Hello,

My group is after few games of Runewars mostly for 4 players. All of us liked the game very much. We just have one issue that seems to be uncommon as I couldn't find anybody with similar one on these boards.

BOARD SETUP.

The board setup usually ends with us placing new board. The reason is that it is not possible to setup 4 starting markers 4 hexes from each other (like stated in the rules). Even if we would like to use the 3 hexes between 2 starting markers, it is still not possible.

After several tries, we then pay attention to how we set up the board. We do a lot of "Wait, if you do it we will be unable to setup starting markers again". or "Wait, do not make the mountains point out of the board". 

In the rules we see that "in the rare cases where it is not possible to set up the home markers", but for us, for every play we start the set up again about 2 or 3 times before we are able to build a board and only after everybody commits to setting up the board pieces. I can't set up my pieces as I would like to since I have to pay attention to being able to place a home markers. This is especially annoying for the last player and last piece, as he is able to re-set entire map placement if he doesn't like it by just placing this final piece of map in a way it prevents the home markers setup.  

I didn't noticed such problems on these forums. Is there something we do wrong here?

It's hard to say without seeing the maps you guys make, but in the 50+ games I've played, I've never once had to start over with the map; we have always been able to find a solution that meets the rules.

Maybe don't try to make the map a tight little circle?  It's okay if there's a hole in the map here or there - those spaces are simply impassable to all units (even fliers)

sigmazero13 said:

But you mostly play 2 and 3 player games =)

Hinnyboy said:

True, but I have played a fair number of 4-player games, and have never had it happen there, either.

I would imagine you are doing something wrong at this point.  In rare cases this problem that you have does occur but not as many as you have stated.  I have played numerous games of RWs and havent had this problem once.  If you are playing with 4 players then each player should have 2 different pieces in their hand in ADDITION to home realms (8 total game board pieces not including home realm tiles).  Unless you happen to place all water borders and mountain borders on the outsides of the game board then you should have plenty of room between setup markers.  The only other thing i can suggest is that you may be counting the 3 spaces incorrectly between one setup marker to another.  This is hard to describe and would be easier with a pic.  Reread the rules again (if you havent already).

The first few times me and my group played this game, we had a similiar problem. I even started just setting up the board initially before players even got to my house, just to speed up things. However, now me and mine are pretty well old hats at this game we set up according to the rules. It tends to work out and often results in memorable games. We try to come up with weird boards to play our beloved Runewars.