A (Re)introduction to Mortal Gods

Hello everyone!

Phatis here again, and this time with some important updates about Mortal Gods! That’s right, I’ve snuck out from the basement and broken into Mark Farr’s office. It’s easy to sneak about when you’re basically incorporeal at will. Being a shade has its advantages.

If you are new to the community, you may not know who I am. Let me reintroduce myself. I am Phatis (the greatest)! I was once an Athenian soldier during the Peloponnesian Wars—of course, that was quite some time ago. But that doesn’t explain why I am here now.

You see, way back in October of 2018, Footsore Miniatures announced Mortal Gods as a new skirmish tabletop game under development. They soon realised how incredibly overwhelming and complex the history of ancient Greece can be, so in some bizarre ritual involving Andy Hobday dressing up in a bunny costume (allegedly), I was summoned from the Underworld to sort it all out for them and guide you.

As I was an eyewitness to the historical setting and the events around which the game takes place, the Footsore team promised me unlimited coffee and snacks (a promise of which is seldom delivered) if I slaved over the important details. And slave I do! Trust me, this is no easy work. They did make a really nifty miniature of me as a young Athenian promachos (I was quite the handsome living person, if I do say so) that you can use in your games. I strongly recommend you paint my likeness in Athenian colours.

It occurred to me (definitely not Andy Hobday—don’t let him tell you otherwise) that the success of the game since its release in April 2019 may have brought in new gamers who might not know what Mortal Gods is all about; if that’s you, you’re in luck! Your pal Phatis here is going to answer all your burning questions—even the ones you haven’t thought about yet.  Aren’t you lucky? You sure are! Let’s get into it.

What is Mortal Gods?

The short answer is that Mortal Gods is a tabletop skirmish game set in the intriguing world of Classical Greece during the 5^th Century BCE and during the Peloponnesian Wars. The primary combatants during this time were the Athenians at the head of the Delian League and the Spartans who led the Peloponnesian League.

But don’t be mistaken, this is no ordinary historical wargame! Our goal was to make this game feel cinematic. We wanted the game to have roots in history without being tied down to it. It is a delicate balance to maintain, but we feel we have managed to strike it.

At the time the game was announced, the team at Footsore Miniatures & Games had been working on an idea to use similar mechanics from the popular game ‘Test of Honour’—a samurai skirmish tabletop game developed by Andy Hobday and Graham Davey—just set in the world of ancient Greece. But as they playtested the game it became clear pretty early on that the game can and should evolve beyond Test of Honour and stand on its own mechanics.  After all, the game shouldn’t just look like a game set in ancient Greece; it had to feel like the player was immersed in ancient Greece. It had to have that very classical style of fighting, bringing about a very cinematic and tactical style of play.  Although the two games share some similarities, such as blind drawing activations and warriors grouped onto bases, a conscious decision was made for the two games to diverge and head off down their own paths.

In this shade’s opinion, the coolest feature of the games’ unique mechanics are the special dice that are used. The Mortal Gods dice, for example, are standard-looking D6 dice, but instead of numbers, they have sides with swords (indicating hits), shields (indicating saves) and Pegasi (which are Wild Cards). Wild Cards are something special. They hold a neat little place in Mortal Gods; we can think of them as ‘Fates’, as if Destiny is handing out a save when it is needed most or a critical attack when it’s the last chance for victory. And depending on how the dice are rolled, Wild Cards in a certain amount can activate a character's skill or a special attack. The game also uses dice known as Damage markers, which indicate the current hits a warrior has taken and also impact how many Mortal Gods dice are rolled.

The game consists of two types of warriors: heroes and companions. Heroes represent the leaders of your forces, starting with the captain of your forces (your lochagos). You recruit companions for your warband (known as a lochos) using recruitment cards (or the army lists and roster sheet, the choice is yours), which contain all the relevant information about your warriors—armour type, points cost, how many attacks they get, what special gifts (i.e., gifts from the Gods) they possess, and so on.

You and your mates can determine the total points value of the game you play; the number of warriors on the table and the length of the game will depend on how many points are spent. If you want to duke it out with a handful of miniatures each or play a larger game with a larger force of dozens of miniatures, Mortal Gods gives you a lot of freedom to create a lochos to your own liking!

Also introduced in Mortal Gods is the 'Formed Up' or 'phalanx' fighting system. Using triangular group bases, you can form up your groups of miniatures into a light, medium, or heavy 'phalanx' (each of which grants its own bonuses to your warriors), creating a wall of spears and shields! You can use this formation to move around your companions, but watch out for flanking manoeuvres and skirmishing troops, which can cause you some trouble!

That’s about the short of it; of course, there is loads more this game offers and you should definitely check out the reviews and content online about this amazing game! But what about the future of Mortal Gods? Well, about that…

What is Next for Mortal Gods?

Admittedly, the whole Mortal Gods team was pretty humbled about the success of the original preorders back in 2018 (not me, though; I always knew this game was gold—you can call it an undead premonition). That success comes with a responsibility; we created Mortal Gods to be a definitive Ancient Skirmish game - one that we will continue to support!

And boy, do we ever have a lot of amazing stuff on the way. *sorts through some of the secret papers from Mark Farr’s office* Oh yes, this is going to be great. Right, so let’s talk a bit about this.

You may have seen we released the cards for factions on the Footsore Miniatures website, like the Persian raiding company (known as a sataba, rather than a lochos) that will wreak havoc on your lochos if you do not treat them as the threat that they are. There is a decent selection of Persian miniatures on the website to get you started. There are also cards for the Thrakians (you can already purchase some of the miniatures for this force on the Footsore website).

Andy created a tentative list of all the playable city-states and factions in the game, which we are using as a guide to new factions, and we aren’t limiting ourselves to just mainland Greeks—Etruscans, pirates and bandits, Argives, Carthaginians, Latins, Samnites, Celts, and soooo much more—which we hope to release over the coming years.

Cards or PDF lists

Cards have proved to be a challenge to maintain in stock. As a small company, cards can be quite expensive in small runs. An alternative we're exploring will be a move to army lists and rosters. Keep an eye out for future PDF releases and be sure to give us your feedback as we work through the lists.

You can read more of the most recent updates to our plans for Mortal Gods HERE

• Part 1 Mortal Gods – What’s Next?

• Part 2 Mortal Gods – Looking Ahead

Mythic and More

At the same time, we are also playtesting more Mortal Gods: Mythic supplement armies. Yes, we heard your pleas and we have a lovely range of badies and monsters for you to test your lochoi against! Did we mention the Trojan War? Ancient Egypt? Yep, we want to have those too. Celts and Skythians? Yep. Amazons? You betcha. Late Republican Romans? OH yes.

We have a lot planned and in play testing, and we will be sharing more about it with you in the near future. So be sure to follow and subscribe to our blog, check out the new inventory that periodically pops up on the webstore, and join us over at the Mortal Gods Facebook group so you can see what others are doing with their miniatures and games (and share a bit of your own Mortal Gods content).

Until next time, this is your friendly neighbourhood Phatis signing off from the basement of Footsore Miniatures & Games.