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Is Runewars still good?

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05 Jun 2018 11:20 #274722 by blatz
I’ve been sitting on a copy of the revised edition and the Banners of War expansion for a couple of years now. Usually, I’m pretty good about culling games that don’t get played but this keeps making me hang on for some reason. Is it still worth learning after all this time or is it starting to show its age? Is it even worth it if I have Nexus Ops and Cyclades?

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05 Jun 2018 11:36 #274723 by Gary Sax
Replied by Gary Sax on topic Is Runewars still good?
I still have it and haven't played it in a long time. What I remember liking about it quite a bit is the core orders system tradeoffs. The heroes part worked for me as long as I considered it a subgame played on the board that generates the control VPs and didn't think of them interacting with the armies.

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05 Jun 2018 11:55 #274726 by charlest
Replied by charlest on topic Is Runewars still good?
Agreed, I think it is still good but it's difficult to justify pulling it out and re-learning it over other games. The Hero bit doesn't bother me at all as I think it adds a unique slant to the game and a narrative context that's interesting - however, I think Lords of Hellas does the hero thing much better, fully integrating it into the victory conditions and systems.

The card battle system is interesting but also a bit annoying in having to manage reshuffling and people wanting to look through the discard pile to get a sense of odds.

I still have a copy of the 1st edition and Banners of War but it never gets played. I'd rather play all of these:

Forbidden Stars
Lords of Hellas
Cthulhu Wars
Twilight Imperium
Rising Sun
Blood Rage
Cyclades
Inis
Clockwork Wars
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05 Jun 2018 14:46 #274744 by Jackwraith
Replied by Jackwraith on topic Is Runewars still good?
I'm a fan of the Runebound stuff and I would gladly play Runebound over most adventure games, Rune Age over most deckbuilders, and Battlelore, 2nd Ed. over most light wargames. The exception is Runewars. It just never sold me. I own the coffin box and the expansion and have played it several times but, like Charles, there are a host of other games I'd rather pull out if we're going to play a longer, multiplayer wargame, including several that he mentioned. I still have it because... I still have it.

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05 Jun 2018 15:03 #274748 by southernman
Replied by southernman on topic Is Runewars still good?
I played in a couple of months ago, 1st edition with Banners of War, and it definitely was still good. I like the Action card selection system (4 out of the 8) with trying to keep them in numerical order to get all the bonuses, the hierachical combat, the different special abilities for all forces, the Hero questing that works a bit better in BoW exp as Heroes move more, the minis are great (even the colours) ... and the 3D mountains ;-p. The Fate cards for combat and resolving pass or fails for other game events takes a bit getting used to, personally the only thing I think should be different is that the deck should be shuffled after each player's turn. It feels like how cards were used in combat here and then in Horus Heresy led to the final (great) iteration in Forbidden Stars (but someone is probably going to correct, or rebuke, me on that).

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05 Jun 2018 15:26 #274750 by Space Ghost
Replied by Space Ghost on topic Is Runewars still good?

charlest wrote:
The card battle system is interesting but also a bit annoying in having to manage reshuffling and people wanting to look through the discard pile to get a sense of odds.


I just say no to this kind of bullshit. No looking through the discard pile.
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05 Jun 2018 16:02 - 05 Jun 2018 16:02 #274756 by charlest
Replied by charlest on topic Is Runewars still good?

Space Ghost wrote:

charlest wrote:
The card battle system is interesting but also a bit annoying in having to manage reshuffling and people wanting to look through the discard pile to get a sense of odds.


I just say no to this kind of bullshit. No looking through the discard pile.


I agree, but I believe it's an intended aspect of the mechanism so it's difficult to argue.
Last edit: 05 Jun 2018 16:02 by charlest.
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05 Jun 2018 16:21 #274759 by southernman
Replied by southernman on topic Is Runewars still good?

charlest wrote:

Space Ghost wrote:

charlest wrote:
The card battle system is interesting but also a bit annoying in having to manage reshuffling and people wanting to look through the discard pile to get a sense of odds.


I just say no to this kind of bullshit. No looking through the discard pile.


I agree, but I believe it's an intended aspect of the mechanism so it's difficult to argue.


Yeah, it's the only thing of the game I'm 'iffy' about:
The Fate card discard pile can be examined by any player at any time. This allows players to judge which destiny icons have been used before deciding to attempt diplomacy or a Quest.

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06 Jun 2018 14:54 #274838 by mads b.
Replied by mads b. on topic Is Runewars still good?
We always allowed people to look for the good diplomacy outcome before attempting to "recruit" neutral units. There are only four of them, I think, and it's something you can easily track if you want to make the effort. But looking through the discard pile or just reminding each other is much easier for everyone.

I haven't played the game in years, but there is so much to like in it. The neutral units you can recruit are one thing, but foremost of all the resource and thus unit building part of the game has not been made better in any game. You have all the choices about which army to make available to you, but it's just so easy and not fiddly. But the order cards and the sequence you "have" to follow but don't always want to are also really great.

We did, however, never really cared for the adventure part of the game. It made the game overly long, and often resulted in winning shards not being on a space on the board you can fight over, but on cards with adventurers. So we have talked about doing it without the adventurers and simply discarding all cards that refer to them. I think it will make for a better game.
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06 Jun 2018 15:11 #274839 by Gary Sax
Replied by Gary Sax on topic Is Runewars still good?
I think the order timing in the game is unmatched. There's neat stuff you can do in terms of movement and build timing. This is controversial, but I definitely prefer the orders system to a TI/puerto rico style everyone takes this action thing.
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06 Jun 2018 16:21 #274847 by Shellhead
Replied by Shellhead on topic Is Runewars still good?
I only played once. I didn't hate Runewars, but I felt like it was unnecessarily long and complicated expression of the subject matter.

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06 Jun 2018 21:37 - 06 Jun 2018 21:38 #274881 by Sevej
Replied by Sevej on topic Is Runewars still good?
I'll gladly play it anytime. Re-learning it wasn't an issue in the couple of times I played it. It's pretty simple, everything's in the cards. The only time I always need the rulebook is during setup.
Last edit: 06 Jun 2018 21:38 by Sevej.
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06 Jun 2018 23:17 #274882 by dysjunct
Replied by dysjunct on topic Is Runewars still good?
The whole game was almost great. The order system was absolutely stunning and brilliant. The combat system was great. The heroes and runestones and the deck were all headscratchingly dumb.

Overall: B-tier.

B+ if you’re a big Red Scorpion fan.
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07 Jun 2018 14:44 - 07 Jun 2018 14:44 #274921 by Jexik
Replied by Jexik on topic Is Runewars still good?

dysjunct wrote: The whole game was almost great. The order system was absolutely stunning and brilliant. The combat system was great. The heroes and runestones and the deck were all headscratchingly dumb.


I've heard this a lot. Is that subsystem something that could be house-ruled out? Would it mess with the victory conditions or game length too much?

Call it an EXCISE-pansion. Take out the lame bit of an otherwise fine game.
Last edit: 07 Jun 2018 14:44 by Jexik.

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07 Jun 2018 15:45 #274927 by southernman
Replied by southernman on topic Is Runewars still good?

Jexik wrote:

dysjunct wrote: The whole game was almost great. The order system was absolutely stunning and brilliant. The combat system was great. The heroes and runestones and the deck were all headscratchingly dumb.


I've heard this a lot. Is that subsystem something that could be house-ruled out? Would it mess with the victory conditions or game length too much?

Call it an EXCISE-pansion. Take out the lame bit of an otherwise fine game.


Lame is in the eye of the beholder sir !
For the fate cards there are probability charts on BGG so you could easily work dice rolls for it if you wanted.

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