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Looks like Miniature market bought all of Asmodee's stock for some old games/releases and actually have some good prices right now:

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=lowest+prices+sale&utm_campaign=lowest-prices-sale&utm_content=1590674376&utm_medium=social_organic&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR316EK_4xFDn4eyi_Ykg2yDGPhEmTdVmufolAm_fKLW4zxxtyOOVOfTp0M#/?_=1&page=1&sort.ga_unique_purchases=desc

They have most, if not all, of Rulewars with the starter being $35.

There's some zombiecide box sets, arcadia quest stuff, x-wing and so on.

Rune Wars? Here's my shocked face...

Runewars really was DOA wasnt it?

The lackluster early 2000s level quality of sculpts really stangled any enthusiasm for the product early on.
Supposedly the game was good, but man those sculpts were generally not.
I think it goes to show how important the sculpting quality is for any new entrants to the market.

Depends on the sculpts. I got the starter last time it went on sale dirt cheap and the undead are nice and I like the rock golem. Humans are pretty meh though.

I always though they were going for a WoW vibe for it's art design and wasn't the biggest fan but for around $30 I decided to pick it up and liked them better in person.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Runewars really was DOA wasnt it?

More or less, but I’m not sure what they were expecting with the Terrinoth setting. Every game in that IP, including greats like RuneBound and BattleLore 2e, underperformed regardless of quality or fan support. And they were selling a mass miniatures game to a board game audience who aren’t familiar with assembling and painting miniatures. And they waited a full year to release the second two factions, only to abandon the game immediately after. It’s almost like they designed it to fail, just so that they could work out the kinks for Star Wars Legion two years later.

Gallahad wrote:The lackluster early 2000s level quality of sculpts really stangled any enthusiasm for the product early on.
Supposedly the game was good, but man those sculpts were generally not.
I think it goes to show how important the sculpting quality is for any new entrants to the market.

The starter set had worse quality miniatures (and worse plastic) than the stuff that came later. The later waves were much improved. The sculpts aren’t amazing, but some of the later characters are great.

And it is a good game. I’d play it again in a heartbeat, and if they brought it back, I’d be in. But I can say the same thing about RuneBound 3e and BattleLore 2e. FFG only does Star Wars and Arkham Horror now.

Didn’t help that FFG has a track record of relatively quickly dropping support for pretty much any game in the the runewars setting.

Yeah the minis themselves are fine. I bought a few Flesh rippers to use in my 9th Age Dark gods army. Don't know who this game was set to appeal to however.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Runewars really was DOA wasnt it?

So much so that I suspect a "Producers" style tax scam.

 privateer4hire wrote:
Didn’t help that FFG has a track record of relatively quickly dropping support for pretty much any game in the the runewars setting.

It is an extremely generic and uninteresting setting... but has FFG’s best games. At this point, my outside hope is that they rerelease these games with a Legend of the Five Rings skin.

I think that's where Rune Wars fell harder than the other games in that setting, because it involved miniatures you were intended to paint....vs. being sold on the merit of its rules.

There's a kind of gulf you see a heap of companies fall into. This gulf exists between board games (often heavily populated with miniatures), and then actual tabletop wargames. A board game can get away with "meh" miniatures, or "meh" art, etc...because the game is generally about the experience of playing it, the actual game mechanics, etc. Moving to tabletop wargames, you're introducing the hobby aspect...a hobby which can require hundreds or thousands of hours meticulously painting, etc - something which is often based on a love of the aesthetic or lore for a faction or the IP as a whole.

Basically you need to bring an A+ level effort to a tabletop wargame. You have to "win" somewhere in that process. Prepainted? Cool. Great lore? Cool. Great miniature sculpts? Cool. But if you don't hit any of these unique points to sell it...you're friggin' doomed to fail. It's why I question the people who run Kickstarters for tabletop wargames when they're very small studios. You often see a $400-500K Kickstarter success...which the small team of developers/designers then take to mean there is a large market for sustained sales/growth. 12-18 months later they're bankrupt or closing shop.

Rune Wars was never going to succeed...ever. I'm just shocked that a company like that could not see the complete lack of market for a mediocre-across-the-board effort. It's weird.

 Gallahad wrote:
The lackluster early 2000s level quality of sculpts really stangled any enthusiasm for the product early on.
Supposedly the game was good, but man those sculpts were generally not.
I think it goes to show how important the sculpting quality is for any new entrants to the market.

Pretty much this.

I mean, I am not the most discerning when it comes to miniature quality. I enthusiastically bought and continue to buy early Mantic minis, Reaper Bones, MERCS plastics, and even still love the old Warzone plastics. The few discounted Runewars minis I bought really put me off the brand. They’re just so bad. But not “this minis has character” bad. Just uninspiring bad.

That said...


...I totally just bought some of those undead worms to use in Shadows of Brimstone. D’oh! Guess I never learn.

Feth me! I actually love the Runewars models, especially the Latari**, some of the best wood elf units ever done. *sigh* I literally have a big amazon order out for delivery today because it was so cheap ($22 for the main Latari set and $10 for the Darnati) and now MM has those sets for $13 and $8. $13 for 16 WE archers, 5 cavalry and a treeant makes me think I should pick up a few of them even if they sit unused, heck it'll be worth it just to cut the heads off for conversions


** OK, mostly I JUST like the Latari

I know I got the Rune golems specifically for other gaming, because they are freaking awesome big rock monsters.

I have to admit my experience is only with the early starter miniatures.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I know I got the Rune golems specifically for other gaming, because they are freaking awesome big rock monsters.

Yeah, I grabbed them for possible RPG use, and the Undead Carrion Lancers just because they looked like they might make a fun gribbly to paint at some point.

No interest in the game itself, though.

Yeah I might just use this as an excuse to get those Golems too. They are perfect for an ongoing D&D campaign I have right now, and for that price why not?

I think Runewars was (is) a decent game. Rules are pretty solid though I think they went a little overboard with all the specialised components. But its a great strategical game with a lot of depth.

The minis, not great but not terrible. The entire design of the setting is kind of generic and somewhat cartoony. But the soft plastic...ugh...

Descent went from generic D&D to generic World of Warcraft and never had its own voice.

Oh for a cheaper shipping option, not that what they offer is unreasonable global shipping costs being what they are,

but a really cheap slow, stick it on a boat for 6 months option would be just perfect

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Oh for a cheaper shipping option, not that what they offer is unreasonable global shipping costs being what they are,

but a really cheap slow, stick it on a boat for 6 months option would be just perfect

The real kicker with overseas orders isn't the shipping price; its the customs charge

Runewars Game was good, the miniatures were adequate, but the world was dreadfully boring and the release schedule sluggish.

Still, I have the humans and elves, and I said the game itself is pretty solid. Unfortunately it was competing against an established, fleshed-out miniature line that had been around 30+ years and were distracted by their real money-maker, X-wing.

I wanted it to succeed, it came about at just the right time (right when everyone was looking for a replacement to the just destroyed Old World), but they couldn't get it out fast enough and the miniatures were just "okay". And, as I said, the world it was set in wasn't interesting at all.

They literally handed out thousands of free starters at Adepticon the year it came out and still couldn't get any traction. It was kinda sad.

Because even Charlie Brown eventually learns not to trust a Van Pelt fully

Im tempted to add the Obscenes for a Nurgle army.. wish I knew the scale

I thought about getting a bunch of the Elves to make a skirmish force to go alongside my other GW stuff, but I just don't trust the material sight unseen. Is Runewars stuff about the same PVC as the non-HIPS Legion stuff? Because I have painted a few Clones and Boba Fett, and that particular plastic is quite good for not being HIPS.

Is it more flexible? How well does paint stick to it? I found that my Armypainter sprays stuck really well on Legion PVC.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
Is Runewars stuff about the same PVC as the non-HIPS Legion stuff?

I think the starter set models are a little bendier and have softer detail that what came later, but otherwise, yeah.

Is it more flexible? How well does paint stick to it? I found that my Armypainter sprays stuck really well on Legion PVC.

Yeah, the models can get kind of bendy, depending on the thickness of the part. The spearmen, for example, have very bendy spears. The undead kind of bend at the ankles. I think Legion had thicker models in general, and they use polystyrene parts for weaker bits - RuneWars is just PVC. I think if you are happy with Legion, you'll be happy with RuneWars.

As for painting, I just straight up used Citadel colored spray paints for my undercoat. No primer. I don't think I even washed the models with soap like I did with Legion. The paint seemed to keep just fine.

I haven't washed a mini, of any material, in years and have never had an issue.

maybe 20 years ago mold release was an issue but it's not now days. You can paint right over and even if there was an issue that's what primers are for. I've even heard manufacturers say, in person at cons, that washing minis is BS but they'll have it on instructions on their site or packaging due to so many emails or messages about not having it that they get tired of them so they just tell people to wash even though you don't need to at all.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
I haven't washed a mini, of any material, in years and have never had an issue.

maybe 20 years ago mold release was an issue but it's not now days. You can paint right over and even if there was an issue that's what primers are for. I've even heard manufacturers say, in person at cons, that washing minis is BS but they'll have it on instructions on their site or packaging due to so many emails or messages about not having it that they get tired of them so they just tell people to wash even though you don't need to at all.

I don't usually wash my minis, but when Star Wars Legion first came out, there were complaints of paint not sticking to the models in spots and a greasy feel to them. It doesn't take long to wash them, so no skin off my teeth.

And I'll say that the only models I've had problems with paint sticking are the resin models for Monsterpocalypse. I wash those and use a primer now. I'll probably be a little gun shy on resin models going forward.