups of models, some units are race specific (I realise the kingdom system works around this but things like only elves can have warhounds really niggle at me) and most troop options only vary by a stat point or two across the different races. I could be totally wrong and just be jumping to conclusions (the game is two years late after all so must have been carefully play tested and really honed to how the writer wants them) but I just think that upon reading the rules thoroughly there isn’t enough depth to the game for me personally. I’m not generally a fan of games that fall into the ‘beer and pretzels’ category of gaming having been burnt by Saga 1st ed (I spent ages making my vikings just to discover that generally there were only two options you wanted on the battle board and games were quite dull and predictable). I’m also dubious that there is already two add-ons announced for the game. Part of this may be just that in an era of huge numbers of game systems coming out in an almost constant stream I’m tired of buying into a rule set just to be sold additional books soon after, followed by a second edition and so on (then the few people who you do know that play it get bored and give up). It should be noted that the writer also wrote Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadow Deep both of which are great fun and very slick, competent games.

I know this all seems very negative and there is a reason for this (I’m not just trying to be a d#@k like it’s seems large parts of the net often are). I was really excited and looking forward to the release of Oathmark like many on the net and in popular forums. The problem is since it’s release I’ve only seen gushing, over excited reviews and comments about it. A lot of this, in my opinion, is the fact that the kingdom system is so refreshing (in that it doesn’t tell you what you can and can’t do with your army and model collection). I totally understand this but think that it has distracted many gamers from the meat and bones of the game. Again I haven’t played it yet and could be very wrong (I’ve only read the rules and a number of battle reports) and will attempt to get it to the table in the future, I just don’t think, at this point, it is really going to satisfy my need for a rank and flank game.

Anyone remember this? - quite the opposite to Oathmark and (in my experience) almost impossible to play. Maybe ignore everything I’ve written and just enjoy Oathmark’s simplicity in retrospect.

Enough of that. Let me restate that this is just my opinion. I’m often a masochist when it comes to gaming (Phoenix command is one of my favourite systems even if I can’t ever find anyone else patient enough to play it with me). Check out the actual reviews (by real people) I’ve linked to above, have a look at the kingdom generator pdf (maybe borrow it and adapt it to whatever game you currently play) and if you can, have a game of it with someone who’s already taken the plunge to see if it suits you, it may be exactly what you are looking for. Sadly this hobby is full of people who will tell you that you are doing “it” wrong. Ignore them, they generally aren’t actually having any fun anyway. If it makes you happy embrace it and roll some dice.

Stay safe and well,
BALM