Octopus Overlords

I'm going to start running another forum boardgame soon, similar to my current Battlestar Galactica boardgame. This time it's the newest big box boardgame from Fantasy Flight called Runewars. It's a 1-4 player fantasy empire kind of game where 4 races clash for control of powerful dragon runes.

Website here:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_ ... i=Runewars" target="_blank
Download the rules here:
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_c ... ok-web.pdf" target="_blank

The base game is 1-4 players, but that's mainly a component limitation. Since I'm digitally recreating everything I can expand the player count well past 4 to 6 or even 8. As with my BSG game, you don't need to worry about learning all the rules before you start, as we're all basically learning. I've already learned them and have played test games. All you need to do is have a desire to crush your enemies and claim the world as your own.

There are 4 races:
Daqan Lords, a human faction, that's a kind of typical human fantasy empire and operate similarly.
Latari Elves, basically your typical fantasy elves, filled with more finesse units.
Uthuk Y’llan, a once nomadic people that were perverted by demonic powers.
Waiqar the Undying, which is an empire of undead and necromancers.

The map for this game is randomly generated by the players, using a series of hex based map segments, but in this case I'll be generating it. The goal is to obtain 6 dragon runes through conquest, hero quests, and other events.

Wow. Sounds neat. IN please.

I'd like to join this. IN

Oh and I'll be GMing this, not playing it for those who might be confused. Putting together the boards now.

We have 2 options right now. Wait for a 3rd or 4th player, or do a 2 player game between Scoop and Lagrom. A 2 player game would be easier on me since I'm still running the BSG boardgame. It should also be quicker to learn and resolve.

If we start now, you can choose your army, of the 4 I listed above. Since I've recreated the components, you two can choose the same armies if you wish.

I'm in.

I'd like the undead please.

I'll play. I'll download and read the rules a bit later (busy for an hour or so).

dang, just missed this - snoozed and lost. I'll be watching this one from the sidelines.

General Lagom will lead the Humans. The Humans are honorable. We will honor our King, fight honorably and perform plays celebrating our honor.

We are doomed of course. Doomed, but with impeccable integrity.

Eh, why not. I'll take the Elves. I'm not typically a finesse player, but I also have "new game luck" so maybe they'll balance out and make it a fair game for the rest of you

Zurai wrote:Eh, why not. I'll take the Elves. I'm not typically a finesse player, but I also have "new game luck" so maybe they'll balance out and make it a fair game for the rest of you

Together, we will SMITE the evil from these lands! And not, you know, stab each other in the back or anything.

That would be wrong.

Lagom Lite wrote:

Zurai wrote:Eh, why not. I'll take the Elves. I'm not typically a finesse player, but I also have "new game luck" so maybe they'll balance out and make it a fair game for the rest of you

Together, we will SMITE the evil from these lands! And not, you know, stab each other in the back or anything.

That would be wrong.

Oh, yes, totally wrong. I'd never stab you in the back. We find that arrows are much more effective.

So, I'm the Uthuk Y’llan? God, I'm going to have a difficult time spelling that.

You can choose any of the four sides, Scoop. The only reason you couldn't do that in the normal game is there's only one set of pieces/cards/etc for each side. That limitation doesn't exist over the Interwebs.

Well, I'm still cool with each of is having a unique race. I'm good. Thanks!

Scoop20906 wrote:So, I'm the Uthuk Y’llan? God, I'm going to have a difficult time spelling that.

Just spell it "Chaos".

Jow wrote:dang, just missed this - snoozed and lost. I'll be watching this one from the sidelines.

I can include a 5th player pretty easily, the game scales well to higher numbers of players, especially since all the components I need are digital. Just select an army from the 4 available if you still want to play. I think I'll cap it at 5 for now though.

My only question about more than 4 players is what it does to the map. Are there enough tiles that they'll all be unique, or will we have to deal with duplicates for questing and so on? Doesn't matter either way to me, just raising the question so it can be addressed

So far:
Lagom - Daqan Lords
Zurai - Latari Elves
docD - Waiqar the Undying
Scoop - Uthuk Y'llan

There will be duplicates, and either will apply for quests since the map will be larger and harder to cross.

Cool.

Here's a helpful link for everyone. Gives the distribution of the various symbols on the cards in the Fate deck (ignore the "recommendation" stuff; the poster is trying to change the Fate deck into a dice roll instead). These are important because the Fate discard pile is public, meaning you can look through it and see what's already been drawn.

For example, in the 30 card Fate deck, there are 4 gold "ally" symbols, 8 grey "retreat" symbols, and 18 red "attack" symbols, for use in diplomacy with Neutral units. This is normally a 13.33% chance to ally with a Neutral stack. However, if you know that 10 cards have been drawn from the Fate deck and none of them have had the gold symbol, your chance to draw one moves up to 20% with the next draw.

Yep, I'd like in. I'll have some time tonight to give the rulebook a once over so I can get up to speed. I should hopefully know enough to start er up tomorrow night if that's cool with y'all.

one quick question: This my first "forum" boardgame attempt. About how often are turns processed on average?

It depends a lot on the game and the participants. I dunno that anyone can give you a good estimate for a brand-new FFG epic-sized board game. I know that turns of Twilight Imperium (the only other FFG huge box game I've played) took over an hour each when playing face to face, which leads me to believe that the turns in a PBP won't be any faster than once every two or three days.

Jow, I need you to choose an army so I can ready the right pieces.

Turtle, I see the listed # of players is 2-4 and don't see any variants for 5. You sure you can pull this off w/o lessening the quality of the game for everyone else? I'd be happy to stand down if it means the rest will experience the game as intended.

Edit: Assuming me being in is a-okay, I'll go wth the Elves to start.

(You're a brave soul, kicking up a new forum game of a game of this scope. )

Just testing the layout and giving you an idea of how the setup is. On the board, every neon pink space is a starting location. I'll be randomly determining who goes where. Turn order itself is variable in game depending on what Order Cards you choose.

You can vote for a new randomized board layout if you want. It doesn't take much time to generate one.

Year 1, Spring
(Y1S1)

Legend: Waiqar the Undying (docD) Status: Latari Elves (Zurai) Status: Jowatal Elves (Jow) Status:
Uthuk Y'llan (Scoop) Status: Daqan Lords (Lagom) Status:

Man this is really starting to peak my interest. Will be following your guys' progress avidly.

any and all willing to let me in on their inner plans via PM would be welcome and word will not spread to your competitors. I just want an idea of the thinking that goes into each turn from a players perspective

Wow, Player #3 has a lousy starting position. No cities closer than 4 tiles away, and both of those cities are directly adjacent to other players' homelands. Plus he has to go through a Dragon to get anywhere.

EDIT: And Remus, I'd be happy to spoilerize my thinking when I make moves so that you and other observers can see what's going through what passes for my brain.

Same here, Remus. I enjoy doing AARs generally.

Question: I'm a complete newbie at this game - have y'all played before?

The game just came out last week. No one has played before.

Not me. I browsed quickly through FFG's forum for the game, but didn't do any in-depth reading. My comments about the #3 starting position is simply because I'm assuming 1) that cities are good to have, and 2) dragons aren't things you want to have to fight.

Last week?! Oy, this oughta be fun.

Updated the board:



I love the PNG image format.

Every player gets 3 hexes all to themselves, they are always considered to be controlling those hexes unless enemy units or a stronghold is there. Otherwise, you must have at least 1 unit.

Mountain borders (red) can be crossed by flying units or by certain tactics cards.

Water borders can be crossed during the Winter season.

We'll be playing with the following rules changes. Everyone starts with only 1 Dragon Rune token (as opposed to 2 normally) and to win you must reach 7 Dragon Tokens (as opposed to 6).

Which elf player is light green and which is dark green?

Jow is dark green. You're light green.

Yes, it's a racial war over who's the lighter shade of green.

I'll be starting a Gameplay thread soon.

What do those little swords and wheels just under the Food Wheel represent?

Tactics cards, I'll add that to the legend.

Add me to the Lurkers who would like spoilerized AAR's.

The Runewars Gameplay thread is ready for use. Please review the instructions and rules in that thread. Your private game info such as tactics, quests, and objective cards will be PMed to you shortly.

I've got a pretty organized list of everyone's components that will be simple to drop in a PM or post. If players want to do AAR style write ups, they can PM them to me, I'll combine that with the private info, and either PM everyone on a special list (to avoid snooping) or, if everyone can agree not to peek, post it in a separate thread.

Also, expect the graphics to change for this game as most of the stuff is quick placeholder stuff so I could gauge how much extra stuff I have to create. I'll likely be replacing the unit icons with more graphical pixel art.

Ok, yeah, this is a BRAND new game. I just printed out the rulez book so please bare with me as I read it. I plan to be ready to conquer tonight.

It does look interesting.