by Oxeter
I haven't read the original rules but I recently acquired the revised edition of Runewars and the setup seems to favor the second player. Setup states that after home realm markers are placed, players place rune token in reverse (counterclockwise) order, starting with first player. Then the players choose one realms, starting with the second player. It seems that the second player can decide which starting location looks best to him, and then improve it further by placing a rune nearby. Since he places runes last, the other players have no chance to balance this out.It would be most pronounced in a 2-player game. The first player has 3 options:
1) Place both runes nearer to one start. Then the second player places a real rune near that start and claims it himself. He now has better access to both real runes.
2) Place one rune near each start. Then the second player guesses which is the real one, places his real rune nearby and claims that location. If he guessed wrong, then each player starts near a real rune. If he guessed correctly, it's as bad as above.
3) Place both runes in the center of the map. Then the second player places a rune near the start of his choice and claims it. In this case the second player is closer to one rune, while both players are equidistant from the other.
So my questions for more experienced players:
1) Am I misunderstanding the rules in some way?
2) Is rune placement insignificant enough that I shouldn't worry about this? (or are races so imbalanced that picking first outweighs a weaker start location?)
3) Can anyone think of a better fix than the obvious one: to change the order in which runes are placed. I'd probably have the second player place runes first but otherwise proceed counterclockwise as suggested.
Thanks!