Thursday 19 November 2015

... and now for something slightly different

So I have finally entered into the world of Of Gods and Mortals, an Osprey Publishing wargames rule set written by Andrea Sfiligoi, the man behind Ganesha Games. For those of you who aren't already familiar with the game, it allows you to field a deity and their retinue - from any mythological setting - in battles against rival gods. I say that I have 'finally' entered it, because I have been interested in the rules and the concepts behind them since they were first publicly mentioned by Andrea back in 2012(?).

Each player chooses one god, up to five legends (these from a vast array heroes or large monsters), and one or more small units of mortals (each with between four and eight models). So your tabletop force will probably consist of between 12 and 20 models, placing this game firmly in the 'skirmish' side of wargaming. The core mechanic is based on the Song of ... engine, so every model has quality and combat ratings, plus special traits.

The gods are the real powerhouses of the game (as you might expect), but can be overwhelmed without the support of their legends. Mortals are potentially the most fragile parts of any force, but are essential to the force because their faith is the reason the god is there in the first place. They can pay homage to their god to give them extra actions, or can even invoke their god back to the table after they have been banished.

I already had quite a host of Greek myth themed 28mm models which I use for Song of Blades and Heroes, so there was little trouble expanding the collection slightly to allow me to play OGAM.


My complete collection (to date) which I'll break down into gods, legends and mortals below. Most have already featured on previous SBH posts. There are far too many points worth of models here (especially among the legends), so they wouldn't all be featured in the same force.


Two gods - Apollo and (a rather cheeky) Artemis, both from the recent Crocodile Games 'Gods of Olympus' kickstarter. Obviously I can only field on of these at a time, but it's nice to have some variety.


Centauris (lady centaur) from Heresy Miniatures and a minotaur from Uscarl Miniatures. Centaurs can be run in mortal units in OGAM, but I only have one, and I don't really feel the need for more, so I will use her a legend, using the centaur hero Chiron's roster as the basis for her stats. The minotaur is every inch the 'legend'.
  
Herakles, a dryad and an Amazon hero. Herakles is actually an old OOP Glorantha miniature from Lance and Laser that I picked up on eBay. The Dryad is from Shadowforge. Dryads can be fielded as mortal units, but again, I only have one and that's how she'll remain for the foreseeable future, so she can be a legend too. The Amazon is from Euraka Miniatures. She will be used either as a generic hero, or will be used to flesh out my mortal 'hoplite' unit when needed.


Dark Eye Fantasy Harpy and Demonworld Boar, both courtesy of Ral Partha Europe. These guys have superb customer service and I can't recommend them enough. I originally intended to have a unit of mortal boars, but in my quest to find unharnessed angry boars, I found the Demonworld ones which are actually sold with 15mm riders. I ordered four without really knowing how they would scale in 28mm. When they arrived I was very impressed by the models, but felt they were two big to be mortals, I decided to use just the one as the legendary Kalydonian Boar, sent by Artemis to mess up Aitolia.


Satyr archers. There unruly lads are all from Eureka Miniatures - the panpipes are a scratch-built addition.

'Hoplites' - these are all Macedonian and Successor officer figures from 1st Corp Miniatures. I conceptualise them as Macedonian hypaspists but I'll use the hoplite or elite hoplite profile from the OGAM rosters.

2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of OGAM - there's a lot more to it - more like playing a chess puzzle. I've got quite a bit on my blog, please have a look - http://unitrecon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/ogam-campaign-pan-vs-ares.html

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  2. A great little warband and fantastic painting, especially the sandals and flesh on the two gods.

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