I know its too early to judge, but after reading the rules do you think there will be balancing issues between the races ? ( of course they would only be severe in 2 player games)

i like the fact they have different abilities, different fortresses etc.. But it also has the danger of same races being overpowered. For example, the Undead Fortress (Cursed Tomb) might be very good against small armies consisting of strong units. The Uthuk Fortress (Hungry Spawn) against big armies of small ones... The Human and Elf fortresses seem a bit weaker or at least less scary for attacking forces. What do you think ?

Besides all concerns, so far i have to say that the rules are totally awesome and i have no regrets that i preordered

I think any balance issue you might suspect from just glancing at the rules once is one they will have covered in their playtesting.

Games like this are often self-balancing. Take TI3 as an example: some of the races are obviously more powerful than others, so it is the responsibility of the other players to gang up on the stronger player to keep him in check. You can choose a stronger race, but you have to put up with being beaten down for choosing it.

you are right, but TI needs at least 3 players where Runewars can be played with two players

Agreed - two players may be a problem.

really cant tell before playing, but there is the danger of imbalances... like weak elves in late game etc...

coobe said:

It's hard to tell, but my 2 cents after reading the rules: The differences between races are smaller than in TI3. All races start with the same amount of resources and units and the special abilities do not automatically trigger.

Only exception could possible be the Elves, because of the Pegasus Rider. It seems a bit OP, being the only flying non-neutral unit in the game.

Also the elves start with the most influence, allowing then to win many tie-breakers.

I don't understand how anyone feels they are in a position to say anything about whether or not this game is balanced as of right now. You haven't played the game, you can't get any sort of feel for balance until you have.

ioticus said:

That's only the third tiebreaker. Won't happen very often.

@Broken: don't you like speculating a little? As I said, it's only my 2 cents...

The Pegasus Riders do look very good. On the other hand, the elves are the only race which doesn't have a hexagon-based unit.

We may well be missing some clues about balance. For example, how do the starting resources differ between factions? (And even with that, it's going to be tough to judge without playing the game.)

The starting resources are pretty much the same for all of them. The elves start with one fewer food and one more wood than the others. My feeling, with no particular rationale, is that the game looks well balanced. Keep in mind that the Pegasus Rider is the Elves' best unit (you can only have 4 of them at a time). With the rout and retreat rules, even an army of 4 Pegasus Riders won't get very far on their own, so Fly and Fast will serve limited use in practice.

Elves? Try power ? Not a chance! As long as an undead player has his head in an appropriate place Have you guys played "Heroes of Might and Magic III" (Of course you have! Who haven't O_o?)? Get Necromancer(s), one or two reanimates or dark knights (mostly for necromancers protection) and game will be yours! 2 free reanimates here, 2 there, 2-4 from battling with another player and so on. 2 free reanimates!!! That's the power, especially if you keep in mind, that you can have 16(!) reanimates (possibly half of them you'll get for free) and their ability is plain cool on itself. Pegasus you say, what pegasus? That horse with funny wings? Oh, yeah, that's really scary, especially the part where elves can keep only 4 of them.

I think you are correct assuming necromancers are VERY powerful. I guess that's why the undead units have slightly less basic strength than other races' units. If you calculate triangle units as 1, circle as 2, square as 3 and hex as 4, Waiquar's units have 8 total strength, Elves and Humans 9 and the Uthuk 10.

But that's all speculating. I'm sure it's balanced.

Anyway, what surprises me about the reanimates is that it's still a bit unsure whether you keep the summoned ones after battle. Any guesses?

as far as i see it, you keep them. Some might die of food shortage though....

It will be funny, if DEAD people can DIE because of food shortage

But of course those evil elves (argh!) will try to shoot down my precious undead buddies. Have to be careful with those bow-lovers

coobe said:

I try not to worry about balance issues until I've seen the mechanics in action. Sometimes a rule which stirkes me as OP ends up being reasonable in practice, and sometimes something that looks weak is much better owing to some angle I hadn't seen before I began playing. I do sometimes fall prey to analyzing things without playign them out, but particularly with a new game I'm going to reserve judgement until I've played it.

I played about 10 times and I agree with my opp that undead are the strongest and People and Elves the weakest.

Especially if you play Elves as first player. It's enough that opp chooses for realm place with food leaving you one without. Additionally Elves needs 4 ores to build the best unit and it can be tricky to achieve.

Similary People have the worst Units for battle. Starting with 2 tactic card they are somwhere in the middle of influence or tactical strategy.

You can still choose Elves if you are not first player to chose right space with enough resources to block them until u get 7 runes.