Current Events > Alright CE, help me find this board game.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It was a fantasy tabletop deck builder released before 2015. Based on the art I think it would've been released after 2005 at the absolute earliest, and probably closer to 2009 onwards. It had a bunch of modes, one where you co-op'd to play against a neutral enemy deck, one where you did PVP against other players (this is the only mode we ever played) to reduce their HP to 0, a mode where the goal was to be the first to beat the neutral deck, and I think a few others that we maybe played once each and I don't remember anything about. Matches would typically last half an hour or longer, it definitely wasn't a short game.

There were 4 races baseline IIRC, and each had their own dedicated pool of cards that wasn't shared with the other races (you were limited only to what your faction had available unless I'm forgetting some kind of neutral cards you could get). From memory (and all of this might be wrong)...

Humans had cards that were individually weak but used synergies with each other to get stronger.
Dwarves had individually powerful cards that scaled off Gold (or whatever the universal currency was), so they'd pick between buying/playing stronger units and upgrading the ones they had.
Undead were generally weak but had a heavy graveyard focus and either had effects while in the grave, or to pull them from the grave (I distinctly remember changing our meta by being the only person who saw the recursion strats the undead have, which made them go from joke tier to "no Kajel's a real threat, believe me").

I think the last race was Elves, but I don't remember anything about them or if they even existed. Maybe there was also a dragon/monster faction, but

It wasn't a tactical positioning based game where you get units and place them on a board, it was closer to Magic where you get cards then use them to reduce other player's life totals.

The deck building wasn't RNG, every unit had a gold cost that players could spend their gold on to get other units, and IIRC there was a limited amount of each unit type. I don't remember how gold generation worked, maybe it was from killing the stuff in the neutral monster deck. Units did have HP+ATK and special effects, but I don't remember anything about how combat was done.

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I've been trying to find this game for like 5 years and I've had no luck. Very annoying, it was a lot of fun.

Warhammer

Definitely not warhammer.

Looking around again, Dominion looks familiar in how I vaguely remember the cards being laid out but I don't recognize any of them so far. The art style and setting are completely different, it might be that we played a specific expansion, and I'm not seeing any of the faction stuff I played with.

I just watched a video going through all the expansions of Dominion and none of them matched, though the general gist was very similar. The one I played felt more warcrafty in its aesthetics I remember the art style being pretty vibrant.

Ive relayed what youve said to my local game friend to see if he knew. Hes asked a few questions.

Did this exist only as a physical game? (Like there was never a video game version?)

Were there any dice mechanics?

It was deck building as you play, like Doninion? Not playing with a pre constructed deck like Magic?

Hero Realms?

I only ever played it as a physical game around 2012 or 2013.

I don't remember any dice mechanics, but there may have been.

It was deckbuilding as you play, and each player played as a single faction with a premade set of cards that faction had available. I would almost always do the undead one, my friend would usually do dwarves, and my other friend would do either humans or whatever the fourth faction/race was.

You would play as the faction and buy generic units from that faction in various cost tiers (I think up to 5, maybe 6?). There weren't any named hero cards or anything like that as far as I remember (at least for players), and you couldn't use other factions units (unless there was a neutral faction I'm forgetting or something).

That sounds a bit like Ascension. There were a couple that also ring a bell but I'm blanking.

Hero quest?

Lords of wars? (There are different versions)

Zombicide Black Plague Board Game?

Runebound?

Wizard Kings?

ImTheLoneWolf posted...

Hero Realms?

Doesn't seem like it.

ellis123 posted...

That sounds a bit like Ascension. There were a couple that also ring a bell but I'm blanking.

It doesn't seem to be Ascension, the art style is way off and the factions aren't as pronounced. In the game I played the factions were a huge thing, and you didn't play as a specific individual.

Mistere_Man posted...

Hero quest?

the best thing about hero quest is the brodesword

Thunderstone? It doesn't sound like an exact match, but there are some similarities.

Can you describe the game cover at all? You say it looked older, but what was on it?

Were there any player miniatures or figures involved?

Mistere_Man posted...

Hero quest?

No. That has you as a specific hero.

Mistere_Man posted...

Lords of wars?

Closer, but the art is off and the game I played didn't have positioning as a mechanic or anything, it was much closer to MTG style "I have Serra Angel, I'm going to attack X with Serra Angel" combat.

Mistere_Man posted...

Zombicide Black Plague Board Game?

Nah, wasn't about killing Zombies.

Mistere_Man posted...

Runebound?

Looked promising from the box art but no.

Mistere_Man posted...

Wizard Kings?

Definitely not.

Epic PvP Fantasy? There was a lot more than 4 races tho.

Mistere_Man posted...

Can you describe the game cover at all? You say it looked older, but what was on it?

I don't remember the cover but I do remember that the PVE mode's big boss was a dragon so I'm going to assume there was a dragon on the cover. And the art style of the game looked very World of Warcraft inspired, most of the games that've been recommended so far have been more old-school/LoTR fantasy looking.

ADW posted...

Were there any player miniatures or figures involved?

No. It was all cards and tokens to keep track of things from what I remember, there was no map/exploration aspects either.

I think a big part of why I can't find it is that we were playing a sub-mode (the PVP) mostly instead of the main PVE/co-op mode. I know there was a neutral deck that would do things occasionally, but I don't remember any of what it actually did other than there being a dragon boss somewhere in it.

Cartoon_Quoter posted...

Thunderstone? It doesn't sound like an exact match, but there are some similarities.

Not it from what I'm seeing.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Epic PvP Fantasy? There was a lot more than 4 races tho.

No, that has class+race combos. This was strictly faction based, buying/using a bunch of generic minions exclusive to your faction to use against the other players/neutral deck and using/saving money to buy different units that were more expensive.

Like the undead faction had generic skeletons that could resurrect from the GY as the 1 cost unit, and I think the 4 cost unit was some kind of flier like a gargoyle or something.

I remember the dwarf faction... Actually shit, maybe it was the human faction that scaled off gold spent to upgrade the units after you bought them. Whatever, one of those factions had a unit (I want to say 3 or 4 cost) where its combat power was determined by how much gold the player had stocked. I don't remember how it worked exactly but I do remember it being strong AF for the cost if they managed to get a early gold lead.

KajeI posted...

No, that has class+race combos. This was strictly faction based, buying/using a bunch of generic minions exclusive to your faction to use against the other players/neutral deck and using/saving money to buy different units that were more expensive.

Like the undead faction had generic skeletons that could resurrect from the GY as the 1 cost unit, and I think the 4 cost unit was some kind of flier like a gargoyle or something.

How did you do deck building? Was there a communal market or did you start with a fixed set of cards?

Tyranthraxus posted...

How did you do deck building? Was there a communal market or did you start with a fixed set of cards?

You started with a fixed deck of units and I think currency, you'd draw a hand, then you'd play and buy further units with money you'd get from doing stuff from a market exclusive to your faction that were always available and just gated by the cost to buy them (and if they died they'd go to the GY and you'd have to buy a new one, and you could have multiple at once as long as there were still copies in the "shop"). I don't remember the specifics though, but I do remember that even though the starting deck was always the same an your initial hand varied, because sometimes I could empty out the tier 1 skeletons from the shop on turn 1 and sometimes I'd be stuck with like 3 or 4.

I remember that with a good start I could use the undead to get all the skellies out on turn 1, then on turn 2 I could use them to get the money to buy a tier 3 or 4 unit from my pool depending on how the turns+draws went, but I don't remember the specifics other than it involving recurring them from the GY.

Rune Age.

Cartoon_Quoter posted...

Rune Age.

This is it, holy shit. I read the name and my brain went "YES" and then I saw the undead doods and my brain went "YESSSSSSSSSSSSS".

Thank you so much, this has been bothering me constantly for fucking years.

Nice! I am glad you found it!

Firefly