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The main idea of the game is the concept of a global strategy and card-based wargame. The game centers on the development of the financial base of your country and increasing military power of your armies before military conflicts.
Regular invasions of nomad hordes have a random impact on the game flow. The movement of a horde can vary depending on the financial opportunities of players to make a good offer in the form of hard cash.
A set of political action cards allows you to affect your opponents without direct military conflict.
All four factions are asynchronous, and strategy in our game for a specific faction is comparable to the historical reality. The Khazars economy was based mostly on slave trade, and this feature has a major impact on game strategy for the Khazars faction. Kievan Rus used ships to rob neighboring lands during fast naval raids. The Byzantine economy in Taurica – the north province of the empire – was weak due to regular raids of nomads and military conflicts with Bulgaria, Rus and Khazaria – but the political system and economy of the Byzantine Empire made the Byzantine fleet and army the strongest in the region. Byzantium fell many years later than all the others.
Third Year
The development of Ruthenia is running into its third year. We took long pauses, then activity would peak, especially before conventions. The draft edition of Ruthenia visited Essen for the first time in 2010. It was our first experience of opening the door to a foreign exhibition, of making a presentation and explaining rules in a foreign language, of self-publishing. The game took a long pause after that.
Gathering Critics
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Art designer Alexander Taranenko and I prepared release candidate rulebook #1 for Spiel 2011, and now in anticipation of Spiel 2012, rulebook #2 is finished in the form of a Strategy book (PDF) and a Battle book (PDF).
A curious incident occurred before my travel to Essen in 2011. When I filled out the visa application form, I messed up the travel dates, so I was actually supposed to travel to Germany a month later than I wanted. This issue was caught in the airport before check in. It was awful. Some meetings had been arranged with publishers, and they were missed, and I could not notify anyone except by email.
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The current game time has been reduced to two hours, with all the unsuitable game elements fixed to make the game flow as user-friendly as possible.
Historical reality: The next problem with the draft edition was its abstract art. Ruthenia – the game with a strong historical background – was too abstract, with the cards possibly being from any historical or fantasy game. We tried different styles but could not find any that were really suitable until I met Alexey Nikanorov, an excellent graphic novel artist. Alexey started to work with me in Spring 2011 when I launched a historical graphic novel project on the topic of the Byzantine Empire.
To see his contribution clearly, compare the silhouetted art of two old cards – the commander card and cataphract card – with the new detailed artwork. I believe that his work has accomplished what we wanted because there are always a couple of people who watch the game with burning eyes and ask me whether there's a free place to join the game next time.
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Final Struggle
The last battle for Ruthenia has begun, with the game about to face crowds at Spiel 2012 while the team works hard to finish the redesign of game art and the rulebook, and prepare the game for its limited production. If we don't see you in Essen at stand 7-207, you'll need to travel to Ukraine or wait beside your mailbox.
Thank you. Sincerely yours, Ruthenia team
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