During the recent heavy lock down period Kev Dallimore
and I managed to cooperate on a joint personal project
whilst managing to keep socially distant. It was hard on us
both so the question is, why did we do this?
Having both been inspired by the release of the new
Oathmark rules by Osprey (and written by Joe
McCullough) we thought about playing a few games and
wondered what we’d use to do this. So we did a quick
assessment of our individually owned fantasy ‘armies’:
Kev’s was more recent than my own but largely
comprised bits and pieces, whilst my own – while
extensive – was like something out of the ark: it’s over
forty years old and contained a lot of aged Minifigs,
Kriegspiel, Citadel, Chronicle and Ral Partha from the
period. It’s also in need of some TLC...
MOVING ON
Fun as all of that stock take was, we decided that we
needed a fresh approach. The new plastic Oathmark
figures from North Star and Osprey seemed like a good
starting point so we looked at the boxes in the range and
what we had available between us and made some plans.
The first decision to be made was ‘background’ or – dare I
say – ‘period’. Did we want to do build armies based in
the Author’s bespoke Oathmark background or did we
want to base it on something else? Or could we do both?
We decided to generate units that didn’t break any of the
tenets or rules within the Oathmark system and therefore
could be used as (for want of a better term) ‘straight’
Oathmark Armies. However, we wanted to theme them
as something different that we both enjoyed: they were to
be firmly Tolkien based armies and were to be true to the
Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion and so forth. The
books, obviously, rather than the films...
WHO, WHEN & WHERE
So – after a general theme (Oathmark friendly and
Middle-earth) – the next decision was ‘period’: what slot
could we find in the canonical material that would enable
us to field two decent sized armies from the figures
available? We postulated a point in time we called an
‘Interwar period’: some period between the White
Council’s forcing of The Necromancer’s withdrawal from
and I managed to cooperate on a joint personal project
whilst managing to keep socially distant. It was hard on us
both so the question is, why did we do this?
Having both been inspired by the release of the new
Oathmark rules by Osprey (and written by Joe
McCullough) we thought about playing a few games and
wondered what we’d use to do this. So we did a quick
assessment of our individually owned fantasy ‘armies’:
Kev’s was more recent than my own but largely
comprised bits and pieces, whilst my own – while
extensive – was like something out of the ark: it’s over
forty years old and contained a lot of aged Minifigs,
Kriegspiel, Citadel, Chronicle and Ral Partha from the
period. It’s also in need of some TLC...
MOVING ON
Fun as all of that stock take was, we decided that we
needed a fresh approach. The new plastic Oathmark
figures from North Star and Osprey seemed like a good
starting point so we looked at the boxes in the range and
what we had available between us and made some plans.
The first decision to be made was ‘background’ or – dare I
say – ‘period’. Did we want to do build armies based in
the Author’s bespoke Oathmark background or did we
want to base it on something else? Or could we do both?
We decided to generate units that didn’t break any of the
tenets or rules within the Oathmark system and therefore
could be used as (for want of a better term) ‘straight’
Oathmark Armies. However, we wanted to theme them
as something different that we both enjoyed: they were to
be firmly Tolkien based armies and were to be true to the
Lord of the Rings, the Silmarillion and so forth. The
books, obviously, rather than the films...
WHO, WHEN & WHERE
So – after a general theme (Oathmark friendly and
Middle-earth) – the next decision was ‘period’: what slot
could we find in the canonical material that would enable
us to field two decent sized armies from the figures
available? We postulated a point in time we called an
‘Interwar period’: some period between the White
Council’s forcing of The Necromancer’s withdrawal from
OATHMARK EXPRESS
Above. Dol Guldur Great Orcs.
Dol Guldur to a time slot just before the actual War of the
Ring. So, roughly around 2940 to 3019 in the Third Age.
Location wise we also thought that the Anduin river
between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood would give us
a splendid spot for conflict. For the good guys there are
Elves available from both Thranduil’s realm in Mirkwood
plus, perhaps, Lothlorien as well as men in the shape of
local Beornings and Dwarves from the Iron Hills. There
could also be Lakemen and Rohirrim if we went far
enough, geographically speaking, but for the latter we
didn’t have any suitable mounted figures (yet) so that was
all moot.
For the combined forces of bad guys – the Axis of Evil, if
you will – there could be the Orcs of Dol Guldur (greater
Orcs and lesser Goblins in the service of Mordor); Orcs or
Goblins from the Misty Mountains (lesser breeds, for the
most part, but good cannon fodder); Wargs (and Goblins
mounted on them) also from the mountains; plus the
beginings, perhaps, of Saruman’s clandestine forces.
These would be made up from Uruks and Man Orcs (or
Half Orcs) which we thought he might be serupticiously
testing the water with. Of course we could also have
spiders, trolls and a bear but… well, maybe that’s for later!
WHAT COULD WE MAKE?
With those forces in mind that I’ve outlined, we looked at
the Oathmark Boxed Sets that we had to hand and
assessed what we might be able to achieve in the time we
had available. We had one box each of Goblin Wolf
Riders; Humans; Dwarves; Armoured Dwarves; Goblins;
Armoured Elves plus a couple of frames of the new Light
Elves.
We wanted three things from this project: two armies or
around 1500 points; all of the troop types covered; and we
wanted them quick. Our two builds – performed safely and
separately, of course, taking advantage of a necessary
drop off on the way to a supermarket for food – needed to
happen in a single weekend! A similarly speedy painting of
these figures would come later, and this will be covered in
the next article, but those were the objectives: within the
constraints of what figures we had and the time we had
available, it was fast and safe!
Ring. So, roughly around 2940 to 3019 in the Third Age.
Location wise we also thought that the Anduin river
between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood would give us
a splendid spot for conflict. For the good guys there are
Elves available from both Thranduil’s realm in Mirkwood
plus, perhaps, Lothlorien as well as men in the shape of
local Beornings and Dwarves from the Iron Hills. There
could also be Lakemen and Rohirrim if we went far
enough, geographically speaking, but for the latter we
didn’t have any suitable mounted figures (yet) so that was
all moot.
For the combined forces of bad guys – the Axis of Evil, if
you will – there could be the Orcs of Dol Guldur (greater
Orcs and lesser Goblins in the service of Mordor); Orcs or
Goblins from the Misty Mountains (lesser breeds, for the
most part, but good cannon fodder); Wargs (and Goblins
mounted on them) also from the mountains; plus the
beginings, perhaps, of Saruman’s clandestine forces.
These would be made up from Uruks and Man Orcs (or
Half Orcs) which we thought he might be serupticiously
testing the water with. Of course we could also have
spiders, trolls and a bear but… well, maybe that’s for later!
WHAT COULD WE MAKE?
With those forces in mind that I’ve outlined, we looked at
the Oathmark Boxed Sets that we had to hand and
assessed what we might be able to achieve in the time we
had available. We had one box each of Goblin Wolf
Riders; Humans; Dwarves; Armoured Dwarves; Goblins;
Armoured Elves plus a couple of frames of the new Light
Elves.
We wanted three things from this project: two armies or
around 1500 points; all of the troop types covered; and we
wanted them quick. Our two builds – performed safely and
separately, of course, taking advantage of a necessary
drop off on the way to a supermarket for food – needed to
happen in a single weekend! A similarly speedy painting of
these figures would come later, and this will be covered in
the next article, but those were the objectives: within the
constraints of what figures we had and the time we had
available, it was fast and safe!
THE OATHMARK ARMY LISTS
Middle-earth Armies for the Interwar period 2940TA to 3019TA
PICK AND MIX
As we wanted a greater variety of figures than what we
had available in the boxes, we thought about doing some
mix and match. For example, we wanted to use the Goblin
sprues for regular Orcs and Goblins (albeit quite large
ones) but, for the Great Orcs, Uruks and Half Orcs, we
wanted something different. Uruks are described by
Tolkien as ‘almost man height’ with round shields and
straight swords. The Half Orcs are used as spear or
pikemen by Saruman and, I’ve always thought, are one of
the differing racial ‘mixes’ that Saruman attempted (them
being, perhaps, slightly more ‘man’ than ‘goblin’ in his
breeding experimentations than the Uruks were). The
Great Orcs – like Sauron’s commander Grishnákh in the
Lord of the Rings – are described as shorter than
Saruman’s Uruks but very broad and powerful. Our
conundrum was, how to achieve this variety with the
models we had?
The answer was a series of head, arm, weapon, shield
and body swaps. Where possible, this was done with
simple plastic-to-plastic, ‘cut and stick’ (with liquid-polly
cement) but – where necessary – greenstuff ribbon epoxy
putty was used to fill gaps. Typically this was needed on
awkward head transitions (or should I saw ‘orc-ward’…).
For example the Goblin heads – which stick onto a peg on
had available in the boxes, we thought about doing some
mix and match. For example, we wanted to use the Goblin
sprues for regular Orcs and Goblins (albeit quite large
ones) but, for the Great Orcs, Uruks and Half Orcs, we
wanted something different. Uruks are described by
Tolkien as ‘almost man height’ with round shields and
straight swords. The Half Orcs are used as spear or
pikemen by Saruman and, I’ve always thought, are one of
the differing racial ‘mixes’ that Saruman attempted (them
being, perhaps, slightly more ‘man’ than ‘goblin’ in his
breeding experimentations than the Uruks were). The
Great Orcs – like Sauron’s commander Grishnákh in the
Lord of the Rings – are described as shorter than
Saruman’s Uruks but very broad and powerful. Our
conundrum was, how to achieve this variety with the
models we had?
The answer was a series of head, arm, weapon, shield
and body swaps. Where possible, this was done with
simple plastic-to-plastic, ‘cut and stick’ (with liquid-polly
cement) but – where necessary – greenstuff ribbon epoxy
putty was used to fill gaps. Typically this was needed on
awkward head transitions (or should I saw ‘orc-ward’…).
For example the Goblin heads – which stick onto a peg on
WHAT DID WE DO?
Here’s a list of the ‘cut and shunt’ performed:
•
Uruks had Goblin bodies and heads, plus
Armoured Dwarf, round shields with human straight
sword arms (with the odd one from the spares box: Kev
found a Ghost Archipelago sword arm that worked very
nicely!).
•
The mannish Half Orcs have human bodies
including their square shields; a mix of arms – some
human and some Goblin but all with spears – plus
Goblin heads, and all needing some putty work to make
them fit. Some of the heads for both these and the Uruks
came from the Goblin box but some also came from the
Wolf Riders box – you get a lot of spare heads which is
great!
•
Uruks had Goblin bodies and heads, plus
Armoured Dwarf, round shields with human straight
sword arms (with the odd one from the spares box: Kev
found a Ghost Archipelago sword arm that worked very
nicely!).
•
The mannish Half Orcs have human bodies
including their square shields; a mix of arms – some
human and some Goblin but all with spears – plus
Goblin heads, and all needing some putty work to make
them fit. Some of the heads for both these and the Uruks
came from the Goblin box but some also came from the
Wolf Riders box – you get a lot of spare heads which is
great!
NEXT (PAGE 2
There are plans for other add-ons to the forces:
Kev has a very nice new Oathmark Wingless
Dragon for a cold drake that he’s itching to use
but that would have to be balanced by something
like Beorn for the good guys (and he’s not short of
bears...). However the next step is, of course,
painting: they must get a paint job and we’ll cover
that in part two. Pandemic or not, the day either of
us put an army on the table unpainted is a day
that just isn’t going to happen. Even if we have
paint in separate houses and – eventually – play
the game two metres apart!
Kev has a very nice new Oathmark Wingless
Dragon for a cold drake that he’s itching to use
but that would have to be balanced by something
like Beorn for the good guys (and he’s not short of
bears...). However the next step is, of course,
painting: they must get a paint job and we’ll cover
that in part two. Pandemic or not, the day either of
us put an army on the table unpainted is a day
that just isn’t going to happen. Even if we have
paint in separate houses and – eventually – play
the game two metres apart!
Building armies under duress: Part 1
By John Treadaway
FORCES OF EVIL
Orc Commander (General)
250pts
10 Dol Guldur Great Orcs (Line Breaker)
180pts
10 Dol Guldur Orc Warriors (Orc soldier)
130pts
10 Uruks of the White Hand (Line Breaker)
180pts
10 Orc Spearmen of the White Hand
(Orc Spearmen)
140pts
10 Mountain Goblin Archers
100pts
10 Half Orcs of The White Hand (Orc Spear)
140pts
10 Half Orcs of The White Hand (Orc Spear)
140pts
5 Goblin Warg Riders with Spears
100pts
5 Goblin Warg Riders with Scimitars
100pts
5 Goblin Warg Archers (Scout)
120pts
Total
1580pts
FORCES OF GOOD
Elf Commander (General)
329pts
10 Beorning Militia (Human spearmen)
130pts
10 Armoured Dwarves – Kings Body Guard
(Line Breaker)
200pts
10 Shielded Dwarves (Dwarf warrior)
170pts
10 Light Wood Elves with Bows (rangers)
250pts
5 Armoured Elves with Bows
120pts
5 Armoured Elves with Spears
110pts
5 Armoured Elf Warriors with Swords
130pts
5 Armoured Elf Guard – double Armed
(Line Breaker)
150pts
Total
1589pts
the shoulders of the Goblin body – don’t fit neatly onto the
dish shaped shoulder/neck interface that features on the
human bodies or, for that matter, the flat interface on top
of the dwarf bodies: all the heads stick on in different
ways and this leads to gaps.
Fortunately Tolkien’s Orcs are quite hairy so a green stuff
blob was employed as both a glue and then teased out
into straggly hair with sculpting tools and a scalpel, which
worked well to hide gaps –and gaps there certainly were!
We also used putty to add extra fur and hide some gaps
on the wolves/wargs and to mask the odd bisected body
join – specifically where the two halves of the head meet –
but more of that later.
Greenstuff does have its limits though. Sometimes –
especially if you have a ball of greenstuff ‘on the go’ for a
while as you perform your ‘Doctor Frankenstein’ style
surgery – the putty can go off enough to lose it’s initial
stickiness. Then, a head that looks to be stuck on well
using just the putty, might well drop off later in handling
and clean up – as some of ours did! Fortunately, the two
halves of the join – the underside of the head and the
greenstuff ‘socket’ it sat in – are a perfect ‘male/female’
joint and stick back together seamlessly and tenaciously
with a drop of super-glue.
dish shaped shoulder/neck interface that features on the
human bodies or, for that matter, the flat interface on top
of the dwarf bodies: all the heads stick on in different
ways and this leads to gaps.
Fortunately Tolkien’s Orcs are quite hairy so a green stuff
blob was employed as both a glue and then teased out
into straggly hair with sculpting tools and a scalpel, which
worked well to hide gaps –and gaps there certainly were!
We also used putty to add extra fur and hide some gaps
on the wolves/wargs and to mask the odd bisected body
join – specifically where the two halves of the head meet –
but more of that later.
Greenstuff does have its limits though. Sometimes –
especially if you have a ball of greenstuff ‘on the go’ for a
while as you perform your ‘Doctor Frankenstein’ style
surgery – the putty can go off enough to lose it’s initial
stickiness. Then, a head that looks to be stuck on well
using just the putty, might well drop off later in handling
and clean up – as some of ours did! Fortunately, the two
halves of the join – the underside of the head and the
greenstuff ‘socket’ it sat in – are a perfect ‘male/female’
joint and stick back together seamlessly and tenaciously
with a drop of super-glue.
Above. Dol Guldur Great Orcs.
Above. Half Orcs of The White Hand (Orc Spear).
•
The Dol Guldur Great Orcs have Dwarven bodies –
the straight, chainmail bodies of the Dwarf set – with
helmeted Goblin heads. The arms were all Goblin arms
with axes and heavy weapons, plus Goblin shields.
•
In all of these units we tried to make leaders look a
little different (as is required by the rules) so, for example,
the Great Orc leader (Grishnákh’s brother or something…)
has a heavy Armoured Dwarf body and Dwarf arms, just
to make him look exceptionable. Extra colour and texture
was also added on leaders – horse tails on Orc and Uruk
Leaders, and plumes on the Elves, for example.
•
The Warg riders were assembled pretty much
straight from the Wolf Riders box with a little remedial
putty work. There’s three units: five with bow (as Scouts);
five with spears and five with scimitars. The leader is
identified by having a pillion hanging on for grim death:
not a fighting advantage as much as an uncommon act of
kindness!
the straight, chainmail bodies of the Dwarf set – with
helmeted Goblin heads. The arms were all Goblin arms
with axes and heavy weapons, plus Goblin shields.
•
In all of these units we tried to make leaders look a
little different (as is required by the rules) so, for example,
the Great Orc leader (Grishnákh’s brother or something…)
has a heavy Armoured Dwarf body and Dwarf arms, just
to make him look exceptionable. Extra colour and texture
was also added on leaders – horse tails on Orc and Uruk
Leaders, and plumes on the Elves, for example.
•
The Warg riders were assembled pretty much
straight from the Wolf Riders box with a little remedial
putty work. There’s three units: five with bow (as Scouts);
five with spears and five with scimitars. The leader is
identified by having a pillion hanging on for grim death:
not a fighting advantage as much as an uncommon act of
kindness!
Above. Orc Spearmen of the White Hand (Orc Spearmen).
•
The Goblin units are pretty much straight from the
box though with head and spears sometimes selected
from the Goblin Rider box just to add variety, and some
given Dwarf shields.
•
The Beornings have the Human bodies and heads
but with the plain, round Dwarf shields and are
exclusively spearmen. Shields aside – with an Armoured
Dwarf shield for the leader – they are a pretty straight
build, but then they are generic, low ranking men: they
could be the older, remaining Rohirrim infantry such as
were left in the defence of Helms Deep, or Lakemen just
as easily so they are deliberately quite generic.
•
The four units of armoured elves are similarly just
built from the box. I did a little work on the double armed
guys to get a variety of poses and weapons – the leader
has a battlefield trophy of an orc scimitar in his left hand
from the Goblin box – but the only reason they are
double armed is to signify them as the Kings Guard (in the
list they are categorised as ‘Line Breakers’) but the other
box though with head and spears sometimes selected
from the Goblin Rider box just to add variety, and some
given Dwarf shields.
•
The Beornings have the Human bodies and heads
but with the plain, round Dwarf shields and are
exclusively spearmen. Shields aside – with an Armoured
Dwarf shield for the leader – they are a pretty straight
build, but then they are generic, low ranking men: they
could be the older, remaining Rohirrim infantry such as
were left in the defence of Helms Deep, or Lakemen just
as easily so they are deliberately quite generic.
•
The four units of armoured elves are similarly just
built from the box. I did a little work on the double armed
guys to get a variety of poses and weapons – the leader
has a battlefield trophy of an orc scimitar in his left hand
from the Goblin box – but the only reason they are
double armed is to signify them as the Kings Guard (in the
list they are categorised as ‘Line Breakers’) but the other
three units are equipped as a sword, spear and bow unit.
•
The Light Elves are Elf Rangers and built pretty
much straight from the sprue by Kev.
•
The Dwarves have had a little work, which we split
between us. I swapped armoured dwarf and unarmoured
dwarf arms around a little and I added the boar helmet
crests (and I added a special big one for my leader with
the boar from the standard attached to the dwarfs helmet
for a really obvious command figure) but they are all fairly
standard.
•
The Leaders for both armies got the most work and
Kev did those: the Elven leader has an upper body from
an Armoured Dwarf added to an Elven lower body with
elven arms and weapons and a Frostgrave cloak (from
the female soldiers set) again taken from Kev’s capacious
spare box (and which fitted surprisingly well). The Great
Orc leader also has an armoured dwarf body (the
whole thing, though) plus a head, shield, and long scimitar
from the wolf rider box.
•
The Light Elves are Elf Rangers and built pretty
much straight from the sprue by Kev.
•
The Dwarves have had a little work, which we split
between us. I swapped armoured dwarf and unarmoured
dwarf arms around a little and I added the boar helmet
crests (and I added a special big one for my leader with
the boar from the standard attached to the dwarfs helmet
for a really obvious command figure) but they are all fairly
standard.
•
The Leaders for both armies got the most work and
Kev did those: the Elven leader has an upper body from
an Armoured Dwarf added to an Elven lower body with
elven arms and weapons and a Frostgrave cloak (from
the female soldiers set) again taken from Kev’s capacious
spare box (and which fitted surprisingly well). The Great
Orc leader also has an armoured dwarf body (the
whole thing, though) plus a head, shield, and long scimitar
from the wolf rider box.
Above. Dol Guldur Orc Warriors (Orc soldier).
Above. Uruks of the White Hand (Line Breaker).
Above. Mountain Goblin Archers.
Above. Goblin Warg Archers (Scout).
Above. Goblin Warg Riders with Hand Weapons.
Above. Light Wood Elves with Bows (rangers).
Above. Beorning Militia (Human spearmen).
Above. Armoured Dwarves – Kings Body Guard (Line Breaker).
Above. Shielded Dwarves (Dwarf warrior).
Above. Armoured Elf Guard – double Armed (Line Breaker).
Above. Armoured Elf Guard – double Armed (Line Breaker).
Above. Armoured Elves with Bows.
Right. Elf Commander (General)
and Orc Commander (General).
