So…..I’ve Discovered Rune Age and I LOVE it!

Rune Age is a deck building game from Fantasy Flight and is set in the Runebound Universe.

You would probably know by now that I love my deck building games as I run the Thunderstone (old version with all expansions) as a league at the club. Only exception is Dominion – HATE it……. 

I am really, really looking forward to getting my Lord of the Rings Deck Building Game when it arrives in stock at Milsims in March… but it’s Rune Age we’re here to discuss…… so on with the review.

The game is for 1 – 4 players, and has 4 different scenarios you can play. Two can be played solo (yay!). They are:

Resurgence of the Dragonlords

This scenario is designed for players who enjoy a well-rounded experience. At it’s heart, the scenario is a race to defeat a powerful enemy, but with direct player confrontation sprinkled in . It is possible that no one defeats the objective and all players lose.

Can be played solo and this is the one I shall use as my review.

Runewars

This scenario is designed for players who want outright confrontation and player elimination. This scenario lasts until only one player is left standing. The game varies each play because of the random dragon rune power cards that provide players with unique powers.

The Cataclysm

The Cataclysm is designed for players who enjoy working together as a group to defeat a common enemy. The key is survival – at all costs. Just be mindful of selfish, backstabbing players who are only looking out for themselves. The other solo adventure.

The Monument

The Monument is designed for players who dislike player elimination and do not enjoy other players mucking with their strategy. The main player interaction in this scenario is fighting over cities as well as drafting the popular neutral cards before your opponent drafts them for himself. Ultimately, this scenario is a race against your opponents to acquire the most gold to win the game.

So… What’s in the box???

The components are colorful and well made, the quality is high.

There is a comprehensive rule book, although there were a few questions when we played that took some digging to find the answers…

The 4 piles below the rules in the picture are the 4 races partaking in the game:

The Latari Elves - Greatest of the Eleven Tribes, the first people of Mennara.

The Daqan Lords - A union of lords, great in power and prestige, an ancient coalition held together by long tradition of nobility and rule of law.

The Uthuk Y’llan - Cruel, barbaric, and infused with the blood of demons. The First Darkness lives again!

Waiqar the Undying - Waiqar the Magnificent, Waiqar the Conqueror, Waiqar the Betrayer. Master of Zorgas and Lord of Mists.

These decks contain the cards that form the Barracks – your troops and your strongholds. More on this later. The top card represents your Realm and you have 20 Hit Points.

Under these in the next row are Neutral Units, Tactic Cards, Dragon Rune Power Cards (only used in the Runewars scenario), the Attrition Dice and the damage tokens 1 & 5 value.

Next row are the 4 scenario decks.

Then the last row holds the city deck and the 3 gold decks.

Quite an impressive display for such a small box!

The Game Setup

The set up is simple and the layout is compact in the table center.

1.) Choose your scenario.

2.) Choose your Race.

3.) Determine the first player.

4.) Place your realm card in front of you.

5.) Build your Barracks.

6.) Populate Terrinoth – place the following: Gold, neutral Cards, Cities, Damage Tokens, Attrition Dice.

7.) Gather starting resources – Each player takes five “1″ Gold, and three “1″ cost units from his Barracks.

There is a table that tells you how many cards to place on the setup depending on the number of players.

Shuffle your deck of 8 cards and draw a hand of 5.

8.) You compile the event deck according to the rules (there are different levels of cards) and place the objective card where it can be easily identified.

You are now ready to play!

So, I will play a solo game of Resurgence of the Dragonlords using the Waiqar the Undying deck.

TURN 1) I turn over my hand and find that I have 3 gold and 2 Reanimate.

During my turn i do the following step:

Step 1.) Refresh exhausted Cities and Strongholds (I don’t have any yet).

Step 2.) Perform actions. During this step I can perform any no. of actions including Combat, spending gold, spending influence. I can do any no. of actions any no. of times as long as I have the cards to do so.

So I have 3 gold, I could buy 3 reanimate or a skeleton archer and a reanimate, but I decide to buy a Necromancer from my Barracks. The Necromancer allows me to draw two cards from my deck and if a Reanimate or Skeleton Archer is drawn put 1 into my hand, otherwise the cards are discarded.

I can do no more so I draw back to 5 cards (to do this I have to draw the remaining 3 cards, shuffle my discard pile and redraw another 2 cards). This ends my turn. NOTE: ALL players redraw to 5 cards at the end of each players turn. This means that if combat has taken place during a players turn, those involved ALL draw back to 5 cards.

Although we did not realize it at the time on Sunday, when you have influence to spend, you can spend 1 influence for each card in your hand you wish to keep instead of discarding at the end of your turn.

The Event Phase

At the end of ALL players turns (I guess you could say the round), The Event Phase occurs. This is when the nasty things can happen…..

I turn over the top Event card and find it is Slumbering Dragonlord this is an Enemy Card.

This card, if you defeat it, will become a reward. It will give you 1 influence as indicated by the 1 in the gold circle top left.

Influence is used to buy the gold cards and neutral cards.

As it is not an instant card, the event phase ends and it is again my turn.

TURN 2)

I again draw 3 gold and 2 Reanimate cards.

This time I look at the enemy, but I don’t have enough troops to attack and defeat it. The Reanimate card allows me to place another Reanimate from the discard pile onto the battlefield, sort of raising the dead! But at this stage of the game I don’t have a discard pile…..

So I elect to purchase a Skeleton Archer for 2 gold and another Reanimate for 1 gold. These and my remaining hand are placed in my discard pile. I draw the remaining 4 cards in my deck, shuffle my discards and draw the 5th card. This of course has yet again removed my discards and the Reanimates special power is useless…..

Event Phase 2:

The event card this time is an instant and must be played immediately. It is Rally Support.

When this card comes out, the first player gives it to the player on his right, so I give it to myself! Thank you!

This card also gives influence and remains in the players realm area.

TURN 3)

I have drawn 2 gold, 2 Reanimate and a Necromancer.

So I decide to attack the Dragon.

I play the Necromancer and draw a Skeleton Archer and a gold. I put the archer in my hand and discard the gold.

I play the skeleton, his effect is that he can destroy an opponents unit that is equal or less than the combined total of all skeleton Archers in play. It does not help against Event enemies

You will notice that the Dragon has a picture of the Attrition Dice on the bottom left. I now have to roll and see if it destroys any of my units during the battle. Units destroyed this way are put back in the players barracks and may be re-bought.

I roll and…….

Next I play the Reanimate, there are none in my discard pile so I play the second. I count my attack which totals 7 and I defeat the Dragon and claim his as a reward.

He was a toothless Dragon after all! Maybe Undead don’t taste so good!

So I place with my other influence producing card. Just above my Barracks.

I now spend my 2 gold and buy another Skeleton Archer.

Time to use influence, I tap a card and purchase a 1 gold card.

I redraw to 5 cards and turn over the next Event Card.

Event Phase 3)

The card is another instant and a good one at that!

Bountiful Harvest allows the first player to draw 1 card and each other player 2, as I am solo I’ll only take 1..

With no enemies and only 2 Reanimate and 4 gold, I purchase a Stronghold from my Barracks.

Another card giving influence, I can now target the neutral cards or 2 Gold cards.

I do just that tapping 2 cards and taking a Battle Cry.

This card has the following text:

Resolution: Add 1 to each units strength in your army.

At this stage it is probably pertinent to talk about the timing of combat.

There are two types of combat:

Battle: This is combat that is against a target NOT controlled by a player.

Siege: This IS combat against a target controlled by another player.

Now, there are distinct steps within each of the different  combat turns.

Battle

When a player conducts a battle, his goal is to secure a stronghold, neutral city, Enemy or instant.

1.) Declare Target

2.) Assault During this step, the player plays unit or tactic cards one at a time from his hand. If he wants to use a card’s When Played ability, he must do so immediately after playing the card. Using abilities is always optional.

3.) Attrition During this step, the player rolls the Attrition die. Destroy any units of your choice if 1 or 2 skulls are shown.

4.) Resolution Use the resolution abilities of all units, tactics or enemy cards.

SIEGE plays the same steps but without the Attrition step.

SO……….

The game continues on this way until a player feels that they can beat the objective. Of course, the objective might disagree and actually beat you all! So to cut a long story short here is my last hand…..

I have drawn rather well, a Demon, a Necromancer, 2 Dark Knights and a Battle Cry

So I lead out with the Demon, followed by the Necromancer. Fortunately I draw a Skeleton Archer and a Forced March.

I discard the Forced March. (allows me to destroy 1 card to draw 2).

I then play the 2 Dark Knights and the Skeleton Archer (1 at a time)

I then play my Tactic Battle Cry and my Reward card Dragonlord Margath

Okay so lets take stock…

I have an attack of 19 looking good enough to take out the Objective Card Resurgence of the Dragonlords who has a toughness of 18.

The Attrition step is next and I roll a………

But luckily I have another Reward Card won earlier that allows me to re-roll the Attrition Die!

And I roll a…….

I choose to destroy the Skeleton Archers.

Now the Resolution Step kicks in.

So I now have 17, the Dark Knights get plus 1 strength for each other friendly unit in the combat, so that’s another 6 and the Battle Cry gives me another 4.

So that’s a total of 27 and the Big Fella bites the Dust!

I really enjoyed the first time I played this last Sunday at the Club, and the solo was not too bad and will definitely try it again.

I am really looking forward to playing with four players and the elimination scenario sounds interesting…………

There is an expansion (on it’s way from Milsims today ) that adds two more factions!

I hope you enjoyed this review, I highly recommend this game.

Truhlsrohk signing off, now where did I put the game…………..

If you ejoyed this article you may also enjoy our looks at:
Summoner Wars
Mageknight the Boardgame
Quarriors

Games Played: October 2012

At LXG we play a lot of different games. As well as our large games library, members bring in their own games, so there is always something different being played. At the October meeting, games being played included:

Agricola
Blue Moon City
Caylus
Cosmic Encounter
Dominion
Dominion Intrigue
Eldoria (Pathfinder RPG)
Formula DE
Hey That’s My Fish
Lords of Waterdeep
Mage Knight
Magic: The Gathering
Munchkin
Pandemic
Puerto Rico
Ra
Rise of the Luftwaffe
Settlers of Catan
Sitting Ducks
Thunderstone
Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride: Marklin
Tsuro of the Seas
War Machine

Kickstarter Helps Hobby Game Boom

An interesting quarterly update from the people at ICv2. The hobby game boom that kicked off earlier this year has continued and looks to be sustainable as far as these things can be: “Longtime industry insiders are comparing the current market to the Pokemon boom era around 2000, but with the difference that sales are good across the board rather than dependent on a single title.”

Another interesting point was that Kickstarter is seen as a positive part of this boom. Rather than replacing retailers with Kickstarter drives that effectively allow people to per-order cheaply, Kickstarter is creating buzz around products that drives people into stores to buy them when they become available.

LXG has been a beneficiary of this game boom too- our active memberships are currently at the highest they have ever been, so if you have a new game you’d like to play, we have the venue!

ICv2 measures sales in the hobby channel in the US, from distributors to retailers. In a category breakdown:
Magic: the Gathering remains the top selling collectible game.
Settlers of Catan is the most popular board game, with Ticket to Ride, Small World, Eclipse, and the second edition of Descent making up the top 5.
Munchkin is the top card/building game, with Dominion, 7 Wonders, Ascension, and Quarriors also selling well.
Warhammer 40,000 is still the top selling miniatures game, with War Machine, Warhammer Fantasy, Hordes, and Malifaux following.
Pathfinder remains the top selling RPG, followed by Dungeons & Dragons and Dark Heresy.

LXG VIEWPOINT LEAGUE (18th March 2012)

The 2012 Viewpoint League kicked off at the last LXG meeting (18th March) and this was the first opportunity for those who participated in our last League to get to grips with the new “Reflections” decks that were released late last year. The competitors played two rounds with four people in each grouping. The first round was standard Viewpoint and the second round Reflections. The top players from each group in round one were grouped together in round 2. The players were scored over the combined sum of points from each game.

Feedback from the League Game was very positive! Everyone was blown away by the new Reflections cards and you could tell that the event was very lively in round 2 as players encountered new cards for the first time. One comment was, “Reflections tends to make for a longer game – but in a good way! Lots of new strategies to get my head around. I can’t wait to play a brew deck and combine old tech with new tech!”

Competition in our first League game of the year was so fierce that we had a three way tie on a score of 190 points each (based on the sum of two games). The winners were last year’s Queensland State finalist, Alex D; his rival Courtney J and new-comer Daniel M.

In response to the players’ comments, the next League game will be a brew game. Each player will have 10 minutes to create a deck of 70 cards using a standard Viewpoint and Reflections deck. Then they will play three games against other players of equivalent ranks. See the 93 Made Games site for more information on Brew Decks: http://www.93madegames.com.au/article_031.html#brewdecks

Viewpoint is an Australian designed, easy to learn card game. If you would like to learn to play, visit the League of Extraordinary Gamers at our next meeting on the 15th April 2012. The club opens at 9.00am and the League kicks off at 12 noon.

LXG is sanctioned to run the Viewpoint State Championships that will take place on the 20th of May 2012. Top scorers in this event will be offered a place in the National finals being held at the Toy and Game Expo in June 2012. Details of the State Finals will be released here next month. Stay tuned.

Planeswalkers in Grand Melee part 1: Ajani Goldmane

Welcome to our new series looking at the Planeswalkers of Magic:The Gathering, with specific reference to their role in the Grand Melee play variant, our popular club feature.

This series assumes you know all about Planeswalkers in magic. If you don’t, read the official article first.

Ajani costs four mana to cast, and this is often considered the sweet spot for Planeswalkers. High enough to be effective in their abilities, but not so high that you can’t cast them until it is too late.

Four mana gives you a white Planeswalker with four loyalty counters. Not a bad deal. Ajani Goldmane has three abilities, as most (but not all!) Planeswalkers do.

The first ability adds a loyalty counter and you gain two life. Not so spectacular, but this first ability plays into Ajani Goldmane’s third ability, to both give you the loyalty counters to use it, and make it more effective when you do. However if you do decide the third ability is where you want to be, you’re going to have to gain some life first.

The second ability is in my opinion the strongest and is what makes Ajani Goldmane a worthy card for inclusion in your white deck. White is the colour of cooperation and a ‘together we are strong’ theme. White decks will typically play lots of small creature that get larger thanks to effects that work on all of them.

Ajani’s second ability fits this perfectly. At a cost of removing a loyalty counter, every creature you control receives a +1/+1 counter, and gains Vigilance until the end of the turn. In a typical white deck with say five creatures in play at the time, this is five extra points of power, and the ability to attack without tapping. Being untapped at the end of your turn is great in a melee. Ajani’s middle ability grows your attacking power while also leaving your creatures free to block. Great stuff. The icing on this cake is that these are counters, not a temporary boost, your creatures are stronger for as long as they remain on the battlefield. The Vigilance is temporary though and only lasts for the turn in which you use the ability.

The third ability puts a white Avatar creature token onto the battlefield. This creature’s power and toughness are each equal to your life total. As you gain life it gets stronger, as you lose life it grows weaker. This costs a whopping 6 loyalty points and in my opinion is not worth it. If you have that much life you’re not really worried about being attacked, and Ajani’s second ability allows your existing creatures to defend you anyway. The Avatar has no abilities such as Flying, that would make him worth having. Better to take white’s usual supply of Flying, Lifelink and First Strike creature and make them bigger and better with the second ability.

In summary, Ajani Goldmane is a solid Planeswalker who works best in decks with lots of creatures. White or White/Green decks that play with a lot of creatures will particularly enjoy what Ajani Goldmane can bring.

Connections
Like Ajani Goldmane? You may also like [Elspeth, Knight-Errant] [Elspeth Tirel] [Sorin, Lord of Innistrad]
Don’t like Ajani Goldmane? You may prefer [Jace Beleren] [Tezzeret the Seeker] [Sarkhan Vol]

See all articles in this series

LXGs Twelve Games of Christmas, part 2

We hope you enjoyed part 1 of the series. Now for games 5 to 8.

5. Quarriors
Quarriors is a game of dice and of catching monsters and gaining glory. Use your starting dice to generate ‘quiddity’ that will allow you to catch your quarry from the wilds. Put these monsters into play under your control to earn glory. Earn enough glory and victory will be yours. This game very cleverly uses a mix of cards and dice to provide and easy to learn game that offers variety and new challenges each time you play.
[Quarriors review][quarriors playthrough]

6. Dominion
What Quarriors does with Dice Dominion does with cards. Okay, that’s not quite fair, Dominion is a very good game in its own right. Dominion asks you to build your deck of cards during the game through buying available cards and building your way towards victory. With clear start and end points, this game nevertheless offers lots of changeability from game to game. Choosing a random 10 of 25 Kingdom cards for each game gives great replayability as no game is ever quite the same. Expansions for the game increase this variability further and offer new twists on the gameplay.
[Dominion review]

7. Magic: The Gathering
Magic is a Collectible Card Game, meaning you buy your cards in packs, make a deck of your choice and then bring it to the table to play against others. The game has been going since 1993 and many thousands of different cards exist. It can be a daunting game to get into, though Wizards of the Coast have begun releasing pre-built decks that make getting into the game with a functional deck a lot easier today than in years past. A Duel Deck is a very good entree into this game.
[How to win a Grand Melee]

8. Puerto Rico
Did you think there would be no board game for this update? Shame on you! Puerto Rico has been a perennial favourite at LXG and with good reason. Players take on the role of plantation owners attempting to earn as much as possible from the cultivation and export of crops. Players take on a different role form turn to turn and new tactical choices unfold as the game progresses. A good game with great depth of play.

Games sales increase…

Some of you will already be familiar with trade website ICV2. Every quarter they report on sales through the distributor-retailer channel in the US. The latest report summary is available now and makes for interesting reading.

Board games and card games increased in sales, and this in a climate where comic sales are falling quite badly. The big rise in game sales is coming from deckbuilding games such as Dominion and Thunderstone. Interesting coincidence as those two games have been especially popular with club members over the past few months!

In the board games section perennial club favourites Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne were top sellers, though Puerto Rico didn’t make the top ten. In miniatures War Machine sat second to the Warhammer 40,000 behemoth, though it’s War Machine that is getting all the attention these days from our miniatures players. Warhammer Fantasy was third in that category.

The best selling games across each category were:
Collectible Card Games: Magic the Gathering
Card Games: Dominion
RPG: Pathfinder
Board Games: Settlers of Catan
Miniatures: Warhammer 40,000

You can find Magic, Dominion and Settlers in our club library, while we have terrain suitable for your games of Warhammer 40,000.

Leagues Ready to Roll

Our first club meeting of the year is coming up on Sunday 17th January. As well as our usual array of board, card and miniatures games, we have some leagues ready to start. What would the gaming year be without a league or two? Scheduled to start in January are:

Magic: The Gathering Grand Melee (organiser: David Kay)
Puerto Rico (organiser: Terry Krause)
Battletech (organiser: Terry Krause)
Viewpoint (organiser: Keith Done)

As a club member, you can organise any league you want to have over the year.