Sunday, June 09, 2013

Of God and Mortals

Once in a while our little group of wargamers get swept up in a new period or set of new rules and there is a frenzy of buying and (less of) painting and rules-reading.

OK, that happens all the time.

In fact, I'm not sure if we ever do things in any other way.

Anyway, the latest frenzy is a set of yet-unpublished rules from Ganesha Games which will be published by Osprey, called "Of Gods and Mortals", or OGAM for short.

I first saw the rules in an advertisement in Miniature Wargames magazine, and thought it was a cool idea. Not long after, fg, Adrian and Thomas all got interested in Crocodile Games' kickstarter, which featured armies from ancient Greece led by demigods of the Greek pantheon. At the same time, I have also backed Red Box Games' kickstarter through fg, which will give me some militia-type figures for my LOTR dwarf army.

It wasn't long before I realised that I can use my LOTR dwarves for a Norse faction, and that it would be a reason for Adrian to finally paint up those Celtos figures he has bought so long ago. wahj got roped in when I remembered he has several Trojan War figures from both Redoubt and Foundry. Now fg is several hundred dollars into the Croc Games kickstarter, and Thomas is waiting for them to unlock the Corinthians.

The great thing about this set of rules, as far as we can tell, is that you only need around 20 figures for a complete warband: a god, one to three heroes or legends, and two groups of warriors, with the heavy foot formed in ranks and the skirmishers/missile troops deployed on a movement tray made from a CD. I made my CD movement tray today, and here is my warband.


I still lack a god. I have ordered the Tharn Helmsunder figure from Reaper to use as a dwarven equivalent of Thor. It is a human figure, but I think his proportions fit that of a LOTR dwarf:

Tharn Helmsunder, painted by Witchhunter.

He should be taller than the dwarven figures, which is the effect I am trying to achieve here. I am wondering if I should paint it in the colour scheme of the Marvel Comic Thor...

Now something about my LOTR dwarves.

I bought most of them off a painter on ebay years ago, when he was just starting out and pricing himself competitively. I managed to get something like 60 figures from him at one shot (the now discontinued "Wardens of the West Gate" boxed set). Over the years I added several figures to them, some GW (like the Murin and Drar figures, which I think are excellent), some Reaper, some Hasslefree, and some Red Box, which are just a little smaller but have the same mid to low fantasy style as the LOTR figures. I have used them for Strandhogg, Dux Britanniarum, and will soon use them for OGAM. Pretty good return of investment.

Another thing: my new glasses have allowed to to go back and paint the eyes on the female dwarf and Drar (the bow-armed hero). I hope this means I can do a good job on the Thor figure too.

6 comments:

fatgoblin said...

you're getting the hang of this backdrop thing!

danmer said...

Have you tried the rules ou yet? I have a playtesters copy and have enjoyed a few games ... Kind of like Song of Blades and Heroes Plus!

captain arjun said...

Dan,

I haven't played any of the Song family of games before, and am not in the playtest group - do let me know what you think of the game.

As I understand, Song uses individual figures, so I have been wondering how groups work in OGAM.

I really bought into the system on the 'cool factor' alone here, and of course Croc Games' kickstarter just made the decision easier for my friends!

At the same time, we are also using Dux Bellorum for our planned Macedonian and Punic War campaign. :)

So many projects, so few weekends...

danmer said...

Groups are really for ordinary warriors and monsters; you also have legends/heroes and gods as troop types. They all have different characteristics, as you'd expect.

Groups move around as a mob; individually they're weak, but a group of several warriors can pose a threat to the wiser and better. A glance at your army looks to be balanced for the game - and nicely painted of course!

Those Wargods models look great, eh? I've never played the game but the Greek myth stuff is tempting me now.

Songs... is a lovely little skirmish game, and well worth a look too. I've used it for a few Greek myth games before, although there's no official supplement it's easy enough to draw up your own troops.

Sean said...

Cool army concept. I thought OGaM was out already. I saw it listed on Amazon when I was searching for Osprey titles yesterday.

captain arjun said...

Dan,

I hope my scant knowledge of the game is correct - we are all building up forces based on the idea of 1 god, 1 to 3 heroes, and two groups each of 8 figures, one melee and one missile!

Sean,

OGAM is scheduled for release Oct/Nov, after Ronin, I believe.