Eilif's Runewars Odyssey (5/5 Daqan Army Finished!)

[eilif]

Update: Going to keep updating this thread as an ongoing concern rather than starting new ones.

At Adepticon my buddy and I recieved copies of Runewars in our swag bag.  Despite not being "big-name-company" kind of gamers we decided to give it a go at last weeks meeting.  It's not a roll-by-roll report, but I go quickly through the whole course of the game and insert my thoughts and observations on the various aspects of the rules and gameplay as they came up for us.
Full Post at our club's blog here:
https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/2017/04/06/runewars-first-game-and-review/
Beware though, we violated CSW's painted-only policy, so while there are plenty of picures, they are all of drab, grey hordes.
Oh, the Horror....


Despite the the shame of unpainted minis, we found the game to be quite enjoyable and will probably be investing in additional units as they come out.  We split the figs by faction, so we now each have a double portion of our chosen army.

[Hobby Services]

Useful review, even if it's convinced me that the game is nothing I'm interested in at all.

[Hobgoblin]

Interesting review - and a hearty "hear, hear" to this:

"I prefer the freedom of buying the minis I want, playing them with the rules that I choose and, whenever possible, having an easy system for making my own unit stats and point values."

[eilif]

Interesting review - and a hearty "hear, hear" to this:

"I prefer the freedom of buying the minis I want, playing them with the rules that I choose and, whenever possible, having an easy system for making my own unit stats and point values."

Yep, that's generally my guiding light, which makes this quite a departure.  If we stick with this game for a while, it's likely that at some point we'll be making custom units and such, but maybe we'll just leave such flexibility for Kings of War and Dragon Rampant.  If/when I get these guys painted up, they'll probably do double-duty in those games also.

Useful review, even if it's convinced me that the game is nothing I'm interested in at all.

Thanks!  Even when I like something, I hope I can review it with enough clarity that folks who wouldn't be interested will see that clearly also.

[jambo1]

Good write up and review, never really came across this game but it looks o.k. and the minis look pretty decent as well.

[Humorous_Conclusion]

A useful article. I'm not looking for another game right now, so Runewars wasn't on my radar, but it does sound intriguing. I like that it has managed to keep things simple without stripping it any detail whatsoever.

On the other hand, importing the movement rules from X-Wing seem like a mistake. It's good to have some fog of war, but characters shouldn't be able to get confused and run straight past one another.

[Schrumpfkopf]

Great write up - thank you.
I have to admit that I am a bit of a counter hater as I feel that they screw with the visuals of a game, but that's obviously a very personal preference.

[powerfrog99]

Thanks that was a welcome insight from a point of view I share in many points. I like using only painted minis from whatever manufacturer as long as I find them fitting to my taste :-)

Nevertheless I am waiting for these kind of game mechanics to try something new.

cheers Thomas

[madzerker]

What is the size/scale of the minis? Are they 28mm like older GW/ Otherworld, or more like 32mm like most companies now including Privateer Press, Confrontation, Red Box Games ect.. Any size comparison pictures? thanks!

[eilif]

Humorus_C,
  I agree that the passby is a crux issue. I think it will be much less of one for players experienced with the movement templates but it can still happen and it's the thing that I like least about the rules.  Still, the rest of the game went so well, that I can live with the possibility of run-bys.

Thomas,
    You're very welcome.  I think alot of us share that ethos.  It's also why I was a bit surprised to like this game as much as I did.

Schrumpfkopf,
     I also hate counters.  You do have the option (it might even be recommend in the rules, not sure..) of putting counters on the unit cards, but certain counters are activated by your opponent so having them on the base is useful.

Madzerker.  They looked like modern/current 30mm or more, but I haven't measured yet. I'll do exact size measurments and comparisons for my first painting blog on these figs.

[madzerker]

thanks! good news!

[eilif]

Still haven't taken any pics but I measured my spearman.  He was spot on 28mm from sole to eye.  He was leaning a bit though, so I'd call him 30mm.

I think madzerker already saw this on the FFG forums, but for those of you who are interested here's a Runewars Skellie and a Space Marine for comparison.
https://imgur.com/a/qHKb9

[madzerker]

Actually I haven't seen it yet, thank you for posting! That makes me happy, the models will fit with all my other stuff, so if I don't like the game I will still like the models and can use them for other projects
thanks!

[Dr. The Viking]

The aesthetics of those jigsaw bases is just completely bonkers... I can never imagine it looking anything but crap as long as they go anywhere near the figures.

But I assume that this will cater to the pseudo board gaming crowd.

[eilif]

Actually I haven't seen it yet, thank you for posting! That makes me happy, the models will fit with all my other stuff, so if I don't like the game I will still like the models and can use them for other projects
thanks!

I have a somewhat similar assessment. 

I do enjoy the game, but if it dies the sudden death of so many other new wargames I still like the figs enough to incorporate them into other games.  I've been wanting a "good guy" army to face off aginast my KoW Chaos (mostly oldhammer and Battlemasters figs) and I like the style of these guys, so I've got my bases covered.