Runewars

[MerricB]

I've just picked up FFG's latest "coffin" box game: Runewars.

2-4 players strive for control of areas controlling the magical dragonrunes. Combination wargame, political and heroic quest game. More of the former than the latter, but there seem to be several ways to approach your goal.

If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Cheers!

 

[Asmor]

What do you think of it? Have you played it? I've been thinking of getting it, but the price is a bit off-putting, since I question how much I'd play it... I think the playing time on the box is 3 hours, right?

Another thing putting me off about it is the hero stuff... I'm very averse to that, as I don't care for Runebound or Descent. I like the WoW board game and Starcraft board game, though.

 

[Thanee]

It's out? Ah, nice. This one is on my watchlist for quite some time already.

Have to get me a copy, too.


Let us know once you have played it, what your impression is!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

BTW, do you know the Runewars ancestors... Battlemist and Diskwars?

Bye
Thanee

 

[MerricB]

With any luck it'll hit the table this afternoon or tomorrow (or both).

No, I haven't played either Battlemist or Diskwars.

Playing time is apparently 3-4 hours, but based on what I've seen of the rules, it looks like it'd be a fairly clean 3-4 hours. It's not like Twilight Imperium where you tend to wait around quite a bit for players to make up their minds due to the huge number of options.

The heroes are actually a fairly minor (though important) part of the game. Most of the game is about you building up your territory and moving your armies (and having fights, etc.) Once every four turns, your heroes get to go on a quest, where they might find an additional Dragon Rune.

The object of the game is to control six areas containing Dragon Runes. Your opponents start with some, and you can get more runes through other actions - heroic, spending influence for titles, etc. So, if you want you can amass a big army and go conquer your opponents and their Dragon Runes, or you can try and turtle and get your runes from other methods. Or, more likely, a combination.

Cheers!

 

[Thanee]

Is the hero questing still a completely independent subgame within the game, that just happens to take place on the same map?

In Battlemist (which is basically the same basic game as Runewars) this was the case, and a bit irritating.

Bye
Thanee

 

[MerricB]

Heroes are still basically independent... except when a tactics card means they're not.

We had our first game yesterday. I wrote up a really big session report (with pictures) on BGG - you can find it here: Detailed Report and First Impressions (pictorial)

Cheers!

 

[Thanee]

*reading*

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Nice review.

But what have they done to poor Waiqar? He was one of the main good guys before!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Asmor]

After a timely TPK in yesterday's WHFRP3e game, I got a chance to play Runewars and I was very impressed.

The only thing I didn't really care for were the heroes. They didn't seem to have too much of an impact on the game, but on the flipside they also didn't take very much time to resolve. Quest turns are usually very quick and there are only 6 quest turns in the entire game.

I am kind of curious whether a hero-heavy strategy would pay off, i.e. amass three heroes by the end of year 2 and you've basically got 12 more hero turns... Seems like it might be a viable option if you get dealt a hero-focused tactic card early in the game.