by Peter Robbins, 15 January 2026
RuneQuest Introduction (How I Was Introduced To It)
Back in the day, I was introduced to the rules used in most RuneQuest games by way of what we used to call “Swedish D&D”, which a local friend of mine (from Sweden) pawned off on us during early High School as the “amazing alternative to D&D”. Low and behold, yes, it was, it was an outstanding set of rules, used by license by way of the RuneQuest 2nd ed. rules at the time when it was ported over to the infamous Drakar och Demoner.
Yes, it “borrowed” prolifically from Stormbringer 1st edition (by Chaosium) as well, as the Elric painting cover suggests!
Later on in my gaming life, I was re-introduced to the rule system by way of the open gaming license version called Legend
Legend RPG was based upon an outstanding stripped down version of RuneQuest known as the Basic Roleplaying RPG SRD (system reference document). This Legend system was Mongoose Publishing’s means of still being able to continue to churn out RPG products without the Glorantha licensing from Chaosium.
So, very oddly, I was introduced to RuneQuest by anything but RuneQuest, but I very much like the system, and very much would play in Glorantha if any GMs had run it back in the day, alas they did not (for me at least). Glorantha is a great setting, and RuneQuest is a great overall system; both worth checking out in the Chaosium or DriveThruRPG stores (or local FLGS).
click images to enlarge
The Basics
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External Info
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Overview / First Impressions
Back on topic of RuneQuest Warlords, what’s the 411 on this offering? TL;DR is that this is in effect Warhammer Battlsector but in Glorantha and further optimized for more in-your face melee effects. And the formula ports over very well! All of the fancy extra W40K special powers in Battlesector port very nicely to spells, powers and skills of RuneQuest/Glorantha. Also, the visual engine is very detailed and crisp. What I enjoyed about Battlesector was that it was “equally pretty” at all zoom levels and that ported over very well into RuneQuest Warlords. Now, here is another testament to the fact that they may have chosen and augmented the engine well: at first I did NOT pick out that it was a port of that engine! I say that is a huge positive accolade as that means they’ve made it their own thing very well to hide the fact that the engine was re-used! Seriously, bravo to Virtuos/Volmi Team for their work on this title.
Now, the slight down side: we want more of it! I’ve seen elsewhere on forums and discussion boards similar sentiment. You get three factions for skirmish/multiplayer, and then 18 scenarios. They are from what little I’ve been able to get through ahead of this review, relatively varied in scope, terrain, buildings/structures, and theming/writing from a partial role-playing sense, but alas, I still want more for a Core game. You can tell this was built, like Battlesector, to possibly DLC the heck out of us consumers; and that is absolutely fine, if the content is well priced and well made/executed.
With the above said, the core game is respectfully low priced at $29.99 retail on STEAM. That is a very appropriate cost point for a core game that concentrates on three factions, and likely awaiting more as DLC. Hopefully. I’m hoping each DLC, similar to Battlesector, will expand the story line of other factions and bind it all together into a cohesive game offering as a whole.
TL;DR
“Fantasy Turn-Based Battles in the Bronze Age”, but more so…in the Glorantha setting. It is built upon the Warhammer 40K: Battelsector engine, but without knowing that fact, you cannot immediately say “I feel like I’m playing Battlesector in the Glorantha setting”. RuneQuest Warlords feels very much like a turn-based fantasy skirmish game unto itself, which is a huge bravo to Virtuos and Slitherine in accomplishing. Now, RuneQuest-wise? Do I feel like I’m playing in the role-playing setting? Yes, but interpreted to fit the game engine and skirmish battle format.
P.S.
This game’s existence and worthy results is forcing my mind to beg for a Skyrim (or) Baldur’s Gate-esque CRPG offering in this setting. RuneQuest BEGS for a computer RPG which much more so follows the tried and true BRP (Basic Role-Playing) system used within RuneQuest for four+ decades. With that said, I was pleasantly surprised by this game. It’s good and it’s well priced for a core game. Interestingly, the world engine for RuneQuest Warlords, if modified into a more open world resulting format, would work just fine for a Torchlight-esque role-playing engine. It’s more so whether or not the makers of RuneQuest Warlords have the resources to expand the 3d objects/resources needed for a much larger area for role-playing sake? Or whether they could in some way come up with generative terrain making and town making engines on top of the existing 3d engine, which is VERY GOOD in RuneQuest Warlords. Just some suggestions to Virtuos and Slitherine. I hope they expand into CRPGs as well as adding new DLC for RuneQuest Warlords.
What’s In The Box?!
As mentioned in the STEAM info and in the Overview above, there are 18 scenarios provided with the game as a linked single-player campaign. I’ve only gotten through three of the scenarios thus far ahead of writing this first impression of the game but there is a reasonable amount of variety of theme/role-playing writing elements/connected goals involved.
It’s ok. It’s reasonably good.
Reality check: it’s a training ground for then moving on to Skirmish locally ahead of doing Multiplayer arena tactical battles with an Army for your Faction. Slipping much more quickly back over to the Battlesector-esque overall intent of the scale and scope of this game.
As shown above, the overall campaign is “Storm Of Vengeance” and you are depicted as moving along a nice map through a linear single-player campaign including 18 scenarios. The campaign does not feel like an after-thought. This is the meat and bones of what you are buying. You otherwise unlock three “factions” for building an “Army” for Skirmish (vs AI) or Multiplayer (vs Human) sake.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Example Turn Actions
Everything you need to know is accessible by way of clicking on the individual units. Units are usually a “squad” of 3-4 soldiers or creatures. Heroes are individuals with special powers and skills. Pretty simple to determine which is which in a given scenario. As you can see in the above example the Shadowcats are able to move at will amongst friendlies into enemy zones of control. Most individual hero units can do this as well. The attributes of the unit are near the profile picture. The active natural and supernatural “effects” for that unit are above the line of available “actions” in its unit toolbar. So looking at the pic above, if you see the Z for move action, look above that for the smaller icons that show you what innate attributes are active for them. If anything is greyed out, it’s not active or available. Most effects are passive in nature. You don’t have to activate them. For “Actions” you normally need to either click the button in the toolbar and then select a target grid area as the focus of the effect or spell.
Above is an example of a skill. You click the skill, normally pick a target grid square, then let it rip. Many unique actions are available, especially for Heroes, but teams of creatures also have some interesting skills and powers.
That’s the gameplay in a quick nutshell. The UI is very intuitive and mouse-over icons give you a really clear view of how far you can move and still perform another of your actions. Green crossed swords demarc grid squares that you can move to and still have enough left over to do a different action. Red is basically your choice (player agency alert!) to extend your movement by burning your ability to do other action point actions.
The above is a stag party I do not want to attend!
Flanking is a thing, supporting unit skills are a thing. And those supporting actions are pretty much handled auto-magically (think akin to auto defensive fire settings in other wargames). You don’t have to click anything for a supporting unit to help out as needed. (I like this feature). You do not have to explicitly click anything to use any auto-defense skills/actions.
Rinse, repeat, easy peasy to play, but a lot of variety of units, powers, skills, spells to choose from to enact mayhem and death on your opponents.
More gameplay screenshots will be presented in the gallery of shots further below, as well as (a lot!) more in a few days.
Skirmish
In Skirmish mode, you have the options to manage your army configurations (points system in play), replay a campaign mission <- nice touch, and Begin Skirmish, to setup a custom battle against the AI.
As shown in the above sequence of screens. You select the skirmish map, some configurations of the Points limit per side, et voila, limitless battles against the computer opponent on a reasonable set of maps.
Multiplayer
You can either login via your Slitherine account or by default your STEAM account. I tend to use my Slitherine one as I’m just used to using that for most of my wargames that they offer.
I was pleasantly surprised that they offer both Live and Asynchronous style multiplayer. And also Tournaments! Nice touch. Very similar to most PBEM++ Slitherine offered games, but they married the interface to Slitherine’s offerings very nicely. It’s a nice professional touch to the experience as a player. Feels more like an integral part of the game rather than slapped on last minute.
Galleries Of Play
click images to enlarge into a gallery view
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Final Thoughts
I was pleasantly surprised with this game. While it is a 1st cousin if-you-will of W40K : Battlesector as it utilized its game engine as a baseline, the Virtuos team should be proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish in making this fantasy tactical action game a success. Yes, I’d like to see more content, more factions, and much more available units per factions; but at the very reasonable price point for this core game, I’m pleased overall with what is offered here. If you like action point based tactical combat, for example if you were more of a D&D 4th Edition lover over a 3.5 Edition fan (long live 3.5*), you’ll love this game. It absolutely has its place in the market, and is well-executed upon. Above all, it’s fun, and you feel like you’ve accomplished something by getting through its campaign scenarios.
Beyond the campaign offering, the game’s Skirmish and Multiplayer options hopefully bridge your play time until they come out with additional DLC content, which I have to imagine is a very likely thing if this core game is successful in the market place. I think it will be, and its first weeks now on the STEAM store are getting generally positive reviews. The only down-side is the desire to have just a wee bit more content, but hopefully they’ll possibly throw in a free DLC here and there : ) nudge nudge wink wink to sweeten the pot if the community continues to give it “positive waves Moriarty!” (see Kelly’s Heroes for context)
I personally think that if I enjoy a game enough to want more content, that is a positive sign. Of course it would have been nice to have outright, but, it’s a good sign that they have a good core game, they just need to extend it a bit. I do hope they offer some free DLC alongside the pay for content, for these three starter factions! Give back to the community that supports you and the trust and loyalty will go far.
My strong suggestion to Volmi/Virtuos and Slitherine is that the first DLC should be a new campaign that thoroughly expands the existing three factions and maybe adds a fourth alongside, with an equal amount of units by type for each of the factions. Keep the first DLC reasonably priced, and boom, solid fan base will come back for more.
You can chat about this game in the Sci-fi & Fantasy Warfate section of our discussion forums
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