I visited my friendly local game shop today - I am currently enjoying 2 weeks, yes 2 weeks off work - and this is the sort of idle thing I can afford to do with this vast tract of empty time. Reef Encounter caught my eye - a nice heavy box of pretty stuff for £27. And I was tempted by another even heavier box - Beyond Valor (£59), gateway to the black hole that we call ASL. And then there was tempting small fry like Tigris & Euphrates Card Game, Gang of Four, and various Age of Steam maps. But, like a long-period comet, I kept returning to the same shelf, and its Runebound (2nd Edition). I picked it up - I turned it over and looked at the blurb - I put it back on the shelf - I returned 5 minutes later - I studied the blurb this time - I went back round the shop - I came back to study the expansion sets and the card decks - they looked really cool - this looks like a hobby in its own right. But do I even like generic-fantasy-themed games? And would I ever find anyone to play this with? But it looks like it could play pretty well solo? But £35 is quite a lot of money. In the end I walked away empty-handed. But I may well be back......
3 comments:
Peter...
Save your money for the black hole that is/will be Battlelore. My one playing of Runebound (2 player) revealed it to be a bit fiddly & long-ish for the enjoyment we got out of it.
Return of the Heroes scratches a similar itch without the fiddliness.
I enjoy Runebound 2e solitaire. I'm not very interested in playing it multiplayer - that would feel like people reading alternate pages of a book, it would disrupt the story. The rules for Return of the Heroes frustrate me so much I'm ready to give up on it.
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Friendless
Judging by your other preferences, I rather doubt you'll like Runebound, Peter. My experience is only with the first edition but I found it very repetitive and way too long for what it is. Here's my summary of the game from a session report at the Geek.
"Martin Wallace (Age of Steam, Struggle of Empires) has his name on the box but this doesn't feel like a Martin Wallace game at all and is really old fashioned compared to most of today's modern designs. When it boils down to it it's nothing more than a throwback to the games of the 70's. If you prefer your football matches full of players with long hair, beer bellies and the fitness of Jimmy Saville after a marathon then you may like this. I'll stick to today's fast paced, slick, well organised, technically superior Premiership with just the occasional slip into nostalgia when someone buys me the video of Tony Currie at his best for Christmas. (apologies to non UK readers who probably haven't got much idea what I'm babbling on about here)
Rating 4."
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