OGAM vs OAAH Round 2

A quickie before we get started. Love OGAM to bits, kept getting more and different units. But they're small. OAAH uses bigger and more. So my advise, start buying & painting.

There's several differences that will not be obvious to most of you, but will hopefully get into the published rules.  Troop scale is vague, you might be dealing with any.  So a General will probably represent his/her nibs plus bodyguards, messengers, etc.  

In combat a General figure rolls 3 dice that work as normal.  But if the total is 5 or less, the General is a casualty.  Works very neat.

Which gives me a neat segway to show you my skellies. This was my first, big, bit OAAH update. Japanese Skeletons. A good selection from the first releases of Alternative Armies Sengoku range.

 Generic shieldless spear. These fit in anywhere. With my Achaean's, Scots chiltron or Japanese followers/peasants.  I ink in the eyes, really helps the look but is rather boring to do-.  The standard is from a bead shop and the vulture from AA's command pack.

New release Sengoku. Separate skull heads, helmets and basket hats! Plus a good discount helps. So easy to convert.  No, I haven't finished 'em yet!  With these 2 part figures it's so easy to make very mixed units and to set the bodies at twisted/damaged poses.

Now the fun starts, changing one fer 'tuther. 'tis difficult.  There's just nothing as powerful as an OGAM god in OAAH.

Old OGAM in Italics n brackets.

Izanami (Q2 C4 Culling of the Weak, Confound, Tremble Before My Might, Sacrifice 280)                
2 5 8 General Giant L5 Fear, Extra 4 lives  93

Legends

Jurogumo, Spider woman (Q3 C2 Labrynth 60) 3 3 5 Monster L3 Fear 33

Giant spider (Q3 C3 Big, Poison, 70) 3 3 5 Monster L2 Stealth, Poison, Fear, Burrow 30

Dai oni (Q3 C3 Big, Hammering Blow, Flying,104) 3 4 8 Giant L3, Fly, Tough xtra lives 3 114

Oni (Q3 C3 Big, Hammering Blow 84 x2= 168) 4 4 8 Giant L2 Tough Xtra lives  71 x 2 142

Mortals

Undead (Q4 C2 Slow, Undead 8@16 = 144 x 5 units = 720) 4 3 5 Slow, Undead 13

Undead Archers (Q4 C1 Slow, Undead Shoot M 9 @ 11 = 99) 4 1 5 Slow, Undead, Shoot 1 13OGAM Total 1,501
OAAH Total 1,049

Hades (Q2 C4 raise dead, shadowform, 240 ) 2 5 6 Giant L5 General. Necromancer, Fear, Xtra lives 4

Persephone (Q3 C3 Mtd, Long, 86) 2 4 5 Monster L2, Chariot, Trample, Xtra lives 3 60

Hydra (Q3 C4 Combat Master, Armoured, Huge, unique 116 )  2 5 5 Monster L4 Fear, Fast Trample Xtra lives 3 82

Medusa (Q3 C3 poison, turn to stone. 90) 3 3 4 Monster L2 Fear, Poison 25

Stheno (Q3 C3armoured, turn to stone 94) 3 3 5 Monster L2 Fear, Poison 29
Euryale (Q3 C3 flying, long move, turn to stone 120) 3 3 4 Monster L2 Fly Fast 27


Mortals
Undead (Q4 C2 8@18 = 144 x 4 units = 576 ) 4 3 5 Undead 15
Undead (Q4 C2 Shooters Medium (OO) 4x 23 = 184) 4 1 5 Undead, Shoot 1 15

OGAM Total 1,506

OAAH Total 845

845 vs 1,049. Doesn't work, but if I add 13 skellies, making 5 units of 8 sp and another unit of 5 archers makes 1,040 vs 1,049. Proper job.

We used standardish set-up on the same scenery.  We took the same sides, Tony deciding to lump his faster infantry into larger units.  Units that can go fast are 2nd square in if required.  As these are cheap troops there's a lot of them.  You'll notice that OGAM deployment works like an RPG, you start at an interesting point whereas OAAH you're a bit back.  We did use the same objective, so as Tony defended he got to put Euryale on the objective.

I got to move 1 whole unit before I lost the initiative.  He did much better pushing the bulk of his forward.  I twiddled thumbs but managed to get me Oni's & god up to the objective.

Hydra picks off an Oni.  But at least it's damaged in the process, losing 1 life.

My spider makes a dash to see off the skirmishers, but gets peppered!

I send in the Dai Oni to trounce the Hydra,  That worked! But it loses 2 out of 3 lives doing it.

Spider-woman, Spider-woman does whatever a spider can do-

Archers do surprisingly well against my infantry.

The problem with slow troops is that they need 2 activations to go 1 terrain square.  I have to Push them to make up the difference. Dangerous if hit and they need to rest.  The unit with the rear marker has been pushed but not recovered.

Any single faced with a large unit is likely to lose- there's 16 and any 6--.

But I manage to get my infantry forward!  In OGAM you continue a fight until there's an outcome.  Here it's one brutal roll of lots of dice.  In this case, 1's aren't a kill-.

I do very well, my 8 have killed 8 but his 16 has only killed 7.  1 isn't a viable unit (2-16)  so it's a moot point.

Damn those archers are good, if only I could get mine to move!

I distract Hades with a sacrifice, you never know, I could roll 4 6's!

That's a no, then.

Medusa slides over the top of the objective, kills my weakened Dai Oni but goes down to the other Oni

The remnnant of the spear go into mine.  In the distance I manage to get my left flank turned and ready.  I need those archers to move!

8 v 9, this is what's left.  As there's 2, Tony still has a unit!

My remaining Oni decides that it's a bit hot down there and climbs for swinging room.

Persephone is not given to patience and attacks on reaction!  That goes bad-.

Where did that reaction come from?  My archers had finally moved!  Sneaking up behind Tony's archers and did well, for once!   All archers out-performed in this game.  Do you see what I mean by fast?  Roll, reaction, hit, roll, move shoot.  We've had quieter TURNS in some games.

The numbers are beginning to thin out, which means the game speeds up.

Meanstwhile, my spiderwoman finally gets up top.

They kill each other!

Take that hill!

My Oni clobbers Stephano.

I think he's surrounded--.  One thing we've learned, a single figure will always succumb to a large unit.  All they have to do is roll 6's.

So Tony has the objective, I have a line and a few archers.  There was a duel and I actually get the better!

The inevitable clash!

I win, just, hurt though!  Any other force would take morale rolls.  This lot just carry on.

Tony sends these on reaction into Izanami to no effect.

Archers go "uncle".

I have a line, he has a line.

Tony's come on like a storm and here's good old Clausewitz comes in.  My 8 meets his 16, if there was any leeway Tony would get a plus, but as it is only 1's fail (1 is always a fail, 6 is always success).  Tony got overkill and wiped me out.  I killed 6.  That left 8 v 10.  This one I actually win,  I'm left with 3 and Tony 2!  Amazingly, both viable units.  As Tony lost, his go back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz

Tony's last small unit takes the objective.

She's not having that!

Crunch!

I kill all bar 1, but as expected she died.

The last, full unit on the field.  My archers who had been my far left unit has crawled all the way across the board and now faces 2 units of faster skirmishers.

We miss Ginger Beer!  This cost 3x what we used to pay and has that awful saccharine taste and no kick.

Wow, that's shooting!

So I sort of win if you can call a few undead archers winners!  The game took slightly less time than the OGAM.  So yes OAAH is the faster.

Gods & legends are so much more powerful in OGAM.  But the invoking power of the mortals balances out. In OGAM you need a good balance of the three.  OAAH the larger units have the upper hand.  The extras are good against each other but will go down to the bigger numbers.

So, it's horses for courses.  I'm a great believer in using 3x Legends as the base.  Most use very few mortals but I think that weakens the game.  Have a look at my Olympics series where I use 1,000 points & only 3 legends, filling the remaining points with mortals.

Hope you've enjoyed this and I encourage you to compare your favourite rules.  It's a good way to focus "this does that".