North Star - Oathmark Human Militia review A new box set of plastics has arrived for use in Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age, adding to the sizable range that North Star produce for the Joe McCullough /Osprey Games system. This one brings lighter-armed and armoured humans to the fantasy meets history game and, as with many Oathmark sets, its parts can be used in building figures for various other fantasy games too. Included are six matching frames with enough parts to build 30 figures, along with square bases to mount them on. There are certainly similarities here to the existing Human Infantry frame, but these Militia have some interesting variations too. As with the Infantry set, the shields provided are separate pieces, with large central bosses, but these are more lightweight; there’s no metal outer edging. Some of the Militia’s shields have tattered and torn hide details too, which is a nice way to indicate a more rugged warrior or lower quality equipment. The torso parts present other notable differences: the figures wear little more than tunics and cloaks for ‘protection’ and look ready to skip through rugged terrain with the ease of an experienced ranger. These men (Oathmark lacks the gender diversity of other North Star ranges, such as Frostgrave, which is purer fantasy as opposed to Oathmark’s alternate pseudo-historical world) have a slightly more dynamic look, thanks to the flow of the fabric and fluttering of their cloaks. Adding to the ranger possibilities [Which James leaned into with one of his builds; see Hobby Corner - Ed] are five hooded heads, along with five wearing Spangenhelms, and five that are bare. As you’d expect, in this Anglo-Saxon-styled world, there’s plenty of long hair and fine beards present. There are enough weapon options to fully arm your unit with a hand weapon and shield, or make them all bowmen (with quivers that can be placed in various ways), but we enjoyed constructing a small group of individualistic Militia men with different options. We made one into a standard bearer, using the basic pole included, and added some of the officer options (an empty scabbard and fancy knife) to other figures. There are little pouches and daggers to add further character to your models. This set can be mixed with the existing Infantry frame for even more varied troops, should you so desire, and it certainly hits the mark for ease/quickness of build, whilst still creating exciting and diverse-looking troops. If we have any criticisms, the shoulder areas of the arms are a tiny bit narrow, and the nocked arrows are a little chunky, but we only raise these as we have donned our reviewer cap and are looking
