The Land Endures

By hakooh, in Runewars Miniatures Game

So...it's over? I mean, Organized Play is done, so can we assume no more units will be released? Or is that taking the article too far?

*pours one out for Runewars.*

I don't play Runewars, but I was at an X-Wing tourney that was taking place at the same time as a Runewars event. There were only 8 players present, largely local, so I was stunned to learn that it was for the North American championship.

I'm sorry it turned out this way for you all.

I thought that with no IP to pay for that FFG would stick through longer to see if a larger following would ever be made. Too bad because this game was a great way for people interested in mini war games to play without the larger time and money investment of the bid dawgs. I even liked Warhammer Diskwars that FFG did and which RWMG borrowed some of the innovations from, so for me this is the second FFG mini war game that was ditched. I don't blame them but was just hoping. There will be many that will say why complain since we already have a near complete game which will give years of enjoyment but, to me, it seems like part of the fun of a MWG is to have a living community that is continuously releasing new products.

Also, it seems a little weasely to announce this the same day they make a huge announcement for a new LotR product.

Edited by m4rtst3r

FFG kinda did this to themselves though.

Pushing Legion so hard right after Runewars was building up steam and giving it so little attention.

Organized play has always felt low. New units depend upon:

what are the sales and profit figures actually like? And specifically, can the capital devoted to more units be better spent on other more profitable ventures?

what part of the development cycle are they on, and would it make sense to push current development to its conclusion before wrapping up?

Even if we do get more units, I’d expect that development cycle to be the last. And that’s fine, two more units of each faction and it would be in very fine shape.

im ok without organized play. It isn’t like I don’t have twenty games on my shelf, none of which has any orgaznized play.

Boy... it's tough hearing them end organized play while being so vague about the future of the game.

Hmmm, hoping it's not all done, but it does sound that way.... so... can we get a shapeways/mels miniatures type thing going to create our own future units that we create, balance and develop as a community?

Edited by Jukey
6 minutes ago, Jukey said:

Hmmm, hoping it's not all done, but it does sound that way.... so... can we get a shapeways/mels miniatures type thing going to create our own future units that we create, balance and develop as a community?

Given what Shapeways charges, you'll want to go another route.

Though I would be more concerned about how to make the dials and trays. Adapting other minis can work in a pinch (though I would prefer something else), but decent-quality dials and trays are necessary.

And I've got some ideas for improving terrain rules, if we get to that point.

Despite being too far away from any game store to participate in organized play, this saddens me greatly. I always hoped that in a couple years I could move to a new location and get involved in growing a local scene. Alas, tis not to be so.

Should we crowdfund the game from now on? Buy the rights to Terrinoth and keep FFG from pulling a firefly?

Is it a bad time to bring up the siege unit champion upgrade card for Lord Vulun'thul and all of our excitement for that unit?

Edited by backupsidekick
8 minutes ago, Hepitude said:

Should we crowdfund the game from now on? Buy the rights to Terrinoth and keep FFG from pulling a firefly?

It would probably be easier to file the serial numbers off. I don't know that FFG would be willing to part with the entire setting, or even license it out.

Edited by Xelto

I'm not super familiar with the miniatures games scene, but I can't think of anything similar to jump to now that this one is done.

FFG announces no more OP for Rune Wars and GW announce the City of Death Campaign expansion for Warhammer 40k. Lol.

But let's be reminded that even a game as huge as 40k survived for years without Organised Play.

Just a steady stream of new models and FAQ and the community kept the hype train truddlin' along for years.

This may be the end of Organised Play involvement but if the game still sees new models, I doubt anyone here will mind. Just means we need to pull together and host our own events and campaigns, with Blackjack ... and hookers ... in fact .. FORGET THE ORGANISED PLAY !!

Never took off at any local stores here and it didn't stick with my son so it's been gathering dust at my house. The wording of the article and how they refer to developing the game in the past tense don't sound good to me.

Also note they're contacting the Worlds winners to arrange new awards in place of helping design new cards for the game. It's over.

And to no ones surprise, a game that FFG set up to fail from the start has failed.

We feel you over in the Battlelore community. We feel your pain.

24 minutes ago, Viktus106 said:

FFG announces no more OP for Rune Wars and GW announce the City of Death Campaign expansion for Warhammer 40k. Lol.

You have to consider the lifetime thus far of the two ranges. Whilst indeed it seems a bit defeatist and also like it could be a 'no more RWM development' post rather than just a 'no more organized play' post, the game team's comments seem a bit 'final', it may be the challenges of launching such a range- it takes time to build up (Warhammer and Warhammer 40k started back in '83 and '87 so RWM is a mere youngster at the moment), hope the 'new' FFG hasn't given up too easily and decided not to give it time to grow (and players time to buy into it and likewise grow into the hobby), there's still RWM items on my wishlist as you can't get everything at once even as an avid collector, so I've been gradually growing my kit - even though for me I may not use it for the miniatures game, I'm using it for Descent and Genesys RPG projects at the moment, the latter of which is an area that could grow into more sales if FFG made use of the opportunity- the range is a good source of miniatures whatever purpose they are being used for.

Also if players aren't coming to OP sessions then there are better ways to spend your business time and money promoting a range- games players are quite good at arranging to meet for game sessions that serve their game wishes so OP may not be the best, most essential marketing strategy (except perhaps at trade shows and the like or as an occasional for a big new release).

Given time to grow and with some star attraction items like a dragon or two I think the line has a future but it needs time being put out there and perhaps has a need to be put more on the public's radar, or alternatively it may not be growing enough for FFG to see it having that future, as much of a shame that would be there is quite a bit of competition from other ranges out there, so a lot depends on how well it's really doing, which could be tricky management wise as it may be something where it has to begin rather modestly and could be a slow burner until the range and popularity builds.

Whatever the case is behind the scenes, hopefully FFG will continue with such higher quality miniatures based Terrinoth products in some shape or form- there's still scope to continue the improvement of miniatures that has benefited some of the other Terrinoth games for which RWM might be a good comparison standard to aim for, would be nice to eventually have this high standard of miniatures in all the games, and RWM may not be history, that could just be an unintended implication of the article, it may just have some growing pains like this whilst it establishes deep enough roots to grow and last long-term.

55 minutes ago, Viktus106 said:

This may be the end of Organised Play involvement but if the game still sees new models, I doubt anyone here will mind.

If there were models coming, they would’ve announced them alongside this announcement, to pair good news with bad and prevent players from jumping ship. It’s dead, Jim.

1 hour ago, xelveki said:

I'm not super familiar with the miniatures games scene, but I can't think of anything similar to jump to now that this one is done.

There’s nothing quite like RMG, but mass battles with movement trays can be found in Mantic’s Kings of War and CMON’s Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game. The programmed movement can be found in X-Wing. And there’s always Legion (though as a RMG, Runebound, and Battlelore fan, I’d avoid investing in any FFG game too heavily).

19 minutes ago, Supertoe said:

And to no ones surprise, a game that FFG set up to fail from the start has failed.

We feel you over in the Battlelore community. We feel your pain.

I nearly mentioned the minis in Battlelore now aka tiny fragments of broken plastic in some cases (it did have an arm, chopped off in battle...) but thought it might be too 'ouch' right now. In FFG's defense we're a long way off every game (not just Asmodee) with miniatures having top quality painter-collector friendly miniatures that aren't of the cheap looking highly flimsy/breakable type. But it's starting to change and FFG have evolved a lot in this area, and Battlelore has some top quality minis so maybe someday....

Quality means more cost to the players though so if I ran a games business I'd be maybe looking at does a twofold approach work if the quality would make the sets too expensive for some- a normal and a collectors edition, the latter having the top quality minis, the former the best cheaper alternative.

If you like the art of games and the hobby/painting side of it it does add something having a quality, detailed mini that's a good 'canvas' to work with and the best of FFG's figures do have this, would be nice to eventually have this with them all.

21 minutes ago, sqorgar said:

There’s nothing quite like RMG, but mass battles with movement trays can be found in Mantic’s Kings of War and CMON’s Song of Ic  e and Fi  re Miniatures Game. The programmed movement can be found in X-Wing. And there’s always Legion (though as a RMG, Runebound, and Battlelore fan, I’d avoid investing in any FFG game too heavily).  

I play this and Armada. I like the lack of defense dice in both games. I could give or take the trays specifically. I like how RWMG handles deployment and objectives better than games like Armada.

39 minutes ago, sqorgar said:

----1 hour ago, xelveki said:

I'm not super familiar with the miniatures games scene, but I can't think of anything similar to jump to now that this one is done.----

There’s nothing quite like RMG, but mass battles with movement trays can be found in Mantic’s Kings of War and CMON’s Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game. The programmed movement can be found in X-Wing. And there’s always Legion (though as a RMG, Runebound, and Battlelore fan, I’d avoid investing in any FFG game too heavily).

Having got some RWM kit (as I say for Descent and Genesys RPG use currently) it's a good range and I'm quite interested in exploring it as intended at some point, from what I've seen and the quality it's still worth getting what's out there - I think the current fad for expansions (the gaming equivalent of dlc!) there's sometimes this 'more is more' mentality we can fall into even when ranges are already quite expansive, "no new stuff, ah it must be both dead and rubbish", but there hasn't been any 'new stuff' for chess for ages and it's still a perfectly playable and enjoyable game. So sometimes we (and I'm guilty as charged) obsess over what could be next when what already is is expansive and enjoyable - there are 36 sets of units by faction including the two larger Waiqar/Daqan sets in the core box, 9 for each of four factions - Waiqar / Daqan / Latari / Uthuk so there's plenty of gameplay and variety in the existing options so maybe it's still worth getting into and continuing playing- back to the chess example it's a pretty diverse game experience with just six different units in just two factions, so theoretically the combinations and options in RWM even top chess (in theory it should be even more of a challenge, I'm now curious to test that theory out, is RWM more mentally challenging to play well!)

1 hour ago, Daverman said:

Never took off at any local stores here and it didn't stick with my son so it's been gathering dust at my house. The wording of the article and how they refer to developing the game in the past tense don't sound good to me.

Doesn't seem to have done too well in UK either- a lot of suppliers seem to have dropped or be dropping the line - has been hard to source some RWM product over here and it's quite costly getting it imported from the USA as a consumer re taxes and other costs, as a big fan of the Terrinoth lines it's a shame they can sometimes be harder and costlier to get outside the USA - not always, have got some items at a good price, but it seems a bit hit and miss how well supported they are by UK retailers. In that respect sometimes it's maybe better if range size is of a sweet spot- not too few products in a line but likewise not too many so it doesn't feel like too much of a wallet-drain.

Edited by Watercolour Dragon
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Edited by Watercolour Dragon

I thought for sure they would end OP at some point, but does that mean they won’t have a big even at Gen Con or something? I guess the bigger question is how they support a game that they don’t have OP for.

Note that they didn’t explicitly state that there were no more new figures coming. The notes from the designers were far more ominous. I think Church would be the best one to chime in and let us know if development is truly dead.

That would explain the big sell-off before the holidays as well...