52. Oathmark: Oathbreakers

Oathbreakers was the second Oathmark supplement, and it was a big one! Not because it was thicker or printed on larger pages, but because it introduced a brand new faction: Undead!

The main theme were of course undead, so lets take a look at different types:

• Revenants: they are undying warriors, who are bond to the world with curses or oaths. They are strong, fast (M6 in heavy armor!) and disciplined. There different characters/units are: King, Prince, General, Captain, Champion, Warrior, Linebreaker, Cavalry (in heavy armor), Chariot (a resilient tank with limited maneuverability). And all the characters can choose an undead horse as a mount, or a chariot, which can make them really fearsome!
• Necromancer: the spellcaster! But beware, an undead kingdom can either have a Revenant King or Prince as a leader, or a high level Necromancer, but not both of them (a max. 3rd level spellcaster is available for everybody). That makes an interesting choice at the kingdom building. They aren't undead, but they can choose to be one (a lich), and can have the same options as the revenant characters (undead horse or chariot).
• Skeletons: the expendable part of the undead army. They are hard to control, bad at shooting, bad at fighting, but really cheap. They weakpoint is that without a spellcaster, they vanish immediately... So go for the necromancer, if they are against them, and protect the necromancer, if You are with them (although, technically any other spellcaster is good enough for them, but I would skip that possibility)! The available character/units are: Champion (without any options for any mount), Soldier, Spearman, Archer.
• Warmachines: its the first army, which has a catapult (although only a light one) and also a ballista in the army list. And the operator-skeletons somehow learned how to aim...
• Ghoul: a fast, nimble unit with D9! Beware the woods!
• Wraith: a small (25x25 base), fast, nimble, and very resistant (without any magic, the can be attacked with a maximum of 2 dice) ghost. A really unpleasant enemy...
• Corpse Fire: an undead, regenerating flamethrower! Thats pretty cool! But beware, they are also controlled by the necromancer, as the skeletons.
• Vampire: the most popular undead of all times. And thats fair, because it can fight, it can cast spell and it can teleport! A very strong unit for a very strong point-cost.
• Barrow Worm: A humongous, undead worm. Its a very dangerous and horrific creature (with Nimble!), but it is very hard control, and its bond to the necromancer. With that awful activation value, I would recommend it only to players, how can stand the fact, that 15% of their army does most of the time not that the tabletop-general wants.

The next large part of the book is about legendary heroes. These rules make the characters may collect experience, level up, and gain one-time (per battle) use abilities, called heroic traits. They are gained pretty slow (depending on the point value), and cost pretty much, but are at least interesting. For example: CD5 (independently from shielding) in one attack, or two additional dice for spellcasting. Would be worth to transfer some of these to elite units, instead of the boring rerolls...

The military expeditions are similar, to the ones in Battlesworn (but this time, they aren't that wet): 3 short campaigns with connecting battles, where the outcome gives a little bonus for the next one, at the end, the winner gets a unique territory. There are some new, undead themed strange and chatastrophic events (which I never used before), some new, interesting territories, and of course, the spell list for the necromancers.

Cons:

• There are a lot of different types of undead there, but I still miss some classicals: mummy, zombie, giant bat, skeletal or zombie dragon, etc. But who knows, maybe later?
• If you don’t play with undead, well, half of the book is not meant for You.
• Leveling up heroes seems to be very slow, and because of the system, as more expensive the character is, the slower it gets. And its pretty expensive.
• No photos with the new Skeleton Infantry from Northstar (Revenant Infantry was not available at the time). But, as mentioned before, Covid probably pretty much changed the schedule…

Pros:

• A complete new faction (with its own spell pool)! Thats a huge pro!
• Undead aren’t necessarily evil here, they can mix, like every other faction, and that’s great for diversity, story-telling aspects (just think of Dead Men of Dunharrow) and the game balance also.
• However I miss some types of undead. There are some different ones, with fresh breeze from the crypt: Revenants, Corpse Fire, Barrow Worm.
• Heroic traits look pretty interesting.
• New military expeditions are great again! Its obvious, that the author really excels in the narrative part of the game.
• There are some new territories, available for everyone. And having more options in kingdom building is always welcome.
• There are no new photos from the new skeletons, but there are a lot of beautiful new artwork.
• The usual printing quality.

In summary:

It’s not only a much better supplement, then Battelsworn. It’s a great supplement! If You want to play with undead, its obviously a must buy. But if You don’t (like I), I would still recommend it: the Military expeditions are still very nice addition for narrative driven games or campaigns, the rules for legendary heroes are interesting useful (not like the elite troops), as are some new territories, and all that stuff for the undead faction is still a great read (and who knows, maybe You get the mood to add a new unit to Your army…).

Next time comes the brand new supplement: Bane of Kings!