Runebound 2nd Edition: Sands of Al-Kalim

As seen in last year’s Top 100, Runebound is one of my favorite games and has been since it hooked me into the hobby some 13 years ago. I’m actually lucky I got into the hobby when I did. Had I missed out on Runebound, it would have been my grail game for many years.

Back in the day, I tried getting some of the expansions, but I really didn’t have the means to obtain much. Frozen Wastes was the first one I got, then Mists of Zanaga. Much later, I bought a copy of Island of Dread. There were only 2 big box expansions missing: Midnight (which was a weird, 1-vs.-all expansion that took place in FFG’s Midnight setting instead of Terrinoth) and Sands of Al-Kalim. Even back then, Midnight was well out of print and going for $100-200. But when it came to Sands, I just never quite had the money for it when I went looking for a copy. Foolishly, I let other things take priority.

Thanks to some extra work, I finally had some decent spending money, and before I went crazy, there was one thing I wanted to look into (not that I have plans of just wildly spending all my money anyway). And I just happened to find a very rare in-shrink copy of Sands for a reasonable amount (but still expensive).

And then it got lost in the mail. It left one facility, heading to the facility of destination (or however they phrased it), but instead, it just never showed up and didn’t pass through another facility. Its status was simply marked, “Arriving late.” And that was that—day after day. What’s worse, it had left the previous facility, so it was on a truck when it just… vanished. I was sure I’d never see it. But several days later, it was processed… in the wrong state. But at least they found it and turned back in the correct direction.

Unboxing

Despite having ZERO packaging inside the box to protect it (who does that?!), it arrived undamaged. In fact, it’s in perfect condition!

Time to ruin it by opening it! And later, I’ll ruin it some more by… *gasp* playing it! The horror!

Most of the tokens were pretty tight. The punchboard thankfully didn’t cause any tearing when punching tokens out. The sandstorm was actually loose, having fallen out already. No printing issues on the tokens or cards (that I’ve noticed).

Everything looks good. But… Corbin the Axebearer… something seems fishy…

He’s forgotten his axe-head! More like, Corbin the Staffbearer. I can’t really be too upset at such a silly manufacturing error. I certainly have absolutely no recourse for getting a replacement, so he’ll just have to stay as-is. I’ve got some other dwarf minis I can use instead if needed.

I really look forward to playing it. I’ve never played a physical copy, only one using a script on the BGG forums years ago (the website hosting the script and game pieces, sadly, died and was never brought back). But it’s going to hit the table soon!