Rank and Flank, How?

Trial game of Oathmark

As part of a rigorous trial regime, I singled the game of choice down to Oathmark.  Essentially the testing came down to what ‘felt’ right rather than an ‘objective’ opinion.  I can say that any of the rule sets I listed in my first article are ‘objectively’ good games, they work mechanically and have a defined end state.  That does not mean I find them enjoyable/unpleasant to play, just that it was not what I was looking for.

Oathmark Human Militia

Some games did not make it to the trial phase.  Primarily this was because of miniature count being too high for the optimum game. Kings of War, WFB, War of the Ring are all culprits for this.  Conquest was next to go, as its unique scale combined with cost was too much of a hurdle for me to overcome. 

Radagst, MESBG

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game was a potential candidate, until I ran into the normal GW problem.  There are far too many books for such a simple game, especially at £30 per book. Although it suffers from a unique quirk in that book collection costs far more than the army!  The final nail in the coffin for this game is that most of the character range is now out of production.

Trial game of Shieldwall

 

The runner up to in this phase was Shieldwall.  In play testing this game, me and my opponent were able to run through multiple games in one sitting. Ironically, we tested the game so much we wore out the replayability! Excellent rules set, but it just left us hungry for something with more depth.  I would say that I would prefer to see a greater variety of unit choice, or increase the power of sub optimal choices.

Dark age house, inspired by classic GW cardboard scenery

 

Oathmark.  The rules are technical, I often had to stop and re read certain parts to fully understand what was supposed to be happening in any given scenario. But once we got going, the games flowed quickly and intuitively.  I can only give the author credit for this game, after an hour an 8 year old was able to figure out combat results with little prompting.  I think that’s high marks in game design!  There are two things that stood out to me.  Front arcs are determined by unit size, decided by a line drawn through opposite corners.  This results in large units, though more powerful, being able to be flanked more easily. After melee combat, the winner pushes their opponent back.  I cannot state how much I love this mechanic!  It feels so visceral pushing an opposing block of troops backward, making them give up ground. 

Is Oathmark a perfect game? Absolutely not.  But it does capture enough of what I want to be the best game for me right now!