by brunogaia
Disclaimer minus 1 : Let there be known that I’m in no way affiliated to FFG and don’t know the designer of this game (being French and a teacher, I’m above any suspicion anyway ;) I also like to think of myself as someone who is not prone to fanboyism (not TOO much at least)
Disclaimer 0: Reviewed after 5 games (six if you count the first “tutorial” game (see below)). Further editing could therefore occur after more games, for we’ll definitely HAVE more!
Disclaimer 1: first part (from here until disclaimer 2) is an explanation of my partner’s tastes and mine which, I think, may help people using this review in order to decide if they want to buy the game for themselves (or not…)
First of all it seems appropriate to say that I’ve only ever played Runewars as a two player game, with my girlfriend. It also seems important to notice that my girlfriend is a fan of all things medieval-fantastic in games, preferring them rather than sci-fi or any other genre. Therefore, SHE’s the one who got interested in Runewars first when she saw it appear on my screen as a new game soon to be released (on BGG). Also important to say is the fact that my girlfriend loves minis and her all time favourite game is Battlelore (used to be?).
Now about me: I consider myself a hardcore Eurogamer, basically loathing too much randomness in games. As I’ve also started to design my own games (I’m currently working on a big coop card game with 420 cards) I’ve been able to figure out that I always try to reduce randomness to the absolute minimum while trying to keep the fun factor.
As it is I’m a great fan of Dungeon Twister (which COULD be described as thematic chess!).
The games we play most with my girlfriend (I only expose this part of my gaming life as the rest is irrelevant, 4-5 players games occurring only two or three times at my place, whereas we play three to four times A WEEK together!) are (at the moment) RFTG, Neuroshima Hex, Small World, Thunderstone, Ghost Stories and… Runewars from now on.
Disclaimer 2: as a rule I tend not to bore people to death repeating details about components and mechanics that have been posted ten or fifteen times already! Plus a very nice PDF of the rules is available here on BGG (That helps A LOT when you’re pondering over buying an expensive game or not!)
All right, now to the point. I’ll try to summarize my experience of the game in a few entries, the order of which will ceratinly seem to be totally random :D !
1) Opening the box: WOW!
I tell you: when you open this box you’re 7 years old again and it’s your birthday! I’m 34 and I instantly fell in love with the HUGE amount of minis and really nice board pieces. I even liked the plastic mountains!
The faction “sheets” (where you have your resources dials) have magnificent and pretty immersive artwork. The cards are nicely illustrated (most of them at least) and the rule cointains a lot of great flavor drawings
Really great components! Especially when you get to counting the number of molds involved (therefore the number of DIFFERENT types of units) : more than 30.
That beats the crap out of many games pretending to be “nice components galore” big boxes!
2) Discovering the game: the worst teaching/learning session ever!
I had read the rules extensively before we had our first game and I had also tried to actually learn the basics by heart, for I suspected the fact that it would be hard to try it for the first time.
The rules are EXTREMELY well written and, as it turns out after just one game, extremely smooth and simple BUT there are just SO MANY things to remember that I’ll NEVER EVER try to teach Runewars again to someone who has not read (and reread) the rules before!
That’s why I do not count our first game in the five games I said we had before this review! The very first “tutorial” game was really hellish. At some point I was even wondering if we’d ever play this game again. My girlfriend seemed bored to death. It’s just sheer luck that the second half of that first game was eventful enough to make us want to play again (and we surely were lucky there, for there was pleasure to be had after that first game!)
3) Randomness that leads to tensed games 4 times out of 5?! You must be joking!
Nay, I’m not!
Of course anyone can spot the randomness in Runewars just after he/she has read the rules.
All of its randomness is “card-driven”, meaning that any result involving randomness will involve picking a few “fate cards”, no dice; cards that carry a lot of symbols an allow you to deal with nearly anything from diplomacy to battles and quests.
Another source of randomness is the use of the season cards. As it is, a game of Runewars is divided into 6 years, each of them sub-divided into 4 seasons and at the beginninof each season, a card is picked and an effect that can be quite drastic applies.
So you’d expect that a game like that would often lead to crushing victories, especially in two player games where there’s no way to escape a bad beat by hoping one opponent will save you in order to help himself against the supposed leader!
Anyway, it might truly sound like magic but this game is balanced in such a way and has been playtested so thoroughly that in 5 games, 4 of them were tense until the last year (of six)! Actually 3 games were “concluded” during the last autumn and one during the very last winter (1 turn out of 24!!) Only one got concluded sooner and that was at the end of the fifth year!
Crazy and sooo rewarding, because what it does mean is that during all these games we had ups and downs but never felt like the game was lost long before the end of the game. Or, to be more precise, it sometimes felt like the issue was already decided but soon enough, a new movement would make the supposed loser take the upper hand again.
It makes you want to post sessions on BGG every time you play! So many events, big battles, heroes feats… I really feels like a story sometimes BECAUSE of the tension and the fact that nothing ever won or lost until the game actually ends.
4) A game of conquest, political influence AND adventure
I’ve heard somewhere that Runewars did a lot of things and did none of them right. I totally disagree! It’s true that if you thought that the “questing heroes” part of the game would be like having good old RPG you’ll be disappointed for it’s just skills testing and movement and sometimes dueling by using your hard-acquired weaponry, but… I mean… Let’s be honest: are there a LOT of board games out there that actually feel like good old RPG?
I’ve mastered RPGs for more than ten years, I know what I’m talking about, my players used to beg me for more every DAY! They still do years after I’ve quit doing it (principally because proper mastering is sooo time-consuming when you’re a grown-up for good… )
I my opinion, Runewars allows you, even obliges you to try to win your game by using ALL THE MEANS at your disposal: conquest, questing, and political influence. And I do think that it’s where the tension lies!
While your opponent might be throwing all his strength (and attention) on battles, he may underestimate the political scene or forget to try to tackle a hero of yours who’s bringing back shards (pieces of Dragon Runes, the said Runes being the victory points) after shards to his master!
All in all, my experience is that the amount of choice at a given time is pretty enormous when you really try to see them all. It often lead to having us excusing ourselves AT THE SAME TIME for the time we were taking in order to take the proper decision.
I also read a review where someone said Runewars lacked choices and now that I’ve played it some more I can’t believe one could write such nonsense. As I explained previously, I’ve played a lot of games, mainly euros, and in all honesty, Runewars would come to my mind in the top five when it comes to choices, TENSED choices being made in a single game!
Of course, realizing the amount of choice and the true importance of every decision needs a little investment, especially really taking time to understand how battles work and how to make your army work best.
Now play the elves without aligning bowmen by conquering areas rich in woods and you’ll be whining that the elves are poorly balanced. Worse: play the undead without throwing all the necromancers you’ve got in the battle to raise more reanimates and you’ll surely feel ripped off and never play the undead again.
Runewars NEEDS some thinking before, during and after each action. I think it also needs some long-term strategy to give you a chance of winning.
At least it’s both our opinions and experiences so far!
5) The feeling of the epic, even when you DON’T play the epic variant!
Because of our gaming habits, we’ve never play the epic (longer) variant included in the rules. As it is a game of Runewars would take us 2hours and a half to slightly more than 3 hours to complete. And it would definitely leave us with the feeling that something really epic had occurred!
6) Is it the perfect game?
I gave it a ten because I think that the brilliantly wrapped theme (artwork and components included), nice mechanics and excellent tension deserved the maximum mark.
Do I really think it’s perfect? In a way, yes, for NOW I do.
It’s exactly what I wanted it to be, and much more.
In another way I can already say that, NO, it’s not perfect. Of course!
It has many, MANY qualities and is HUGE fun to play but you can still feel the great amount of randomness and that could put some people off.
It should have put ME off indeed. But it didn’t.
Apart from good ole’ Space Hulk, it’s the only so-called “ameritrash” game I have in my collection and, honestly, from now on, I’ll think twice before ruling out a game because one of its tag words is dice-rolling or it looks a bit “too thematic and American” to be honest!
7) As a conclusion
As it’s one of the meatiest games I have, and definitely is tending to become one of OUR favorites, I’ll surely make the effort of editing this review after ten games and after fifteen. Especially since that’s when you realize if it will or won’t be the kind of game you can play again and again and AGAIN (like, for us, RFTG, Small World, Neuroshima Hex, etc)
Anyway It’s also true that anyone who will like this game will surely be expecting nice, meaty expansions to come soon with more heroes (there could have been three more in the base game, just a thought), new races and new pieces of modular board and… Well, basically everything Corey has not put in it YET.
But the goddess knows he has put a LOT in it already!
I’ll also conclude by saying that you should definitely read the rules and reviews before you buy it. It’s expensive, worth its price but still expensive. And I don’t think it’ could fit all tastes at all.
But what is sure, is that it was to MY taste (and my girlfriend’s taste too) and, honestly… Well, it’s a great experience being dwellers of Terrinoth!
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