Tonight I played Runewars by myself. It was the Uthuk Y'llan vs. Waiqar the Undying. Now, in almost all of my previous games, the game went to time before anybody could reveal their victory card while controlling 6 dragon runes. Tonight I played the Rise of the Free Cities variant, so the number of runes needed to win was 7. The game board was small, with three 2-hex tiles and one 3-hex tile. The Uthuk made a push at about the third year that Waiqar never recovered from. But I think the Necromancers resurrected Reanimates in almost every battle they participated in. It was really looking bad for the Uthuk during the first couple of years.
I wish I had enough experience with this game to be able to identify what -- if anything -- Waiqar did wrong that led to his demise. I need to play this game more. Too bad it takes three hours. It's so fun!
In the end, the Uthuk controlled 8 dragon runes during winter of the 6th year. They placed their victory card on the winter season deck and successfully held all those territories until winter of year seven. So, even though I technically finished before the end of the 7th year, it was only one season away from being a timed game. I was wondering if you have trouble finishing a game before the end of the 7th year, or if someone can usually win before the end of the 7th year.