It's tough to find a board game where points are not how you win. Oath not only delivers on this, but has created an experience where each game can optionally carry through to the next—enabling longstanding alliances, grudges, and legacies.
This game is pretty. Like, real pretty. Artist Kyle Ferrin has applied his whimsical touch to every last corner of every last element of the game. Lookit this stuff! Also, you play on a neoprene mat that unrolls and is soft and... ahhh so good.
There are three game roles, and you all share the same map. There is always one Chancellor, who starts off with all sorts of advantages and extra resources etc.
The other players can be a mix of Exiles or Citizens.
You take turns doing stuff, but the victory condition for each player is almost constantly in flux, as a result of what's happening. For example:
Confused? Yeah, it takes a while to wrap one's head around :)
By midgame, every turn tends to shift the calculus a little. Much knowledge is public, but there are strategic pieces hidden as well. Lots of bargaining takes place... shifting alliances occur... you know the drill!
The game mat has several major areas (e.g. The Cradle) and locations (e.g. Lush Coast). The locations can be populated by cards that belong to one of six factions. You'll rule these spaces with your Player Pawn and/or warbands, allowing to access the faction cards' abilities.
When it's your turn, you spend as much supply as you can to do stuff. Supply is determined by how many warbands are not out in the world—the more you have out the more you have to support them with supply.
Things you can do:
This, of course, simplifies much of the nuance. Campaigning, for example, isn't always head to head fighting. You can specifically target your opponent's relics, banners, attempt to banish them, etc. Searching involves some complexity in where you can search, and how you discard stuff.
Another neat thing about Oath is that the major economic driver—factions' favors—is closed. Each player starts with some favor, and each faction has a starting 'bank' of favor depending on player count. And this is all the favor that will exist in the game, with some rare exceptions. Often, favor is burnt from the game too!
The dynamism of these dynastic struggles makes for some excellent roleplaying—even if it's accidental. I also love how the faction cards can come together in a location to make for an interesting implied setting. Mystics, chariots and a dark festival all hanging out at the Underwater City? Coooool.
When a game ends, certain aspects of the board layout can be preserved for the next game. New faction cards are added based on the winning player's advisors (another game aspect... too complex to get into here hah), some are banished. 'Edifice' cards may remain or flip over to their 'broken' side depending on if the victory was peaceful or not.
Grudges and alliances between players... tend to last 😁
I've won my last two games, after getting trounced for about three in a row.
The first win was as a "surprise" Citizen. Our Chancellor was doing great and had boxed most of us out of victory conditions. However, I had a secret weapon in the form of some kinda hilarious pie that would force the Chancellor to make me a Citizen. 🥧
So I quietly fulfilled the Successor condition (useless as an Exile), helped frustrate others efforts to topple the Chancellor, then sprung the pie. I think it was Round 6, and the Chancellor rolled a win—except it was my win as Successor. 😎
The next game I'm the Chancellor. I drew some cards that allowed me to hoover up a lot of favors. My Oathkeeper card involved me holding onto a banner called "The People's Favor." This thing always forces you to either pay it favor or pay favor off of it back to the faction banks.
💸 So my strategy was to strangle the economy so I could have a better chance at controlling that banner. I had to Exile one of my Citizens as they were clearly on track to clear the Successor condition. I didn't want to deal with three Exiles hatching too many plans to oust me, so I also threatened to beat up one player unless they accepted a Citizenship. They eventually bent the knee, making it less of a 3-on-1 game and sort of like a 2-on-2. 'Cept the new Citizen had no chance at getting the Successor condition.
There were no pies to thwart me and though I did lose the banner for a round I eventually rolled my way into victory around Round 7.
I am scared about the disgruntled coordination that awaits the game where I have to defend my win-streak 😬😉.
If this all sounds intriguing, the fellas at Shut Up & Sit Down have covered Oath beautifully in this long but entirely entertaining review video. It gets much deeper into all the bits I glossed over in an effort to prevent this from becoming a 5,000 word post! Check it out:
Thank you for reading. All images taken by me, except where otherwise credited. I've also written about other games, if you're interested!
