OUR REVIEW
Campaigns for conquests
Ruthenia
IN EASTERN EUROPE
Risk - who does not know it, the game in which you have to conquer or free - depending on the edition - continents or maybe even the whole world. Denys Lonshakov from the Ukrainian publishing company TwoGeeks hat tried to lift the rather simply Risk onto another level altogether, at least that is my impression of this game. Let me make one thing clear at the start of the game: The 16 pages of closely written rules are tough and hard to deal with. I have played quite a number of "complicated" games after extensive studying of the rules, but something equal to Ruthenia has not yet come my way. The usual beforehand-reading of the rules and explaining the rules, as so beloved by my friends, can be disregarded here, because you cannot remember all, not even parts of it. Which means that the rules need to be worked out together and this cannot happen in less than three hours of reading them together.
But what is the theme of the game? Ruthenia (or Ruthenien in German) is a historic name for a landscape or region that was given to different regions in Eastern Europe in historic times, mainly in the area of today's Ukraine and Belarus (source: Wikipedia). The game covers the period from the 7th to the 11th century. Four factions rival for victory points, in a game that features three different sets of conditions how the game can end: One player controls eight provinces (which, incidentally, is not a lot), or somebody manages to conquer the home provinces of someone else or somebody exceeds 25 victory points.
The board is equipped, according to the template, with army markers (leaders), two each for each home province, also with markers for three so-called "rich" provinces and sundry markers for two non-player factions. In case of less than two players each missing player is also added and managed as a non-player factions. In my opinion the system only works with four players, as otherwise an imbalance occurs in the conquest of provinces, as a human player always implements other moves than a randomly moving non-player faction (as experienced personally. As playing cards there are stacks of mercenary cards - they are important for battle, tactic cards and action cards. Furthermore, each player has sundry cards of his color, which represent his troops, and sundry markers for constructs and markers to hallmark one's own provinces.
An army is made up of a leader and at least one troop card. Money to buy and support/maintain mercenary cards and for sundry other purposes is also available. And, as in real wars, you do not achieve much without money, so you need, especially at the start of the game, take pains to make sure that it multiplies quickly so that you can quickly reinvest it, for instance for mercenaries and for use of action cards.
The course of a round is divided into a planning phase, a movement and combat phase, a bureaucracy phase and a phase for movement and combat of non-player factions. Sounds rather simple, but is not simple, because the sundry possibilities in the movement phase must be checked permanently until you have memorized them, not to mention the different methods of combat. In the planning phase you can give orders to construct a fleet (yes, there are also ships, it would be too simple otherwise, fortunately in those times there were no aircraft carriers or dirigibles, or else we would have them in the game, too, for sure) or a fortress or a market or a temple. These constructions can be started by armies, provided their leaders have the corresponding ability, or for money by hired workers. All constructions, by the the way, are not finished instantly; this happens in the bureaucracy phase unless the respective province was conquered by the enemy or plundered. Besides constructs you can give a trade order to a fleet, which means that one money unit turns into two money units or hold a charity event for 1 money in the temple, which later also earns a victory point.
In the phase movement/combat each player gives orders for maximum four movements of his armies. But you can also move the maximum three fleets of a player. This happens in turn by placing arrow markers next to the armies; on the backside of the marker you can later see if a conquest or a plundering was intended, which of course need different implementations. You can also use your movement markers to move an army onto a fleet in order to make a surprise landing in a distant area. With fleets you can attack enemy fleets or support your own attacks or support fleets that are attacked. One more little remark on the "lunacy" of the rule book: The possibilities for armies and fleets which you can use before you place a movement marker - regrouping of troops, movement within your own area in relation to fortresses, movement of fleets in your own waters or along rivers - are described on a complete page of the rules.
When all players are done with placing the movement markers, the markers are turned over and all can see what the others are planning. Based on this knowledge you can now cancel your revealed movement intentions, so as to not leave a suddenly attacked province unprotected, for instance.
Then all battles of a player are resolved; one picks up the rulebook and studies the plethora of possibilities - Fleet(s) against fleet(s), player versus player, Attack on an unoccupied province, battle at the border of a province, player attack on a non-player faction and vice versa, conflict between two non-player faction, three-sided battles and much more. I do not even try to start to enter into the niceties of the many ways of how to fight - the conflict player versus player, which is resolved in several "clashes", alone takes up four pages of the rulebook. At this point I must mention that this conflict resolving, when you have finally mastered it, is definitely interesting and played with many surprising twists, with the help of tactic and action cards. Such a conflict can, depending on the size of the armies involved, take up to ten minutes to resolve (at least until you have grasped how it works); how this fits the total playing time of 120 minutes as given on the box, I do not know; probably they meant 120 min per player.
I also must not conceal that the army leaders have diverse special abilities, which give them advantages in conflict with other players, in conflict with non-playing faction, in movement, in plundering with armies or ships (it shouldn't be too easy, should it?). One victory point is earned for two destroyed units of an opponent and five for conquest of an enemy home province and for a certain special leader ability and probably for something else which I have forgotten by now, as I write this review without re-reading all 16 pages. For craven retreat from a conflict you lose one victory point which is sometimes better than losing all units.
In the bureaucracy phase the ordered constructs are finalized and you cash sundry money for fleet trade orders, home provinces, rich province, standard own province and from markets. Victory points are earned for each controlled province and each charity event in temples. Then you only need to upkeep your mercenary units with money and then you can hire new commanders, your own troops or new mercenary troops. And yes, you can also train your own troops by spending money, which earns you tactic cards that are important for combat and which at long last also introduces the luck of dice rolls. If you cannot provide for your mercenary units you lose one victory points per card.
In the last phase the non-player faction boosts and their eventual movements and attacks are resolved in relation to the number of markers per province. I will spare you those details, all in all another page in the rules.
Now for my conclusions: A game for fans of of games with veeeeeeeeery complex rules. The company name TwoGeeks says it all. If you have understood all rules, have manage to grasp, understand and memorize them in several games and are able to always play with the same people - then this game might be fun. I can imagine that the author spent a year puzzling out the combat system. I only see the problem, that Ruthenia is an explicit game for experienced players, not to call them freak gamers, and that they do not have as few games at home that they play Ruthenia again and again, because this is the only way for Ruthenia to deploy its strategic possibilities and depths. Each faction plays a little different, after all.
I for myself, was not much taken with Ruthenia, because in the end the evening is called games evening and not rule-reading evening. If you like reading rules, you need to download the revised rules from BGG; as the game is not playable with the original rules, as one whole paragraph is missing (at least in the edition that I used).
Gert Stöckl
Players: 2-4
Age: 13+
Time: 120+
Designer: Denys Lonshakov
Artist: Alexey Nikanorov, Alexander Taranenko
Price: on demand
Publisher: TwoGeeks 2012
Web: -
Genre: conflict simulation, territorial conquest
Users: For experts
Version: en
Rules: en
In-game text: yes
Comments:
Extreme complex rules
Takes massively more time to play than stated
For absolute experts only
Compares to:
All games featuring conquest and influencing of regions, with complex rules
Other editions:
Currently none
My rating: 2
Gert Stöckl:
Ruthenia offers area conquering and battle simulation for experts and freaks who do not mind digging into copious and very detailed rules.
Chance (pink): 1
Tactic (turquoise): 2
Strategy (blue): 3
Creativity (dark blue): 0
Knowledge (yellow): 0
Memory (orange): 0
Communication (red): 0
Interaction (brown): 1
Dexterity (green): 0
Action (dark green): 0