Oathmark - first Battle Report

So. This dropped in yesterday. (Don't wory, most likely a deeper review will follow in due time, but meanwhile, there has been plenty written over the internet about Oathmark in the last few weeks as the books started to drop).

And a combination of factors means that today, I had the fastest planned game ever. And it might be a first on the internet, or very close. It's not a game playing with against myself. I didn't conscript some moderately interested spouse/kid/dog/neightbour. It's an honest to the gods game between two miniature wargamers facing each other over the table. And because this has been known to be coming for some time, we even had ready, all painted, forces (and ready kingdoms, to justify any mix, even if we're not doing campaigns off the bat). Life can be good sometimes.

The forces from the Northern Wolf-lords consisted of
A Human Prince on a horse
4 Human Heavy Cavalry
1 Wulver (Dire Wolf, really)
10 Human Warriors
20 Human Spearmen
10 Human Rangers
Totaling 995 points

The Old Alliance fielded a patrol consisting of
A Dwarven Captain
A Dwarven Champion
A Dwarven Spellcaster (level 2, with Fireball and Resolute)
16 Dwarven Spearmen
9 Dwarven Linebreakers
10 Elven Archers
Totaling 988 points.

To make things as easy as possible for a first game, we went with Pitched Battle (form up in lines, march to the beat of the drums, kill and don't die, always an easy mission to test out a system with). Similarly, to reduce clutter, but still possibly get a small taste of mayhem, we decided to run with Strange Events, but not the Catastrophic ones.

"Up" on the table were a forest (smaller trees assumed in between the three larger ones), while "down" was just some rough ground where the former trees had been cut down. Some houses and stone walls rounded out the battlefield.

The Wolf-lords formed up with the Wulver (Dire Wolf) holding the left flank, Warriors on the other side of the house, Spearmen next to them, Rangers ready to move into the forest, and the Heavy Cavalry, with the Prince, on the right flank, ready to sweep down.

The, significantly smaller, Alliance force deployed with the dwarven Spearmen led by the Captain up front, Elven Archers behind them (ready to fire over their shorter companions). The Linebreakers anchored the right flank, while the Spellcaster sheltered between the blocks of fighters.

First thing that happened, an unexpected hero stepped forward among the Warriors for the Wolf-lords (he rolled a double 10 for initiative round 1, and got a free Champion).

Most of Turn 1 was uneventful maneuvering as the forces closed in, but the Dwarven Spellcaster stepped forth and, annoyed at the young interlopers, threw a fireball at the Rangers skulking behind the forest. Succeeding at casting the spell (rolling 2 dice and needing at least one 7), he then proceeded to immolate one Ranger (Fireball: 3 dice shooting attack, Shoot 4 vs the Rangers Defence 8, needing 4s). It could have gone better, but at least the Rangers no longer had a second full rank.

At the end of Turn 1, the forces had closed in, but nothing more interresting had happened.

Turn 2 opened with more of the same. Another Fireball, this time at the approaching Warriors (Defense 10, so needing 10-4=6s). Another charred body hit the ground.

The Warriors, led by their unexpected hero, bravely continue onwards, and step into charge range from the enemy Spearmen, relying on their own to provide a nasty countercharge into the enemy flank if exposed.

The dwarves decide that that is quite unnecessary, but answer not with Dwarven Spears, but with Elven arrows (the warriors defense of 10 vs Elven Shoot of 3, +1 for the extra rank = 6 to hit). 3 more Warriors fall to the deadly Archers, and they're temporarily disordered (They needed to roll more than their Activation of 5, +3 for the casualties, -1 for just being shot at, on either of two dice. A 1 and a 2 did not suffice).

The Human Rangers have managed to get themselves into position, and let loose on the Dwarven Spearmen (Defense 10 - Shoot 2 = 8 to hit). Dwarven blood hits the ground as one of them fall.

Needing to roll 4s (Activation of 4, +1 for casualty, -1 for shooting) on either of three dice (one extra dice from the Captains Command ability), only her steady voice keeps the spears steady. For now. (Seriously, that was a close call, succeeding only on one of the dice, the other two abysmal failures).

The start of Turn 3 see some significant losses on the side of the Northern Wolf-lords, but the Old Alliance have so far had little of it. That is about to change.

Right of the start, the Dire Wolf charge into the Linebreakers. It promises to be a bloody fight, as the Dire Wolf (Wulver) will hit on (Linebreaker Defense 11 - Wulver Fight 3 - Wulver has Charge (2) =) 6s, and has 3 dice, while the Linebreakers will similarly hit on (Wulver Defense 10 - Linebreaker Fight 3 =) 7s, and has a grand total of 5 dice, one of which is a Champion die (so do double damage on a hit)

The brutal exchange sees two Linebreakers gored and dead, while the Dire Wolf takes 2 Wounds.

A slight misreading of the rules leads to the Dire Wolf winning, and pushing back the slow dwarves 6" (looking at the rules now, it is not bodies that count, but the amount of hits scored, so it should have been a draw, with both units moving back 1").

After a fizzled Fireball from the Spellcaster (attempting to finsih the almost dead Dire Wolf), the Warriors then charge into the Dwarven Spearmen for another brutal fight. The Spearmens will hit on (Warriors Defense 10 - Fight 2, - 2 for extra ranks) 6s, felling 4 of the Warriors. But striking back on (Defence 10 - Fight 3, and no extra ranks) 7s, the Warriors not only hit twice, but one of those hits is the Champion Dice rolling a natural 10. Instead of hitting more ordinary dwarves, the Captain is beheaded and killed.

It is still a victory for the Dwarves, but at what cost? Rolling only a single dice for morale due to the loss of their leader, the Spearmen are Disordered.

It is then of small comfort that the Elven Archers finish of the mad Wolf on their flank, needing only a single hit to kill it, rolling 5 dice on (Defense 10 - Shoot 3 - 1 extra rank =) 6s.

The Human Heavy Cavalry continue up the flank, as the Rangers down another Speardwarf (still needing 8s to hit). The dwarves remain somewhat steady, though.

And on to Turn 4. Things are looking significantly bleaker for the Old Alliance now, as they're left leaderless and shaken, even with the surprising light casualties.

The Rangers open up with their 3rd volley on the Dwarven Spearmen, still needing (Defense 10 - Shoot 2 =) 8s manage a spectacular 3 hits with two 9s and a 10.

The Dwarves now need to roll a morale test on (Activation 4, +3 casualties, -1 for just being shot at =) 6, on a single dice due to the loss of their leader, and already Disrupted, fail spectacularly, decide that enough is enough, and Break. The rest of the force remain steady, but things have suddenly taken a distinct turn for the worse.

Once again, the Elven Archers can only get vengeance by finishing off the few remaining Warriors, and then wheel to present their front to the oncoming horde of Humans, while the Spellcaster fizzle his magic and head out of there. The Linebreakers are finally getting close to the fighting again after having been so brutally pushed back by the wolf.

Turn 5, and while both forces are significantly weaker, it is the Old Alliance who have the largest bleeding gap with the flight of the Speardwarves.

But a swift seizing of the initiative by the Alliance (a double 10 for me, and the Elven Archers suddenly having a Champion as well), sees the Linebreakers charging into the exposed flank of the Human Spearmen.

But not all goes according to plan. While the Linebreakers hit on (Defense 10 - Fight 3 =) 7, with a full 5 dice including Champion die, and down 3 Humans (Champion die once again doing nothing), the Humans, hitting back on (Defense 11 - Fight 2, no bonuses due to hit in the flank =) 9s, still manage to down 2 Linebreakers. Morale is successful all around.

And the sneaky Human Heavy Cavalry manages to catch the Linebreakers in the flank as well with some fancy maneuvering. Things look bleak even as the Champion steps forward and Fights Alone (because from the flank, it means more dice at better Fight). Still, it means (Defence 13 - Fight 4, no bonuses =) 9s to hit, on 3 dice, while the Cavalry will hit back on (Defence 11 - Fight 3 - Charge (3) - 1 for hitting the flank =) 4s with all their 5 dice. Even after removing one dice each, due to the Champion having Shielding, this is looking grim. The only hope, is if the Dwarven Champion die comes up a 10, killing the Human Prince and possibly turning things around.

It does not. In fact, there is not a single hit, while the Cavalry hits with all ut one of their dice, leaving the Champion standing alone and Disordered.

Turn 6, and things are swiftly going from bad to worse for the Alliance.

The Wolf-lord activates first, and the Spearmen charge into the elusive Elven Archers that have tortured them every step of the way. But while Elves and Archers both are a bit squishy (Defense 9 - Fight 2 - 2 ranks = 5s to hit), only 2 fall, and they strike back with surprising alactrity (Defense 9 - Fight 1 = 8s to hit, and Champion die which once again proved useless), and a Spearman also falls.

The lone Champion of the Linebreakers is swifly ridden down as the mage tries to make some barbeque of the Cavalry, but fails to hit anything. The Human Rangers are by now left far behind and are not able to spot any Dwarves or Elves behind the charging masses of their own friends.

And it's Turn 7. By now, victory is quite clear, but we decide to play on simply for the rules practice.

The Elves manage to get off another volley before the Spearmen can activate, felling 2 more.

But the Spearmen remain steady (certainly helped by their Prince fighting next to them), and in vengeance moves in and kill two more Elves, for no kills in return (have I mentioned that the Champion die, it does nothing?).

The Cavalry then decides to ride down the Spellcaster as they did the Champion. Spellcasters are about as squishy as Elves, so that is swiftly done, but not before his raven manages to peck out the eyes of one of the knights (who knew, the one Heavy Cavalry killed, was killed by a decrepit old hermit with a wooden staff, despite needing 11s (which means 10, rerolled into 8+ in Oathmark) to hit). It isn't even the first time this particular model have proven to be surprisingly dangerous in melee...

And with that, there are only 6 Elves remaining of the Old Alliance patrol, and they wisely decide to surrender. Enough blood have been spilled this day.

The whole game, from deployment (well, first picture, once deployment was done) to the end (last picture) was 1 hour, 20 minutes. Not bad for a first play.

...

So. That was fun (now, a few hours later, despite the savage buttkicking I got handed to me).

First up, we naturally screwed up a few rules, since we got the book yesterday, and had had enough time to read through it once.

First of all, I did a major mistake in assuming that when the Spell Description said "any unit", it meant any unit, missing the fact that all spells require Line of Sight. It would have made little difference, since the Spellcaster had Line of Sight (and no range is specified) when he successfully cast, and failed to cast/failed to hit when I didn't have Line of Sight (due to running away).

We also made a mistake in deciding who won combat. It is the number of hits caused (before possibly redirecting some of them on a Leader/Officer), not the number of bodies going down. Makes large, multi-wound models not quite as strong.

Finally, through all the shooting we did, we forgot that Shielding removes dice, so we should have rolled one less dice throughout almost all of the shooting, which would make shooting less powerful (although I will claim that I needed all the help I could get, considering the results).

Now, with that out of the way, what did we think of the rules, why did it go like it did, what could we (I) have done better?

First up, the rules are very good, simple while not being simplistic. We only had a few times we needed to look up exactly how something worked or if something was possible, and every time, it was quick to find and easy to understand (and keep in mind, we had each read the rules once before this). Compared to some other games I've played, that is quite exceptional. I might have found a fantasy mass battle system that fits me, at long last.

The battle hinged on one, pivotal (cinematic) moment. When the Human Warriors charged into the Dwarven Spearmen, and their Champion (that got generated by a random event, mind you), swiftly decapitated the Dwarven Captain. This lead to the Speardwarven swiftly becoming Disordered, and soon thereafter Broke. The Linebreakers were somewhat out of position to help, but could have come back swinging had they had another turn before it all went to pieces. But as it were, they were too few, and too late.

But in the end, I think my major mistake was the list. I broke one of the axioms I always try to play by when designing lists, "boys before toys", ie more bodies on the field before focusing on elite, small units that may or may not be able to pull their weight if caught out of position. Specifically, I had 3 characters where I should probably have been satisfied with 1. This left me both low on bodies, and low on units. For next time, I will have to think of something better. Especially as I already run on few bodies with my choice of Dwarves (not exactly cheap) and Elves (bloody expensive), I don't think I can afford too many (also expensive) characters. Not if I want enough bodies to get the mission done and remain standing.

But one thing is certain. Do NOT put captains in the first line. They do not provide anything there, and they're vulnerable to a lucky Champion championing around. There is a nice line in the rulebook, "Character figures are rarely attached to units of archers or slingers...". I will freely call that a bold faced lie, quite possibly the biggest one in the book (I can even accept the only one in the book). My captains will henceforth serve among the archers, BEHIND the frontline (lets leave that spot to the Champions, those nutters can go kill each other).

For final thoughts, the system currently feels a little bit unbalanced (or it's my choice of units), in that the elite (elves and dwarves), while individually better, are not actually better in aggregate than the masses of goblins and humans, while having significantly fewer to loose. But it is very much a first feeling, more games will definitely be needed before I can say it with anything even remotely resembling coherence. Perhaps I've just managed to hit a bad mix of expensive, but not quite good/fast enough to make use of it, units. Perhaps I just need more experience and/or become a better player. (Or perhaps I need to get a horde of Goblins and Orcs, and accept my inner berserker) ;)

But one thing is certain. This looks like a game worth to keep, and worth to keep playing. (The fact that the art alone makes the rulebook worth it doesn't make things worse).

/Fool Out