Oblivion

While the world fights the Covid-19 virus, and the human race tries to avoid oblivion, my wife and I have welcomed the Oblivion campaign to our gaming table. The first three games worked like a journeyman game, and didn’t have much to them. They were a good reminder of how rules worked, which is what my wife needed. Walking through games 4, 5, and 6 sounds like fun, so let’s do that. But first…

What is Oblivion?

Privateer Press released the Oblivion campaign about a year ago. The box comes with the Hermit of Hengehold, a solo model, some cards, and a book. Privateer filled the book full of sweet looking illustrations, lore on the Infernals, and the campaign rules.

The campaign tells two stories, through the eyes of people working against the Infernals, and people working with the Infernals. The folks helping the Infernals aren’t necessarily Infernalists, or supporters of the Infernals. They could be inadvertently helping by acting out their own agenda, or be manipulated by Infernalists in a position of power.

In the anti-infernal narrative, the player working against the Infernals is the protagonist, while the person working for the Infernals is the protagonist in the infernal narrative. The battles start small, with 25 point armies and no warcaster/warlock, and end with a big 75 point battle. A win or a loss directs the narrative campaign along a plot tree, and winners have opportunity to win cards that act like mini-feats.

Our armies

I decided to run Crucible Guard, with Aurum Ominus Legate Lukas di Morray at the helm. Holy cow, what a long title. My intent was to feel him out in both the Infernal and Crucible Guard armies to see how he plays in both factions.

My wife decided to work on her Protectorate of Menoth army, focusing on the Daughters of the Flame.

The game(s)

Game 4

This was a “Guardian” game, the first of the anti-infernalist games. There’s a watchtower being bombarded by the antagonist side each turn, causing an AOE to be scattered from the tower that causes things to fall down and a rough terrain template to be put into play.

We had 35 points to spend this time, so I rocked Lukas, the Crucible Guard Infantry, the Rocketman Ace, and some warjacks. This wasn’t in the CG theme though, it was in the Infernal Hearts of Darkness theme.

My wife ran Nicia, the Testament of Menoth, Blood of Martyrs, Castigator, the Daughters of the Flame, and Exemplar Errants.

I liked the watchtower terrain piece. It introduced a little randomness that wasn’t unbalancing. Too bad all the rolls landed on my dudes.

A Liberator and Infantry warrior getting hit by some debris from the watchtower.

The Daughters of the Flame kick the infantry’s butt, and the massive amount of spooky fog on the table breaks up line of sight well enough to protect the examplar from the CG guns.

Too much fog for the gun line.

I saw a line of attack on the Testament, so I pumped up the juice, and blew the whole deal on a spell assassination attempt. It’s easy to hit, since Lukas’s focus spikes so high. The damage output is kind of low. I’m not impressed. I did notice that his ability to run warjacks is something to be explored. In the infernal theme, he could be pretty efficient, only needing to juice a little bit, relying on the theme to top off his warjacks. Looks like it’s Suppressors?

The assassination attempt failed, leaving Testament on something like 4 or 5 boxes, and leaving Lukas with some damage from juicing and only 3 focus. The souls collected by the deaths necessary for the assassination run fueled the Testament’s retaliation.

Maybe Lukas should have waited a turn or two.

Lukas couldn’t handle all the attacks, two from Nicia, and two from the archon (the bottom half, anuyway). Weaponmaster hurts.

Poor Lukas, cut to pieces.

Game 5

Bad guys’ turn! Something about raiding a depot on the way to cause more havoc. There are four objectives, and a building which serves as an objective. Players earn control points by being near the objectives.

This time, I’m running Lukas with Assault Troopers, Gorman, the Lynus, Edrea, and Dr, along with some warjacks.

My wife runs the same list as before, to get in her practice. It’s a neat little setup, but doesn’t benefit from any of the themes.

Coasters represent fog, and the legs represent the objective. Heavy battle on the right side of the board.

Regardless, she did pretty well. Her warjacks tossed my Toro into some of my dudes, knocking them down (previous picture), and her Daughters really laid into the Assault Troopers. On the other side of the board, my Vindicator kicked over some errants, and Lukas screened with some smoke.

The rings are clouds created by Lukas and Gorman.

Things heat up on the right, and Menoth is up by two points. Being able to juice up higher than normal, thanks to the healing from the trio. I’m not certain I’m reading this right, but Lukas was up to FOCUS 11. Testament had about the same amount of focus on him, but Lukas had the ability to boost every single shot.

So he walked in and started blasting!

This time, Testament fell to Lukas. The shots landed hard, breaking through his field and crushing his armor.

Game 6

Second game on the “Good Guy” narrative, this one involves the antagonist trying to retrieve an artifact, and the protagonist trying to put out some magical forest fires.

We have a Trollblood village surrounded by spooky fog and burning forests.

The Menoth army, led by Thyra, sets up in the center, with a unit of Daughters waiting in ambush. The Guardians of the Temple plan to extinguish the fires of war and recover the relic themselves.

  • Thyra, Flame of Sorrow + 29
    • Blood of Martyrs – 16
    • Castigator – 12
  • Menite Archon (friendly card) – 8
  • Nicia, Tear of Vengeance (free)
  • Vassal of Menoth (free)
  • Vassal of Menoth (free)
  • Daughters of the Flame x2 (20)
  • Flame Bringers (17)
  • Dannon Blythe and Bull (5) (friendly)

Lukas continued to stick with the Crucible Guard.

  • Lukas + 29
    • Alyce (free)
    • Toro – 13
    • Vindicator -15
    • Vanguard – 10
  • Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist – 4
  • Crucible Guard Assault Troopers – 13
  • Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea LLoryrr (friendly) – 5
    • Doctor Alejandro Mosby – 4
  • Crucible Guard Infantry – 15
    • Crucible Guard Infantry Officer and Standard – (free)
Crucible Guard runs up the table

The Crucible Guard push up the center, trying to get at the far left forest, while blocking and engaging with the bulk of Thyra’s forces on the right.

Two jacks, the archon, and the daughters all push in, while the cavalry shoots far to my right.
Taken from the right side of the table, showing the CG (left) and Menoth (right) seconds before they cash.

Thyra kills one of the fires moments after the armies spot each other. Lukas knows he must keep her occupied on the right flank. Rather than run, he juices, and walks behind his cloud wall and infantry. He probably should have ran, and avoided the temptation of power.

The Assault Troopers wait for the first wave of daughters, bolstered by the thought that Lukas would protect them with his spells.

Assault troopers prepare to receive the wave of Daughters, who loiter just outside the troopers’ charge range.

The daughters charge in, and a trooper dies. Cavalry skirts around the battlefield, and the archon sets up for a charge.

Top left forest is still on fire, as are the bottom two. The top right is out, and Thyra is deciding what she wants to do. The Assault troopers are tied up with the daughters.

On the left side, the infantry advances, and takes some pot shots at Blythe and Bull, wiping them from the board. The Vindicator runs in behind them, and Lukas screens with clouds.

Unfortunately, the Blood of Martyrs tramples in to engage the infantry, and hopefully get close to Lukas.

Fog to the far right, fog in the distance, and some burning earth AOEs between the Vindicator and the Blood of Martyrs.

The Vindicator absolutely wrecks the Blood of Martyrs, leaving it with only one arm and mobility intact. Lukas walks up, throwing focus to his warjacks and dropping clouds to cover his advance.

Lukas tries to get close to the forest, but needs his healers, since he’s juicing so hard.

Suddenly, it occurs to Thyra that she’s not only lightning fast, but can pretty much move through models with impunity. She bolts to the forest, running her full speed.

She stops, and an injured Vanguard tries to hit her, but the light warjack is fouled, and cannot extend its arm enough to make metal meet flesh. Thyra concentrates her magic, and the fire vanishes.

Thoughts

I really like Lukas with the healers. I am not sure how to keep them alive in a Steamroller game. I think his juicing for assassination is probably a trap. It might be better to take him with a contingent of warjacks. I would like to try him with the infernals for my next list.

Thyra is neat. That was my wife’s first time with her. As she moves to 75 points, she may want to add some more warjacks, or maybe the temple structure thing. The daughters do an excellent job against infantry, between combined melee, Thyra’s boosts, and anatomical precision if they can’t break armor. I wouldn’t want to see them into my Band of Heroes lists with Trollbloods. She will have to work the kinks out of her cavalry. They weren’t very effective, just skirting the table. She ambushed on that side, which made things a little congested.

Oblivion is a great way for new players to really get into the game. It slowly builds the army, introducing new pieces each time you play (in the first few games), and quickly ramps things up. I like it better than the journeyman league. It is a good narrative, and I’m eager to play more. I’m absolutely going to buy an expansion if it’s offered.

If the new Warcaster game has similar narrative events, I will be more inclined to pick up that game whenever this Covid-19 thing blows over.


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