Game: Runebound - Crown of the Elder Kings

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EndersGame — 2008-09-08T13:50:57+00:00

3 of the Guardian Challenge cards (Level 1) from the expansion

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-24T22:35:06+00:00

Cards sample

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-24T22:06:52+00:00

Full Box

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-24T22:05:33+00:00

Box Back

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Firepigeon — 2008-06-24T22:04:32+00:00

Box Front (high res)

Thread: Re: Different end-game for the Elder King expansion

Anarchosyn — 2007-09-11T08:22:37+00:00

So, has anybody tested this variant? Sounds promising, but - alas - no feedback.

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Urtur — 2007-09-05T09:51:24+00:00

Polish version by Galakta. Contains Crown of the Elder Kings, Artifact and Allies and Dark Forest.

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EndersGame — 2007-01-06T23:42:58+00:00

Expansion: The three new LADY cards (Level 3 Challenges)

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EndersGame — 2007-01-06T23:18:29+00:00

Expansion: The three new KNAVE cards (Level 3 Challenges)

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EndersGame — 2007-01-06T22:29:37+00:00

Expansion: The three new DUKE cards (Level 3 Challenges)

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EndersGame — 2006-12-29T21:00:40+00:00

Artwork on the reverse of the cards

Thread: Crown of the Elder Kings errata - Guardians

drasher25 — 2006-09-17T16:40:44+00:00

According to an administrator at the FGG forums:

The Guardian's special abilities should match the same market stack as the Guardian's title.

So the Guardian of Frostgate's special ability works in the Frostgate market stack, not Riverwatch.

Guardian of Tamaril says "Riverwatch" but should read "Tamaril"

Guardian of Frostgate says "Riverwatch" but should read "Frostgate"

Guardian of Riverwatch says "Vynelvale" but should read "Riverwatch"

Thread: Re: Those yellow challenges...

MrSkeletor — 2006-08-15T23:39:02+00:00

Sounds permenant to me.

Thread: Those yellow challenges...

Rhaul — 2006-08-15T06:51:51+00:00

I speak about those, which remain by the player after they defeated them and give the ability BEFORE COMBAT: you can take an armor/weapon/rune/etc. for free from any market stack. What do you think? Do the heroes receive these items for that combat only or are these items for permanent use? I think, that they would be too strong if they would steal items from the market stacks for permanent use!

What are your opinion?

Thanks!

Thread: Re: Can some of these cards be used with other variants?

huron — 2006-06-06T19:49:36+00:00

Green and yellow cards are placed in different stacks besides the regular decks. They have a different design on their back. You can shuffle them into the regular ones, but will need to draw from the bottom of the deck instead of the top.

Thread: Can some of these cards be used with other variants?

Gritdog — 2006-06-06T19:03:07+00:00

I read the online rules for the adventure variants. I know in this variant the blue cards in the expansion deck are used exclusively and the others are shuffled in to their appropriate colored deck. Can I use the green and yellow cards from this variant to play the original variant? If I do another adventure can I shuffle the blue cards with my other ones and play those as just another encounter? Thanks for any replies.

Thread: Re: Stealing Vassals?

Jackwraith — 2006-01-23T05:17:24+00:00

No. That's accurate. The Vassals cannot be taken unless they're Knaves, just like it says.

Thread: Stealing Vassals?

Sneaky Petey — 2006-01-22T17:53:02+00:00

I have a quick question about the CotEKs expansion. There is nothing in the rules about if a hero can steal a vassal if he wins in PvP combat, but, the Knave vassals all say that they may be taken, unlike other Vassals. What's the ruling on this, are other Vassals untakeable, or is it just another misprint?

Thread: Re: Different end-game for the Elder King expansion

MrSkeletor — 2006-01-18T21:54:26+00:00

Interesting varient. Might make the eldar king way to powerful tho (giving him free market items.)

Thread: Re: Different end-game for the Elder King expansion

dr.morton — 2006-01-18T11:08:41+00:00

Mike,
I totaly agree with you, that the normal ending does not "feel" right. Your idea sounds interesting. I will give it a try with my group. Thanks a lot for sharing this with us.

Thread: Different end-game for the Elder King expansion

Mishenka — 2006-01-12T05:10:59+00:00

I don't like the "off the board" endgame for this scenerio (i.e. when someone becomes the Elder King all the player are magically teleported to some nebulous location and have a big brawl). I think it takes away from the flow of the game somewhat. So I have an alternate suggestion for the endgame:

The goal is still for the Elder King to kill off all the other heroes, and for the other heroes to try to kill off the Elder King thus becoming Elder King themselves. However it's done a bit differently.
When a player collects a set of vassals, he becomes the Elder King, but all the players remain in their locations on the board. The King selects 3 vassals to keep and discards the rest. He also gains the following advantages: when in a town during the Market step, he can take any market cards from that town's stack for free and he also gets healed for free in any town (he IS the King after all). He can also split off any of his vassals and send them off to kill other heroes. Split-off vassals then go to the undefeated challenge area and the appropriate number marker is used to represent them on the board. These vassals move the same way as heroes using movement die on the controlling player's turn and get healed for free in towns (however they cannot use market items). Play then continues as normal. When the Elder King is attacked, the attacker must fight any vassals that are with the King first. The King decides in what order the vassals engage. If the King defeats all the other heroes, he wins. If he is killed by one of the heroes, that hero now becomes the Elder King, selects up to 3 vassals from his hand, and play continues as before until only one player is left.

I havn't tried actually playing with this variant, but it seems like it may be fun. Let me know what you think.

Thread: Crown of the Elder Kings Review

PSXfile — 2006-01-04T08:39:35+00:00

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

You are an Elder King who is reborn, your goal is to gather the Vassals to defend your throne!

This expansion introduces a new endgame variant and includes 30 new cards: 9 new Encounter cards and 21 new Challange cards, 12 of which are blue Challanges that represent the Vassals.

Setting up the game is the same as the orginal game, but the blue Runebound Encounter deck is replaced by the blue Crown of the Elder Kings deck. The green and yellow Kings decks are placed beside the Runebound decks. During gameplay, if an event is drawn from the Runebound adventure deck, it is resolved and then an event of the appropriate color is drawn from the Kings deck and is resolved next.

The object is to collect a series of Vassals. Doing so allows you to become the Elder King. There are four different types of Vassals and each has a rank: Secrets, Hate, Blood; and a house: Knight, Knave, Lady, and Duke. The endgame begins when a player collects a set of Vassals. A set consists of three of a kind of any rank or three Vassals from a single house. The red dragons represent "wild cards" and can act as any Vassal.

This expansion is very PvP oriented. Some of the Vassals may be taken from a player if they are defeated in combat by an opposing player. Most of the Vassals are quite difficult so PvP is a viable option. Many of the Vassals force players to make several Before Combat skill tests that can easily cause a knockout. Others make players use their damage values instead of their normal modifiers when attacking while others gain attack boosts by rolling terrain die and adding a bonus depending on the number of terrain symbols showing.

The endgame is all about PvP. Once a player has become Elder King the other players attempt to dethrone him. The Elder King selects three of his Vassals and then the player with the highest-level Hero makes the first attempt, followed by the player with the second highest-level Hero and so forth. The player must enter combat with the Elder Kings Vassals. Once, and if, the Vassals are defeated the Elder King enters combat with his allies. If the Elder King is defeated he is eliminated from the game and the conquering Hero then becomes Elder King and must defend his throne from the next player.

My biggest gripe with this expansion are all the misprints. I have counted 3 out of the 30 cards so far that are misprinted. These aren't small typos or grammatical errors, but complete texts that are supposed to be on other cards. It is very disappointing that something like this could slip past quality control and it's frustrating to have to explain to new players that the text is actually supposed to read like "this" and not "that".

Aside from the annoying misprints there really isn't a reason Runebound fans shouldn't pick this up. Those that enjoy more player interaction with PvP will really enjoy this one. My personal favorite is still The Sceptor of Kyros since I'm not too much of a fan of PvP. Overall it's a challanging expansion that adds a new endgame variant if you are growing tired of killing Margath.