Oathsworn weighs 25 kilos, is absurdly overproduced and gives Kevin the best gaming evenings of his life. A self-critical declaration of love
I should actually write to you about how stupid it is to spend 500 euros on 25 kilos of plastic and cardboard  . Actually, I would have to cite Oathsworn as a prime example of the completely escalated bloating of crowdfunding campaigns, in which the game itself becomes more and more of a minor matter. The main thing is that it has dozens of miniatures and hundreds of cards!
But if you want to understand why this game is worth every penny to me despite its horrendous price, then stay with me. Because you’ll have to understand me too
How does Oathsworn work?
At first glance, Oathsworn presents itself as a thoroughly classic tactical role-playing game in which you complete a 21-chapter campaign alone or cooperatively with up to three friends. Depending on the style of play and level of difficulty, you can expect to spend around 65 to 70 hours playing
The dark fantasy story regularly confronts you with tough decisions that sometimes have a more, sometimes less noticeable effect on the further course of the story or the battles.
So far, so familiar from other nerdy crowdfunding successes such as Gloomhaven, Tainted Grail or Too Many Bones.
In my opinion,
Oathsworn’s greatest innovation lies in how equally it treats story and combat. You experience the former for around 60 minutes per chapter as a kind of detective game in which you move your group of heroes across beautifully drawn maps and try to find out what you are up against by means of conversations and skill tests.
No spoilers!
A big part of the appeal of Oathsworn is not knowing what you’re up against and only getting the monsters out of the corresponding mystery box right before the battle. That’s why we only show you the boss in the photos, which developer Shadowborne Games also presents as an example in the trailer and on its own website
The quicker you get to the objective, the better prepared you are for the ensuing battle. The story is conveyed to you either via two thick ring binders or via an optional companion app.
During the 90 to 120-minute battles, Oathsworn completely dispenses with any preliminaries and sends you straight into a tactical confrontation with a boss monster, sometimes with its entourage.
The battles take place on a hex board, where the main focus is on the clever positioning of your heroes and the well-timed use of their special card abilities. It feels a bit like Gloomhaven, because you have to rotate cards back into your hand here too
You can determine the strength of your attack either with dice or power cards. You can use as many dice or cards as you like. However, as soon as you fail twice, your attack comes to nothing (!). Conversely, you can roll more dice or draw cards for critical successes. This game with fire provides constant thrills in the battles
Why is Oathsworn so good?
On paper, it all sounds exciting and interesting, but nowhere near as revolutionary as Gloomhaven, which completely turned the nerdy board game landscape on its head in 2017 with its gigantic scope and mix of tactical dungeon crawler and legacy game.
How can it be that Oathsworn has an outstanding user rating of 9.1 on the most important community websiteBoardgamegeek? For comparison: Gloomhaven has “only” 8.6, but with significantly more ratings.
In my experience of playing Oathsworn, its secret lies not in WHAT it does, but HOW it does it. Namely in a quality that I have rarely experienced in my 40 years as a board game fan
What a story!It is somewhat in the nature of board games that they rarely tell good stories. After all, we want to play, not read or listen. With Oathsworn, my group can’t wait to see what happens next!
Because the story has more surprising hooks than Bugs Bunny. Because the dialog knows exactly when to be pathetic and when to be heartfelt. Because we look at each other in disbelief at least once every game night to see if that really just happened. And because we remain fully invested in the game while listening, as any piece of information, no matter how succinct it sounds, can be important for our next decision.
What exciting battles! Oathsworn manages an enormously clever balancing act between tactical demands and luck-of-the-dice drama. It just feels so wonderfully epic and powerful to unleash a spectacular combo of abilities. Only to despair immediately afterwards because the perfectly orchestrated attack comes to nothing.
On the other hand, thanks to incredible luck with the dice, I’ve often been able to jump off the scythe of death at the last second. Oathsworn is so superbly balanced that spectacular successes and failures always balance each other out, so that in the end it’s my tactics and how well I control my hero that decide
What a change!The 21 chapters of Oathsworn don’t sound like much compared to some other campaign blockbusters. But on the one hand, this means that the adventure can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, even by a group that doesn’t play regularly.
And secondly, every game night really is a significantly different and surprising experience. Every story section has a different pace, a different drama, a different twist. And in almost every battle, I have to deal with a new enemy who has a completely unique repertoire of skills that escalates as the game progresses
What a clever design!Oathsworn seems to have taken a very close look at why other campaign games are rarely finished and has found clever solutions. Thanks to the fixed board and save point bags for each hero, you can build up the game in ten minutes. Thanks to the quick level-up system, you can easily switch between the twelve characters before each chapter if you want to try something different.
Thanks to the simplified, but no less powerful companion variant for each hero, Oathsworn is also great for two players or for friends who are put off by the complex rules. And thanks to the division between story and combat, you don’t have to plan three to four hours, but can also divide your campaign into shorter chunks.
Hardly any weaknesses! No, of course Oathsworn is not perfect either. In particular, the somewhat complicated movement rules for monsters take a few games to get used to and the odd look-up in the rulebook. The freedom of choice is also not quite as great as the game sometimes makes you believe, because it usually comes down to fighting a powerful monster.
In view of the game’s many strengths, however, these little things hardly matter. In any case, every Oathsworn game night so far has ended with shining eyes and a firm commitment to meet up again as soon as possible
What makes Oathsworn so expensive?
I also think it’s important to emphasize how much fun other people have with Oathsworn, because you naturally have a latent tendency towards self-deception when you’ve spent so much money on something. Nobody likes to admit to having thrown 500 euros out the window for the “Collector’s All-In.”
In addition, developer Shadowborne Games is also offering its epic on the company’s own websiteas a core game for 320 euros and as a standalone base game for 175 euros. The latter also contains the complete game, but replaces the monster miniatures with painted cardboard standees, as known from Gloomhaven.
Of course, there are many outstanding board games for considerably less money. My absolute price-performance tip here is still Gloomhaven: Paws of the Lion, which you can easily get for less than 50 euros.
The truth is, however, that a large part of the fascination of Oathsworn is based on the effort with which this board game epic was produced.
Because you fight different monsters in each chapter, you need two more boxes full of miniatures in addition to the actual 10-kilo game box, which are also significantly larger and of higher quality than in most other comparable games. Each of these monsters in turn comes in an individual box, which you only open when you face the battle
A total of twelve authors worked on the story. The numerous beautiful maps of the individual locations were drawn by the same artist,who is also responsible for the cloth map of the Collector’s Edition of Diablo 4
You can either follow the story with two thick ring binders or have it read to you in the optional companion app by Scottish actor James Cosmo – probably known to most of you from his role as Jeor Mormont, Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones. And when James Cosmo isn’t drawing you into the action with his almost magical intonation, for example during the battles, an appropriately epic soundtrack recorded especially for the game will be blaring from your speakers
Does a good board game need all this? Of course not. Does it make Oathsworn something very special? But so much! As I play, I understand what was so expensive about it and learn to appreciate it in the truest sense of the word
What are the luxury extras good for?
Up to this point, the price-performance ratio for Oathsworn may still be halfway comprehensible for some of you. But why the heck is the blade spending an additional 175 euros? And that brings us to the self-critical part of this declaration of love. Because from a purely rational point of view, it doesn’t really need any of the luxury extras
The Terrain Big Box replaces 2D cardboard markers for trees, walls and houses with absurdly large plastic elements, which is why the box is almost as big as the actual game box and takes up so much shelf space. Apart from the fact that the miniatures, which are almost 20 centimeters high, make it much more difficult to get a tactical overview and are often swept off the board by a careless arm. But – irrationally – it just looks soooo cool
The Armory Box turns your heroes into surprise egg figures. You’ve found a sword, but your guard is still carrying an axe? Unplug the axe, plug in the sword! No one needs it in a board game, but – irrationally – it somehow makes the weapon find even more meaningful to me
The Oathsworn box has a well thought-out inlay. There is a separate compartment for the dice, and you store the status and equipment of your active heroes in labeled plastic bags. But – irrationally – it feels so much nicer to take the dice and coins out of embroidered felt bags and the heroes out of small cloth bags.
The dice and cardboard coins supplied as standard are also of high quality and absolutely fulfill their playful purpose. But – irrationally – how pretty the Amberlight dice glitter and how weighty the metal coins feel!
And of course it’s worth ordering the Collector’s All-In instead of buying individual items. After all, you’ll also get a dice plate, of which you already have three. An art book that you only leaf through once. And the beautifully drawn cards without game information, which you don’t hang on your wall anyway
Irrational, irrational, irrational! Don’t do that! If you’re only interested in playing, you’ll be just as happy with the Standee Base Game or – if you have enough shelf space and love fancy miniatures – the Core Game.
However, if you’re like me and you’re also interested in something else …
For whom is the investment worthwhile?
I’m a terribly miserable cook! For many people, this may have very little to do with a sinfully expensive board game, but for me it has a lot to do with it. Because high-quality board games are my substitute for spoiling my loved ones with a really good home-cooked meal and enjoying the sparkle in their eyes.
Others set the table and arrange the napkins perfectly, I easily spend half an hour on game nights setting everything up as neatly and clearly as possible. I go so far as to sort dice and markers into matching colored bowls.
Of course, my friends would also like me if I just “fobbed them off” with the standard version of Oathsworn. But it makes the evening even more special when the fine dishes are served.
Okay, it’s also true that I can count on this luxury a little. After all, Oathsworn has 21 chapters, and if I were to go out with my friends 21 nights a week, it would cost me a lot more than 500 euros. So.
Why am I telling you all this? Because Oathsworn will only be worthwhile for you if you can at least halfway understand my thoughts and feelings about it. If not: save your money! For 500 euros you can easily get five other high-quality nerd board games
But if you have a group of friends who get together at least every two weeks for a board game evening that you want to celebrate according to all the rules of the art of hosting, then Oathsworn could actually be the all-round gem that your collection has been missing.
