OGAM Tournament Rules and clarifications

This document introduces some suggested tournament rulings, limitations and clarifications for the Of Gods and Mortals wargame by Osprey Publishing. Please comment them. I plan to add them later as a PDF download as a living rulebook that will we updated as more games are played and new forces or scenarios are added to the game.

Errata

Theseus is 60 pts, not 30.

Hyppolite is 70 pts, not 80.

Undead berseker is 22 pts, not 25.

The Minotaur is not Big. The profile is correct, the example on p. XX is not. You may, however, add the Big rule depending on the size of the model used.

Clarifications

Tremble Before My Might works against any kind of troops, including other gods (there are examples in the myths of gods intimidating or striking terror in the hearts of their peers). It does NOT work against Undead.

Certain divine powers, in certain armies, are assigned to Legends. Examples: Illusions, Confound. This is deliberate, and is done for the sake of variety and game balance. This does not mean that you should assign these powers to Legends of your creation. We have given them only to Pantheons that really needs them because it is perceived as weak by the players, or to be faithful to mythology.

Mounted

The Mounted bonus applies against foot models of the same tier or lower, no matter what their size. A Mounted Theseus has no bonus against a god, but he enjoys the Mounted bonus against a Giant.

Question: How do CO Units move? Straight ahead and then they can turn at the end of the move, or can they wheel as they advance? 

CO units may wheel during the movement. Just place the stick so one end is on the central figure in the unit, angle it as you want, then place a finger where along the stick you want the unit to go and slide the unit until it meets your finger. 

OO units must Always recoil at the end of a melee.

At the end of a clash (that is, after a combat die roll exchange, or multiple die rolls if the first one was a tie and the melee had to go on) between a CO and an OO unit, the OO unit must recoil 1 x Short EVEN IF they won. Exception: they do not recoil if they completely destroy their enemy unit. See p.18.

The CO unit, if they can, may choose to follow up the OO unit but the follow up does not cause any other recoil this turn.

In a clash between a CO and an OO unit in which no on is destroyed, at the end of the clash both units recoil 1 x Short. The OO one recoils becuse it clashed with a CO unit, and the CO unit recoils because it lost a melee. This happens quite rarely.

Dashing
If a Dashing unit wins a melee and follows up, the second impact does not generate an additional attack action.

Tied Free Hacks

A tied free hack, including one between gods, means that nothing happened and no effect applies, not even the clash of the titans rule. It just means that the god that suffered a free hack was not hit. In other words, a free hack has game effects only IF the unit performing the free hack wins the free hack roll. Any other result is a no effect.

Hammering Blow

The free hack from Hammering blow is performed BEFORE applying the result from the combat that triggered the free hack. The Hammering Blow rule does not apply again during the free hack, e.g., if the model who rolled a 1 rolls another 1 during the free hack, this does not trigger another free hack, and if he rolls a 6, he does not get a +2 to his total.

Tournament formula

Each table has a different scenario. The scenarios must encourage diversity in army design and play on a force’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, one scenario will favor shooting armies, another may prevent a favorite power from being used, or limit a specific activity such as Invocation, and so on.

Players are paired so that people from the same club would not fight the first game against each other.

Tables should be assigned so that players try as many of the scenarios as possible.

Players should not know the specific scenario rules until they sit at the table.

Tournament Limitations

Each army will be built on 900 points, with a leeway of +/-20 points.

Each force must include:

1) a single god built on up to 400 points with any number of options, and

2) at least one Legend.

Gods built on more than 400 points are permissible; however, they may not take any option.

Players may use profiles from the official army lists in the book, those published on the Osprey blog or on www.ganeshagames.net; no player-designed forces or profiles are allowed. If you are interested in creating your own profiles, submit them for approval and they will be published on www.ganeshagames.net and made official.

Prophecy and Invocation: prophecy results may NOT be used to replace Invocation dice.

No army will test for morale on turn 1 and 2 of the game. If a condition exists for such a test in turns 1 or 2, the test is deemed to be automatically successful.

Scenario Complications

Each scenario should use one of these complications. Write them on cards and have a random player draw one per table AFTER set-up and deployment.

Reinforcements for the underdog - the first army to lose 25% of its point value in troops will receive a unit of mortals designed on as many points or less. Use counters if no models are available to represent the extra troops. The extra unit appears on any table edge as soon as the point loss occurs.

Divine Wind: due to the intervention of a hidden prankster deity, all gods in this scenario have -1 on all missile attacks against other gods. Ranged attacks from and against other tiers are unaffected.

My Kingdom for a Horse: in this scenario, all mounted gods and legends will find themselves separated from their mounts. Mounts must be deployed at least 2 x Long away from where the riders are deployed. A god who is adjacent to his mount may jump on the saddle by spending one action. Use counters or spare cavalry figures to represent the mounts.

The Switch Spell: the god with the lower C score, or the god with no ranged attacks if both have the same C score, has a single spell effect which allows the player to exchange two units in play. This can be used only once and may affect friends and foes alike. It may be used even on units already in a fray. If both gods have the same C score and none has a ranged attack, determine who gets the spell with a die roll.

Uncooperative Heroes: each player secretly chooses one of his opponent’s Legends. Write down the chosen Legend on a piece of scrap paper and reveal them simultaneously. The two chosen Legends will NOT count for purposes of the outnumbering/fray rule in this scenario.

Vendetta: randomly choose one legend for both players after the forces have been deployed. Those two legends have a personal hatred for each other. The Legends must always roll at least two dice per activation. Any action these two legends roll must be used to get into melee with the hated enemy and attack him in hand-to-hand combat. After a legend has killed its hated enemy, it may be activated normally as is no longer forced to roll at least two activation dice.

Dangerous ground: there are at least two patches of dangerous terrain on the table, each 1 x Long across. This can be anything appropriate for the involved pantheons, from holes to the underworld to pools of molten lava. All mortals within 1 x M from a patch of dangerous ground may not perform invocation. The dangerous terrain may be crossed by any troop type, but it counts as broken ground and, should the unit fail a Q roll on a single die, the unit takes a casualty.

Deserters: both player choose a single mortal from one unit in the opponent’s force. That mortal has deserted the army and does not take part in this game.

Unforeseeable Destiny: the force with the higher number of prophecy dice rolls one less prophecy dice in this game.

Poisoned arrows: the first unit of mortals in the game to inflict a casualty thanks to a ranged attack rolls a die, on a 5 or 6, the attack causes an additional casualty.

Fury of the Mortals: both players choose one unit of mortals from the opponent’s force before deployment. That unit may NOT perform invocation during this game but gains a +1 to Combat against other mortals.

From them, a Hero will be Chosen: when the first unit of mortals is reduced to a single figure in the game, that figure becomes a Q3 C3 Legend.

Avenger of the Gods: in this scenario, when a god is first killed, his player chooses one of his legends. That legend gains +1 to his C score as long as the god is out of play. The bonus is lost if the god returns.

Sample scenarios for tournaments

These scenarios should be used in addition to the ones in the book. Make sure each table has a different scenario and a different complication.

The Eternal Flame

There is a temple set up at the centre of the table. It should be any suitable scenic item, at least 1 Long x 1 Long in size. No model may be deployed closer than 2 x Medium from the temple. The force with a unit in contact with the temple, as long as his opponent has no unit in contact with the temple, gains control of the Eternal Flame.

If a force controls the Eternal Flame, its Mortal units may perform invocation even if there are less than 4 mortals in the unit.

A unit inside the temple is under cover and is at -1 to be hit by missile attacks.

A Huge or Gargantuan Legend or God may try to destroy the temple, by spending 2 actions in contact with the Temple and rolling a 3 or better on a die. If the temple is destroyed, any mortal unit inside it is killed unless they roll a 6. Legends and Gods automatically save themselves from the collapsing temple. Place any survivor outside the temple, in contact with it.

Control of the Flame at the end of the game is worth 50 points.

Rise of the Scorpion

After deployment, a giant scorpion legend (Q3 C3 Big, Poison) emerges from a randomly determined scenic item. The scorpion is deployed by a random player. The scorpion moves only on reactions, and it is controlled by the opponent of the player whose force caused a reaction. The scorpion’s reactions are IN ADDITION to the normal reactions performed by its controller. The Scorpion’s actions take place BEFORE normal reactions. Example: player A causes 2 reactions with one of his units. Player B first performs 2 reactions with the Scorpion, then he performs two reactions with his troops (assuming he has troops who can react in that given situation), then the turn-over effect kicks in and the initiative switches to B’s force.

 Killing the scorpion is worth no victory points.

The Forest Spirits

The battle takes place inside a forest. There must be 6 to 8 patches of woods on the tabletop, each at least 1 x Medium across. Each unit of mortals stepping into one of these patches must roll a die. On a 1, the unit suffers a free hack at C3 from the forest guardians. On a 2-5, nothing happens. On a 6, the spirit guardians have a revelation for the force and the player controlling the unit gains 1 free prophecy die. Spirits manifest ONLY to mortals. Gods and Legends may cross the woods with no effect. Each player may gain a maximum of 4 Prophecy dice per game.

These Prophecy dice may be used together with those granted by the Prophecy trait, or the player may choose not to use them. If he chooses not to use them, each unspent die is worth 20 victory points at the end of the game.