Time for a full review of Runewars. I don’t expect this will be a very popular review, since it is still a shiny, popular, new game; but everything I write here is intended to be honest criticism.
I own a good number of products from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), and they have created two of my favorite games; Twilight Imperium and Arkham Horror. These are now the bench marks I compare other FFG games to, whether that’s fair or not. I love this type of Ameri-trash game with complicated rules and lots of theme. I have been eagerly awaiting Runewars.
Components:
This game looks great when setup. Like many big box games from FFG it’s a giant mass of parts that looks amazing. There’s ton’s of miniatures, colorful three dimensional board pieces, and lots of decks of cards. Overall the quality is excellent.
The one exception to this; is that the game not only ships with replacement parts for certain misprinted pieces, but still has additional misprinted board pieces that are not replaced. While I love some FFG games, the fact that each has had to be altered with markers is just sad. Quality control should not be such an issue.
Score: A- (would be an A+ without the constant mistakes)
Gameplay:
Runewars is a complicated war game, spread out over multiple years. Each year is broken into 4 seasons; spring, summer, fall and winter. On each season, players select an order card and follow the appropriate actions. Allowing players to gain resources, recruit armies and other tasks in the game. Over the years, players expand their kingdoms, build large armies, and acquire dragon runes. The first player to obtain 6 dragon runes is the winner.
The game plays relatively quickly, faster than Twilight Imperium, and supports fewer players. The rules are clearly written, though complicated, and I recommend setting the game up and playing a couple years to understand how all the rules work together. Overall I like the general gameplay. I think the wargame elements are fun, and relatively clear to understand.
Unfortunately, not at the game elements seem so well thought out. The game does not use dice, instead it has a 30 card fortune deck. 386
Each card in the fortune deck has multiple symbols and areas so that each card can be used to resolve numerous types of actions; attacks, diplomacy attempts, or quest results. There is no explanation of the odds provided by the fortune deck in the game rules. This makes it difficult for players to judge their actions.
Even more oddly, the game contains rules that allow players to look through the discard pile of the fortune deck at any time. In theory this allows players to determine how many “good” cards are left in the deck, but in practice how are players supposed to interpret the odds without an explanation of the decks contents? This mechanic just seems incomplete to me without information about the fortune deck. Yes, this can easily be achieved with a home-made player aid, but it should be in the rules.
Score: B-
Theme:
Overall the game plays as a kind of fantasy wargame, with players battling for control of dragon runes. The wargame elements tend to work rather well, however the fantasy game elements are not always as well integrated.
There are 4 fantasy armies; humans, elves, necromancer and chaos/demons. These do the best job of delivering on the fantasy theme, with knights, demons, and undead facing off. Each race has a special home kingdom with excellent art work.
Unfortunately not everything carries the fantasy theme as well. For example, along with your kingdom and armies, players control heroes. Once a year, during the summer season, heroes move around the game board performing quests and searching for hidden dragon runes. Otherwise heroes pretty much ignore the armies and other monsters that populate the game.
There are a number of problems with heroes. First, the quest deck is very limited, often with less than 20 cards in the deck. As a result quests are very repetitive and quickly become boring. Second, heroes are ignored for much of the game, except for a special phase at the beginning of every summer. It plays like a miniature version of Runebound within the overall wargame, but due to the limitations it tends to be a very boring mini-game that doesn’t engage with the rest of Runewars. Sadly, heroes detract from the more enjoyable parts of the game, rather than adding to it.
Another odd part of the game deals with neutral creatures. These are unaligned monsters that populate the world at the beginning of the game, ranging from lowly razorwings to giants and dragons. When you setup the game, these are a big reason the world looks so fantastic and alive. Outside your kingdoms there are hordes of monsters to be dealt with. 884