I don't personally think, that Runewars would benefit from more politics. It's way better IMO to have 2 different games - TI3, in which more diplomacy and allies is needed in order to play well, and Runewars focusing more on "solo"play. After playin' only a few 4 - player games, I was already unhappy with little interaction between some of players.

It's good to implement some interesting ideas and solutins from other games, but it's also very important to maintain sense of diversity between games. Not only with theme (high fantasy vs s-f), and some other solutions (every one has his own set of orders, drawing fate cards, quicker, yet still epic game and so on). It's especially important for me, as my wife doesn't like diplomacy and prefers more straight - forward aproach of gatherig resources and defeating the enemies. Of course, one could argue - not bring the 5th/6th player than, but - why should I pay for an expansion, that i WOULDN'T USE IN HALF?

Eruantalon said:

Well, on the other hand, with Runewars (unlike TI3) new figures would mean a new faction, which would presumably be playable even with only 2 players, just to mix things up. With TI3, the new colors are exactly the same as the old colors, so if you are never going to use the new colors, it's true that Shattered Empire has a bunch of "unneeded" pieces in that respect. But any figures for Runewars would likely be useful even if NOT playing with more players.

Again, I have no problem with added factions; I just don't have any problem with the approach they took, either. Where I'd really have issues is if they made fundamental changes to the core game just to accomodate 5-players (especially if those changes affected the way you played smaller games).

I certainly think the game would benifit from allowing more players. My biggest complaint is my group is rarely able to play this game. Our group has 6 people, so 2 have to be missing in order to play...which isn't common. Regardless of whether they add more players, it certainly needs more races. The games are simply too similar. I think their main deterent from doing so is that all the figures of each race are unique, unlike TI in which all races use the same figures (which makes adding races very simple). I don't really see how adding more players makes it so theirs less interaction...sure you won't likely be getting in conflicts with the person on the opposite side of the table, but you're going to get into conflicts with your neighbors (pretty much just like a 4 player game). Even those that really don't want to play with 5 or 6 players would certainly benefit from the extra races just to add variety in their 4 player (or less) games. I was rather shocked when the expansion didn't add any new races.

I can state from my experience with games of 2, 3, and 4 player games, that 2 player games have the MOST interaction, 3 player games are still pretty interactive, and 4 player games tend to be more spread out and less combat.

Maybe others mileage will vary, but the amount of interaction has been lower with more players in the games of Runewars I've been involved with.

sigmazero13 said:

And this is why FFG should design a new way to build the map and/or a new way to win the game if they ever do an expansion that supports 5-6 players.

One thing I would really like is an expansion that comes with a number of pregenerated maps for 2, 3 and 4 players in the instruction booklet. The map setup phase can be quite time consuming when playing with new players, and I would like to be able to skip this phase with the help of balanced pregenerated maps. In that way, I could set the map on my gaming table while waiting for my fellow players to come.

Premade maps would indeed be cool. I'm surprised there hasn't been more community content on that front in the meantime

sigmazero13 said:

You're right. I snatched the "Battle of the Ru Steppes" pre-generated map on BoardGameGeek, but this is all we have for now.

Thinking about it, a rule for team match (2v2) in this upcoming expansion wouldn't hurt either. Maybe something along the line of : the first team with 11 dragon runes wins the game, 13 for the epic game variant.

Yes, I hope there are some premade maps, that are fair for everyone. Because otherwise there is always one player more screwed than another.

I actually think it makes sense how they have expanded it so far. In the first expansion they give more to each of the four exsisting races and whatnaught. Then in a later expansion they add a new race or so to the new expanded level of units. At the very least its a hell of a lot better than doing it the other way around.

Cabello said:

Good argument, Cabello. It would mean more expense to do it the other way around, that's right and maybe the best argument I heard for another expansion in respect of market principles.

However, I wouldn't be that sure that FFG plans to publish another expansion AT THE TIME. (Maybe they will think about it later if the first expansion was successful). Take a look at all that new games FFG has just announced at GenCon. If they support all that game lines they will have a lot to do in the next years.