Game: Runebound - Artifacts and Allies

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Urtur — 2007-09-05T07:32:22+00:00

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

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lestat2099 — 2007-08-20T04:41:43+00:00

Back of the gamebox

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lestat2099 — 2007-08-20T04:29:48+00:00

All things included in Artifacts & Allies

Thread: Re: A nice addition when your Runebound items get old

GameMasterX0 — 2006-10-21T14:40:08+00:00

I have all six of the original small expansions, but have only played with artifacts and allies. At the moment I'm excited to try Scepter and Crown, and I'll post my thoughts on all of them once they've been played.
-Mike

Thread: Re: A nice addition when your Runebound items get old

Professor_Frink — 2006-10-20T19:43:47+00:00

I've found these to be quite good as well. Both of the item expansions are a godd addition to the game, and the only real problem I have so far with the Encounter expansions is that the encounter-repopulating events don't come up as often, so you need to come up with an alternate condition for repopulating encounter markers when playing with them. As for the Scepter of Kyros and the Crown of the Elder Kings, I have to say that I don't really care for them much. I find that the original victory condition (Rise of the Dragonlords) has so far made for a more entertaining game.

Overall, though, I would have to say that Artifacts & Allies is the best of these small-deck expansions for Runebound.

Thread: A nice addition when your Runebound items get old

GameMasterX0 — 2006-10-19T17:49:26+00:00

After a couple of games using the Artifacts and Allies small expansion for Runebound, I have to say that I am generally impressed. The items and allies introduced are quite different from those in the base game, and they generally add some much needed player interaction to the game.

Packaging
Like all Runebound small expansions, this comes in a tiny little box, with the cards plastic wrapped inside, along with a small fold-out rule sheet and a piece of cardboard.
So far with all the small card expansions I've found a small problem. The face of the front most card always seems to have a decent amount of scuffing along the edges. I assume this is due to the pressure of the plastic wrap around the sides. The scuffing is not visible from the back, so it shouldn't affect gameplay.
I personally throw out the box after opening. At least at this point, everything fits easily into the original Runebound box.
Score - 7/10

Presentation
I personally find the artwork on the Runebound cards to be very good. Not Blue Moon quality, but quite servicable and good to look at. This expansion is no different. Everything looks nice, not spectacular, but nice.
The rule fold-out is concise and to the point. It includes rules for all of the first six small card expansions (Artifacts and Allies, Relics of Legend, Scepter of Kyros, Crown of the Elder Kings, The Dark Forest, and Terrors of the Tomb). The rules go so far as to give examples of play for the more complicated expansions (Crown and Scepter). The small paragraph dedicated to the item expansion is more than enough. You just shuffle the new cards in and play.
Score - 7.5/10

Gameplay
None of the cards are going to require reteaching the game to anyone. The only actual rule change is that there are new allies, called "Familiars". The first familiar does not count against your 2 ally limit. That's it in the way of new rules.
First I'll talk about the new regular (non-familiar) allies. The first two are low-cost, and grow stronger in certain terrains. They are simple and fun to use for their cost.
The next two low-cost allies are specifically geared toward attacking in or defending against PVP combat. They take some effort and a lot of PVP combats to build up, so they don't get much use and are usually passed over or quickly replaced for higher-cost allies.
There are two more expensive allies that gain advantages against one color of encounter, picked by you when you buy them. This is a nice little ability, and is perfect if you get them right as you are about to go up in level.
Then there are two nine gold allies, one of whom lets you hold an extra weapon, and one who lets you hold an extra armor, but both at the steep price of 9 gold. I think this ability is far too weak for the cost, and the allies are not very capable in combat apart from these abilities.
So, in general, the new regular allies are okay, nothing spectacular though.
The familiars have some decent abilities, especially one that lets you do the market step when you are close to a town. Some of them are a bit expensive for their power, or very limited in their scope of use. In the games we played, the majority of familiars were passed over. However, I can see heroes who already have 2 allies, as well as a stack of gold, picking up these "extra" allies. But the majority of the familiars are not as exciting as they could have been.
As for the new items, the most basic are two (with 2 copies each) that act as both an activate-to-use armor and an always-on combat booster. These are especially nice because they aren't armor, and they aren't weapons, so you can have one along with that shield of light or axe and dagger. These are probably my favorite items of the set, and everyone is quick to pick them up when they become available.
All the other items deal with the much-discussed player interaction problem. There are some that let players trade for (or steal) another player's ally for use in one combat, one that lets you trade items with a player anywhere on the board, one that let you save events for later (useful when you're racing to Tamalir to get that face-down free item), one that let you steal other player's encounters for your own, and one that lets you save a green or yellow challenge for later.
I find all of these items to be very nice, although they are not often bought. Some posters have complained that there is no reason to use any of the items that allow trading between players, but I heartily disagree. Perhaps in a two player game it might be silly, but with 3 or 4 I see no reason why two players wouldn't trade for the mutual benefit of both, and to get a leg up on the other player(s).
So, in general, this expansion adds a lot of nice market deck cards, without overloading players with new rules or confusing abilities.
Score - 7.5/10

Final Word
This is a nice, simple market expansion that adds a nice variety of cards, especially for groups looking for a bit more player interaction in the game. Some of the cards are a little iffy in their use, but none so much that I would take them out of my regular market deck.
At the regular online price of about $4, I don't see any reason why any runebound fan wouldn't want to pick this up.
Final Score - 7.5/10

Thread: Re: Review of the 4 small item, ally, and challenge expansio

Konwacht — 2006-07-20T17:31:21+00:00

Please check my comment on the copy of this thread here at "Relics of Legend"-Expansion:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/94274

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

mangler103 — 2006-01-19T16:33:01+00:00

yoacusna wrote:

You've just agreed, in escence, that the temporary trade of an ally is likely to benefit both the players involved. So why do you seem to think it isn't worth it? If someone wants my ally and it's badly wounded, I'm probably going to give it up for free. How is that bad for the player with the Robe of Time and Space?

My point is that while I as the recieving player might get a temporary benefit from borrowing another players heavily wounded ally, even if they get it for free, the giving player is going to recieve a much larger benefit if that ally is returned with no wounds or exhaustion after getting killed. The long term benefits of that are pretty high, especially if the giving player would have had to spend 4 or 5 gold to fully heal their ally. It would probably be worth it if the giving player gave gold in addition to the ally, but how often is that situation going to come up? I don't really know.

It just seems like a very circular function, and no one in my group showed any interest in buying it, even though it came up frequently.

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

l7productions — 2006-01-19T15:40:18+00:00

You didn't mention the "Sister of Mercy" 80s ballad I kept singing when I encountered this card.

Liked this set much more than the others we've played so far.

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

Mishenka — 2006-01-18T22:07:24+00:00

Without counting the cards, I'd say probably 15-25% of each deck are useless for solo play (some decks more so than others). I second what Skeletor said though, I would definitely get them if you ever play with more than one player (heck even if you play solo there are enough interesting cards in there).

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

MrSkeletor — 2006-01-18T21:49:13+00:00

Friendless wrote:
Same question again, how many of the cards are useful if you just play solo? Thank you!

Dont know numbers, but there are quite a few that are worthless.
Regardless, you really need to get the expansions. I'm really impressed with what they have done to the game and quite amazed at just how much they take the game up to the next level.

And the class decks look awsome (tho again, usless for solo play.)

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

puck4604 — 2006-01-18T13:30:03+00:00

I think this deck adds to the game measurably, if you care to see the benefit of each card on its own merit. Sure, some might seem useless under one set of circumstances, but there are so many ways this game can be played that the game-to-game circumstances will change.

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

Friendless — 2006-01-18T13:16:57+00:00

Same question again, how many of the cards are useful if you just play solo? Thank you!

Thread: Re: The better of the 2 item expansions

yoacusna — 2006-01-15T11:51:45+00:00

mangler103 wrote:

My group very rarely engages in Player vs. Player combat, so these cards are almost useless, but they are cheap, and could be used as a "meat-shield".

The Sister of Vengeance doesn't suffer from that problem. Buy her, and then engage in PvP combat yourself. The Sister of Mercy is admittedly weak unless other players are attacking you.

The Cloak of useful items is completely useless in our games. We have never attempted to trade in the game, and I don't see how trading in game benefits the players. Even at 1 gold, it is overpriced.

I don't see how trading can possibly not benefit the two players involved in the trade, if they trade items sensibly.

The Robe of Time and Space seems particularly odd. Pay 3 gold for the ability to negotiate with a player for thier ally. They don't have to give it to you, and can demand any kind of price for it. However, after the turn is over, you have to return it without any wounds on it. First of all, if the player does give an ally to another player, they're likely helping that player, secondly, if they get it back with no wounds, even if it was killed, that's helping the player who gave away the ally, with free healing. It seems the only time you'd want to let someone borrow your ally was if it was near death from wounds, and then who would want that ally anyway, especially if they're going to have to pay to recieve it. The recieving player gets one guaranteed hit defended from it, and then gets to immediately strengthen the other player. This might be worth it in some games, but I can't see it's usefulness in the long run.

You've just agreed, in escence, that the temporary trade of an ally is likely to benefit both the players involved. So why do you seem to think it isn't worth it? If someone wants my ally and it's badly wounded, I'm probably going to give it up for free. How is that bad for the player with the Robe of Time and Space?

Thread: The better of the 2 item expansions

mangler103 — 2006-01-13T16:15:33+00:00

Artifacts and Allies

While I was not impressed at all with the Relics of Legend expansion, the Artifacts and Allies expansion set is full of really great items that went quickly in our games.

This expansion introduces the concept of Familiars, which work similarly to allies, but don't count against your ally limit. They usually give you a minor benefit to having them, and some a bit too expensive for what they offer, but some will still be very useful. The familiars are almost useless as combatants, but if it's a difference between your hero's or expensive allies life and the life of a familiar, it probably worth throwing the familiar into the fire to take the damage from one attack.

Familiar cards:
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This expansion also has a very interesting concept that my group didn't think too much of: purely defensive allies. Some of these are shown here:

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The Sister of Mercy, and the Sister of Vengeance are almost completely useless as combatants, but depending on who is attacking, these allies might become incredibly powerful. In a game with heros attacking each other frequently, the Sister of Mercy and Sister of Vengeance could both eventually become defensive tanks.

My group very rarely engages in Player vs. Player combat, so these cards are almost useless, but they are cheap, and could be used as a "meat-shield".

After playing twice with the expansions, I have ended up removing about 6 of the items in game(10 cards total). All of which can be seen in these two pictures:

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In the first image, the Vestments of Kellos, and the Sphere of Vision have both been removed, while all 4 items in the 2nd image have all been removed.

The Cloak of useful items is completely useless in our games. We have never attempted to trade in the game, and I don't see how trading in game benefits the players. Even at 1 gold, it is overpriced.

The other items allow either trading with other players, or having and advantage in holding back Challenges events or Encounters. None of which became useful in our game.

The Robe of Time and Space seems particularly odd. Pay 3 gold for the ability to negotiate with a player for thier ally. They don't have to give it to you, and can demand any kind of price for it. However, after the turn is over, you have to return it without any wounds on it. First of all, if the player does give an ally to another player, they're likely helping that player, secondly, if they get it back with no wounds, even if it was killed, that's helping the player who gave away the ally, with free healing. It seems the only time you'd want to let someone borrow your ally was if it was near death from wounds, and then who would want that ally anyway, especially if they're going to have to pay to recieve it. The recieving player gets one guaranteed hit defended from it, and then gets to immediately strengthen the other player. This might be worth it in some games, but I can't see it's usefulness in the long run.

This expansion, like the other deck expansions focuses a lot of screwing with the other players, which doesn't happen in my group. We prefer to play the game a bit more solitary, so some of these items have no use for us.

Even if your group doesn't play cutthroat in this game, I do recommend this expansion without reservation. Many of the items, including the Familiars are especially interesting, and if you have to choose between this and Relics of Legend, then I absolutely recommend Artifacts and Allies.

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Data Mogul — 2006-01-13T13:45:27+00:00

Allies (Part 2)

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Data Mogul — 2006-01-13T13:42:48+00:00

Allies (Part 1)

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Data Mogul — 2006-01-13T13:42:15+00:00

Familiars

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Data Mogul — 2006-01-13T13:39:00+00:00

Artifacts (Part 2)

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Data Mogul — 2006-01-13T13:38:19+00:00

Artifacts (Part 1)

Thread: Review of the 4 small item, ally, and challenge expansions

Mishenka — 2006-01-11T05:13:57+00:00

Here I will review the 4 small challenge and market deck expansions for Runebound 2nd edition: The Dark Forest, Terrors of the Tomb, Relics of Legend, and Artifacts & Allies. Since these expansions have many characteristics in common and since most people who own Runebound would probably choose to buy all of them at once, it makes sense to me to review them together.

First a general comment on all of these decks. Almost all of the new cards add some new mechanic or aspect to the game. So rather than just selling more of the same types of cards already found in the basic game, FFG has put out something that will, in various subtle ways, modify the feel of the game. This aspect alone makes the expansions a worthy buy.

I’ll start with the two challenge deck expansions: The Dark Forest and Terrors of the Tomb. As the names suggest, the former adds forest creatures and encounters, while the latter adds undead. First of all, the cards in both decks use skill checks much more heavily than the basic game. This is a welcome change, since skills were really underused in the base game. Next, a number of cards in both decks encourage player interaction – either by hurting the other player in some way, stealing their stuff, sending a monster after them, or hindering their movement. One fun card is “Toll Collector” from TDF, which make all other heroes pay you 2 gold if they fail a Sneak check on a road space with a green jewel. Note that none of the cards in these two expansions encourage direct PvP conflict (the two Market deck expansions described below do however), but more of a “take that” kind of interaction. Both decks also add challenges that are either immune to certain types of damage, get bonuses in certain phases, or can only be hurt by certain types of items, thereby discouraging the players from focusing on only one of their attributes to the detriment of others. Good examples of this are the “Dire Ferrox” from TDF which will attack in multiple melee phases in a single round, “Needle Wight”, also from TDF, which automatically inflicts a wound when attacked in melee, “Shadow Ferrox” from TotT which can only be hurt by magical damage, and “Legion of the Dead” from TotT who ignore the first 2 damage from any attack not done with an “Explosive” item. TotT especially has a pretty large number of card of that type. Each deck also adds one “Transformation” type card (“Primal Transformation” in TDF and “Unnatural Transformation” in TotT) which give you a choice to transform into a half-plant creature in one case and an undead in the other. It’s a little disappointing that the two cards, aside from their name, are basically identical (you get +2 in all your stats, but can’t take fatigue damage for the rest of the game). It would have been nice if there were some different aspects to being a plant vs. being undead. These two cards may also be a bit overpowered, since you essentially gain 3 levels, and the downside of not being able to take fatigue damage, while preventing you from using the character’s special abilities, also protects you from challenges that deal fatigue damage. Another two red cards that are essentially identical in the two sets are “Heart of Margath” and “Skeleton of Margath”. Both of these, once defeated, allow you to immediately fight Margath himself. These are fun cards, but it would have been nice if there were some unique aspects to each of them.

The Dark Forest by itself adds a few unique mechanics. One is cards that “Reward” the player with advantages or disadvantages when fighting on forest and swamp spaces. As an example, “Avatar of the Woods”, a blue challenge, gives you a -3 penalty to all rolls on forest and swamp spaces until you defeat a red challenge on one of these type of terrain, after which point you get a +3 to all rolls on swamp and forest. There are also similar green and yellow cards. Another interesting new aspect is cards that give you a weapon, armor, or relic as a reward. Some of these are green challenges, which give you a basic weapon or armor, which can be extremely useful in the early phase of the game.

The one interesting mechanic in Terrors of the Tomb are cards that “resurrect” unused heroes (“A hero of Old Awakens”), allowing you to control them and use them to harass the other players.
One thing missing in both of the above expansions are new event cards. These would have added some variety to the game, however, their omission in these packs is understandable since events in Runebound are generally tied to a certain scenario (i.e. Margath in the base game, Giants in the Kyros expansion, etc.), and the designers apparently wanted to keep these expansions relatively generic. In fact only one non-red card’s flavor text mentions anything related to the any scenario (“Vorakesh” in this case), and I’m guessing that was probably an oversight.

Now on to the two Market deck expansions – Artifacts & Allies and Relics of Legend. Each of these expansions provide new items and allies for the market deck. As with the challenge expansions, most of items & allies bring some new and generally fun mechanic to the game.
Artifacts & Allies once again introduces cards that encourage player interaction – some in non-confrontational ways such as borrowing an ally or trading items (ex. “Cloak of Useful Items”, “Cloak of Time and Space”), others in direct PvP confrontational ones (for example the ally “Sister of Vengeance” becomes stronger every time you defeat another player, but there’s also a counterparts “Sister of Mercy” ally that gets stronger every time her hero is attacked). There are also cards that allow you some control over how the adventure cards are revealed. For example, “Lantern of Revealing” allows you to keep a green or yellow adventure card you draw instead of resolving it and then replace a later green or yellow challenge with it. The other new mechanic introduced in A&A is Familiars. They are basically like allies, except the first one you get doesn’t count towards your ally limit of two, and they are generally not strong in combat but rather have some useful ability. For example, “Healing Toad” takes wounds for you, “Fetch Imp” can fetch items from a nearby town market effectively allowing you to do a Market phase even when not in town). Some familiar are definitely more useful than others though, so some (like the “Demonic Cat”) would probably rarely be bought. The other allies in this expansion do things like get and give bonuses on certain types of terrain or against certain color challenges, or allow you use an additional weapon or armor. The combat items in this set give you both an offensive and defensive capability (and cost more to compensate).

Relics of Legend introduces Banners to the game. These are items that are “charged” by certain actions (defeating a challenge on specific terrain type, inflicting high damage, defeating another hero, etc.), and for each “charge” token you use from these cards you get a certain bonus (receive +2 bonus on “Before Combat” roll, swap your experience counters, prevent discarding of an item or ally when knocked out, etc.). Most banners also give you some additional boon when they’re charged with at least two tokens. There are also some interesting weapons and allies in this deck, which, while not really changing the game mechanics, generally have some interesting effects. For example “Sword of Frostgate” reduces all of the opponents attributes by 1 for every inflicted wound, “Longbow of Tamalir” inflicts +3 damage for each previous round in which your hero did not attack. Although one particular item, “Waraxe of Dawnsmoor” seems somewhat useless – it allows you to defeat a challenge by passing 3 consecutive Body checks, but doesn’t give you the reward. Since you really need the reward most of the time, it seems like you would really only want to use this item against Margath in the endgame, and since it occupies a weapon slot, it’s really not worth buying it just for that.

Overall, each of these expansion adds something new to the game, and in a game like Runebound variety is the spice of life. It makes the game more exciting, adds more player interaction, thereby reducing the “downtime” complaint some people have with this game, and generally enhances the game experience. With their price being in the $4-6 range per expansion, I don’t see any reason for anyone who likes the base Runebound game to not get them all.

Thread: One Pirate's Take

kingbobb — 2006-01-04T21:16:57+00:00

Runebound: Artifacts and Allies is, as the publisher's blurb states, and add-on pack to your standard Runebound 2.0 game. It contains a number of new allies, items, and a new type of card, the familiar, that you can simply add to your existing market deck. In terms of ease of incorporation into play, it doesn't get much easier than that.

Each add-on deck is supposed to have a theme, either a literal theme (such as the add-on adventure packs, centered around a location theme), or a game theme, in this case a couple of different game aspects.

First are the new familiars. There are cards similar to allies, although they don't count against your normal limit of 2 allies. And if you plan to use them as allies, don't expect them to stick around long. Most aren't suited for direct combat. However, while you have them, they will boost your abilities in some way, although not always without a price. And most will impose some cost to your hero should they ever perish.

The new items and allies include a smattering of what I'll call "normal" items. Things that don't really change the game any, or stress any new game aspect. There's a set of armor/combat modifiers that allow you to prevent a wound in combat, but also boost your combat abilities some. They're more expensive than just a single weapon or shield/armor would be, as expected, but not so pricey that they aren't useful.

Then there's the batch of cards that I'll call PvP/Interaction cards. These items and allies attempt to force/create more player interaction, either cooperative/negotiation, or direct PvP combat. The most subtle of these involves taking or putting event and encounter cards from or to another hero. Others allow you to negotiate a lender fee for a heroe's allies (with a guarantee they'll get said ally back, even should they die while serving you). And there are allies that will grow stronger if you use them to defeat another hero in PvP.

Overall, I like the familiars, although in at least a few cases (the Demon Cat, for example) the negative aspects make it very unlikely that many people will use them. And the combo armor/weapon cards are highly useful. But the cards that attempt to bring more player interaction do seem forced a little. PvP in Runebound has always been more of an afterthought. It's designed as a multi-player quest/race game. These extra items seem to be an attempt to address the concerns that some have regarding downtime when it's not your turn. However, it seems like an artificial addition.

If you're looking to add some Player interaction devices to your Runebound games, you'll probably like this set. If PvP is something you don't care for, then there's a number of cards that you won't much care for, and will probably simply remove from the market deck. But overall, I think it shows the promise behind Runebound's expandability. With the addition of just a few new cards, some very basic changes were made that created a slightly different flavor to the game.

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Firepigeon — 2005-12-19T16:38:53+00:00

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Toad — 2005-08-09T12:54:37+00:00