My Oathmark second edition wish list
The second version of Oathmark is coming 1 and while it is still in playtesting and writing I thought I would gather a list of what changes I hoped would be coming to the game. I have no idea what the author’s designs or plans are and these are just based on my playing experience and from comments I have seen online.
My wish list
More open ‘ownership’
Joseph McCullough has stated several times, in relation to point values and army building, that the game was intended to be played with mixed-faction forces. I also suspect that he assumes/intends that the game is played using the Kingdom campaign system.
An author of a game can certainly have a desire or assumption about how a game is played but once it is released those assumptions often get ignored by players. The author might envision tables filled with armies of dwarves, elves and humans facing off against Goblins, Orcs and Undead. Many people do play the game wanting to have a mono-faction force of dwarves or elves. Not taking that into account in terms of playtesting and game design leaves out a lot of players and, I think, artificially limits the audience for the game. Many people either do not use the campaign system or hack it extensively. I think these issues need to be part of the assumptions of the game design. Oathmark, unlike Frostgrave, really can be easily played without using the campaign system. It is one of its finer points.
I think that there has been enough discussion online about how people play the game that Joseph McCullough can see that people love the system but want to play it in a fashion outside of initial plans he had for the game.
Unit balance
For the most part the point values for the basic troops in the game are balanced. Commanders, cavalry and some of the monsters are not quite so well balanced. And the Elf cavalry and Commanders are even more unbalanced. Playing the game with an army built just from the Elf army list is a recipe for disaster and some of the more expensive Commanders almost never see game time unless you are playing a huge battle 2. Some units, like the Elf Mounted Rangers are only CD 1 when every other mounted unit is CD 2. There aren’t a lot of issues but the ones that are in the game need attention.
When I had my armies of old Games Workshop Elf and Goblin minis I was more interested in playing mono-faction armies. Now that I no longer have those minis my interest in that has wained somewhat but I still like the narrative of an Elven force trying to fight against a horde of Orc or Undead. I couldn’t do that though as the Elves were, by my estimates, about 25% more expensive than other similar troops in the game.
New troops
While I don’t necessarily want a new faction added to the game (North Star do make a lot of Cultist and Barbarian minis that would make a fun army) it would be fun if there were mercenary units or troop types that could be added to the game. A few units of Snakemen or something that uses those aforementioned Cultist and Barbarian minis? The Minor Races of Oathmark PDF has some unit examples that would make great mercenaries. I think that adding them as mercenaries makes it easier to bring them into the world of Oathmark without adding too much to the background of the game or to the campaign system.
A new faction
That said, I think that North Star makes enough Cultist and Barbarian miniatures to be able to create a ’northern apocalypse’ army that could be lead by spellcasters that summon daemons and other creatures. It would use existing miniatures so the army could be created to match the troops available in those plastic sets. It would also offer an alternative to the ‘Battle of Five Armies’ motif that runs through the game currently.
New monsters
North Star have made a large number of monsters for Frostgrave. It would be great to see some of them added to Oathmark. The Rangifers, Foulhorn, Vapour Snakes and Large Candle-Jack are all examples of unique monsters that can not only give the game some unique monsters but, and this is the important part, make it easy for players to source miniatures for them.
I would even go as far as to say that many of the current Oathmark monsters could be removed and replaced by something from the Frostgrave Bestiary. Also, the Dwarf army list needs the Ballista II Construct as an option :-)
Spell balance
The spells in Oathmark are a mixed bag. Some are in almost every army (Fireball) while some are almost never used (Looking Glass). Spells like Smoke typically get house rules to stop it from being over powered. The catalogue of spells needs a rework. Also, how about adding some of the spells from Frostgrave to the game? Perhaps a specialist spellcaster that has a campaign specific terrain type that can be added to an army to access some of the more unique spells from Frostgrave?
Some background
I don’t necessarily want Joseph to write his own version of GW’s Old World but given all of the work he has done for Frostgrave I don’t know that it would hurt to try to place Oathmark into that same universe. Oathmark is, I think, intended to be a blank canvas for players to create their own kingdoms and domains with. This is a great idea but it currently lacks a bit of character. There isn’t really anything unique in the game to help players who aren’t good at crafting their own backgrounds. Or gamers who don’t want to do that.
I appreciate that Joseph McCullough doesn’t want the game to be that way but I think that he has created quite a lot of region non-specific content for Frostgrave that it could be peppered into Oathmark. Mercenaries are a good way to do this but also just generic references to ’northern’ armies or ‘plains tribes’ or ‘archipelagic’. 3 Maybe my mercenary Snakemen come from a hot southern continent where they were ruled by sorcerers that summon daemons to fight with them? The hook doesn’t have to be large just enough to let people hang something from it.
Conclusion
I am quite excited about the upcoming 4 second edition of Oathmark. Don’t let this list make you think otherwise. Ultimately what I would like to see is less of a generic game and more of a slight insertion of some flavour and colour from the Frostgrave universe to make the game a bit less of ‘Battle of Five Armies’ and more of a generic fantasy system. I would also like formulae to build my own units but that isn’t going to happen ;-)