by Liz Davidson, 18 May 2025
Time to pick up where we left off! Our Adventurers have made discernible progress, but they are facing off against a Queen of Shadows who is pretty powered up–she has a LOT of minions on her player board!
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Round 5
It’s also her turn.
After swapping sites #1 and #4, the QoS takes a swing at site #2. Blue currently rules this site and has only a single warband there, so they are definitely going to get smoked. However, the QoS will roll 7 attack dice–1 for every minion on her board–and she will place up to 3 minions on the site after taking it over. That means she’ll have a much smaller force to contend with, if we can bear to leave site #2 in her clutches.
This is the latest episode in a running playthrough of OATH from Leder Gamers; you can find the links to all published episodes at the end of article, with new installments each Sunday
As expected, Blue loses the site, but the QoS has to kill 2 of her minions. She places 3 on the Barren Coast, and takes the Way Station prisoner. That part is pretty bad, but at least there are only 2 warbands left on her board–and Red still rules the most sites, setting them up to remain Oathkeeper and also to complete the Vision of Conquest at the start of their next turn.
The Servant then tries to take a relic at site #4, the Great Slum, but there isn’t one there. She would place an Altar, but there is already an Altar present at the site, so she removes it instead. At site #7, she would take favor, but she can’t because she doesn’t rule the site (and there are no Denizens there). Another turn, survived!
Red is up, and the first thing they get to do is claim a Title–Keeper of Sites. They have fulfilled the Vision of Conquest!
Victory looks sweet. Now let’s see how they can help Blue to fulfil a victory condition and then free all of the remaining prisoners. Perhaps the best option would be to get more warbands and take back site #2–those minions are going to make any attempts to free the prisoner there a lot harder to pull off.
Red starts with a Search of the discard pile in the provinces. They play Mounted Patrol to the site and take a favor from Nomad. They perform a second Search to see if they can fill up the site. This time, they play Fabled Feast, which nets them 1 favor from Hearth and then 1 favor from any bank. Red grabs a favor from Discord, since neither they nor Blue have been using it heavily. They spend their last supply to Muster from Mounted Patrol, gaining 2 warbands. Next turn, Red is very much hoping to mount an attack on site #2.
Now it’s Blue’s turn, which again kicks off with opposition from the Queen of Shadows.
She will go after site #2 again, but that is kind of a relief–she already rules it, and won’t leave more than 3 minions at a site. The one denizen there is already a prisoner. So nothing changes. She will then swap sites #3 and #5. She tries to get favor from site #5, but has no luck there. She tries to get a relic from site #6 and is again stymied. She ends her turn by placing an Altar on site #8. It is the Altar of Favor. If the player who holds the People’s Favor is at this site, they can take one favor from the banner. If the Queen of Shadows holds the banner and rules this site, they can steal a favor from her, instead.
Now Blue is up, and they have a plan! They absolutely need to go trophy hunting, then arrange their advisers so they can use the Conspiracy. They will first move to site #6, where they will use the Altar of Banishment to discard their Special Envoy adviser. They discard the Altar and grab a Secret. Now they have 5 secrets and are ready to free some prisoners! First, they attempt to free the False Prophet at the Shrouded Wood. They roll 5 dice, and while they must exhaust 1 secret, they succeed handily.
Rather than play the False Prophet, they discard it. They definitely needed that third Trophy, though! Now they will travel to the Marshes, where they will attempt to free the Scryer. They have 4 attack dice to roll this time.
Another secret gets exhausted, but they once again succeed. That means they have a 4th Trophy! But once again, they don’t want to play the Scryer, so they discard it instead.
Blue searches the discard pile in the Cradle and finds exactly what they need–a second Arcane adviser, Acting Troupe! Now both of their advisers match the denizen at the Great Slum. The Queen of Shadows rules that site, meaning her pawn is present there. Next turn, Blue should be able to use that sweet, sweet conspiracy.
Round 6
As we enter Round 6, the Queen of Shadows would roll the Chancellor die–except RED still holds the most sites! Bahaha! She does get a turn, though.
First, she’s going to conduct a hostile takeover at site #1, the Narrow Pass. Sadly, it’s currently ruled by bandits, which means she gets it for no effort. She’ll put one of her minions on it, then take another prisoner.
Next, she’ll try to get some favor from site #3, but since Red rules it, she has no luck there. Same for site #6–no rule, no secret! She will finish her turn by swapping sites #8 and #3.
Red has some work to do and some sites to take! They start by taking a Muster action at the Mountain. They then move to the Narrow Pass and campaign to take the site. There is only 1 minion there, so they only roll 4 dice and succeed easily with no losses. Whew! They place only 1 warband at the site, since they will need their full force to take the Barren Coast next turn.
Blue is lucky this turn, in that the Queen of Shadows is not going to attack anywhere this turn. She does, however, get some new resources.
This time, the QoS will get a favor from site #1–she takes it from the Beast bank and puts it on the Banner of the People’s Favor. Next, she swaps sites #2 and #4. She would take a relic from #4, but she got it already. A new altar appears at site #5, the Altar of Labor. We need all our supply right now, but it might come in handy. And then finally, the QoS tries and fails to snag a secret at site #6.
Blue currently has 4 trophies, while there are 3 prisoners still on the map. It’s time to Conspiracy! They need 2 advisers that match denizens at a site the Queen of Shadows rules, so they travel to the Great Slum. Here, their 2 Arcane advisers match the 1 Arcane denizen who is present here. So they finally reveal the Conspiracy! This allows them to do 2 important things. They burn 1 secret to take the Brass Horse from the QoS (we are going to need to do some travel!), and then they take the “Keeper of Keys” Title card and flip it to the Victory side. Yes!
Blue still has plenty of supply left to make some progress, so they spend 3 to travel to the Narrow Pass. They take a free action to Free Prisoner, and roll to see what happens to the War Tortoise. They roll 4 hollow swords, but only need 2 swords to free the Tortoise, so they are good to go. Another Denizen is free! Blue decides to play War Tortoise to the Narrow Pass and take 1 favor. They spend 1 more Supply to Muster. It’s time to finish off the Queen of Shadows!
OATH AAR – Queen of Shadows
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4
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