- We're recruiting vassals and raiding the armory.
That's right, it's The Runelords
from Red Djinn Productions.
The Runelords, based in the world of the
hit fantasy series by David Farland,
is divided into two sections:
the sovereignty stage, where players
create their decks of assets and the combat stage,
where they duke it out in battle scenarios.
We're reviewing the sovereignty stage today
and we'll play the combat stage
in our episode of Game The Game.
Set up for sovereignty begins with each player
choosing a Runelord and color.
They then take a player dashboard,
their matching Runelord ability card,
the Runelord standee and their starting deck of cards.
One Runelord, three generals and six vassals.
Theses are selected based on the Runelord
and listed in the rule book.
Each player also takes six support cards,
12 reinforcement cards and a number
of equipment tokens shown on the Runelord's ability card.
Randomly assign the first player token
to one Runelord.
Next, place the market board center,
shuffle all of the support cards
from all Runelords in play into a single
market deck and place it above the support icon.
Do the same with the reinforcement cards
above the reinforcement icon.
Shuffle all the vassals into a single deck
and place it above the new vassals slot
on the top left.
Take the equipment pouches and place them
next to their matching icons.
Place a marker on the economy track.
Shuffle all sovereignty cards into
a face down deck and place it on the left of the board.
Then draw two sovereignty cards per destination.
There are three destinations in the game:
kingdom, village and the wilds.
Next, draw reinforcement cards from the deck
into each of the six open slots below.
This area is known as the market.
If a revealed card has any white equipment icons
on its lower bar, add the corresponding equipment
tokens face down on top of the card.
Repeat this process for the support
and new vassals market decks as well.
Create a supply of influence nearby.
Place two equipment tokens from the
traveling gear bag face up onto each
of the six open spaces below.
Shuffle the encounter cards into a face down deck
and place it next to the encounters tab.
Place the twelve setback cards face up
in a stack next to the setbacks tab.
Finally, place the story tracker on the first turn
of the season track.
Game play occurs in rounds, each divided
into five phases: management, journey,
influence, purchase and end phase.
First, in the management step, the players
advance the story marker on the season track one space.
The player with the first player token
then rolls the utility die and sets
the economy track to the results.
Players then draw and reveal five cards
from their deck.
At any time when drawing cards if their deck is depleted,
they shuffle their exhausted pile into a new draw deck.
Just like most deck builders, hm.
Before the journey step each player may endow
by placing any number of vassals from their hand
into their dedicates keep.
These will allow players to increase
their Runelord's power
before the combat section of the game.
Finally, trigger any ongoing effects
from cards or quests.
Next, in the journey step, in turn order
the active player chooses a destination
and places their Runelord on an unoccupied
region within, immediately triggering
any effects listed.
A Runelord cannot be placed in the same region
on the next turn, but may stay in the same destination.
However, if they stay in the same destination
they must take a setback card into their exhaust pile.
Triggering effects include: sovereignty which allows
a player to choose one of the two sovereignty cards
in the destination to recruit to their side.
If the card has a perform immediately action
carry it out, otherwise it's placed in the player's
armory for later use.
After taking a card the active player must draw
and resolve an encounter.
Recruit vassals allows a player to recruit
all vassals of that destination's type
located on the bottom of the vassal card
from the vassal market.
First player allows a player to take
the first player token at the end phase.
If multiple players take this region
and other destinations an influence bid occurs
during the end phase.
More on that in a sec.
Next in the influence step players discard cards
into their exhaust piles and take influence
based on the number located
on the top right of the card.
Next in the purchase step, in turn order,
players use their influence to purchase cards.
To buy support or reinforcements players
spend influence equal to the tier's
current market value.
Each card has a tier, one through four.
If a player chooses to buy more than one card
they must also add a setback to their deck
for each card after the first.
All cards acquired here go
into a player's exhausted pile.
To purchase vassals the player takes
a setback card and draws a vassal
randomly from the vassal deck, not the vassal market.
To purchase equipment from that destination
players spend two influence for each piece
of traveling gear or pay the market value
on the economy track for armor or weapons.
Players can also sell their equipment tokens
for the economy value back to the destination.
Additionally, once per turn the player
may recruit a setback card to restock a destination's
inventory with new gear or replace an available
sovereignty card at that destination with new cards
from the sovereignty deck.
Finally in the end phase players remove
all expiration counters from all active sources,
replenish equipment, vassals and recruits
wherever there is an end phase icon
on the sovereignty market.
Resolve any ongoing active abilities and then
bid on the first player token using influence.
Any players on the first player token's space
may bid influence and the winner takes the token
for the next round.
Rounds continue until the twelfth round is complete.
Move onto intermission and combat.
And that's the sovereignty stage of The Runelords.
I'm Becca Scott and I'm maxed out
on wit, brawn and glamor.
You can watch me and my friends play this game
and other awesome games on Game The Game
right here on Geek and Sundry.
We'll see you there.
We'd better see you there.
(upbeat music)