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).

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!)...

20. Oathmark goblin army

Lets take a look at the goblins of my son. I think, the easiest way to do this, to follow the structure of the elven army introduction, so lets begin with the official Oathmark range of Northstar:

• Goblin infantry: 30 goblins, with the option of build soldiers, archers, spearman (speargoblin), and as usual, these options are valid for all the miniatures. Yes, 30 bodies with light armor, 30 spears, 30 bows, 30 hand weapons, 30 shields. And a lot of different head options. And parts for champions and standard bearers. You can do what ever you want with their boxes, and I think that is great! The design is pretty "realistic" (or "tolkienesque"). In my opinion, goblins are the best sculpted and detailed miniatures from their Oathmark range! The point value of the box varies from 300 (soldiers or archers) to 330 (spearman).
  

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:

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: