Frostgrave OATHMARK GOBLIN INFANTRY

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We managed to sort out 1600+ point armies and then play a game within about 3 hours. The unit profiles and math to get to your shooting or combat target numbers can be intimidating at first, but you get the hang of it,or at least I did, and I find math hard at times. But it helped that we were both using orcs and humans. Humans, elves, orcs and goblins are all subtly different which can have an effect once you start rolling the dice. The initiative and activation rolls use 2d10, which is nice. You only have to win one roll, so rolling 2 dice helps avoid the constant roll offs when you tie. For activiating you are also more likely to succeed with 2 chances (or 3 if close to the General), but the Mad Padre and I certainly had our share of dud activation rolls, so friction will still happen. We didn't try magic or special magical items though. But it seems from a cursory look that each race has different magic spells, giving each a different flavour. You can give them dynamic poses, that fill 25mm round bases or rank them up to a proper regiment on 20mm squares. Both options work quite well, and due to the vast options of weaponry (and the beat-up hand weapons are a proper choice for goblins) you can build multiple types of regiments from this set, so it's a proper core choice beyond Oathmark for similar games like Kings of War or Saga Age of Fantasy if you like. Due to their slender build, the goblins could even be used along with the true scaled miniatures of the Lord of the Rings, maybe not as goblins, but as Mordor orcs or such not a bad choice. One thing that makes Oathmark stand out from your traditional fantasy game – and a simple, but brilliant, idea – is being able to mix races in an army. In principle there’s nothing to stop you having an army which contains units from all five races. It’s a little difficult to arrange in practice, and conceptually it might take some imagining, but my own fantasy universe actually makes that perfectly plausible.

ABOVE: A Crusader battle. The Editor notes the Salute 2003 figure of Richard the Lionheart (sculpted by Mark Copplestone) in the foreground and is very pleased... Notes: Because Oathmark limits all troop types to no more than 4 units of each, the largest WOTR army possible in Oathmark (using the above constraints) would be sixteen units: 4 Archers, 4 Human Spearmen and 8 other units, of which no more than 4 can be cavalry and no more than 2 can be heavy cavalry.

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I’m also not that interested in so-called “balanced” games. I find asymmetric and scenario-driven games much more rewarding and more realistic. Oathmark unit specs can be treated as “hypothetical” historical units, and pitted against each other on that basis, (e.g. a large army of units with poor activation faces a small army with good activation: Persians against Macedonians, say) whilst several of the scenarios also offer plausible historical possibilities. I think this is a great mechanism for historical gaming, and one well worth adopting/adapting and, moreover, fun to experiment with, though it’s probably unlikely to lead to real historical insight... How is Oathmark different, then? It’s novel in several key ways which make it potentially attractive. The first is its take on the fantasy concept. Unlike more “corporate” approaches to game systems, it’s not tied to any particular figures or manufacturer. Northstar have taken care to produce an excellent range of supporting figures, which potentially cover all players’ needs and the signs are that these will keep on coming, but for players like me who have heritage collections of fantasy figures from their D&D or Warhammer days, not a single new figure is needed. We are getting to misty parts... But there is still one clue: the book art. If you look closely at the book, you can notice, that the box arts are also included in it: double sided prints, with more, differently armed figures. But there are also such pictures, what we haven'tseen on plasticboxes. Yet... I think, that its pretty likely, that we will later! Here is a list of the double sided, box-art-like pictures from the books, with my tip on the possible sets: I think the sculpting here is pretty darn awesome. The older Goblin kit is nice but I think the quality here is a step up. I think the heads in particular are amazing!

For a First Age ‘evil’ army you can use whatever structure you see fit, and you can use the core Oathmark rules stats for most units straight out of the rules, however there are some creatures and characters that need to be added which are definitely not listed within the Oathmark lore. The Fifth Battle, Nirnaeth Arnoediad (The Battle of Unnumbered Tears) was the last battle of the War of the Jewels and, essentially, smashed the Noldor forces in Beleriand. The only main Elven strongholds left facing Morgoth after the battle were Nargothrond, Doriath and the City of Gondolin.The contents of each box allow gamers to create 30 figures, which is a sizable regiment or two smaller companies. There are a number of metal miniatures that compliment the range, plus foes in the shape of some similarly retro-new Dwarves and rumours of Elves on the way. Let's begin the build with the five different bodies. I will mix the weaponry, to show a bit of each and build a small warband rather than a regiment of goblins. As for the weapons, I gave them a bow and arrow, a sabre like sword, a large axe for the champion, a banner pole for the banner bearer and spear for the fifth goblin. Rangers of Shadow Deep, for example, has spawned individual fan versions (called “reskins”: an appropriately dark description) for universes such as Star Wars, post-apocalypse, WW2, Inquisitor, Dragon Age, 40K, Victorian Sci-fi, Judge Dredd and Call of Cthulu. Again, from this I suggest eliminating Class 1, 2, 4, 6, and 9. I would suggest an Orc General (Class 3) as the Army commander with a bodyguard made up from class 11, the rest of the 40% of the whole army I would make up from Class 7, 8, 10. As an addition to these I would add an option of a Troll unit, using the standard Troll statistics from the rules. You could use the same Captain stats for their commanders as a Goblin Captain or Champion. Their Terrain would be a Halfling Village. CONCLUSIONS