Runewars Remote Play

I am sure I am not the only one who lives in an area where Runewars is taking off slowly but surely. I am also sure I am not the only one who wishes they had more people to play against and more variety of opponents. This is why I propose Remote Play. As runewars uses templates to move the units, once setup, the game should be able to be played and mirrored pretty well.

I would like to invite someone who is willing to try a 100 point skirmish mode gameplay with no objectives and possibly no terrain vs me. You would need probably 2 hours of free time.

Here is what you need:

1. Patience

2. A set time to play (especially if there is a time difference)

3. Honour

4. A 3x3 play area

5. Approximately 20 2.5x2.5 inch pieces of paper or cardboard. (These will represent the trays)

6. A tape Measure

7. A Protractor (dig deep in that elementary school crayon bag!)

8. The numeric black and white number markers.

9. A print out of your opponents list

10. A cell phone/laptop/tablet for skype/whatsap/facebook video call

Setup

The setup will require both players to have a 3x3 play area and a number of trays to represent their opponent’s army. Both players will have to establish the deployment zones as per usual skirmish rules. Players should also establish which sides of the play area are Right and Left so they are mirrored on both play areas to prevent any “your right or my right” issues.

Then specify where they are deploying in relation to length and width of the table measured from a specific corner or the tray being deployed. For example “My top right corner of my spearman tray is 20 inches from the left, and 5 from the bottom of the table”. All units must be deployed squared facing the opponent’s side of the board.

If you then wish to reform them at an angle use the protractor by hovering it over the middle of the tray and giving you opponent an estimate of where you reformed to. Example “I have reformed to 70 degrees facing the spikes on your end”. Be creative, this is not a perfect system.

To clarify what a unit is what have a printed list of you opponents army using a tool like the one provided on TableTopAdmiral. Then place one of the black/white number tokens on the list and then on the group of cards representing the corresponding unit.

When placing terrain use a distinguishing corner or visual part of the terrain to help get it in the right spot.

Repeat these steps until all units are deployed.

Gameplay

You will need to play slower than normal, especially if your internet connection is janky. Initiate rounds normally by casting the runes and showing your opponent them. They can then set their runes to show the same thing. Call out turns the same way. When anyone reveals a dial show it to the camera. The person whose dial it is then enacts the play. They opponent then mirrors the play clarifying with the controlling player if they did it correctly. Use descriptors and measure from landmarks using the tape measure, for example “My left turn leaves me facing your archer’s about 2 inches away”.

Movement

When performing a move action specify which corner you will be using as reference and what movement tool you are using. For example “I am doing a move 3 with a sharp turn -1, so a 2 sharp turn from the right corner going right”. The mirror player will then take ONLY the square with the corner the controlling player referenced and move them to the end of the movement tool. The mirror player will then move the other squares to line up with the square that was moved initially. If a collision happens when moving the other squares to the initially moved square, you then move all other squares to line up with the square that collided first. The Controlling player can then inform you how to square up etc.

Reforming

When a controlling player reforms do your best to specify how you are reforming. For example, “I reform so that my right corner is at 40 degrees and I am facing your cavalry”. You can also say things like “I reform so that using the red ruler I will not hit the terrain and pass on its left”. This will prevent some heartache when moving long distances.

Rolling

When rolling dice simply explain how many dice you are rolling and why if you are rolling more than normal. Show your rolls with the camera if possible. Explain what you rolled and what you are rerolling as that is part of the fun. State your final result.

Suffering Wounds

Simply place the number of wounds on the paper trays representing the figure. The player making the attack of course needs to specify where they want the figures to be removed.

When losing figures you can draw x’s on the square to show who has been removed from that tray or simply write a number on the paper. For example, “a spearman unit suffers 3 damage. The attacking player indicates which tray the figures should be removed from and marks 3 x’s on the paper tray to show the loss of 3 spearman, or can write a 1 on the tray to show 1 spearman left. The player who suffers the wounds then removes the corresponding figures.

Figure Upgrades in a unit

You will have to reference the lists often to remember what figure upgrades are in what unit. You can also write in pencil on the frontmost tray “Support carrion lancer” or “Citadel weapons master” to remind you. When the figure is destroyed you can cross it out.

Exiting terrain

When you exit terrain use a landmark as best you can to help your opponent mirror your movement to the best of your ability.

Potential Problems

1. Reforming will be tough. I think the players will have to use the camera to agree on each reform and if a conflict comes up you will have to come to a gentlemans/womans agreement.

2. The subtle movements.

3. Placement of terrain and objective tokens.

Closing Thoughts

This is a trial so I imagine problems will arise. However, the goal is to get games to those people who don’t play as often as they want. I would rather have a janky game of runewars then no game at all. Please give feedback on the guidelines I have posted and as a community we can get a system going that works!

EDITS

So far and above the best way to improve remote play would be with a 3'x 3' alpha numerical grid play area with each grid being 3" x 3" (slightly larger than the size of a Runewars tray). This would make positioning units and reforms easier as it would supply more landmarks to base your measurements off of.

The use of a protractor in theory makes sense, but in practice was not super useful. we just ended up measuring corners to landmarks or the sides of the play area.

If an opponent has the right number of extra trays to create your list, would they still need to use cardboard?

I think I may be interested in trying this out.

41 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

If an opponent has the right number of extra trays to create your list, would they still need to use cardboard?

I think I may be interested in trying this out.

Oh not at all. Extra trays would be the gold standard. With 100 points I might have enough trays myself.

We are going to trial the setup mentioned above this week. I'll be sure to post a review of how things go :).

Honestly I think it's time to get ahold of GreenKnight who did the Armada Vassal module and get some coaching so we have a vassal mod for Runewars.

WiseGuy and I had our game today. I'll leave it to him to tell the details since this is his brain-child, but I'll say it was a blast finally playing again. I think I've averaged 1 game per month since this released, so it was great to get in a game. It was even better playing an opponent who already knows the game and is invested in it, instead of playing a teaching/demo game!

I could definitely see myself playing this way again.

I'll be making a video explaining how things worked and where we could improve. The long and the short however, is that you shouldn't let distance stop you from playing as it was a total blast and I got to meet someone I never would have otherwise.

Here is my video outlining how Budgernaut and I played runewars despite being in different countries. I talk about what went well, what was challenging, and what we could do to improve. Please enjoy and tell me your thoughts or suggestions to improve remote play. Also let me know if you would like to try remote play and maybe we can line something up :).

Anyone else down to play a skirmish :)?