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It seems now that Runewars has dropped that a good chunk of our tournament scene has snatched it up. Kings of War really has no presence here, but it looks like Runewars could be posed to overtake pretty much any fantasy-based game where I am due to FFG having a world championship title and tournament series for their games.

How is your community reacting to it?

Not much traction around me, as far as I can tell. I think it looks good but it will suffer from the typical problems of new FFG games for a while yet:

1. Limited options at launch with only 2 factions
2. Delay in getting new factions/units to market

Those 2 things seem to have left a lot of people in the "wait and see" camp as the tournament types don't want to get into a game with so few options at this stage. That might change once more of those options are available.

It's worth noting it's pretty similar to how Armada was received around here (Scotland, UK). Quite a bit of enthusiasm but not a huge number of people willing to spend the money...yet.

Zero.

Haven't seen any reaction yet, but I really don't pay much attention to hype, buzz or what FFG do.

My 9th age/KoW army is just my repurposed old 8th ed WHFB High Elf army and I don't need to add more to it for the one tourney a year I play it.

It's been very well received. Lots of people are trying it out. My one local store sold something like 20 core boxes within a day or two. Another local store sold another 20 or so. Multiple reasons why.

#1 - FFG makes solid games. X-Wing isn't the number one game just because it has TIE Fighters. It's well designed, easy to learn and fun to play. Runewars is also well designed, easy to learn and fun to play. As more people try it, I think more people will be sold on it.

#2 - It's comparatively cheap. Sure, the models aren't nearly as elaborate as some of the GW options, but the cost is so little. Find a friend, each buy a core set and swap faction models. That gives you roughly enough models to build a full, tournament legal list. You'll probably want to buy model later to have more options, but $100 less whatever discounts you find gives you a full, tournament legal army. I spent $80. I'll probably end up spending another $50-100 maybe 2-3 times per year.

Even the places near me that are packed with FFG (mainly xwing) players don't seem to have any interest

the perception seems to be the game is expensive (the pound to dollar conversion is not favourable, especially with how badly pound is doing post brexit)

Nobody's terribly exited about the minis, the folk who paint don't like them much (too toylike or Warcraft like) the folk who like xwings prepaints are sad this needs painting

there has been some interest in the elves though so once the new factions are out

and people see if FFG really is avoiding the Xwing 'buy all the things even if you don';t play that faction you'll need the cards' (not so bad with xwing as the ships display well even if you don't play them)

it might start getting some traction

Haven't seen much take up yet - none of the local gaming stores are doing much to promote it (whereas they all push their X-Wing, Magic and AoS nights).

In all fairness, the game has only been out in the wild for less than a week. Tomorrow marks day 7. I'm not really surprised that there aren't leagues and dedicated game nights at stores yet. There hasn't been time.

I do get the Brexit comment though. The GBP's value dropping is going to make everything made outside the UK feel more expensive. When your money is worth less to the rest of the world, you have to use more of it to buy the same things if they're not made at home.

The two local stores that do tons of X-Wing and FFG board games and LCGs have...

... not stocked it or talked about it or took preorders or showed any promo stuff at all. As far as the local retailers go, it seems to not exist.

I haven't heard anything myself. I personally don't care for the way X-Wing/Armada play, and I'm not a big fan of the models for Runewars either. I'm also way too into AoS

Destiny Star Wars sold out... :/

ced1106 wrote:
Destiny Star Wars sold out... :/

Color me confused. How is this relevant to how Runewars is doing?

Who makes Destiny Star Wars (er, Star Wars: Destiny)?

It's got one demo at my LGS and a bit of buzz but in so far it's got little going on. Tbh the current bloodbowl tournament and preparation for it, combined with our AoS campaign are sucking too much manpower.

ced1106 wrote:
Who makes Destiny Star Wars (er, Star Wars: Destiny)?

That doesn't really answer the question. Obviously, FFG makes Star Wars Destiny. FFG also makes a ton of other games. How does Star Wars Destiny selling out offer insight as to how well Runewars is doing in your area? Are you hinting that Runewars also sold out? Is that because it's super popular or because there aren't enough boxes to go around? Elaborate, my friend.

 Kriswall wrote:
Elaborate, my friend.

FFG does indeed publish many other games -- and that's the problem. If, like Frostgrave or Kings of War, RW was FFG's "flagship" game, perhaps they'd have more of an incentive to support it longer than they would. FFG has dropped game lines in the past (eg. Silver Line brand, Battlelore, Call of Cthulhu LCG, GW-licensed games), meaning that, if RW doesn't sell as well as its other game lines, it may be chopped, too.

Asmodee has acquired many game companies, and, while this may be selective bias, the tendency of the acquired game companies is to sell their "evergreen" games (eg. Mayfair's Settlers franchise, Days of Wonder's Small World and Ticket to Ride games), rather than publish new games that appeal to a smaller audience. FFG, then, looks like it's publishing more "lifestyle" games, such as Star Wars Destiny, Star Wars X-Wing, Star Wars Armada, Arkham Horror LCG, Android LCG, etc., I think, on the theory that, once they hook a player into a "lifestyle" game line, it will be easier to make money on FFG products than, say, if FFG releases multiple different games, like it did in the Silver Line and coffin box days. (BTW, FFG also will revise a boardgame (eg. Eldritch Horror, Descent 2nd edition, Runebound 3rd edition, Battlelore 2nd edition, Drakon 2nd edition)).

What this pretty much all adds up to is that not only is RW competing against other "rank and file" wargames, it's competing against other "lifestyle" games FFG already publishes. FFG, unlike many game companies, such as Steve Jackson Games, doesn't seem to keep around games that may not bring in as much money as their other games, but still appeals to a small niche (eg. with SJG, they bring in the money with Munchkin, but still support Ogre, Illuminati, and Car Wars). Dropping your less successful lines is what businesses do, but it results in customers reluctant to spend hundreds of dollars in a product line that customers want to have new product or events in years to come.

Despite what BGG'ers say about mechanics, I think IP is a stronger pull than game mechanics. I should look closer at the BGG Star Wars Destiny forum, but, on both BGG and Dakka, there're threads of gamers reluctant to pick up RW. That's not a good sign, when you're looking at new games right and left on BGG, and the usual threads of hype and excitement. The FFG Star Wars X-Wing forum reiterates the concerns raised on other BGG and Dakka threads about RW : https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/246907-rune-wing/ EDIT: Meanwhile, on the SWD forum, threads are posting of BGG'ers who are unhappy they can't get the game. To me, that shows Star Wars Destiny has a greater demand than RW. : https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/205359/star-wars-destiny/forums/0

If you like a game, support it. Many of use fence-sitters are waiting for more dedicated players to spend the hundreds of dollars to support the game, as well as run and participate in events to know there's sufficient community interest in the game. Don't ask how your community is reacting. Build that community if you want other games to play RW.

Me and 2 other people have picked up the game at the FLGS. That's about it. We have a feeling we will be the only 3 playing it for awhile too unless some of the big x-wing crowd decides to try it out. Which isn't very likely.

My local group of disgruntled former Warhammer players are interested in it. I'm the only one who put an order in, but I have not got it yet. For our group, the long term prospects of the game probably depend on how FFG handles things. Several of the guys are frustrated with FFG's handling of X-wing and have given up on that, but that is a little different since as a group, we never played X-Wing much. They just played in a local competitive scene for a while.

Both copies of the base game we got in are (or were yesterday) still sitting on the new release shelf.

Some of the guys that went to Adepticon brought (free) Boxes home and have shown off the minis and are going to start playing some games to see how it goes. No one around here seemed impressed by the starter box, though the wurm skelllies were noted with curious intentions for Necropolis Knights.

Other than having two base factions that can fit into other games, it doesn't really have a whole lot of a appeal to many in my area... I assume from what I've observed.

Hard pass from everyone I know, though suddenly everyone is buzzing about Age of Sigmar, so we got that going for us I guess.

There's already a local FB group in my area and eyeing the Elves. FFG's announcement of 12 soon to be released expansions I think sealed the deal for several potential players.

I'm not sure what we can meaningfully glean from one week. Some areas are going to have more early adopters than others, that's no surprise. To try and predict the health of a game over say the next few years before launch or shortly after launch is a little ludicrous. Liquidity and success can not be predicted. So the extreme predictions I see in some of these threads (primarily it was in the pre-release thread) make me laugh. Having said that we've had quite a few early adopters around my way, I was one, and one the What Would Patton Do podcast gentleman was one as well. Our Community Facebook page has about 20 members with maybe 70 to 80% of them actually owning the game. There is also a skirmish tournament planned for next month. So I suppose it's doing well here.

On a side note the LGS itself is often a barrier, I say this because in my experience most LGS operate under the assumption that a game should sell itself, rather than the staff of the store should run demo's and have sales staff suggest the game to the appropriate customer. Then they will throw their hands up in the air and proclaim the game is terrible because it doesn't sell in their store. This endeavor may be a foolish one but it seems to be the attitude of many LGS stores.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 judgedoug wrote:
There's already a local FB group in my area and eyeing the Elves. FFG's announcement of 12 soon to be released expansions I think sealed the deal for several potential players.

15 Expansions actually before the end of the year, with the furthest out being given a rough eta of third quarter.

I've never heard of this game - both FLGS's do not have it

I'll look it up now I guess

I haven't tried it. It looks interesting, and I'm curious what happens since FFG is known for highly tuned, competitive rules and Runewars seems like it could also be that way.

I don't know anyone who has jumped onto it though. I do want to try it out, but don't want to buy the box set.

The local store is getting invested. They've got an assembled starter box on display, with plans to start a league in the near future.

To me it just looks pretty bland.

Without Maelstrom or objective based missions I would have little to no interest in 40k.

To me there needs to be more depth and tactical decision making than running at your opponent, locking into melee, and resolving the game.

It could be that Rune Wars is far more tactical than what i've seen. I honestly don't know. But i'm not going out of my way to learn if it is or not, because my first impression was unfavorable.

Additionally, launching with 2 factions didn't seem wise. The aesthetic of both armies didn't grab me, either. I do not like the look of the vomit slug, for instance, and that's one of the flagship units of the game. It doesn't make sense. Why would a skeleton ride a vomit slug? Put him on a dragon, come on!

Finally, they don't offer any other gameplay modes besides 1v1. If they had a game mode that supported something NEW, like a true free-for-all style gameplay where you could have 1v1v1v1, or something, i'd be more inclined to look at it. Just seems like more of the same in a diminished capacity.

Call it what you will. This is how I reacted.

 Marmatag wrote:
The aesthetic of both armies didn't grab me, either. I do not like the look of the vomit slug, for instance, and that's one of the flagship units of the game. It doesn't make sense. Why would a skeleton ride a vomit slug? Put him on a dragon, come on!

Yes why on earth would a skeleton ride a CARRION crawler?

Because carrion is meat?

Wayniac wrote:
I haven't tried it. It looks interesting, and I'm curious what happens since FFG is known for highly tuned, competitive rules and Runewars seems like it could also be that way.

More known for power creep and annoyingly packaged upgrade cards around here.