RuneQuest: Warlords

I went in knowing nothing about Glorantha and came out knowing enough to feel the pull of its cosmology. That gap between ignorance and investment is exactly where RuneQuest: Warlords lives, and whether the game works for you depends almost entirely on how willing you are to cross it. This is a grid-based, tile-and-turn tactics game built on the same engine as Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector, and the DNA shows in every Zone of Control duel and Action Point calculation. If Battlesector clicked for you, the systems here will feel immediately legible. If it didn't, Warlords won't convert you. The 18-mission campaign puts you in command of Hahlgrim, a tribal champion from Talastar, who must forge unlikely alliances to repel a Chaos invasion from Dorastor. Combat unfolds on varied, well-crafted maps where terrain shapes every decision. Units carry separate movement and action point budgets, heroes get two AP to standard troops' one, and the Zone of Control mechanic locks melee units into duels unless you burn a reactive hit to disengage. Three magic schools, Spirit, Rune, and Sorcery, layer on top of the core movement-and-attack loop, and Cult Rune Magic attached to hero units gives each commander a unique signature tool. The per-model health points inside each squad add a granular texture that rewards focusing fire and punishes neglect. Factions feel genuinely distinct: the Talastar roster leans into skirmisher and cavalry play with units like Shadowcats and Hearthguards, while the Chaos side brings Broo Marauders and shamans that play like something much stranger. Where the game earns real praise is its aesthetic commitment. The Bronze Age setting, drawing on Celtic and Persian influences instead of standard medieval fantasy, gives units like hoplites, spearmen, and monster types a look that stands apart from the usual wargame palette. Maps are stylized without being garish, and the UI is clean enough that managing a full formation stays readable even when you're juggling a dozen squads. The AI is mixed: it can punish you hard by concentrating force on one flank, but it also makes dumb decisions like chasing heroes into opportunity attack chains. Late campaign difficulty spikes feel more like design oversights than intentional challenge. Sound design is the weakest link across multiple reviews, with audio feedback and voice work that don't match the quality of the visuals. For newcomers to the RuneQuest setting, the game assumes more prior knowledge than it provides. Exposition is spare, and the writing has a tendency to lean on speechifying heroes rather than showing the world's strangeness organically. The setting has genuine depth, gods, cults, tribal politics, runes as identity rather than just spells, but Warlords only scratches that surface rather than diving in. Replayability comes from faction variety, hero upgrade paths, and a Competitive Arena mode for skirmish and multiplayer, including hotseat. That's a solid foundation, though the campaign scenario count leaves you wanting more variety once the credits roll. If you already have a soft spot for Battlesector-style squad tactics and have ever wondered what a Bronze Age myths game would feel like, Warlords delivers a coherent, mostly polished answer. If you need a campaign that surprises you with its mission design or a story that pulls you through on writing alone, this one falls short of that bar. Solid genre craft, underserved by missed opportunities to make Glorantha's weirdness central rather than decorative.

Alex · Scout Team

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