Rune Age: Oath and Anvil
Oath and Anvil, an expansion for Rune Age, adds two new playable races to the game: the dwarves of Dunwarr and the orcs of the Broken Plains. These proud factions each bring their own unique style of play to Rune Age. With their penchant for mining and love of wealth, the dwarves are able to quickly amass large sums of gold, then parlay it into devastating attacks against their foes. Meanwhile, the orcs display a single-minded lust for combat, proving that there's no orcish phrase for "half measure". Their all-or-nothing approach to battle rewards players who empty their hands to win.
Not to be outdone, the four existing factions have rallied formidable new units to their cause. Cunning Novice Wizards and massive Roc Warriors bolster the Daqan Lords' emphasis on hand control, while swift Leonx Riders and lumbering Forest Guardians capitalize on the Latari Elves' mastery of influence. The forces of evil are likewise emboldened; foul Vampires and fearsome Barrow Wyrms add their strength to the armies of Waiqar the Undying, while depraved Blood Sisters and corpulent Obscenes engage in ritual mutilation for the glory of the Uthuk!
New scenarios challenge your deck-building prowess and new Mercenary cards provide even more strategic options. Unite the tribes, fire the forges, and experience Rune Age like never before!
User Reviews (3)
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What do you get?
This expansion provides a range of new cards and some additional rules (in the form of a short, glossy rulebook).
The cards can be broken down as follows:
2 new races: Orcs and Dwarves, with 30 cards each.
2 additional unit types for each existing race, totalling an additional 24 cards.
A new type of neutral card – mercenaries, totalling 50 cards.
76 cards to form 2 new scenarios and to add to existing scenarios from th ebase set.
All of the cards of the same high quality, both in terms of card stock and artwork, as those in the base set.
The new races
This expansion retains the strong theming for the races in the game and the new races each have a very consistant and interesting theme to them.
The Dwarves of Dunwarr faction utilises gold – giving the player new means to acquire it and new ways to spend it. It’s a challenging race to play as it requires careful balance between obtaining/using gold and in slimming down the deck to useful unit and utility cards.
The Orcs of the Broken Planes force the player into an aggressive stance as many of the cards have special abilities that only fire when the player has no cards left in their hand. They can be very powerful early on in the game but tough to balance if you plan on acquiring any non-unit cards.
Additions to existing races
Each race gets two new units. One slots in the mid-range of the units and adds extra utility and options whilst the second is a “Legendary” unit that costs more 6 gold to acquire and cannot be destroyed once it is in play.
These new unitss are a really great addition as they do give the races a wider range of options in play and the legendary units offer a nice option for later on in a game when there’s plenty of gold about.
New scenarios
There are two completely new scenarios in the expansion.
Ascent of the Overlord is an all-against-one scenario and offers a range of new rules to make the position of overlord feasible against the other players. It has some issues as the balance seems to be out-of-kilter. We’ve tried a number of house rules to resolve thus but none seem to be quite on mark yet.
Quest for Power is a fairly standard all-against-all scenario where players acquire power through controling landmarks (which replace cities in this scenario). It offers a nice change from the existing scenarios as all players can play until the end of the game (where one player has acquired 20 power) and there’s no elimination. It can also be easily modified to a time-limited game where the player with the most power at the end of the time limit is declared winner.
In addition to the two new scenarios there’s also 4 cards and some additional rules to provide the option of converting Resurgence of the Dragonlord into a fully co-operative scenario. It’s fun but maybe a little on the easy side for experienced players.
Mercenaries
The mercenary cards are basically additional neutral cards that can be added in to any scenario. They add a bit more depth and variety to the scenarios and our gaming group rather like selecting them at random to spice up scenarios we’ve played through many times.
Summary
This is a great addition to the base game and if you enjoy playing Rune Age then you’ll almost certainly love these additions. Whilst one of the scenarios suffers a bit from balance issues, both are welcome additions to the play options.
The new races add different and flavourful play-styles and the additional units offer new options and tactics to the existing races.
Mercenary cards allow a bit of a fresh feel for any scenario they’re added to and their entirely optional nature allows for them to be an easy plug-in.
All in all – if you like Rune Age then I would very much recommend that you buy this expansion. I am just hoping that the long gap since its release doesn’t mean that there won’t be more like it.
It’s somewhat awkward when at the end of a few plays of a game, you think to yourself “hmmm…this needs more”. Not awkward in a bad way, mind you. I felt this way after playing Dominion and Alhambra. Both solid games on their own, but I wanted more of the game itself. With Rune Age, the game is good on its own, but I really wanted more options. Oath and Anvil delivers on those options.
Adding a couple of scenarios, a couple of new races, and new units for existing factions…this is definitely something you should get if you’re already a fan of Rune Age. The new units for existing factions make your deck building decisions a little easier, and possibly a little more tactical. And the bonus is that you can use them with previous scenarios without throwing off any balance.
I love playing solo Rune Age…and the new races seem to benefit from multiplayer more than the previous ones. I’ve house-ruled a few things (which I won’t get into here) to make them more accessible. I’ll try to toss out a game tip later.
Bottom line: if you’re a fan of Rune Agw, get this expansion. The price is a little steep for what comes in the box, but the replayability is there, and and easy one to pick up because it seamlessly integrates into the original without riddling feathers.
If you love Rune Age and it’s seamless transition between Solo, Co-op and PvP, then this is a worthy expansion to that game.
Oath and Anvil consists of one Rulesheet and 210 Cards, including:
24 Core Game Faction Unit Cards
30 Orc Faction Cards
30 Dwarf Faction Cards
50 Mercenary Cards
76 Scenario-specific Cards
Two new factions:
Dwarves of Dunwarr are an interesting deck that turns excess gold in your hand and opponent’s hands into damage and attack. It makes use of all that gold you may have built up and makes it useful.
Orcs of the Broken plains are an aggressive deck that makes your attacks far more powerful if you empty your hand. A classic standard for Orcs, form a horde and crush all in your wake.
Each faction gains a Legendary creature that costs 4 influence but cannot be destroyed once in play, they are only sent to your discard pile to be used again later.
Two new scenarios which I will describe briefly.
Ascent of the overlord is a One ( The Overlord ) against many mechanic where one player becomes the overlord and follows certain rules with his/her own deck as each of the other players attempt to stop him or her from winning.
Quest for Power is a PvP scenario without player elimination. Each Player fights for control of landmarks, which give you Power each turn, first player to 20 power wins.
There are also 4 cards that turn Resurgence of the Dragonlord into a co-op version witch is hard and challenging as a co-op should be.
Finally I shall talk briefly about Mercenaries. These are neutral units and spells that are added randomly to scenario buy areas and add some interesting mechanics. They come in strengths of 1 and 2 and allow for a greater variety of buy options from the communal area. One example is the Miasma card “When you purchase this card, place it in another player’s discard pile. Action: Destroy a Stronghold you control to destroy this card.”
All in all, this Expansion adds depth, new factions, new play styles and new options to an already very malleable and enjoyable game. It is definitely a must buy if you enjoy Rune Age.