It’s been a while since I have written a review but after playing Runewars last night with my son I had to urge to write one. My family and I are gamers. We play a plethora of games. I ended up playing with my oldest boy (<PERSON> 11). To be fair he has grown up playing the boardgames his mom and dad love. So the mechanics of Runewars are not new to him. He has played everything from Hammer of the Scots, TTR, AGoT, TI3rd, and most of the popular Euros out there. My wife primarily likes Euros but will play most games and enjoys the crossover games (Twilight Struggle, AGoT etc...)
The Components
Runewars looks awesome. The plastic pieces are detailed and look nice. They come out of the box presorted and looking nice. I am not for painting figures but if you are you will probably like the figures as they truly have detail. The cards are a nice think quality and with the FFG sleeves out now they should stand the test of time. The bits are think cardboard and unlike many games punch out nicely. They player boards are probably the nicest component of the game though. They have spinners on them, helping you to track your resource production, which are just fun to use and look at. In addition to all this the artwork is simply stunning. It is colorful and just kind of pops. I can play anything but hey much like food most people eat with their eyes first.
The Rulebook
Personally I have a love hate relationship with FFG Rulebooks. There is no doubt they are beautiful to look at. I find them overly verbose though. The rulebook is 40 pages. To be fair though we opened the game, wen through the joy of unboxing the game, opened the rulebook and started playing. It went well. We followed the setup and then the turn as we went through the rulebook on our first turn. <PERSON>, <PERSON> (friend who was over), and I all got the rules and flow of the game. Their are plenty of examples and for the most part all questions are answered. 386
I did find a few typos in the rulebook but nothing that messed up our understand or ability to play.
The Gameplay
Runewars was a little different then <PERSON> and I thought it was going to be. We were expecting a little more civilization building. We weren’t upset that it didn’t have more we just thought it would. The game is basically an area of control style game that has some tactical type thinking. There is also a good amount of planning involved. Not TI3rd type planning but still you can feel the remnants of it and AGoT thinking while you play and plan out your moves.
The game is played out over seasons which combine to form years. The game will play a max of 6 years but our game ended during Summer of year 3. The object of the game is to possess 6 Dragon Runes. If at any time you control 6 on your turn you win. Within each season you can perform a single order. These orders are similar to AGoT orders or TI3rd strategy cards. They let you do things like Harvest which resets your resource levels to the lands you currently control or Conquer which is the move and attack. The movement is also TI3rd feeling in that you activate a hex and all units within reach can move there but are then exhausted until the activation token is removed (Happens the beginning of each year in Spring). The four seasons work like the event cards in AGoT. They resolve fairly quick though and add a nice element to the turn. The only one that takes a little bit of time or can take a few minuets anyways in Summer. It allows you to move a hero. Everyone in the game starts with a hero. He doesn’t participate in battles and kind of operates in a separate game from the rest of your units. During Summer you can move,train, or heal your hero. If he moves you can play a quest card in an effort to gain reward which provides all kinds of bonuses towards building your hero or towards gaining dragon tokens which win you the game.
The battle system is fast and efficient. You need to group your units properly to do well in battle which is good for <PERSON> to think through. There are no dice but like Warrior Knights the random element is determined by a card drawing. The more units of a single type the more cards you get to draw proving special abilities, routes, and damage.
The gameplay is fast and fun. Neither <PERSON> or I were bored at any point while playing.
What Skills will Runewars Teach my Children
1. Logic - You need to plan ahead to accomplish what you want. 366