47. Seventyfive

I know, this is not a real post, but I achieved a very important point this week: I varnished 75 miniatures! 75 ready! 75 less to paint!

There are plus 5 miniatures, which needed re-varnishing (were too glossy). But also 10 forest pieces (where varnish should help prevent the foliage from baldness). Content is coming!

39. Chariots for Oathmark

As I already wrote in my post about future of Oathmark, there should come chariots for all races in the upcoming Bane of King. These are especially great news for orcs and goblins, as they have no heavy cavalry, and even more for dwarves, as they have no cavalry at all (but humans and elves don’t need them that much, as they are very similar to their heavier cavalry units). As my sons have these armies, my brain immediately started to rev up!

32. Black powder weapons in Oathmark

Oathmark setting is in technological terms like european early medieval: there are no crossbows (which I wont accept, because dwarves have to have crossbows, so I made house rules for them), not to mention black power weapons. But what if… What if once somebody would invent a magical powder, which explodes if ignited? And what if somebody puts that powder in a tube, and throws a rock on before igniting it? What if the kingdoms of the Marches would get primitive black powder weapons? Maybe it doesn’t fit the initial idea of Oathmark, but as its just a house rule and not a must, I don’t see big problems here (if You want to use house rules, just agree it with your opponent, if not, You can use your miniatures as archers and catapults after all).

27. Avatars of war

Once upon a time, I was in my local gaming store, just buying my regular, pseudo-necessary stuff, and there was a sale. As You might know, the sales in the local gaming stores are one of the greatest powers on earth. There were such stuff, I never know I needed, but suddenly it was irresistible…

It was a sale of Avatars of War miniatures. They make beautiful metal and resin miniatures in the best WFHB aesthetics. They are a bit on the more expensive end of the market (12-13€/human sized miniatures), but they are really lovely especially with nostalgic googles. I always adored these minis, but as they were so expensive, and they didn’t really fit to my other miniatures (they are bigger, with more heroic proportions, and they dwarves are twice the size of an Oathmark dwarf). But now! For the price, I bought almost everything what they got (and Im still angry about the stuff I left there...). Lets take a look on them one by one.

26. Frostgrave knights kill again

I already wrote a post about the (at the time new) Frostgrave Knight plastic set. I loved it, my only problem was the low number of miniatures in the box. I wanted more (more, more)! And as I saw the last piece in my local gaming shop, I couldn’t withstand the temptation… And was as amazed, as the first time: this set is superb! I was thinking about building and kitbashing possibilities since the last time, so we (because I bought it with my sons) could build it pretty fast this time. Before the results, lets take a quick look of the former, (mostly, because some of them got additional equipment) unchanged miniatures, 2 knights, 2 templars and 4 captains (1 from every family member):

25. Future of Oathmark

Oathmark is a relatively new game (published in April of 2020), so it has a (hopefully) long future ahead with a lot of new stuff coming. In this post, I want to take look in that future. Lets make the sequence according to the certainty, beginning with the already announced things and ending with the wishes...

Bane of Kings, the next supplement book, will be published in June of 2021. It will focus on the effects of time on the kingdom. What does that mean? Plagues, new alliances, deaths of leaders and rise of new ones. Sure, but what does that really mean? I dont know, but Im very curious about it (already pre-ordered it)! There will be some other new rules: formations (for example: phalanx, shield wall, skirmish line). I think, this will be a very good addition to the basic rules, it can add a new tactical layer to the game, without becoming too complicated. And new military expeditions (wit new scenarios), as already usual by the Oathmark supplements. I also read some rumors (dont ask where, I cant remember), that maybe all races will become chariots (I hear some dwarfs cheering!)...

22. Oathmark dwarven army

Next stop: dwarves, who belong to my smaller son. I stick to the structure of the former army introductions, and begin with the official Northstar range:

• Dwarf Infantry:  business as usual, there are 30 bodies with chainmail (5 different), 30 spear holding, 30 hand weapon holding, 30 bow holding, 30 shield holding hands, with a lot of head options (with or without helmets), and some additional bits to make champions and standard bearers (one/one on every sprue). So every standard unit can be made of it. The details are not so fine as by the goblins, but the overall look is still very satisfying. My personal problem with this set are the archers: I don’t like the idea of dwarven archers, because they have too short hands for a normal bow. They should get crossbows, but I know, that technology is non-existing in the Oathmark universe. But in mine it is… The point value of a box is between 450 (soldiers and archers) and 480 (spearman/speardwarf, but I promise, that was the last time…).
  
  

18. Home made Oathmark units

I really love Oathmark (otherwise I would not made a blog dedicated to it...), but its not flawless. One of that little flaws for me, is the (yet) limited selection of units. There are a lot of general units, but I miss some more specialized ones, that make a little more difference between the races, and I also miss some traditional fantasy races. I didn't want to invent anything new, I basically just transferred something from the good old WHFB feeling... But when something doesn't exist officially, you can help yourself by home-brewing them!

14. Kingdom building in Oathmark

So last time I wrote about the races, but there is one more point, what should be clarified before introducing our armies: kingdom building. The different races have some things common, but they are still different enough, not to be just a skin on the general unit types. But because of that, you have to choose. You can’t decide yourself? I have good news! You don’t have to choose only one, you can collect them all (like pokemons …)! In Oathmark you don’t have a race, but a kingdom, and your kingdom can contain many different races (if you will). I don’t know how you feel about this, but to build an individual mixed army, with no racial limits is great! And with this rule there are immediately and simultaneously much less issues with balance. There cant be any complains about one race is being stronger than the other, because if you think, for example, that the lack of cavalry is a big handicap for dwarves, just buy human, elven, or even goblin cavalry in your army. Genius!

13. Races in Oathmark

Before I introduce our family Oathmark armies, let’s get a closer look into the races of the game. 

As mentioned before, there are 4 from them (at least until the release of Oathbreakers): dwarf, human, elf and greenskins (orcs and goblins, mostly treated as one race). Every race has his own characteristics:

8. Our non-human wizards

Where did I end up in the previous post? Listed up some options for getting non-human wizards. What I couldn’t make last time, to show, what wizards I have. While I really love kitbashing, I had no torsos left from the wizard box, and I didn’t want to buy another for that reason. So I had to buy specific ones.

My first try were dwarf wizards (with a complete warband) from Reaper, from the Bones material (soft PVC). Unpainted they look not as bad, but after the first coat of color, terrible… The details are so blunt, it’s frustrating to paint them. And the result is disappointing. I’m nearly not good enough painter to get mediocre results with them. I really hate these miniatures… But they are certainly playable, and they represent a point in my learning curve, so they stay. But still… I don’t want to talk about them any longer. I don't even want to show pictures, because i couldn't force myself to paint them ready.

7. How to get non-human wizards

Let´s stay a bit more longer with the wizards for Frostgrave theme. The official plastic wizard boxes are a cheap and very versatile possibility  to get miniatures for the game, but however much I like this set, it has a limitation: they´re only humans… What if you will have a non-human warband (official there are no special rules for other races, so you can play with anything)? There are two main options to consider: