The hardback book is 192 pages with colour plates (some of which are the Oathmark figures' box art) and photographs.
Quick points
Figures:
28mm by design, figure agnostic but North Star have a growing range of Oathmark figures in hard plastic. Basing for human size infantry is 25mm x 25mm (metric inch).Scale:
This is a mass battle game, figures generally function in ranks of five figures wide. Additional ranks improve unit performance and resilience.
Larger figures often fight individually.
Command and Champion characters are normally part of units.
Minimum size game is 550 points (about 45 human soldiers – one and a half Oathmark boxes). A “pick up” game of 1000 points would be about 80 figures while a “Standard” game would be about 200.
Different figure types have different points costs (you would get less than five ranks of Elf Rangers for 550 or more than ten of Goblins).
Dice:
This is a D10 system, with a “Roll High” mechanic. Each side requires five D10s, four of one colour and one of another (the Champion Die).
Game Sequence:
Initiative rolled each turn. Generally players activate a unit at a time, Command characters can activate multiple units (up to three units).
Command and Control:
Each unit has an Activation number, this functions both as a willingness to respond to commands, and as the Morale of the unit. If a unit fails its activation roll, it may perform one simple action (move, manoeuvre, shoot) but cannot enter combat.
Campaign:
There is a clever campaign system (the author describes it here – link -). Each player creates a Kingdom. The Kingdom has various terrain types and each terrain type allows different types of troops. Success and Failure in battles affects the available terrain types and so your army choice.
Armies:
Besides the clever mechanics, the unique selling point of Oathmark is the multi-cultural nature of the armies. Different humanoid types owe their allegiance to the Kingdom from which they are drawn, not to similar types. This means you can have your Elf – Goblin army facing off against your friend’s Goblin – Elf army. The Humanoid types in the book are Human, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin and Orc.
The text is readable, and explains the rules well. There could have been a few more diagrams – the Line Of Sight diagram misses out on the more complicated types described in the book and a diagram showing the effect of obstructions would be welcome.
There is one layout issue on page 44, one of the photographs covers a line of text. I think there is a errata somewhere. There are a couple of page number errors in the contents.
There are three pages of quick reference, one Kingdom sheet and an Army Roster sheet at the back of the book
A unit is made up of an Officer and a number of figures. They are equipped the same and arranged in Ranks. The officer is for orientation and line of sight purposes, and is treated identically to the line soldier in the game.
If a unit is attacked in the flank or the rear, the number of Combat Dice is determined by the number of complete ranks in the unit (a unit of three ranks of five would roll three dice if attacked in the flank or rear, but with no Target Number modifier for the number of ranks).
Combat is simultaneous, and scoring higher causes additional hits.
Shooting uses a similar mechanism.
If a Disorganised unit fails a second Morale test, it is Broken and considered Killed.
Any unit from the same army within a set range of the Broken unit need to test Morale. If they fail the test they become Disorganised (unless they are already disorganised – in which case they are Broken). This can cause a cascade effect breaking all disorganised units in your army.
Purists who want single type armies will be disappointed, the multi-cultural nature is the strength of the rules (even if you only want the Goblin Spearmen as a speed bump for your Elf Archers).
I am surprised there are no rules for Undead (A supplement called Oathbreaker is due in November) nor for Gnolls and Snake Men (both of which are available in plastic for Frostgrave – another Osprey – North Star joint venture).
The hardback book does increase the initial cost, compared to one of the Osprey Blue Books, but the figure agnostic nature does mean that you can reuse your existing figures. The 25mm square basing is different to other games which use a 20mm square base as the default base size, but sabot bases are available in MDF with the Oathmark frontage. Renedra do plastic sabot bases (two and four ranks) that will take Frostgrave style 25mm diameter round bases.
The book
The book is a traditional Osprey hardback book, illustrated with colour plates, photographs and a few diagrams.The text is readable, and explains the rules well. There could have been a few more diagrams – the Line Of Sight diagram misses out on the more complicated types described in the book and a diagram showing the effect of obstructions would be welcome.
There is one layout issue on page 44, one of the photographs covers a line of text. I think there is a errata somewhere. There are a couple of page number errors in the contents.
There are three pages of quick reference, one Kingdom sheet and an Army Roster sheet at the back of the book
Rules
Units
Figures are combined into units. There are units of one (generally large monsters etc.).A unit is made up of an Officer and a number of figures. They are equipped the same and arranged in Ranks. The officer is for orientation and line of sight purposes, and is treated identically to the line soldier in the game.
Initiative
Each player rolls two dice, the player with the highest scoring die roll has the initiative for the turn.Activation
The players alternate activating units. Each unit has an Activation Number, to activate a unit you again roll two dice and need one die to be equal or greater than the Activation number. If you fail the Activation test, you can still move once, manoeuvre once or shoot (with penalty) – you cannot enter combat (but subsequently combat might come to you). On passing an Activation Test, you can take up to two actions: Move, Manoeuvre, Shoot, or enter combat. You can move twice (one and a half times your Move statistic).Combat
Each figure contributes a number of Combat Die, up to a maximum of five. The Target Number for the roll is determined by the Defence number of the Target minus the Fight Number and minus the number of Ranks (other modifiers also apply). So a unit of three ranks of five will still only roll five dice, but the Target number is lower because of the additional rank.If a unit is attacked in the flank or the rear, the number of Combat Dice is determined by the number of complete ranks in the unit (a unit of three ranks of five would roll three dice if attacked in the flank or rear, but with no Target Number modifier for the number of ranks).
Combat is simultaneous, and scoring higher causes additional hits.
Shooting uses a similar mechanism.
Morale
Morale uses the Activation Number as the Target Number, modifiers are applied, and two dice are rolled. If one of the dice equals or exceeds the target number, all is well. If both fail, the unit is Disorganised (with penalties for Activation and subsequent Morale rolls).If a Disorganised unit fails a second Morale test, it is Broken and considered Killed.
Any unit from the same army within a set range of the Broken unit need to test Morale. If they fail the test they become Disorganised (unless they are already disorganised – in which case they are Broken). This can cause a cascade effect breaking all disorganised units in your army.
Conclusion
The rules are clear, the mechanics avoid the bucket of dice syndrome that is prevalent in many other mass battle games and there are unique aspects to army selection and campaigns.Purists who want single type armies will be disappointed, the multi-cultural nature is the strength of the rules (even if you only want the Goblin Spearmen as a speed bump for your Elf Archers).
I am surprised there are no rules for Undead (A supplement called Oathbreaker is due in November) nor for Gnolls and Snake Men (both of which are available in plastic for Frostgrave – another Osprey – North Star joint venture).
The hardback book does increase the initial cost, compared to one of the Osprey Blue Books, but the figure agnostic nature does mean that you can reuse your existing figures. The 25mm square basing is different to other games which use a 20mm square base as the default base size, but sabot bases are available in MDF with the Oathmark frontage. Renedra do plastic sabot bases (two and four ranks) that will take Frostgrave style 25mm diameter round bases.
