So I'm just looking for some input.

I own descent and play it... and this game is kinda pricy with expansions etc. But I've enjoyed it.

So my dilemma is this, I own rune wars miniatures game and this is my intro to this style of game with units moving on a 3 x 3 foot field etc.

I'm fine with it... however I can't understand now going anywhere with it. Maybe this just isn't the game for me at all.

Some expansions are 25 bucks for 4 miniatures? that just get added into already existing spots. They aren't new, you take out a spearman and replace him.

The golems for instance are 35 bucks for 2 miniatures. So I got one in base game.... ok.

The expansions for the other races are 60 respectively. But the base game was 100. So it costs 10 extra to play a different race?

I admit to some extent maybe all ffg games come at a cost for profit. Understandable... but this game - I don't know if I see the value in continuing?

Can anyone shed letter on the value you get for getting anything other than base game? and perhaps he core expansions of other races.

Everything I've seen so far that is 25-35 I'm just rolling my eyes at.

The one crossbow daqan expansion is like.. ok 25 for 8 miniatures. But I dunno.

Sigh

.. is this just with the territory of the style of the game?

Maybe people are used to spending 200 dollars on a single faction?

And perhaps playing against others who also pay 200 dollars.

Not sure.

Let me put it this way, my Armada Force was around $700for up to wave 5 in both factions.

My Current Warmachine army cost me ~$1200. That was with a 30% discount due to an agreement with my Local Store.

I have 40k Armies that cost me ~$1500-$2000. Others cost even more... but they are less and army, and more an endlessly growing hoard.

Runewars is FFG's attempt to enter the table top miniature niche. It is not meant to compete with Board Games. It is a different price point, for a different type of game.

It is not normal for players to collect all factions, just pick one and play it and go in depth on it. It has similar model price points as other games, however it is set a smaller scale, making it one of the cheaper table top games on the market.

15 minutes ago, Darrwood said:

Let me put it this way, my Armada Force was around $700for up to wave 5 in both factions.

My Current Warmachine army cost me ~$1200. That was with a 30% discount due to an agreement with my Local Store.

I have 40k Armies that cost me ~$1500-$2000. Others cost even more... but they are less and army, and more an endlessly growing hoard.

Runewars is FFG's attempt to enter the table top miniature niche. It is not meant to compete with Board Games. It is a different price point, for a different type of game.

It is not normal for players to collect all factions, just pick one and play it and go in depth on it. It has similar model price points as other games, however it is set a smaller scale, making it one of the cheaper table top games on the market.

Exactly what this person said. Miniature games aren't board games and over the long run are expensive. If you were hoping for a single purchase flat rate type game... well this genre may not be right for you!

RuneWars, I think, is mostly marketed as what many call a Lifestyle game: one that you can spend as much time collecting, assembling, painting, and list building for your faction of choice as you do playing. It's the kind of game that you can (hopefully) head down to the Local Gaming Store weekly and get a number of games in, and participate in tournaments on a regular basis. A game more akin to Warmachine, Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, and Flames of War than it is to board games like Descent, Imperial Assault, GloomHaven, or Firefly.

A standard size game is 200 points per side, and played on a 3'x6' board. The models included in the core set (as well as the upcoming Latari and Uthuk starter boxes) are about 100 points each, and fit well on a 3'x3' board. The core box for RuneWars essentially contains the tutorial for the game, a way to wet one's appetite for the full game. I will Echo Darwoods sentiment that collecting everything for every faction is not the intended expansion vector for this game. Rather it is to collect multiple copies of expansions for one faction to expand your strategic options.

With all that being said, I can see the value in picking up a core set and the starter boxes for each faction, and keeping it all as a board game. If this is not a game that you will be playing on a regular basis, but perhaps pulling once a month or two at Board Game night with the extended group of friends, this can be an enjoyable, and less expensive, way to participate in the game. I think you would be missing out on the true game, but If you enjoy the mechanics, but not the "Lifestyle" aspect of it, I think there is still a good bit of value in this approach.

14 minutes ago, S0L said:

Exactly what this person said. Miniature games aren't board games and over the long run are expensive. If you were hoping for a single purchase flat rate type game... well this genre may not be right for you!

QFT. With this game I expect to play a rank and file miniature game, like Warhammer, expending half time per game and a quarter of the price, not because of the individual miniature game, just because the quantity required.

The game and the expansions are not cheap: 4 miniatures and a bunch of cards per 25 bucks, or 8 per $25 with much more less cards or even a riding hero plus a on foot hero per $25. You have to know this is not Rebellion. But I've expended hundreds of euros on X-Wing or Imperial Assault.

1 hour ago, resolutestorm said:

I don't know if I see the value in continuing?

I think to move towards insight on this quandary, we need to get some more information.
@resolutestorm , you said that you own, play, and enjoy Descent. How often do you play it, and in what context? What value do you get from its expansions?
With RuneWars being your first foray into fielding fine figurines on a fictional fighting field, what are you looking to get out of it? Are you looking to get into the greater wargaming community?

Its a small point I agree...but the expansions arnt just miniatures, you get cards too.

Lets just say there aren't that many people who play miniature games and still have both kidneys.

You haven't looked into what it will cost you to paint them yet have you?

Thanks for the responses.

I see it is more a lifestyle gaming choice. Understandable.

Um to answer some questions: We started playing descent a couple years ago I suppose. When I first got it we played a few games a week to get into it. We didn't jump into the campaign mode we kinda played all the first level missions with heroes at the weakest setting to see overall the game. Then we moved forward. We are still playing almost weekly. The expansions just added more flavour. We found that for every terrain type there were really only a few monsters. We played with the zombies/barghests/archers/spiders quite a bit. There was always some mix of those, so with the add ons of expansions we could sort of supplement those choices. We also got something for the heroes with a new deck. Admittedly while I think we ended up with like 6-8 decks per hero type we didn't necessarily use them all. I dunno I feel it was alright. We got new mission books too. We've put in time... and still have more new content not yet used.

I don't plan to paint them.

But i think I'm getting my answer it might just not be for me. But I'll keep it around see how playing it goes.

@Darrwood . That's a moderately light Armada collection too, think I'm up around 1200 (eep), not including paint/wave 6 (easy another 500-600 on paint since I started last August).

Mini games are expensive. With preorders (elves/daqan), I've probably sunk 500 into RW already, ouch.

Mini games are expensive.

To keep the cost reasonable, or semireasonable to start with. If you go for humans or undead the way to go is 2 cores, split with someone to get an army of about 160 points, then add. So about $100 to get started, now go from there.

When I get to the Uthuk I'll get 2 starter sets, 1 command, and go from there. That should give me about 160+ before upgrades at about $165.

14 hours ago, Sirdrasco said:

To keep the cost reasonable, or semireasonable to start with. If you go for humans or undead the way to go is 2 cores, split with someone to get an army of about 160 points, then add. So about $100 to get started, now go from there.

When I get to the Uthuk I'll get 2 starter sets, 1 command, and go from there. That should give me about 160+ before upgrades at about $165.

And it will be enough for a 200 point army once you actually add in Upgrades.

56 minutes ago, Griautis said:

And it will be enough for a 200 point army once you actually add in Upgrades.

Even with upgrades, I don't think you can get a 200-point Waiqar army from just two cores.

Hey its this topic again...This isn't a board game and will never be structured in a marketing sense like a board game, you are going to have to buy expansions to play the game, and there is a bit of an upfront investment (though unlike most other mini's games, the upfront investment is RELATIVELY low. Like 2 copies of a really nice board game with mini's) which will get you right up to a 200 point army with list building options...by the way I'm working off the trading half core model...

I just wanted to echo the sentiments above. Miniature table top games are not the same beast as board games. It's a costly beast if you let it take over but so much of this hobby is about 25% painting, 25% modeling, 25% list building and about 25% playing. Also every game is absolute different from the last.

This is what a serious gamer has in his basement, this is with my Mordheim, half my 40k Orks and my Runewars packed up ready for gaming on the weekend.

5 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

Even with upgrades, I don't think you can get a 200-point Waiqar army from just two cores.

If you have all the neutral upgrades from both cores, it is possible. 185 or so is about as high as you can get without them.

2 cores and the infantry upgrade pack gets you 200 points with options. I got both so I have 2 armies at 200 points with options for $250

Pretty good I think

And one thinh that I haven't seen mentioned is the starter set is always cheaper than the cost of the individiual models, it is there to give a relativ cheap entry into the game. And as the rest already had said this is a miniature wargame and a rank and file one not a skrimish so of course it will cost some money the get an army.

@Thornoo1

Nice collection, do you also play Imperial armies, I spotted 3 Knights on the top shelf of the blue storage rack.

@Mep

I still have both kidneys + a new lung and a new liver

In the broad pace of the world, Mini games as a hobby are cheap. Getting a hobby like a classic car, or a boat, or mountain climbing is extremely expensive comparatively.

That said, the other point is, that in the world of Miniature gaming, Runewars is cheap. Some of that is due to it is very young (40K is over 30 years old, Warmahordes is almost 15 years old.) and some of it is because manufacturing costs continue to drop, but to play a solid tournament force in 40K, your in general looking over $500, closer to maybe $1000 if your picky. Warmahordes is different as you need 2 armies for competitive play so they might be as much or more than 40K despite a cheaper model cost on average.

Runewars is maybe $250 to start if you can't find someone to trade core mini's with. Maybe $150 if you do that.

That's pretty cheap.

RWM is still insanely cheap compared to most hobbyist games like 40k, AoS, Warmahorde, WarzoneResurrection, Flames of War, or Bolt Action.

I have 2 40k armies, both are around 2500USD in value, probably more Tau than Orks since the Ta'unar itself cost me just shy of 400USD. For one model

Even my xwing roster is rather expensive, around 1500. If i put all my stuff together i'd probably break 10k across 5 games.

RWM? Im up to 365USD atm, and thats split between two armies. And i have a fair number of models as it is.

These games are a hobby, not a casual game. If you are miffed by the price then i'd advise not even starting, youre just going to stress yourself out with the amount of bucks youre shelling out. Often my end of day thing i do to unwind is build/paint minis, and especially now that i got back into 40k and OMG ORKS ARENT USELESS i got a lot of work to do lol.

14 minutes ago, Iceeagle85 said:

And one thinh that I haven't seen mentioned is the starter set is always cheaper than the cost of the individiual models, it is there to give a relativ cheap entry into the game. And as the rest already had said this is a miniature wargame and a rank and file one not a skrimish so of course it will cost some money the get an army.

@Thornoo1

Nice collection, do you also play Imperial armies, I spotted 3 Knights on the top shelf of the blue storage rack.

@Mep

I still have both kidneys + a new lung and a new liver

I too have all my organs, well at least all my organs that I could sell and weren't working against me...I just have massive debt, some of which is due to this hobby and being irresponsible, and the need to have all the things...

12 minutes ago, Hawktel said:

In the broad pace of the world, Mini games as a hobby are cheap. Getting a hobby like a classic car, or a boat, or mountain climbing is extremely expensive comparatively.

My other Hobby is shooting, and that is exponentially worse price-wise than my wargaming...

I look at this game from a minis perspective. Back in the day, I could pay $2 for a metal Ral Partha mini and even GW ran some box sets that could get you close to the $2-3 mark for a multi-piece infantry model. Those times are way past us and now I fully expect to pay around $4-8 pre infantry model and GW charges $25+ in some cases for Commander/General models. So, the price in RW isn't that bad comparatively.

The OP mentioned Descent, which unfortunately is a hard comparison to RW. I would say the RW minis are superior to Descent and that is likely because some of the Descent minis are a few years old. RW minis would work great in Descent - skeletons and spear men could work great in place of some of the tokens. You could even house rule some of the stuff given the multiple designs; being able to run Master/Minion versions.

RW is not a game where most people will collect more than one army. It's a lot more geared to the tabletop wargames crowd, whereas Descent does have more of a collectibility feel to it because there's so much more material.

19 minutes ago, jek said:

My other Hobby is shooting, and that is exponentially worse price-wise than my wargaming...

Theres also this.

People only gawk at miniature hobby prices because its visible at any given point. Nobody gawks at car, gun, woodworking, or metallurgy hobbies because a lot of the expense is hidden in the tools or under the hood.
My coworker has an audio competition car. It was recorded pumping just shy of 4700Watts of power, i forget the decibals but it was higher than a jet. It LOOKS like a well kept and clean car with larger than usual speakers, but that thing cost like 30k or something like that over the span of 4 years.
Yet nobody gawks at that price. Instead they freak out that i spent 50USD for a Deffdredd from 40k....
Once the car guy mentions the price of one of his subs people freak out. But nobody sees that because its under all that boarding work, so far as they know its just a regular car audio system with beefed out speakers. Nothing else special...like oh i dunno the SIX extra batteries? lol

1 hour ago, Hawkman2000 said:

RW is not a game where most people will collect more than one army.

Why do you think that? I know quite some miniature wargamers that have over time collected more than one faction for the main game the play, some even have multiple factions for more than one game.

I would go as far as saying having more than one faction for a miniature wargame isn't that uncommon.