My first game of Oathmark

I've had these rules for a few weeks now, but didn't get around to getting in a game till last night. My friend Lou came over and we took the rules out for a test drive.

I just painted up some fences, walls and a bridge so I wanted to get them on the table. Here we have a sleepy little river valley between two villages. Soon to be shattered by War.

I put together, 2 army lists, Orcs and Humans. About 1300 points. Using my Orc and Gondorian figures from GW.

Human's on the left, Orcs on the right.

Most of the pics are from the Human side(I controlled the Humans), but this pic is from the Orc side

 I took the Humans, Lou had the Orcs. Lou won initiative so Orcs confidently moved to seize the  crossings. I moved closer and showered them with arrows. I killed about 3. His return fire killed 2 of my Rangers.

I countered with Arrows and slow advance to the river. I took some hits in return.

 Someone missed their activation. I'm looking at you KING!!!

 The King and his bodyguard finally get it in gear and move up to support the lone spearmen unit.

Orc Warriors storm across the ford and slam into the spearmen. It was a bloody affair. The spearmen won, but both units failed morale and went disordered.

 The king couldn't help himself and charged into the flank of the Orc Warriors, wiping them out.

The King now pays for his rash charge and is hit in the flank. The Orcs rolled very poorly and only Killed one knight.

The Wizard used his one spell to Shift the Knights around so they are not vulnerable to another flank charge.

 The Rangers take heavy losses from Orc Bow fire.

On my left, the Wargs were making a run at the left most crossing, I sent a spear unit over to guard it, and the Wargs dodged back leaving me out by myself. Well played Orcs. I replied by shooting at the Wargs, killing 3.

The Orc Warriors charge over the bridge cutting down half the spearmen.

 At the start of the 3rd turn The King charges the Warriors in front of him. Cutting down most of the unit, but 2 got away.

Here is where I lost the game. I didn't think the charge through. The Orc King on his Warg flanked me, and wiped me out. We called the game right there.

Just a final low angle shot from one village to the other.

We both enjoyed the game. It wasn't ridiculously complicated and flowed along. We fought to a decisive ending but it was a close match all along. We can't wait to give the campaign system a go.

Cheers, Xin/Jeff

Rangers of Shadow Deep

The author who wrote Frostgrave, Joseph McCullough,  has written another ruleset, called The Rangers of Shadow Deep. This is a self published title that is available from RPGNow. You can get Print on Demand or PDF. I got both. 

Using roughly the same rules from Frostgrave, for a cooperative or solo game, this looks to be alot of fun. You play a Ranger and his companions that have to explore the strange area known as The Shadow Deep. A dark Evil is consuming the land swallowing up villages and kingdoms in it's Black Clouds. Sort of a cross between Lord of the Rings and X-files. 

The play is solo or cooperative based. I've never done a solo wargame, so I am looking forward to it. I needed a Ranger and companions to start my missions. I looked through my basement of unpainted figures and found a newly purchased box of Human Warriors from Northstar's upcoming game, Oathmark. I thought these would do nicely.

I came up with the concept of a Capt leading a small band of Soldiers, as opposed to a Strider type Ranger. So I pulled out 5 Plastic figures and one metal Champion. This would be the base of the warband. As they are supposed to be part of the same unit/army I picked a common color scheme that I would use across all 6. While painting them I came up with the name of the unit, The Alladore Grey's. Alladore being the Kingdom where the game is set.

Here is Captain Vallador and his men. 

 

The rules allow the main character, the Ranger, to add or subtract companions(Red Shirts) as needed. I will paint up some addition soldiers types for the Warband, and eventually paint enough Alladore Grey's to make a Unit or 2 for Oathmark.

My first painted figures of 2019! More to come.

Xin