Oathmark, second solo game and more new stuff.

In my last blog we left the game as the two armies of dwarves and goblins were approaching each other, having clashed in their search for a rogue blue giant. Turn two saw the Giant enter the game and win initiative. Dice decided he randomly entered the board just behind the goblins right flank which rather upset their plans. 
Elsewhere the dwarf spearmen managed to charge some trolls and thanks to some dire dice throwing, soon wished they hadn't; they lost their entire 2nd rank. The goblin wolf pack charged into the mercenary ogres and soon ran off leaving three of their five behind them so the goblin wolf riders charged in next. The goblin spellcaster fireballed the main dwarf warriors and the dwarf spellcaster retaliated by casting his lightning bolt on some goblin soldiers, crisping one of them. 

Red marker indicates disorder, white one shows a hit/point of damage.

In turn 3 the giant again won initiative and charged the nearest enemy, the goblin spellcaster who was soon splatted and he was unable to cause any damage to the giant before dying. Fights continued on either flank and now even the trolls and ogres were starting to suffer casualties.  

The goblin soldiers by the giant managed to turn and face off against him over two turns-the giant won! This caused Cascading Panic resulting the goblin archers and wolf pack legging it. The giant is having a major impact on the game, but is also adding a lot of fun. 

In the photo below, the dwarf warriors and the goblin soldiers led by their 'Advisor' laid into each other whilst the troll you can just see behind the dwarf flag is busy crushing the dwarf spellcaster. 

Turns 5 and 6 saw a Catastrophic event rolled during initiative: Cursed Ground! meaning that any damage done from now on would cause double damage and this proved to be deadly over the next few turns. The dwarves and goblins really laid into each other now. The Dwarf King and his unit of warriors was charged by the Goblin Advisor and his unit of goblin soldiers. Sadly for the goblins they did not manage to damage the dwarves (poor dice throw) but the dwarves inflicted 4 hits on the hapless goblins, doubled to 8 so no surprise that they were disordered at the end of melee. Aware that the blue giant was rampaging towards them the dwarves tried to push the goblins back 6" but as they were close to the table edge they only managed to shove them back a few inches. The dwarves then won initiative, charged into the goblins and wiped them out but then the giant charged into the rear of the dwarves and you can see what happened in the photo below (just make sure you are never charged in the rear by a giant, those guys are tough!). Elsewhere the remaining ogre and dwarf archers had managed to see off the goblin wolf riders but did not fancy taking on the giant on their own, so game over with the Blue Giant left roaming the plains and only one point of damage had been inflicted on him. 

 

Overall, I really enjoy Oathmark, my only worry before getting the rules was a return to single figure removal rather than using multi-based figures. However, Oathmark is so good that I no longer worry about that. The game mechanics are very clever yet simple and easy to recall. I like the use of D10 and the fact that you never have to throw more than 5 of them. 
 I was so inspired by this game that I also found time to paint up a dwarf light catapult and crew. I usually prefer to base my artillery crew on the actual war machines base but the rules in Oathmark need the crew to be able to be removed individually so I put them on their own bases. More dwarf spearmen and goblin wolf riders are now being assembled. Dwarf heavy infantry as 'linebreakers' will be painted after these, then onto my all time favourite fantasy beings: the elves!