Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age - Characters and Monsters

Oathmark: Battles of The Lost Age is an upcoming mass-battle fantasy wargame publishing in April 2020, written by Joseph A. McCullough. On the blog today, we delve deeper into the rules with a look at characters and monsters on the battlefield!

While Oathmark is a game of armies, with most of the soldiers arranged in big, blocky units, it wouldn’t be a fantasy game if there wasn’t room for characters and monsters. Characters come in three basic varieties. The first of those is Commanders. These figures influence how and when units can activate, as has been touched on in a previous blog. They tend to be very expensive in terms of point cost, but the impact they can have on a game can well be worth the cost.

The second type of character are Champions. These are the great warriors that can fight at the head of your units. They aren’t particularly gifted as leaders, and do nothing to inspire the rest of the troops, but they can wreak havoc in melee combat. Not only do champions inflict more casualties than other soldiers, but they are the only characters that can, potentially, directly strike at a unit leader or another character in a unit. Such a decapitating strike on a unit can often break its morale and send it running.

The final character type is spellcasters. Each of the five main races of the game produce their own spellcasters that have access to spells for their specific race (as well as a general spell list). Spellcaster are broken down into 5 levels, and the higher level wizards not only have a greater variety of spells they can attempt to cast during a game, but are also more likely to cast them. Spells in the game vary from the straightforward tossing of fireballs to the more subtle manipulation of morale and line of sight.

In addition to the characters, which are drawn from the major races, there are numerous monsters in the game. Monsters are independent figures that never join up with units. These can be massive creatures such as giants and dragons, but can also be smaller, but extremely dangerous creatures such as bodachs and bugganes. All of the monsters bring their own special abilities to the table which, if employed correctly, can swing a battle. However, as independent creatures, they can never be affected by commanders, and thus deciding when and where to use them can be tricky.

The game is designed to let player’s imaginations run wild. While it might not be the most efficient move, it is perfectly legal to have your goblin king commanding a bunch of dwarven units, or to have giant spiders fighting alongside humans. Remember, in Oathmark, every kingdom has potential access to any of the characters and monsters in the game. Choosing which of these units, characters, and monsters to take is half the fun, but it’ll take a while to figure out the correct tactics to get the most out of your forces!