Let’s Play Over War! Part 1: Setting up the game

15 Feb, 2026

I’m diving into another Blackoath Entertainment gem. This time, however, not with one of Alex T’s creations. Over War: The Night Comes Down was actually designed by Richard Kelly. Later, it was remastered to the Monarch Edition. Alex wrote the solo procedures and published the new version under Blackoath.

Over War: Monarch Edition is a tactical RPG about small bands fighting to reclaim what remains of the dying world of Ballark. We play as minor leaders against the invaders known as the Over Night, who descended to ravage and conquer the land.

This is mainly a strategy game played over a pre-made hexmap, but there’s also a narrative/roleplaying component to the campaign. The tools provided for storytelling makes it so we can lean into that aspect as much as we want.

We create a Commander and draft varied characters to form our unit, then lead it through scenarios, managing supplies, reputation, and the slow growth of a war camp. Combat plays with formation-based positioning, while downtime and advancement take place at the end of a scenario. Over War is heavily inspired by Ogre Battle and other tactical JRPGs, like Fire Emblem and Langrisser.

Let’s see how our unit fares through the campaign. As usual, I’ll go over concepts as we get to them during play.

Creating a Commander

The first step is to choose a Tag for the Commander.

Tags are innate properties that identify a Commander’s lineage and position in the world.

Tags

Every Commander begins with the Authority Tag. It identifies them as a leadership figure. Now we choose another one the following six:

• Human
• Accursed
• Arcane
• Beast
• Divine
• Hiddenfolk

I went full random and rolled a d6, getting a 5 for Divine.

Entities historically associated with angels and the lost realm of Under Heaven.

That’s very cool! Are they an angel, maybe? I’d say yes, or maybe something like that. I’ll make our Commander gender neutral and call them Samael.

History

Now we decide what our Commander’s origin is and why soldiers follow them. I rolled for both.

Stats

These are the base stats for Commanders:

• 4/4 HP (4 current and 4 maximum HP)
• Attack Furthest 1 Magic Damage
• Movement 1

I’ll explain what the attack means later.

Bonuses

We choose 2 bonuses from several options. They range from a simple increase to HP to more complex ones with different traits that affect movement and combat, for instance.

My picks:

Skills

Skills are used in roleplaying outside of combat. We roll 3d6 + Skill Level against a Target Number (TN). If the result is equal or higher, we succeed.

Also, Skills are meant to be flexible. The GM should permit you to use any Skill you can justify in the story. Finding food in a woodland might use Wandering (for hunting, trapping, or foraging), Folkways (for knowing where the biggest berry thicket is), or Animal Care (for hunting with hounds).

All Skills start at 0. We have 7 Skill Points to distribute between them. I actually have only 6 due to the Flourishing bonus.

I’ve picked:

Creating a Unit

Unlocking

To build our band, called a Unit, we begin by unlocking characters. There are a ton of different characters in the book with unique statblocks and synergies. We choose 5 to unlock permanently. They aren’t part of the Unit yet, we’re simply making them available for recruitment.

To add any creature into our Unit, they must be unlocked first.

My picks:

1. Cherubim
2. Helios Guard
3. Cleric
4. War Elk
5. Principality Warmaster

I’ll include the statblocks from the ones I recruit.

Drafting

Commanders begin with 5 Drafting Points to recruit characters. They have different costs.

Here’s my Unit:

We already have some cool synergies! Samael deals 1 more damage due to the Unison trait, and another +1 from Divine Bond. Samael now deals 3 damage twice!

Divine Bond also gives the Cherubim a +1 damage. Damage bonuses also affect healing, but unfortunately Divine Bond doesn’t apply to “All” targeting, only to Nearest and Furthest. The Cleric just heals 1.

I’ll explain formation, targeting, attacks, and other details when we get to combat. It’s all pretty straightforward.

The book suggests naming your characters and fleshing them out. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll use the game’s random tables.

Backstory

Ok, let’s put this all together and create a little backstory for the Unit. Samael grew up on a Sovereign Island. Touched by Under Heaven, they are part angel and part mortal. They were trained to lead in wars and politics, until the sky broke open and the Over Night descended.

Samael united a band of loyal followers who shared the same ideal: that Ballark was still worth saving. That burning belief bound them tightly and set them marching toward the chaos of a dying world.

Maiswer, a cherubim with a dangerous reputation, was the first to join them. Beneath that reputation, he longs for unity among the ranks and among the islands. If they couldn’t hold the world together, he hoped they could at least secure their home.

Annabel, a cleric determined to prove her worth, offered her counsel and healing magic. She is eager to show how faith and resolve can shape a world torn apart, instead of the violence the Under Heaven is so swift to unleash.

Last came Velon, a famous Principality Warmaster whose legend is in the past. No one alive recalls his heroic feats. He is driven by a quiet envy of his old brothers and sisters-in-arms who died in glory as he is cursed to outlive his prime.

Good enough for me!

Creating a map

Now we need a map to play in. The book has ready-made scenarios, but they’re all aimed at 3-5 players with a GM. I could use the oracles to go through it, but I don’t wanna play with more Units for now.

Luckily, Over War has a sweet random map generator. It’s a lot of work, though, because it has us rolling hex by hex to determine terrain and settlements. Let’s start by naming this region.

Random region name: Ancient Peaks

I’ve used Warlord Ascendant 2e’s random name generators for the towns. It’s my favorite generator for this stuff, with German/French-themed names mixed with adjectives and nouns.

I created a medium map (12 x 12 hexes). For this size, we create a list of 6 types of enemies, but don’t put them anywhere yet. The process is pretty simple, so I won’t go over it. We’ll see the enemies when we encounter them.

After that, we randomly determine one hex as an enemy spawn point per player (1 for us) and determine which enemy type from our list spawns from it and when. I rolled 2d12 for the hex.

D6 Enemy type: 5
D6 Time period: 1, day

Ok, the point spawns a type 5 enemy during the day.

Next, we determine 3 random hexes (3 per player) to place a random enemy from the list.

Finally, we roll for a random objective. There are 6 types: Conquest, Skirmish, Escape, Bounty, Escort, and Battle Royale. I decided to do something different. I’m calling it Liberation. I have to resolve the problems affecting this region to conclude the scenario.

First, this is the map I came up for the Ancient Peaks:

I think the pixel assets go really well with the Ogre Tactics vibe of Over War.

The numbers are the enemy types from the list. The angel on the bottom left hex is our Unit.

The problems I created for the scenario are a siege on Castle Wintermarsh, on the southeast of the map, and monsters attacking Highbridge, the settlement at northwest. We have to deal with it before those places fall to the Over War.

I thought of including a time limit for the objectives like the book suggests, but I have absolutely no idea how to balance it, so this is what I decided: the situation I leave for last is gonna have bad consequences, or they’ll be harder, or something like that.

And that’s all the prep for this session. We’ll start playing the scenario next session!

I hope the procedures were all clear. I’ll probably make some mistakes, as this is actually my first time playing it.

Let me know if something came out confusing!

Note: I’d like to thank Richard Kelly for answering all my questions very patiently. I really appreciate his help. His passion for Over War really comes through when talking about the game.

Over War: Monarch Edition is available on DTRPG.

#actual play #fantasy #over war #rpg #strategy #tactical