by Liz Davidson, 25 May 2025
We are back for one final installment of a battle with a mid-stage draft of the Queen of Shadows, the cooperative mode for Oath that Ricky Royal and I have been working on. The maximum number of rounds in a game of Oath is eight, so we will see an end to this conflict one way or another. Will the adventurers win out, or will the Queen of Shadows retain her evil hold on our world?
Round 7
In terms of victory conditions, things look good for our Adventurers–each has claimed a title card, with Red managing to grab the most sites and Blue managing to set up a lovely use of the Conspiracy against the Queen of Shadows. However, there is still cleanup to do–if there are any prisoners remaining on the board at the end of this game, the Adventurers still lose. It’s tough going up against the forces of evil.
Here’s where we’re at for now:
most images can click to enlarge
Let’s advance the round marker and have a Queen of Shadows turn!
To start, the QoS will switch the priority tokens at sites 1 and 8. Then she’ll place a warband at the Barren Coast. This is concerning, primarily because this makes it much harder for our Adventurers to free the Way Station there. She’ll try to take favor from site #5, but can’t. She does, however, get another secret from site #8, since she rules it. She’ll then place that secret directly onto the Banner of the Darkest Secret. I am glad the Adventurers weren’t going for that one…
Now it’s Red’s turn, and one thing is very obvious–they absolutely need to do something about the huge force sitting on the Barren Coast. They might also want to do something about the Great Slum–the QoS will put yet another warband on that one, soon, and there is another prisoner to free at that site. Red will start off by Mustering, and then they’ll move to the Barren Coast. Then they’ll campaign against the site, with 8 warbands against the QoS’ 5 minions. They win handily, though at the cost of a warband. They then take a minor action to attempt to free the prisoner. They only get to roll 2 dice, but fortunately, they roll 2 swords. A success! Red picks up the Way Station and plays it to their site for 1 favor from Nomad. They then move to site #2–they need to get into position to fend off the Queen of Shadows here.
With Red’s turn over, the Queen of Shadows will go again before handing things off to Blue. First, she’ll place a warband and an altar at site #2. Unfortunately, this means the Plague Engines card that is present there is once again imprisoned–there was a reason that Red wanted to move to this location! Then the Altar of Blood appears at the site. We’ll see whether Red manages to use it.
This is the final 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
Next, the Queen of Shadows goes on a bit of a killing spree. She murders the red warband at site #3, turning it back over to the bandits. She then swaps the priority tokens for sites 3 and 4… and kills again! Good thing Red already got that Keeper of Sites title wrapped up, because this one is going back to the bandits, too. She then attempts to get favor from site #5, but can’t. At site #6, she’d like to attack, but doesn’t have enough minions on her board, so she musters instead. Then at site #7, she would take a relic if there were one present, but there isn’t one.
With that turn over, it’s time for Blue to put in some work. They need to help free prisoners, and the obvious first target is Animal Playmates in the Hinterland. They spend the supply to move there. They are now faced with a decision–if they spend the supply to campaign, then they will have better odds of freeing this prisoner but they won’t be able to move to the Provinces to help Red free the very last one. They do have four secrets right now, which means the challenge at this site is not insurmountable. Blue chooses to go ahead and roll, hoping for the best. They roll 4 dice to free the prisoner, against a defense value of 1 + 2 defense dice–one die for each minion present at this site.
Success! Blue rolls 4 swords against a defense value of 3. They have to use a secret to compensate for that skull, but it’s no big deal–they succeed! They grab Animal Playmates as a third adviser, because why not? They still have 3 supply left, so they spend 2 of it to move to the Great Slum, and 1 to give a secret to Red. There is cleanup to be done.
Going into the last turn, things are going to be tight–the Adventurers need to clean up the Great Slum, and on top of that, the Queen of Shadows is going to do some serious damage at other sites before this is over.
Round 8
We’re in the final round, and things are looking tense. Will the Adventurers be able to clean up the final prisoners left on this map? We’ll have to see. The Queen of Shadows gets to strike first, as usual.
She’ll attempt to take favor at site #1 with no luck. Then she places an altar at site #3. The Altar of Banishment–too bad no one is going to go over to the Hinterland to use it at this point! At site #5 she grabs the relic, and then at site #6 we get real trouble–she has enough minions to attack! And at 4 to 1, the odds are not pretty. She has to sacrifice 2 of her minions to do it, but she grabs the site, places her remaining 2 minions on it, and takes the Order denizens there prisoner. Uh oh.
Finally, she swaps the priority tokens at sites #7 and #1, and ends her turn. It’s Red’s final chance to help take her down.
Red has a ton of warbands and limited supply, but fortunately they are in position to go after the Great Slum immediately. They roll 8 attack dice against the Queen of Shadows’ 4 warbands + 1 die, and win handily. It does, however, cause 2 warbands to be killed off. Red takes a risk here and places 2 warbands at the site so that they can use the Altar of Blood–one of those warbands is now also sacrificed so that Red can gain an additional secret. Blue looks on uncomfortably, but a secret is a secret.
Both Altar and warband are removed, and Red now has 4 secrets. They take a Free Prisoner action at the Great Slum and succeed easily now that the minions have been removed. They replay Plague Engines to the site for an easy secret. They now have only 2 Supply left. They spend it by trading with Plague Engines so that there is another favor in the bank they share with Blue.
The Queen of Shadows gets one more turn. Fortunately she can’t do any damage at site #1 because she doesn’t have enough minions, so she musters instead. She doesn’t rule site #3, so she takes no favor there. She swaps the priority tokens at sites 4 and 6, places an Altar of Devotion at site #7, and grabs the relic from site #8. Now it’s the final turn of the game, and it’s all on Blue to rescue the two prisoners stuck in the Shrouded Wood.
Blue begins their turn by using 1 favor from their board and 1 favor from Red’s to trade with Plague Engines. They get 2 secrets, since they have 2 matching Arcane advisers. They then move to the Marshes and spend 2 more favor from Red’s board at the Altar of Devotion, which nets them yet another secret. They spend 1 Supply to move to the Shrouded Wood, and their final 2 Supply to Campaign, just to see if they can clear out the 2 minions there. It’s a bad roll–Blue only rolls 2 swords, against the QoS’ defense of 3. Fortunately, they can sacrifice 2 warbands to overtake the site.
With 6 secrets and no real opposition, Blue easily frees the remaining prisoners at the Shrouded Wood–as the final free actions of the final turn of the game. Whew!
So the Adventurers have won this time–but next time, the Queen of Shadows will come back angrier than ever. She will take over the new empire after it has been built, and she will add another spicy red card to her shadow deck since the Adventurers got the best of her this time.
Hopefully you enjoyed this peek into the cooperative mode for Oath! The Queen of Shadows is currently undergoing development to help her fit into New Foundations, and especially into the Chronicle so that cooperative Oath cycles in a way that lets players enjoy it within a changing world. Thanks for joining me for this little sneak peek into the process.
OATH AAR – Queen of Shadows
PART 1 ~ PART 2 ~ PART 3 ~ PART 4
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