Oathmark: 2500pts, Isengard vs Human-Elves Alliance

Wednesday I played yet another game of Oathmark, this time Emil commanded an alliance of my Gondor, Rohan, and High Elf forces against the same Isengard army that I used against Ulolkish's Dwarves.

This time I decided to try a refused right flank, and a sweeping left flank attack with some Wargs and Warg Riders through the woods at the far end of the table,

The first turn was mostly 'Forward unto Battle', except for my Shaman, who failed his Activation Roll on three dice...

Turn 2 both armies advanced, and my Shamanmade his signature move and laid out a Smoke screen to prevent the High Elf Archers (blue unit facing my right) doing their thing.

In Turn 3 I moved a bit further forward than first intended in the center to get the units there protected by the hill (my Shaman had failed his activation, and thus had not been able to conjure up more Smoke).

Turn 4 saw the first real fighting.

The Rohan Swordsmen burst through the Smoke and into the Dunlendings and breaking them.

Which resulted in my Shaman suddenly finding himself in something of a predicament.

But my Orcs moved forward and thus offered some protection.

The Elf Linebreakers smashed into the Uruk-Hai Pikemen, and did not fare well.

The battlefield at the end of Turn 4. The sunlight falling in through one of the roof windows was quite annoying at this point.

We did not play through Turn 5, - when the Elven Bowmen marched past the smoke, they were attacked by the Wargs and Disordered - and soon after they were Broken by Orcish arrows, which made my opponent toss in the towel.

AT this point we had been at it for about 4 hours (interrupted by me picking up Anna from school), and Emil clearly found this amount of time too much for a game.

As I have stated in an earlier post, one of my concerns regarding Oathmark is the pace of the game, especially because of the somewhat clunky combat rules, and both of my two latest games have, indeed, lingered on (well, the last one would have, had not Emil given up) beyond a reasonable  time span.

My only fast game was the 2000 points played against Kevin, and that one contained  far less units. I think a 'Mass Battle Game' as Oathmark is proclaimed to be should be able to handle at least a score of units aside without lasting more than an evening, and I cannot see that happening with this game.

I still have to play more games and get better acquainted with the rules (although I had to look up a rule only once or twice during this game) before I decide whether to keep Oathmark as a 'go to' game, go back to tweaking God of Battles, or maybe even do a mash-up of GoB and Oathmark, as suggested by Ulolkish.

Oathmark Solo Test Game, Turn 8

I finally found some time to wrap this up (sort of), so here is what was to be the final turn of my solo test game of Oathmark.

The Warg Riders managed to contact the Minas Tirith Archers, this time actually drawing serious blood, and forcing the Humans back in disorder.

The Warriors then wheeled back before slamming into the Warg Riders, who were not able to fight back very well, and were pushed back.

The Trolls were still unable to comply...

The Dwarven Archers broke the Dunlendings closest to them - I forgot to roll for Cascading Panic.

The Orc Archers (Goblin Archers) managed to take down a single Dwarf.

I had forgotten to mark the Minas Tirith Warriors as activated, but luckily the Dice Gods had me covered when I tried to activate them.

The Dunlending Spearmen failed their activation roll and stayed put.

The Dunlending Militia smashed into the very small unit of Dwarf Soldiers, but got mauled.

The psuhback send ripples right back through the Dunlending lines.

The Rohan Archers failed their Activation Roll, and thus had a +1 to TN when shooting at the Orc Archers...

...but never the less all but annihilated them.

At this point I could see no use in continuing - Saruman's invasion had been brought to a halt - for now.

The last couple of pics show the battlefield as it were when I called it quits.

Thoughts on the game so far:

It is NOT as simple as God of Battles - far from!

To me, the mechanics seem a bit clunky; I, for one, cannot memorize the stats and special rules for every type of unit, and I have to look to the roster and meticulously calculate Target Numbers every time some interaction occurs, which slows down gameplay considerably. In GoB, I really only had to memorize one stat for each type of unit, and 'rank bonuses' were sort of worked into the number of dice rolled (depending on unit size). Tomorrow evening, I have a gaming session with a live opponent (2000pts), and after that I shall have a better idea of how the game flows.

Movement: Some really quirky situations arise when units are close together, and one is trying to make contact, and I think some houseruling/consensus of rules interpretation will be necessary to avoid heated discussions when battles hang in the balance.

I like the way some of the Special Rules work - especially Charge (X), which forces you to carefully position shock units before committing them to battle. The Brace rule (spears) can seem a bit meh, but I think that careful positioning of spear units to take some of the air out of enemy shock troop attacks can be the key to success in many battles.

Missiles: Brutal!
I still think that defensive tactics will be very hard to cope with. Place a line of Spearmen units in front, a line of archer units close behind them, have some crack troops (Warriors and/or Linebreakers) guard the flanks, and the enemy should have a very hard time cracking your position. Of course, if the enemy has a lot of Elven Archers and/or catapults, you may want to reconsider your tactics...

Terrain:
I think terrain is not going to be very popular. Having to halve one's move is not nice when facing enemy archers, as it gives them even more chances to decimate your units before you can reach them.
Some units have 'Nimble', which allows them to ignore terrain movement penalties, and as mentioned before, I really think that Wolves/Wolf Riders should have this special rule. As it is now, some Elves on foot move faster through rough terrain than those quadrupedal predators, and I think that is weird and just wrong.

I already toy with the idea of making a house rule that lets units assume 'mob'-formation to gain Nimble, but get an Activation/Morale penalty, lose rank bonuses, and have TN+1 when fighting (but maybe force enemies to shoot at them at TN+1) while in this loose formation. This would make it more viable to play games in dense terrain, which to me is more interesting than a large open battlefield. But it is too early to introduce this, as I still have to learn all the ropes of the game (although I do have the rules ready in my mind).

Overall:
I am in two minds about these rules.
The game works, although I fear that it runs too slowly for my taste. I like the versatility of army composition. and with the right additions (Oliphaunts. anyone?) it may cater very well for Middle-Earth battles like the one I just snailed my way through. I think some of the peculiarities are really weird, and will have to be houseruled in order to not create awkward situations too often; it can be done, but it is often harder to find consensus on house rules than finding a ruleset all can agree upon.

Well, as mentioned, I am playing a 2000pts game tomorrow evening, and I shall of course record it here, as always.

Oathmark Solo Test Game, Turn 7

I started Turn 7 with a major blunder: Eventhough the Rohan Spearmen were Disordered, I had the charge the Uruk-Hai Warriors. I did not realize my mistake until somewhat later; A Disordered unit that passes its Activation Test removes the Disordered status, but cannot perform more than one Simple Action (i.e. cannot charge), so the combat would not have been possible as per the rules.

As it were, the action delivered an almost cinematic moment when the Rohirrim, suffering dreadful losses, managed to break the much larger enemy unit!

In the center, the Warg Riders managed to move through the Orcs, and then charge the Minas Tirith Archers. The result was rather underwhelming, though, and the charge was stopped in its tracks.

The Dwarven Archers picked off another Dunlending.

The Stone Trolls did not move. I probably should move them somewhere else, before the Human Archers start showering them with slow death...

The Dunlending Warriors did not impress anyone.

They were pushed back in disarray.

The Rohan Archers were not exactly having a heyday, either.

The Uruk-Hai Scout Archers could not hit a barn side from 3 yards away.

But the Orc Archers (Goblin Archers) managed to overcome whatever highr winds were impeding their colleagues.

The Dunland Spearmen decided to put and end the the harassment form the Dwarven Archers, but, well...

Then Dunland Soldiers (I think) moved through the fallen back Spearmen, and used their second action to make contact with the Dwarven Linebreakers. Which proved to be a stupid move.

On the far right, the newly arrived Uruk-Hai Scouts made minced meat out of the Rohan Spearmen.

The lone surviving officer decided to fight another day.

That was pretty much it. The Isengard lines are thinner than ever, and I do not think they can keep up the attack much longer. I shall play one more turn before deciding whether to call it decided or not, but the forces of Evil need nothing short of a dice miracle to turn the tables.

Here are the usual overviews of the battlefield.