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!

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!)...

24. Oathmark human army II.

Now let’s continue with the characters. I had no special source they are all made of the same sets, as the units (with one exception):

• Mounted king: with sword on a barded horse
• Mounted wizard: I used here a head and the hands form the Frostgrave wizard set, on a horse and body from a Perry knight. Tried to grind the armor plates from the legs, but the body is not so obviously armored, so I let it be. At the end, he got a giant (and ugly sculpted) cloak, made from epoxy putty (like the mounted elven wizard).
• Mounted champion: heavy armor, giant axe, and a separated body part form an enemy
  

23. Oathmark human army I.

The Oathmark army intro series comes to the end (yet). Because now, it came to the fourth race from the basic rulebook: humans. I know, Oathbreakers were released, and so there is also the undead faction, but we in the family don’t own undead units (except 11 skeletons, 7 ghouls/zombies and some character miniatures). So what does Northstar has for humans? This will be the shortest list, because it’s the only faction (expect the undeads), which has only one plastix box:

• Human Infantry: the meanwhile common, 30 miniatures with the options of making (full) units of spearman (yes, at last, they are really men), archers and soldiers, with additional bits for champions and standard bearers. They have a dark-age Magnum P.I. design (lots of mustaches). I cant tell much more about this box, because I don’t own it. Why? Because for humans, there are oceans of options from seas of manufacturers out on the market, no need to be fantasy, historical ranges fit as well. And I fell in love with another range…
  

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:

11. Frostgrave Knights

Until now, all posts were about miniatures, that were ready (already varnished), but now! Now is time for a brand new box (I love the excitement of new miniatures way too much…)! And this will be, the new Frostgrave Knights box, because they were too good looking to save my wallet longer from them (yeah, I could hold myself back for 2 whole weeks after release…).