Oathmark: Getting Started & What To Buy? All Expansions Reviewed + Starting Your First Army!

[@BecauseOfDragons]

If you liked what I do and fancy giving me a little donation, a Ko-Fi is always welcome ko-fi.com/becauseofdragons

[@davidwasilewski]

I wish they’d do a deluxe hardback with all the books combined into one.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

I hope they do end up doing that - it would be good to collate it all into one place. I guess it depends if McCullough has anything else up his sleeve!

[@briandowling8412]

You can definitely do well with just the first book, and maybe the third if you fancy playing undead. The fourth was good as it added formations and chariots. Ultimately though, its not like playing someone with 'the new codex' because every army can have every unit/hero/item.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

For sure - I think you can just get away with the core rulebook and that's that pretty much. I like that everyone can take everything - it opens up a lot of possibilities

[@newworld75]

@@BecauseOfDragonsI really like that aspect… Plus no buying codexes over and over =]

[@aistispetruskevicius9596]

I can't wait to try this game out. It's been in my to-do list for a while now

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Great stuff! Hopefully you have some fun getting stuck into it!

[@zoidpinhead]

Great summary of the available options. I really should get back to my copy and give it some more attention. I'm glad there are more unit options now as that put me off a bit when I first looked them over.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

For sure - I think they've done a great job on bulking out the armies with additional rules and the options for the Undead.

[@warpaintjj]

Thanks for doing this, certainly a game to look at more closely especially as it seems to be well supported 👍

[@BecauseOfDragons]

No problem and thanks for taking the time to watch and comment. It really is a solid game that has a lot of potential

[@basement1908]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

No worries, hope it's helpful for getting started :)

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Still processing the HD video at the moment - oops!

[@Jez-Hunt]

Oathmark is awesome! As is everything by McCullough, if I'm honest. Great overview, fella!

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Yeah he really has hit the nail on the head with his games!

[@robertstrong6798]

I just found this game when randomly looking for zombies 🧟 on eBay. It’s amazing 🤩 and love the review. When you talk about small armies 30 revenants is amazingly small and elite. Oathmark is great for people like me who want small forces easily transportable

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Thanks for watching :) I do think that Oathmark is great for those missing those small, fun hobby projects that can get you started in a game.

[@horusthewarmaster7]

Just bought the Oathmark books. I hope they plan as well as they read

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Yeah I've only played a few small games with the rules but I enjoy them. My local store played a massive map-based campaign using the rules and it went down a storm. They had so many people involved and folks really liked it.

[@marctitley7020]

Really good review. I will be getting into this myself.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Thanks :) Yeah, it's a superb game with plenty of scope for doing some interesting things when it comes to Fantasy wargaming

[@Corvinuswargaming1444]

I have the base rules and wasn't sure which expansion books to get later on. Thanks for this

[@BecauseOfDragons]

No worries - I hope you have fun diving into the various expansions :)

[@SomeDudeOnYouTube]

Oh my what a fancy table you have ;) and almost 1.000 subs.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

It is exceedingly fancy ;)

[@StackingLimit]

Great Video Ben!

[@Nobleshield]

Someone locally started talking about this, looks solid. The oathmark orcs & Goblins go hard, they look very lord of the rings/oldschool fantasy. It is a miniature agnostic game though, right? But only has rules for men/elves/dwarfs/undead/o&g? So anything else needs to kind of piggyback on those rules I guess? I love the "build your kingdom" aspect where you can design just what you want and come up with a little narrative.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

It is entirely miniatures agnostic so you can use whatever miniatures you like to make your armies. Currently, yes, official rules only exist for those factions but you could no doubt find some alternative ones out there online from the community. The build your kingdom element is really good fun and a neat way for Oathmark to set itself apart from other games in the genre :)

[@Sturmhawke]

Can you recommend any base trays to turn round based miniatures into rank and flank units? Thanks. Think I’ll be checking out Oathmark as I certainly liked JM’s work with Frostgrave, Stargrave, and ROSD.

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Sarissa Precision do some good regiment trays that hold round bases. Hopefully that will be something that will be handy for you? Here is the link sarissa-precision.com/collections/trays - Either them or Warbases potentially? warbases.co.uk/product-category/movement-trays/

[@krisdray673]

Renedra makes some relatively inexpensive 10 and 20 model movement trays perfect for Oathmark and Age of Fantasy Regiments. They come with 25mm bases as well. They are a bit shallow if you want to magentize, but the price is not bad and no assembly.

[@elvedril]

If you magnetize your figures, which I recommend, then thin steel sheets make great base trays. I bought some from Shogun Miniatures, painted them up to match my bases and it works great

[@joemountains1539]

Thanks for this great review, it’s very thoughtful and enticing. You say the Battlesworn supplement is the last necessary, yet it feels most in line with the core game versus an expansion of concepts and armies as the other two are? Or, here’s this: riffing off your 1st Age of Middle Earth battles video, which supplements are more integral?

[@BecauseOfDragons]

It's mainly because Battle Honours feel like a fairly small addition whereas the other two books offer up a much wider range of options. You get the Engineers and Riverine rules in there as well but I'm not sure they are going to be used by a large amount of players. I think the Legendary Heroes element in the other book gives you more to play with narratively if you get my meaning? For the 1st Age I'd say all three are pretty good. You don't need the undead essentially but the Legendary Heroes rules are very good for re-recreating the likes of Turgon or Beleg etc. Battlesworn allows you to weave a bit more character into units and make them feel more mythical and integral to the story. I'd say Bane Of Kings isn't massively essential as you can craft the events in your kingdom around the events of the Silmarillion I suppose. So - probably Oathbreakers, Battlesworn and then Bane Of Kings. Thanks for the interesting comment! Got me thinking :)

[@joemountains1539]

@@BecauseOfDragons well, YOU started the deep dive! Thanks, for all this. I’m a big fan of Joe McC’s games but have held off on Oathmark until this, so, yeah, my mind is turning. Hmmm…

[@oldschoolfrp2326]

I need to get around to trying Oathmark - I do like JM’s other games

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Do you reckon you'd enjoy diving into the campaign play element?

[@oldschoolfrp2326]

Yes, it sounds like his campaign rules are meant to provide thematic context for battles and help spin a narrative rather than get in the way of playing the games you want to play - Traditional wargame campaigns often revolved around fighting over resources in a way that could limit your forces severely after a few losses and quickly give one player an overwhelming advantage. They often required a group of players committed to play on the same schedule, instead of allowing each player to manage their own faction on their own terms.

[@clarkcommando1983]

I’m new to the game very helpful

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Glad that it helped :)

[@SiestaOdyssey]

Good stuff!!

[@BecauseOfDragons]

Cheers - hope it was helpful :)