Game: Runebound - The Scepter of Kyros

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-24T23:50:14+00:00

Cards sample

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-24T23:30:19+00:00

Box Front (high res)

Thread: Re: Against the Giants

severian73 — 2008-03-08T22:39:58+00:00

Excellent session report!

Thread: Against the Giants

Blueharlequin — 2008-01-10T19:09:52+00:00

This was the second time our group has played this particular RB scenario, and I daresay it's still my all time favorite. Myself and Runebound regular Brian were joined by the Geoff, our occasional gaming partner. Brian and I had each played this scenario before, and Geoff had not.

As usual, we randomly drew characters from everything available (minus Trenloe the Strong who I long ago pulled from the deck.)
The character mix ended up being decidedly odd school, as only characters from the original set were pulled. Brian drew Runewitch Astarra , Geoff picked Ronan of the Wild and I was happy to see that I drew Bogran the Shadow. Bogran has always been a favorite of mine, despite his not always so useful special ability.

The game did not begin terribly auspiciously for any of us. Early on, we were both defeated once or twice by green challenges and sent packing to the nearest town. The Rumblings in the Earth event allowed us a to move around a bit easier thanks to the wisdom of the dwarven stonespeakers, but that didn't help us all that much. It wasn't until Death Does Not Become Him was drawn to become the dominant event that things started looking a little better for all the players. With the Lords of the Free Cities offering a 1 Gold bounty on any servant of Vorakesh, we all soon found our purses a little heavier and we were able to better equip ourselves.

Ronan stayed mostly ally free but bought himself the Elven Wraproot artifact (from Artifacts and Allies) and managed to procure a Wrapwood Whip after defeating a Wrapwood Bramble (from The Dark Forest). Fitting tools for Ronan.

Bogran meanwhile, found himself alternately broke and destitute or flush with gold, never seemingly able to hold onto anything of value for terribly long. The problem was, I was getting cocky. I wanted to see Bogran's ability to flee automatically pay off, and I was getting very daring in an effort to catch up with Ronan. I started going after yellow challenges long before I thought I could take them with any regularity, figuring that I could always run if the card looked too hairy. The problem was, I rarely ran. Still, I figured eventually the strategy would pay off, allowing me to pick and choose my battles.

The tide turned when the Of Dragons and Giants event card was drawn. The spirits of the Dragon Lords bestowed Dragon Runes to each of the heroes, and I arguably got the best one.
The Dragon Rune of Fromax allowed me to forgo my melee attack and instead inflict 3 wounds outright. This might be the item that I was waiting for, giving me more flexibility in battle, and feeding into my strategy of drawing cards that were probably too tough for me and then running if necessary. But with this Dragon Rune, I could now time my attacks in such a way as to minimize the risk.
Astarra pulled The Dragon Rune of Phrynelyx (from Shadows of Margath), which on the surface, seemed useless. The Rune bestows increased mobility towards red encounters, but as this scenario doesn't even have a red encounter deck, it seemed a wash! But I reminded Brian that once in the endgame, and the Giants have invaded the northern cities, red jewels are in fact placed on the conquered cities. That particular Rune might just come in handy later on.
Ronan did not hold onto his Rune for long, as the Of Dragons and Men encounter put Dragon Hybrid Raiding parties around many of the plains and rivers of Terrinoth, and they proved his undoing a couple of times. It's these sort of event-generated challenges (like the ghoul patrols in Rise of the Dragon Lords) that provide no experience that can become a real pain in the butt if you're not ready for them, but they also provide a great way to utilize Bogran's special ability.
At any rate, Ronan and I were about head to head with the amount of experience markers we had gained... but while I started playing cat and mouse with the blue deck (more on that later) he kept going after greens and yellows and quickly surpassed me. Astarra, for her part, was playing the slow and steady game, amassing gold without taking too many risks with the eventual goal of purchasing the Touch of Death Rune that had surfaced in the market at Tamalir.

In the end it went down like this:
Ronan and me (Bogran) had each taken out three giants. Ronan had taken the worst of it, occasionally being beaten down, losing items and later returning to defeat his oppressors.
We hadn't had a jewel refresh in some time, however, leaving the only blue jewels on the board in the extreme southern portions of Terrinoth, plus a couple in the northeast.
The Runewitch Astarra, perhaps being able to forsee things better than the rest of us, started lingering around the northern cities, in anticipation of the giant's invasion. By this point, she had not only acquired the Touch of Death rune, but had also acquired THREE allies thanks to the Banner of the Griffon (from Relics of Legend). She was at this point, making it a goal of hers to acquire the more versatile items from the three northernmost markets, denying the giants the use of their powerful magics.

For my part, I attempted to brave the wildernesses of the south, to try to take out a few more of the giants before they invaded. What I ended up doing though, was getting stuck in the Mountains of Despair and wasting quite a few turns only being able to move one or two hexes. Eventually I was able to corner and defeat Trehig the Lofty in the Bitter Downs to trigger the endgame.
With four fame points each, Ronan and I were tied for the lead, but Astarra was much better positioned to free the conquered cities. And sure enough, utilizing Phrynelyx's Rune to quickly move into Nerekhall and then Greyhaven, she invoked the Touch of Death rune to obliterate Styrpick the Undecided and Erathorn the Forceful respectively, gaining six fame points in the process, easily putting her in the lead. (Ronan gained one more point later on, bringing his total to five.)

With only Frostgate left to liberate, it became a race. There were still a few blue gems left on the board worth 1 fame point each, but Skerrin the Decomposing was sitting pretty on Frostgate and was worth four fame points alone. Whoever could free Frostgate would become the savior of Terrinoth and the game's winner.

A giant undead monstrosity, Skerrin's power made him immune to all wounds inflicted by any attacks, items or abilities. Instead, he simply took one wound at the end of each round. With four wounds, plus the +1 experience counter inevitably given to him by the other players, defeating Skerrin came down to an endurance test. Survive for five combat rounds and you'd win. Whether it was Astarra's Death Touch Rune or my Dragonrune of Fromax, we were all relying on quick assaults of massive damage. None of us were really endurance fighters. With seven wounds, I was perhaps best positioned to survive the beast, but I was still way in the south, far far away from Frostgate.

Ronan made it first, and was defeated. Quickly traversing the distance from Greyhaven, he made a second attempt before Astarra could make it, but was again repelled.

I was trying my hardest to make it to Forge with as much haste as possible. Since the beginning to the game, sitting in Forge's marketplace was a Teleport rune, which was perhaps my only chance to get up to Frostgate in time. While Ronan was making his multiple attempts against Skerrin, I had managed to get to the Dwarven city, and sold all my possessions to buy the Teleport Rune. I was now effectively unarmed. IF I could make it to Frostgate, it would be only me and my companion Jachim the Brave (from Artifacts and Allies) facing off against Skerrin.

Immediately after I procured my rune, Astarra made it to Frostgate, by using that damned dragon rune of hers. She fought a desperate battle, and two of her companions (an Acolyte of Flame and a Dwarven Honor Sword) were killed, but she couldn't hold fast long enough, and she too was defeated, with only one more round to go.

I had one desperate chance.
If I could get my new rune to work for me (no guarantee considering my Spirit value of seven,) I could teleport into Frostgate and make a play at Skerrin.

****
"That thing had better be worth the trouble," Jachim stared down at the runestone in Bogran's palm. "But I'm not sure that I believe all of the dwarf's pretty tales about that stone."
"Patience, Jachim. The dwarves of Forge drive a hard bargain, but they're not known to be liars." Bogran's voice was little more than a whisper, and as the orc turned the runestone over in his hands, his callused fingers tenderly traced the lines of the glyph carved on its face.
Jachim was not convinced. "A hard bargain indeed! You sold your Great Bow for a song, you've emptied your purse, and you bartered away the Staff of Greyhaven! The Staff of Greyhaven! To think that you freed that ancient artifact from the wretched grip of Halbjorn the Stalwart only to have it end up on some dwarven peddler's table. My heart weeps to think of it."
Bogran was ignoring him. His fingers continued to trace the lines of the runestone, oblivious to the organized chaos that the Marketplace of Forge surrounded him with. The runestone responded with a faint bluish glow.
"We've come so far," Jachim continued. "Nerekhall and Greyhaven have already been liberated, and I've heard that in the forests near Riverwatch, Kyros himself was cornered and slain by the ranger, Ronan."
"Jachim?" Trickles of sweat had started seeping from underneath Bogran's red leather cowl.
Jachim continued his rant. "I've dedicated my life to studying those accursed giants, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna see the people of Frostgate enslaved by that overgrown corpse."
"Jachim?" Bogran had begun to coax dim electric blue crackles of arcane energy from the runestone.
Jachim was becoming incensed. "Would that we could be there in time!" He drew his sword. "I fear no gigantic cadaver! I will not cower before some ghoulish titan! I AM JACHIM THE BRAVE! AND WOE UNTO THE FOOL THAT ATTEMPTS TO SLOW MY BLADE ON ITS RIGHTEOUS PATH TO GLORY!!"
"Jachim?" The runestone was now burning white hot in Bogran's hand.
"What?!?"
"Shut up." With that, Bogran held the stone aloft and the two adventurers were immediately caught up in a storm of blue-white lightning. There was a blinding flash and then they were gone, leaving only the faint smell of ozone behind them.

****

I would go on to defeat Skerrin the Decomposing and win the game. Jachim the Brave was killed in the fourth combat round, but my seven wounds served me well, and I lived until Skerrin's rotting bones ended up as a pile in the middle of the city square.
I was literally unarmed, having the teleport rune as my only possession. I imagine poor Jachim served as a distraction, being brave indeed while charging the undead giant and confronting him head on with his sword, while Bogran the Shadow also lived up to his name, teleporting around the field of battle making quick opportunity strikes with a mere dagger, and wearing the creature down.

Bogran has long been one of my favorite characters to play with, and I'm glad I finally got to win one with him.

Final Score:
Ronan of the Wild: 5 Fame points
Runewitch Astarra: 6 Fame points
Bogran the Shadow: 8 Fame points

Thread: The Scepter of Kyros

Friendless — 2007-12-10T05:05:48+00:00

The Scepter of Kyros is a Runebound adventure variant expansion, meaning that it replaces the Rise of the Dragon Lords story with one of its own. The heros no longer fight Margath in the final showdown. The mechanics of this particular expansion is that it replaces the green and yellow events and encounters, completely replaces the blue deck, and there is no red deck.

The game proceeds as normal, which means during the green and yellow challenges you'll be fighting ferrox and Vorakesh and Farrow as usual. Personally I think of Vorakesh and Farrow as being co-conspirators of Margath and hence belonging to a different story, so I replace the green and yellow decks entirely with challenge deck expansions such as The Dark Forest and Terrors of the Tomb. The event and encounter cards do explain how Vorakesh is involved in this story, but that seems a little forced to me.

The point where this expansion really starts to shine is in the blue cards. There are 18 blue giant cards, from Gort the Feral to Nadara the Ice-Blooded to Onvere the Arcane. These are typically blue challenges - intimidating by themselves, and it feels like an achievement to overcome one.

After you've destroyed 8 giants the end-game starts. The giants start to occupy the towns in the north. However these are not just the easy blue challenges you've been fighting up till now, they're pumped up by the town's market stacks. For each card in the market stack the giant gets an experience counter AND to use the item. Kyros the Mighty plus a magic weapon and a couple of other cards is a very intimidating encounter indeed. Once all of the occupied towns are liberated the game is over.

Of course the players can try to buy those towns which are going to be occupied out of items. I think next time I play (solitaire) I'll make the Giant Lords occupy the towns with the largest market stacks no matter where they are.

I like this expansion a lot. Although (in my opinion) the green and yellow cards are a little weak, the blue cards are great and the end-game is exciting. As such, it's a worthy replacement for the original quest.

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Urtur — 2007-09-05T09:49:31+00:00

Polish edition by Galakta. Contains Scepter of Kyros, Relics of Legend and Terrors of the Tomb

Thread: Gradual Invasion variant

magicmarcus — 2007-05-30T15:22:46+00:00

t recently played this expansion 2 player with a friend, and we enjoyed the giants as adversaries, but we actually found it a bit easy. We came up with the following idea: Play to 8 giants killed, as in the original, but each time the turn comes back to the player that killed the 8th giant, have another giant invade. Continue until there are either no giants left on the board or 8 towns are invaded, in which case no one wins. Count points as normal. We haven`t played this way yet.

Thread: A great value Expansion.

kingbobb — 2007-04-16T13:52:19+00:00

As this is a review of an expansion pack, I won't go over the basic Runeboud gameplay.

Aside from providing a funtwist to the Runebound gameplay, this expansion demonstrates that the Runebound system is flexible enough to be able to support a fairly significant gameplay modification that requires very little new material. Players tired of the same story and challenges and end game from the basic Rise of the Dragonlords adventure can get a substantially different experience with only the purchase of this expansion pack for $8 or less.

As the flavor text states, this adventure begins 10 years after the conclusion of the Rise of the Dragonlords adventure. This provides some continuity, and also allows the majority of the RotDL challenge cards' flavor text to be just as applicable for the story in Kyros. This cosemetic fact won't impact some players, but for those that play Runebound for the story elements, it's a nice touch.

The difference here that, anytime an event or encounter is drawn from the green or yellow decks, you instead discard that card (replenishing sunburst encounter markers if the discard is an event card) and draw a new Kyros card. This provides an encounter or event specific to this story, providing key fiction elements. It's not too long before the main thrust of the story...invading giants bent on revenge for the destruction of their allies, the dragon lords...becomes apparant, although not without a surprise or two along the way.

Kyros replaces all blue encounters with a totally new set of giants, and eliminates all the standard Runebound red challenges from normal play. Early play mirrors the RotDL adventure, with players travelling around to make the progression from green to yellow to blue challenges. The blue challenges are more difficult than the RotDL blues, so players should make sure they're truly ready to attempt them.

The most significant change in Kyros involves the endgame, and it's a substantial improvement over the RotDL endgame. In that basic adventure, the game could be won with a lucky draw and some good rolls. There's little sense of who's close to winning, and what small warning you do get provides inadequate time for other players to either interfere, or make a bold move in an attempt to catch up. Kyros removes this by using a point system to determine the winner. Each defeated giant lord is worth a victory point, with the endgame giant lords potentially worth as many as 6 victory points each. In this respect, a player that's slightly behind the others, and perhaps has scored no points before the beginning of the endgame phase, still has a chance to win that depends on more than just drawing and defeating Margath. The elimination of this blind luck element is a major improvement over the basic endgame.

The Scepter of Kyros, for slightly more than the price of a cup of coffee (you Starbucks customers know what I'm talking about), provides a familiar, yet substantially improved Runebound experience. While the race element of the game is still present, it's not a critical, as the finish line is completely visible to all players at all times, and the endgame provides the possiblity that a trailing player can pull off a difficult but not impossible come-from-behind victory.

Thread: Of Dragons and Giants

HuckmanT — 2007-02-07T01:20:31+00:00

I have just received a ruling from FFG regarding this Event card. Since this answer isn't anywhere else, I'm posting it here (plus the question):

Q: My question is regarding the Yellow Event card "Of Giants and Dragons" from the Scepter of Kyros Adventure Deck. This is a Yellow event that allow the characters to all receive a free, random Dragon Rune from the base game Red deck. This is, obviously, a very powerful ability. My question is this: Does the Dragon Rune received go away when the Event expires (i.e. is overwritten by another yellow event)?

A: No, players keep the Dragon Rune even when the “Of Dragons and Giant” event expires.

This is from John Goodenough at FFG.

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

GameMasterX0 — 2006-12-06T17:42:16+00:00

I'm not sure anymore which way is correct, as the rule is truly worded badly.
We've been playing it that you MUST, but get choice of which counters to use. It feels right, and makes everything a lot more fun. My two cents.

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

DaviddesJ — 2006-12-06T17:35:23+00:00

Trump wrote:
Are you SURE about not having to place the experience counters on the Giant Lords? The way I read the rules and the example, you MUST place as many experience counters on the Giant Lord as possible, with the left-hand player choosing which ones to use.

The rule is poorly written (what else is new), but I tend to agree with you. I think the intention is that the player to the left "may choose" which tokens are placed, but doesn't get to choose whether to place them at all.

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

Trump — 2006-12-06T15:20:05+00:00

Are you SURE about not having to place the experience counters on the Giant Lords? The way I read the rules and the example, you MUST place as many experience counters on the Giant Lord as possible, with the left-hand player choosing which ones to use. I only see a choice of WHICH counters to place, not a choice of whether or not to place any counters. Methinks this sounds like yet another case of rules lawyering vs common sense, but if someone has evidence to the contrary, I'm all ears!

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EndersGame — 2006-11-07T23:22:54+00:00

Expansion box

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EndersGame — 2006-11-07T22:55:27+00:00

Expansion box

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

DaviddesJ — 2006-10-22T23:58:55+00:00

GameMasterX0 wrote:
But there's always that one player who wants to win by whatever methods possible, even cheap ways that ruin everyone else's fun.

It would ruin my own fun if my opponents didn't play to win.

Of course, it would also ruin my own fun to play a game that hasn't been playtested and balanced by the designers. So I'm not in the target audience, anyway.

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

MrSkeletor — 2006-10-22T23:50:30+00:00

GameMasterX0 wrote:
Yeah, it definitely is an option to place fewer experience counters. Most of my players don't want to take the cheap way out, and they put as many experience counters as possible. But there's always that one player who wants to win by whatever methods possible, even cheap ways that ruin everyone else's fun.
-Mike

If people are going to play like that they should stick to Euros.

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

GameMasterX0 — 2006-10-22T23:26:44+00:00

Hats off to you, Skeletor! Of course, there aren't enough blue adventure tokens in the box, but proxies (blue stones, red tokens, etc.) should work fine.
Yeah, it definitely is an option to place fewer experience counters. Most of my players don't want to take the cheap way out, and they put as many experience counters as possible. But there's always that one player who wants to win by whatever methods possible, even cheap ways that ruin everyone else's fun.
-Mike

Thread: Re: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

MrSkeletor — 2006-10-22T23:18:47+00:00

Cool review.
My 'fixes' to your two problems are as follows:
1) Place blue adventure tokens on the red spaces as well.
2) What you said - I didn't even realise you have the option of putting less!

Thread: Giants! Giants Everywhere!!!

GameMasterX0 — 2006-10-22T19:52:22+00:00

After a few games with the Scepter of Kyros small card expansion for Runebound, I feel ready to tackle the fun job of reviewing it. To sum up the review before I get into details, Scepter of Kyros is a very interesting and fun variant of the base Runebound endgame, but it also has some slight hiccups in execution. I'll get into this below.

Components
Like all of the small card expansions, this expansion consists of 30 cards and a rulebook in a little box. The cards are the same size and quality as the base Runebound cards.
All of the new cards are adventure cards. There are 6 new Green cards, consisting of 3 encounters and 3 events, 6 new Yellow cards, again with 3 encounters and 3 events, and a whopping 18 Blue cards, all of which are difficult challenges called "Giant Lords".
The backs of these cards are different from those of the base game Adventure decks. This may irritate those who want to throw giants into their regular Blue decks.
There is one small problem I've found with all of the small deck expansions. The front-most front facing card (in this case a giant named "Nadara the Ice Blooded") is strained by the plastic wrap around it. This causes the front-most card to come out of the box with minor scuffing around the edges. Not a huge problem, but certainly irritating none the less.
Score - 7.5/10

Presentation
I really enjoy the artwork on the giants in this set. The illustrations do a great job of conveying the fury, power, and size of these characters.
Of course, like with all things Runebound, a lot of text is fit onto fairly small cards. Not a problem for me. Each of the Giant Lords has flavor text beginning with the words "he/she came...". Each of these characters is from a different time/place/plane of existance/etc. The flavor text is nice, and gives a slightly larger picture of the whole world that is Runebound.
Score - 8.5/10

Gameplay Basics
This expansion is a variant for the endgame of Runebound, hence it comes with a decent number of rules. To sum them up, every time you get a Green or Yellow event/encounter, you instead draw from the matching Scepter of Kyros deck for a potential event/encounter that tells the story of the Giant Lords.
The entire base Blue and Red decks are absent from this variant. The Giant Lords fill the Blue spot, and there is no Red deck of adventures.
The game otherwise plays fairly similarly until 8 Blue Giant challenges have been defeated. Then a number of Giant Lords equal to 1+the number of players invade an equal number of towns, starting from the north with Frostgate. These invaders must be defeated. However, they may be given 1 experience counter for each item in the market stacks of the towns they occupy, and they can use these items as if they were players.
When all the invading giants are dead, the players count up the number of giants they have killed (adding in any experience counters placed from market stack items). Best giant killer wins.

Gameplay - The Good
The Giants are excellent, interesting opponents. There's one that break the weapons you use, three that force you to defend in specific phases (even if you or an ally attacked), some that gain power from the items you hold, one that has a pet standard Blue challenge that you must fight first, and Kyros himself; a deadly opponent who forces your hero to defend at least once every phase and stops all before combat abilities.
Adding in items to the town-occupying giants makes everything even more exciting. Depending on what's in a occupied town's market stack, these fights can be extremely tough and tense. I find them a lot more interesting than the standard red challenges from the base game.
The Green and Yellow events are generally excellent as well. The greens give you a free item, have the dwarves help you move through hills and mountains, and give bounties on cards that have "Vorakesh" in the title or flavor text (which is almost everything). The yellows let you "sell" allies wherever you are (releasing them to help their town), or force you to sometimes fight dragon hybrids in plains and rivers. The most interesting event is the final yellow one which instantly grants every power the help of the Dragon Lord spirits, in the form of one free Dragon Rune (red adventure challenge reward) for each player. Great stuff.

Gameplay - The Bad
The encounters are pretty boring in their effects. The three green encounters can be discarded for a small bonus to a Mind, Strength or Spirit bonus in a skill or combat roll. The three yellows are the exact same thing, except for a bigger bonus. These are okay, I just wish there was more variety in the encounters.
Some people don't like the system for PVP combat in runebound. I happen to be perfectly fine with it, but it's worth mentioning that fights with the occupying giants is handled as a PVP battle. The player to the hero's left controls the giant. This isn't an issue for me, but it may turn off the PVP haters.
There are also no set rules for integrating the doom track into this game. I have seen one variant here on the geek which uses a gradual giant invasion. I think this sounds great, but have not tried it. Either way, some doom track supporters may be irritated that nothing official is in the rules for them.

Gameplay - The Ugly
I have two major problems with the game as it is currently written.
1 - There are no blue events. This means that once everyone is fighting giants, there will be no Starburst events to refill encounter gems. This doesn't seem to be that big of a problem, until you realize that the giants invade when 8 giants have been defeated, and there are only 9 Blue gems on the board. This means that the game slows down a lot, because everyone has to travel to the same final out-of-the-way blue gems to trigger the end game. You can devise your own variants for gem replacement, but I find it a little irritating.
2 - Your score at the end is equal to the number of giants killed + the number of experience counters from town-invading giants killed. The player to a hero's left determines how many, IF ANY experience counters are placed on a giant when it is fought in a town. The max experience counter number is the number of market cards or 5 (1 of each), but there is no requirement for any to be placed if the left-hand player doesn't wish it.
This leads to what I consider 2 major problems: Runaway Leaders and Kingmaking. Consider the following situations:
In a 2-player game, one player is ahead 5 blue encounters to 3 when the giants invade. There are now 3 invading giants. Whenever the leading player's opponent attacks a giant in town, the lead player will choose to place 0 experience counters on the giant. His opponent will have an easier time winning the fight, but this way the giant will be worth only the base 1 point, and the second place player will need to kill EVERY INVADING GIANT to win the game. It's even more extreme with a 6-2 lead. Some people might argue that the leader at invasion time has the right to win, but currently the rules can often take away the tension after invasion. This problem also exists with more than 2 players. More players also brings up the next situation.
In a 3-6 player game, with the same situation, you can also have the Kingmaker problem. One player, out of contention, might be sitting to the left of the second place player, who is about to fight a Town Giant. This out of the running player now has the choice: add experience counters, giving the second place guy the lead because of the extra points, or don't add any experience counters, ensuring that the first place player will likely win.
Neither of these situations will happen every game, but I think they are common and problematic enough that I propose the following rule change:
The left-hand player MUST give the giant experience counters (up to 5) equal to the market stack. There is no choice in the matter. This way the winner is always up for grabs, as long as a trailing player is willing to risk it all and take on a hugely pumped-up invading Giant Lord.

Gameplay Score - 8/10

Final Thoughts
This really is a great expansion. I think that two variants (1 to replenish adventure counters without events and 1 to force giving the full number of experience counters to giants) would make the expansion a good deal better. However, the new challenges are great, the game is changed in a satisfying way, and I am very glad I bought Scepter of Kyros.

Final Score - 8/10

Thread: Re: Giants and number of items

MrSkeletor — 2006-10-08T00:46:38+00:00

If you want to make the endgame tougher use the Isle of Dread rules which starts the game with three items in every town.

Thread: Giants and number of items

dturnerfish — 2006-10-07T15:33:34+00:00

I have not played this yet but I have a quick question.

In two player we usually have very few items left in towns (zero, one and sometimes two). In the example the instuctions there were 4 items in the town for the giant. In your games, how many items do the giants usually have?

Doubled checked the market rules, only one item is placed on the market stack per visit.

My wife likes to shop, I am considering starting each town with 2 items face down instead of 1 item face up.

Thread: 2006-04-19 :: Game 1 :: One Orc and a Scepter

Grimwold — 2006-07-21T22:52:31+00:00

Players: Grim
Playing Time: 2 hours

After dinner I decided to have a go at solo Runebound... this time however I thought I'd try one of the 2 Adventure variant expansions... I picked Scepter of Kyros, as the end game rules made it sound like it would be more solo-friendly.

There were no rules for using the Doom Track with this expansion however, and since it would more than likely end up with me "playing until I had built my character up enough to win" otherwise, I decided to add my own Doom Track variant

My idea for the Doom Track was that the Endgame would start when the Doom Track was full, instead of when my hero had defeated 8 of the Giants. In that case, the first two Giant strongholds would appear immediately the Doom Track was completed, and then each time a further Doom Counter should be added, another Giant stronghold would appear, and so on until either I had won, or the Giants had taken control of the land.

Playing as Spiritspeaker Mok, I set off to explore the land of Terrinoth and plan how I would stop the Giants from taking over the land. After a few early victories against green challenges, I hit a spot of luck when Gareth the Black turned up in one of the towns, and Mok had just enough gold to hire him... shortly after which, a yellow encounter from the Kyros deck gifted Mok a Dragon Rune.

All this meant that Mok could jump up to the harder yellow and blue challanges. The great thing about the blue challenges - the deck of Giants supplied with the the Kyros expansion - was that the reward always involved keeping the card, so the Doom Track did not advance as a result of a successful blue challenge (I note this as being a slight flaw in my Doom Track rules), however the Giants were tough enough that I decided not to risk exploiting this fact by taking on lots of blue challenges.

By the time the Doom Track was filled, I had defeated 4 Giants from the blue deck, a lot less than the 8 I would have required, if I'd used the standard rules. At this point Giants took up residence in the top two towns of the area... Frostgate and Greyhaven.
Despite the giants being tougher and better equipped within their stongholds, Mok was still able to take both of them down quickly, with the assitance of Gareth, Ingan and of course the Dragon Rune.

Overall I thought the Scepter of Kyros expansion added a new flavour to the game and I was really pleased with how it played with my modified solo rules... If I'd played solo without the modifications, the game would have gone on much longer and been less interesting towards the end. I thoroughly look forward to playing this expansion with more people, with or without the Doom Track.

Thread: Re: nice change to end game but why change the card backs!

MrSkeletor — 2006-02-05T22:10:55+00:00

The different card backs are because, when played by the rules, they are a totally seperate deck.

Thread: Re: nice change to end game but why change the card backs! grrr

beri — 2006-02-05T19:42:14+00:00

You can still combine them, you know...it's not like they're going to explode.

If you're worried about players knowing whether the next card is a regular card or expansion card, just take one of your unused cards (maybe an unused hero card) and put it on top of the deck. Players always draw the card below that one, so they'll never see the back until they draw it.

I think the convenience of being able to re-separate the decks after mixing them makes changing the card backs well worth it.

Thread: Re: Endgame giants fight abit like heros..

Jackwraith — 2006-02-05T17:39:29+00:00

I'm not sure I understand the question. The giant can use whatever items are in the market stack. However, if an item requires stamina to use, then he'll need to have a +2 stamina counter as one of his bonus counters in order to use it. If he does have the counter, then he uses it like a player. That's part of what makes the endgame tough.

Thread: nice change to end game but why change the card backs! grrr

Milarky — 2006-02-05T15:02:17+00:00

I like the card i like the giants but why the silly change of back to the cards!

this is in both expansions that change the endding

you could have had the monsters giants just added in to the normal blue deck as monsters and only the plot cards diffrent,

this way you could of had giants/vassels in the normalbase game vs dragons game too as just more a varied battles..

becuase it means if i play the giant version, my other decks dark forrest tomb or terror get missed out from blue and up...

silly silly design! dont do it again FF games!

Thread: Endgame giants fight abit like heros..

Milarky — 2006-02-05T14:58:38+00:00

ok the end game the giant is in the town, he got his plues lets say +2 magic, +2 stamina and +2 sight"helmit"

he has 2 ruin items before combat make a magic attack scarifice X stamina do X damage after a sucessfull magic attack.

1)No the giant can not use these items becuase a monster attacking a hero is just plain wrong...

or

2) would you say he can use the item but +10 to the heros defence attribute?? still does not seem balanced..

Thread: Re: Encounter cards.

Milarky — 2006-02-05T14:54:38+00:00

one of the blue giants has a blue counter form the base deck as an ally yyou have to defeat before attacking the giant,

also one of the yellow game advernutre erm "plot" cards gives all the player a red card a reward free to use.

Thread: Scepter of Kyros: Rolling Invasion (with Doom Track)

TheScarecrow — 2006-01-29T13:56:48+00:00

Having played a few sessions of Runebound with the expansion pack, Scepter of Kyros, our group found ourselves feeling mixed about its gameplay. While we preferred the scoring and more dynamic nature of the endgame to the base game and the fact that it allowed ALL the players to take part in the endgame unlike the original endgame scenario, which favors only the highest level character, we found that it lacked some degree of tension. You could potentially build your characters into unbeatable powerhouses despite the fact that the land is supposed to be under the threat of invasion. Basically, we missed the motivating factor of the Doom Track and the tension it creates.

Thus, we have developed a Rolling Invasion end game that seems to work well, adding that tension factor back in and making the game more challenging overall.

Here's how it works:

We include the Doom Track in the game and follow its basic mechanics just as you would with the Magrath scenario.

However, instead of adding doom counter tokens at the bottom of the town market stacks we begin at the top at Frostgate. With each token added, one giant is placed in the town that receives a token, occupying it per the Scepter end game rules. When the second token comes out, a second giant invades the next town, and so on until potentially the entire land may be overrun by giants if the doom track fully fills up.

The object of the game then is to prevent all of the towns from becoming occupied. If they do, the players lose the game. To win, the players must free all occupied cities on the board. The players win when all towns on the board are unoccupied. In order to prevent cheap, easy wins--for example if a giant were to occupy Frostgate and a player simply purchasing an Alchemist Flash Bomb and killed it off and thus ending the game--we require that at least X amount of giants must be killed before the invasion is put to a halt (we follow the original game's suggestion of amount of players +1).

If a giant is defeated in any occupied towns, the doom token is also defeated and removed and the town is free. Although if another set of cards calls for a doom token to be added later, in which case the city would once again be invaded. Thus, the endgame invasion does not begin with the defeat of 8 giants; the whole game is a constantly growing invasion that slowly advances across the board, limiting player access to towns and encouraging them to level up quickly to battle off an ongoing invasion. Players battle the doom track, which can move up and down (as tokens are added and subtracted from towns and possibly readded). One victory, while satifying, may be overturned if another set of cards causes another doom token placement, so there is a real sense of struggle and warfare.

As noted, the result of this scenario is an ongoing war with giants, and the doom counters make it tense as does the dwindling supplies available to heroes. While this scenario may seem insurmountable on the face of it since doom counters that are defeated may return to play if the doom track reaches its completion again, the game is really well balanced for this eventuality because, as more players level up and begin fighting only blue encounters the doom track is slowed, since these are cards you keep in your hand and are not discarded. This allows the possiblity of the players stemming the tide of the invasion--generally this begins to occur in a 4 player game around the time that the 5th or 6th doom token is added, so the game feels tense but is definitely not an impossible situation (the dragon rune event that endows the players with dragon runes is a real turning point in the war usually allowing for the first challenges of the town occupations).

If you enjoy the concept of Scepter but find the endgame a little too easy due to its lack of a sense of impending doom, you might want to give this variant a try. It produces a real sense of an invading army, which seems to be very much in the spirit of the scenario.

Thread: Re: Encounter cards.

Jackwraith — 2006-01-18T16:47:51+00:00

dr.morton wrote:
It says in the rules:
"Set aside all blue and red cards frome the "Rise..." adventure. Keep these cards handy, as you may need them later"
Well, it is never explained when and how.

I think it mentions that if you run out of Blue or Red Encounter cards for Scepter, that you should use those from the main game. Although, running out of Blue cards would pretty much mean the game is over (i.e. no more Giant Lords.)

Thread: Re: Encounter cards.

Sushionrye — 2006-01-18T15:22:38+00:00

Hey Patrick,

I have my copy on order, and haven't read the rules yet, but there is one thing that I noticed about some of FFG's games: If you can't find the answer in the rules, the answer is most likely found on one (or more) of the cards. Perhaps some other cards have uses listed for them? Just an idea.

--Andy

Thread: Encounter cards.

dr.morton — 2006-01-18T11:04:15+00:00

It says in the rules:
"Set aside all blue and red cards frome the "Rise..." adventure. Keep these cards handy, as you may need them later"
Well, it is never explained when and how.
When the endgame starts, one blue giants per player + one is used for the siege of the towns. What happens with the remaining ones. Are they still used? Are the normal blue cards used from that point on for the remaing and returning blue challenges? What about the red ones?
Sadly I cannot find the answers in the rules.

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Grimwold — 2006-01-12T20:11:42+00:00

New Green and Yellow Encounters

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Grimwold — 2006-01-12T20:11:42+00:00

New Green and Yellow Events

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Grimwold — 2006-01-12T20:11:42+00:00

Box, Rulesheet and the 3 decks of cards

Thread: Re: The Scepter of Kyros Review

kingbobb — 2006-01-09T17:53:47+00:00

This makes for a nice change from the Rise of the Dragonlords adventure, and is just different enough that you can tell that it's more than just the first adventure with a different Big Bad. There are some typo errors on the cards, very minor, but who's really looking at the flavor text?

Our group did feel that one of the yellow events creates a very unstable situation, where the heroes become vastly overpowered against the yellow challenges remaining. But the new Blue giant challenges are very tough, and we felt the game was still well balanced in the end.

Thread: The Scepter of Kyros Review

PSXfile — 2006-01-03T07:38:22+00:00

In writing this review, I assume the reader already knows how to play the basic Runebound.

It's been 10 years after the defeat of Margath and a new threat emerges. The Giants Lords are attacking, lead by Kyros the Mighty!

This expansion introduces a new endgame variant, it is also my favorite expansion so far. It includes 30 new adventure cards: 6 new Green Events and Encounters, 6 new Yellow Events and Encounters, and 18 blue Challanges called Giant Lords.

Setting up the game is the same as the orginal game, but red experience jewels are not placed and the blue Runebound Encounter deck is replaced by the blue Scepter of Kyros deck. The green and yellow Kyros decks are placed beside the Runebound decks. During gameplay, if an event is drawn from the Runebound adventure deck, it is discarded and an event of the appropriate color is drawn from the Kyros deck instead.

The entire blue Kyros deck is made up of giants, and these giants are tough. Some giants force you to make a defense roll even if you are attacking in that phase or force you to discard items you use against them. Others draw items from the market deck or challanges from the Runebound deck to use against you. One even uses your gold against you by forcing you take an attack penalty depending on how much gold you have. The designers really came up with some creative ideas on how to make these giants tough.

After eight of these giants are defeated the remaining Giant Lords get very angry and decide to invade from the north and conquor Terrinoth. The giants that are left in the Kyros deck are then drawn and placed by the market stack of the towns starting from the north. The number of giants invading is equal to one plus the number of players. Players then need to liberate these towns from the giants. This is much more difficult than it sounds. First of all, opposing players can give an experience counter to the resident giant for each card in the market stack, to a maximum of five, to use against the attacking player. To make things even tougher, the giants can actually use the items that are in the market stack.

Once all the giants are defeated players tally their fame points. They receive one fame point for each giant they defeated, before or after the invasion, and + 1 one point for each experience counter that may have been on it.

My initial concern was that players would avoid the northern towns since the giants always invade from the north and take those towns first, but this didn't happen. I should note that we were playing 2nd Edition which is much more difficult and the Encounter Gems are much better placed so players must visit towns regularly. 1st Edition might be another story since players start at the bottom of the map rather than the middle. Overall, for only $6, I can't recommend this expansion enough. It's very challanging and adds a great endgame variant if you are getting tired of killing Margath over and over again.

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PsyJam — 2006-01-03T07:31:02+00:00

Game at Start, painted minis and gems for fun

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PsyJam — 2006-01-03T07:31:02+00:00

Good to go!