Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

It seemed like a really solid game from what I played. I really liked a lot of the mechanics. Ultimately though, the model quality just didn't inspire and the model quantity probably didn't help matters either.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
I remember those. They were pretty good PPP for the time. I think a Warcraft game would do well now days, as table top games are a lot more mainstream then they were like 10-12 years ago, if WoW was near the hight of its popularity but Blizzard isn't that company anymore and its really hard to see them making it a cultural thing again especially with the movie flop.

I remember quite liking this game. It had a couple really cool mechanics, like 3 man teams that still used a point system via VP handicaps and a cooldown based activation system. The primary problems it had were mostly that the cooldown system was all "buy now pay later" meaning teams of mages could often dump their strongest spells to alpha strike enemies off the board. Still, I thought the core mechanics had real merit that would have been cool to explore.

Runewars was one of the more solid games I ran across*, I think more than anything it was that the background was so generic that I just didn’t give a damn about what was beyond the actual battlefield.

I also agree that the slow drip of forces/factions did not help in the slightest.

* I do have to admit, I have discovered I enjoy skirmish over rank and file, though.

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

Sunny Side Up wrote:
Still weird they essentially walled-off the game from even their own other product.

The first thing this game should‘ve done was publish an „Index“ for all existing Descent miniatures to be used with Runewars, if not books for „generic“ Undead/Elves/Dwarves/etc..., if only for „casual play“, to incentivize people with existing collections to give it a try.

We know they really would not do that. They wouldn't even do it for Imperial Assault when they produced Legion. They wanted people to buy brand new things for their product.

Yeah, I found it quite annoying when they even changed the *scale* of Legion from that of Imperial Assault, so you couldn't (well, you could) even use the mini's that you painted in IA with Legion.

With Descent and X-Wing 2nd editions, they had upgrade kits (and, with IA, you even had additional skirmish rules to go along with the "dungeoncrawl" campaign), but I don't remember crossover kits. Personally, GW's use way-back-when of the same models in different game systems certainly worked on me. And CMON showed that a crossover card set (from Zombicide to Massive Darkness) was popular among boardgamers. While, I think, Descent didn't have enough miniatures to make an army for a particular race, it certainly could have used Descent sculpts as specialist units for RWM armies. So you'd buy the Descent conversion kit, and then the RWM base set. Heck, maybe the conversion set could have also included enough additional miniatures for a demo game, much like how it sells "half" a base game set with its Arkham Horror LCG.

RWM did indeed have mechanics that stood out from the usual "roll dice to beat a target number" but nothing else stood out. And, of course, these mechanics were adapted from X-Wing so there's always that game for anyone who liked RWM's gameplay.

I think it's illustrative of the state of the game that this thread has had more comments since Runewars was cancelled than when it was a going concern!

I do think Legion would have had quite a bit to do with it. I don't think it would take much of an accountant to see Legion selling an order of magnitude more than Rune Wars - immediately bringing up the question of why bother.

 Elbows wrote:
I do think Legion would have had quite a bit to do with it. I don't think it would take much of an accountant to see Legion selling an order of magnitude more than Rune Wars - immediately bringing up the question of why bother.

Presumably because using Star Wars means FFG pays royalties to Disney, reducing profit margins, and is slaved to Disney's whimsies on design, extension of the license, etc.., etc..

I can see the board room argument for building a miniatures game (if going into miniatures games was your goal) parallel or aside of Legion that is wholly under your control and/or can be a stop-gap should the Star Wars license end or become too expensive.

A pity, really. I told myself, having heard the horror stories, that I would play this game when it passed the 3 years mark. Oh well.

With RW out of the way, perhaps we will see a L5R minis game announced at GenCon this summer.

ced1106 wrote:


With Descent and X-Wing 2nd editions, they had upgrade kits (and, with IA, you even had additional skirmish rules to go along with the "dungeoncrawl" campaign), but I don't remember crossover kits.

There were crossovers on occasion - I remember there being Descent character cards for the characters for one of their other Terrinoth board games (or vice versa).

 Manchu wrote:
With RW out of the way, perhaps we will see a L5R minis game announced at GenCon this summer.

I’ll be honest. As much as I’d like to see that (or an Android skirmish game), it’s going to be an uphill battle convincing me to ever support another FFG game system. I’ve spent untold hundreds of dollars on their games, only to be left high and dry almost every time. Hell, BattleLore could have a fourth version announced, and despite being my favorite board game of all time, my response would be, I can’t be hurt like that again...

 Manchu wrote:
With RW out of the way, perhaps we will see a L5R minis game announced at GenCon this summer.

So they could produce it for a year, then dump it as it wont sell like their LCGs or anything Star Wars related?

This is the FFG model, so no one should be surprised.

Runewars is super bland. Its as generic as you can get with a Fantasy Setting. while I do enjoy Descent with the app as a 2 player, and Heroes of Terinoth, its more on the game mechanics then anything else. Really you can all all named guys "Generic hero number 4!"

Gameplay for Rune Wars was meh. The dials were annoying, the movement trays pretty horrid.

Hopefully now they can keep developing App supported games as those are one of the best things they can do

str00dles1 wrote:
Hopefully now they can keep developing App supported games as those are one of the best things they can do

I can't think of anything I'd like to see happen less.

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
With RW out of the way, perhaps we will see a L5R minis game announced at GenCon this summer.

I’ll be honest. As much as I’d like to see that (or an Android skirmish game), it’s going to be an uphill battle convincing me to ever support another FFG game system. I’ve spent untold hundreds of dollars on their games, only to be left high and dry almost every time. Hell, BattleLore could have a fourth version announced, and despite being my favorite board game of all time, my response would be, I can’t be hurt like that again...

There's hope that Privateer Press could end up with the L5R wargame. They do have the license for minis at the very least. I think the Minicrate is Matt Wilson's way of proving there's enough interest in a full game.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
There's hope that Privateer Press could end up with the L5R wargame. They do have the license for minis at the very least. I think the Minicrate is Matt Wilson's way of proving there's enough interest in a full game.

Not sure I'd like that either. I'm not particularly thrilled with the direction PP has taken Warmachine as a game, and I haven't liked their infantry miniatures for a long time (their Minicrate stuff does nothing for me, even the L5R stuff) - though I love Monsterpocalypse and a lot of their large 'jacks. Maybe 40mm - 60mm is their sweet spot?

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Monkeysloth wrote:
There's hope that Privateer Press could end up with the L5R wargame. They do have the license for minis at the very least. I think the Minicrate is Matt Wilson's way of proving there's enough interest in a full game.

Not sure I'd like that either. I'm not particularly thrilled with the direction PP has taken Warmachine as a game, and I haven't liked their infantry miniatures for a long time (their Minicrate stuff does nothing for me, even the L5R stuff) - though I love Monsterpocalypse and a lot of their large 'jacks. Maybe 40mm - 60mm is their sweet spot?

They've probably got the best resin on the market right now which is a material that really works best at the 40mm+ sized minis.

 Sqorgar wrote:

 Monkeysloth wrote:
There's hope that Privateer Press could end up with the L5R wargame. They do have the license for minis at the very least. I think the Minicrate is Matt Wilson's way of proving there's enough interest in a full game.

Not sure I'd like that either. I'm not particularly thrilled with the direction PP has taken Warmachine as a game, and I haven't liked their infantry miniatures for a long time (their Minicrate stuff does nothing for me, even the L5R stuff) - though I love Monsterpocalypse and a lot of their large 'jacks. Maybe 40mm - 60mm is their sweet spot?

I'm the opposite. Like the smaller stuff not much of fan over the larger.

Regardless of where Wharmahords is Privateer can make and market a wargame to wargamers, something that FFG can't really do, nor would they drop it after minimal effort to support. it's a way better outcome then FFG doing to.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
Regardless of where Wharmahords is Privateer can make and market a wargame to wargamers, something that FFG can't really do, nor would they drop it after minimal effort to support. it's a way better outcome then FFG doing to.

I may not be a fan of WMH has become, but I can't say that PP has been slack in their support. You know what? You've convinced me. Let this be the first and only time anyone on the internet has admitted to having their mind changed.

 Manchu wrote:
With RW out of the way, perhaps we will see a L5R minis game announced at GenCon this summer.

...well, never say never, but I'd think it unlikely as of right now, unless it comes from Privateer Press.

I would buy the everliving gak out of it, though.