53. Oathmark: Bane of kings

The time has come, I finally arrived to the third and latest supplement for Oathmark: Bane of kings! Does it have a new faction, as in Oathbreakers? No. Can it still be better, then Battlesworn? Yes!

The core if this supplement is time. It’s a bit more foggy concept, then water and undead before, but it’s still recognizable (even if not in every part). The book starts with special formations (nothing to do with time), which is in my opinion a great addition to the core mechanics of the game! It works with new terrains: You have to purchase a new territory, to give the new abilities for up to four units (it has also additional point costs for the unit). Now, You can use Your troops, in a bit different way, and that results a lot of different combinations:

• Shield wall: the classical formation for units with shields, bonus on the defense, but disadvantage on the attack, applies only for the front facing and can be switched on and off.
• Javelin storm: the unit is equipped with javelins (or lets say any throwing weapon), it gives a bonus on attack for the first charge.
• Phalanx: another classical for spearman(-dwarf, -elf, -goblin, -orc…), bonus on the attack in the front facing, but disadvantage on the sides and the back, and it’s permanent.
• Square: that’s something more fresh, the unit has only front facings (with 5CD), but loses its rank bonus for attacks (but not for morale) and receives a massive disadvantage on the move stat, and can be switched on and off.
• Skirmish: a formation for shooting units (why only for them?), gives the ability of moving normally in any direction and shielding in exchange for Fire Over and Aimed Fire, but can be switched on and off.
• Chariot unit: it’s a bit of exception, because it only gives the ability of forming units from chariots (otherwise they can only be used as unit-of-one).

There are some new units too! First some animated statues from stone: Living statue, Colossus and Animate Idol. These are some pretty though units, but beware, all of them are bound to spellcasters! So You have to take good care of the wizards / mages / priests / warlocks / necromancers, or else these crumble to pieces immediately… The other new units are chariots for every faction! Yeah, my work was not unnecessary! They are especially welcome for dwarves, as they had no cavalry at all, and orcs/goblins, as they had no heavy cavalry. And of course, chariots can be chosen for characters too, which can make them much more hard to kill (it comes handy for the spellcaters…).

Until now, there were only some clues of the main theme of time (animated statues are ancient creatures, an chariots are an old, forgotten technology on the marches), but now it’s time for time to come! (sorry…) Kingdom events is the title of the next chapter, and it simulates time going by between the big battles of the kingdoms. After all battle, there is a possibility to roll for different events, which happen after it, and can be either good or bad for the next battle: a new king can be born, a new mine can be discovered, the harvest can be very rich, but also a traitor can rise, a plague or a flood can come. These can give a very nice, narrative addition to the battles.

There are of course new, winter themed military expeditions. These are very nice, narrative, short campaigns with a unique territory as a prize (they can be achieved only through these expeditions). To follow up the winter theme, there is a new strange and catastrophic event table with bitter cold, hungry wolves, avalanche, and so on (I never used these tables, but it may be funny). Finally there are some, very useful (Double damage against enormous creatures? The Union of Dwarven Slayers approve!) looking spells too.

Cons:

• A mixed formation (for example spears and bow) would have been nice. I already wrote some house rules for them… (You will find it on the blog later)
• The skirmish formation is more useful for shooter units, but why isn’t it available for melee units (just a quick fix by house rules)?
• Chariots (except the activation value, and a F-1 by the goblins) are the same. Some more differentiation (why does the elven chariot has the same shoot stat as the goblin one?) would have been nice.
• The main theme is not entirely useless for single battles (You can roll before it, to give it a slightly different taste), but only really shines in narrative play. As do the military expeditions.

Pros:

• Formations are great additions, gives a lot of combinations with a plus tactical layer.
• Chariots are useful, mostly for dwarves, orcs and goblins, are great upgrade for characters, and could be a center piece for an army.
• I love the animated statues, good to have them. And they can be used as stone elementals too (so my homebrew rules for them got useless, but I would be happy, if all of them would get useless this way).
• With kingdom events its possible to create a complete history of Your kingdom, which sounds fun!
• Military expeditions nice. Again. Who wouldn’t want to have some mini campaigns?
• Some of the new spells are really great!

In summary:

Bane of Kings is a lot better supplement than Battlesworn, but is it as good as Oathbreakers? Well, it depends on… It has no new faction. If You wanted to play with undead, than Oathbreakers is definitely better suited for You. But if You don’t play undead, Bane of Kings has a lot more useful things to add. So without any nit-picking, Battlesworn is skippable for most people (except collectors like myself), Oathbreakers is a must buy for undead players (and recommended for others), Bane of Kings is not a must, but strongly recommended for every Oathmark player! The formations, chariots, animated idols and new spells are great additions for everybody, narrative players will have a lot of fun with the kingdom events, and military expeditions are always good to have!

Next time just a short post about my homebrew, mixed units!