u/Hexwerksstudios

Looking for playtesters for Black Oaths, an indie skirmish game about blood, broken oaths, and surviving a world that should’ve ended.

8–10 model warbands

Alternating activations

Blood Marks & Wyrd mechanics

Objective-focused play

Creepy Norse/post-Ragnarök horror themes

Currently testing faction identity, scenario flow, and whether the game creates memorable “oh shit” moments at the table.

Looking for honest feedback and people willing to break things.

If interested, comment below or send your contact info to contact@hexwerksstudios.com

“The world ended. Something survived.”

Hakon Head-Taker doesn’t count silver.

He counts heads.

Some men bring home cattle. Some bring home glory. Hakon brings proof.

#BlackOaths #DarkAge #Vikings #Grimdark #MiniaturePainting

Jarl of the black tide roads.

They say ravens gather before his ships make landfall.

They say he’s buried more oath-brothers than enemies.

They say he once stood three nights beside a burning grove and never spoke a word.

Now the coastfires are lit again.

And Torsten has come south.

Steel. Salt. Blood Marks.

The old world is dying badly.

Halfdan Oathbreaker swore before gods and men never to abandon the shieldwall.

At Stamford Bridge, he broke that oath… and butchered friend and foe alike in the madness that followed.

#OathsAndBanners #DarkAges #Vikings #MiniaturePainting #Berserker #TabletopWargaming

Bjarki Bloodhand comes screaming out of the snow wrapped in bear hide and old blood.

Men form shieldwalls when they see him.

Then they pray when he keeps coming anyway.

Another berserker for Oaths & Banners.

Three more Norse bastards dragged out of the longhouse and promised glory. One wants gold, one wants fame, and one looks like he forgot why he showed up but brought two axes just in case.

Look like they’ve spent the last six months sleeping in mud, drinking ditch water, and arguing over who gets the first axe swing.

Exactly how I wanted them.

WIP on this nightmare creature tonight. Trying to lean hard into that grimdark, post-Ragnarok feel with this one.

Pretty happy with how twisted it’s turning out so far.

Three men who look like they’ve survived shipwrecks, winter starvation, and at least two murders apiece.

Exactly the kind of people you do not want stepping off a longship onto your shore.

Norse warband coming together for Oaths & Banners. Axes, mail, bad intentions, and absolutely no interest in diplomacy.

Still a WIP, but I’m really happy with how the face and beard are turning out so far. Trying to keep these guys looking rough, weathered, and mean instead of clean fantasy heroes.

Also getting more comfortable with the Two Thin Coats paints every model I finish.

This is exactly the kind of mess I wanted — shieldwall holding, axes coming in, and somebody about to have a real bad afternoon.

The playtest packet is getting close.

Leaning hard into that Dark Age feel—muddy tones, worn iron, no clean finishes. These guys shouldn’t look pretty… they should look like they just stepped off a longship.

More coming soon.

Finally got around to testing some Two Thin Coats paints tonight.

Still very WIP, but the chainmail actually reads like chainmail now and the skin went on way smoother than what I’m used to.

Still need to finish shields and bases.

If you’ve used TTC, what paints/washes are worth picking up?

They came in hard—Norman shields up, blades out, thinking they’d crack the line like they had a hundred others. But this wasn’t some levy mob. This was Godwinson’s house. Men who knew exactly what was coming and stepped forward anyway.

Shield met shield. Axes came down. Spears punched through gaps that weren’t there a heartbeat before.

No clean lines. No orders left to give.

Just mud, iron, and the sound of two warbands trying to erase each other.

That banner’s still standing… for now.

I’ve got the Oaths & Banners warband builder up and running, and I’m looking for a few volunteers willing to beat it up a little.

The goal is simple: build a Dark Age warband, see if the options make sense, and tell me where it breaks, feels confusing, or spits out something weird.

I especially need feedback on:

•	Whether the builder is easy to use

•	If the warbands feel thematic

•	If the points/options seem obviously busted

•	Whether the printed/exported warband sheet is actually useful at the table

•	Any bugs, typos, missing options, or “why the hell does it do that?” moments

This is for Oaths & Banners, my Dark Age skirmish game about rough little warbands, shieldwalls, banners, oaths, and men making bad decisions with sharp objects.

If anyone wants to test it, I’d really appreciate it. Build something nasty, break it if you can, and let me know what you think.

Been getting more of the table built out and finally stopped to take a few pictures. It’s starting to look a lot more like the Dark Age battlefield I’ve had in my head the whole time instead of just random terrain and scattered minis.

Still a lot to do, but seeing the church, walls, trees, and warbands all together like this has me pretty fired up about it. Feels like the whole thing is finally starting to come together.

Would love to hear what people think.

Working on a little pig pen / muddy sty terrain piece for the table. Still very much a WIP, but it’s starting to come together. Need to clean some things up, keep working on the pigs, and finish the edges, but I’m liking the look of it so far.

Little terrain bits like this do a lot to make the table feel more alive.

These new pines are going to make Oaths & Banners feel even nastier—tighter lanes, harder choices, and a battlefield with some real bite.

Starting to look like a proper war zone now.

#OathsAndBanners #HexwerksStudios #WargameTerrain #HistoricalWargaming #3DPrinting #MiniaturePainting