Ruthenia playtest

Excellent gaming weekend here!

On Friday we started with a playtest of Ruthenia, a game by Ukranian Denys Lonshakov. I picked up on this game in the run up to Essen and met Denys who was showing it there. We played an introduction game and Denys suggested we take a copy for playtesting. Since we thought it a really interesting development to see classic Ameritrash designs from Eastern Europe we happily obliged.

It's a bit of an old school map game, but it's a fun period (medieval southern Russia) with some interesting chrome. There's Byzantines, Kievan Russians, Bulgarians and Khazars, with npc invasions of Slavs and Nomads.

Players have army leaders with special abilities, which together with the map and events makes for a different experience every game. The combat against the Barbarians is simple, while battles between players are more detailed, with different troop types, tactics and event cards. Part of the fun in the game is building up a powerful and diverse army with a good hand of tactical cards.

The economics are pretty down to earth, with added advantages for the Byzantines. There's markets, fleets and temples you can build for the different peoples, which increase income or the loyalty of your subjects. The fleets can be used for trade, but also combat and army transport.

The events often consist of the Slavs and Nomads rampaging across the board, which then tends to muck up your best laid plans. That's entirely cool in my book.

However, we felt some of the chrome had better be a bit more streamlined. It now takes a bit too much time to resolve the extra rules for the limited effect they have on the game.

Also, while the combat is interesting an should be driving the game, it's not rewarded that much, so there is now a period mid-game between bashing up the NPCs and the final power struggle, where everybody is waiting in the wings, afraid to make the first move.

When those issues are fixed, I think it can be a pretty cool, 2-3 hour game.

The game as it is now is already pretty well produced, although the rules really need a native English speaker to deal with some confusion. It would lend itself well to an FFG like production.