Conquest of The Fallen Lands ( COTFL ) is an amazingly fun game that my friends,wife, and I are all enjoying a whole lot. I have to admit right off the bat that I won this game from Matt Drake's cool web blog on gaming :
feed://drakesflames.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

I recommend checking his site out for very funny reviews and contests every once in a while. Now I actually really wanted ElfBall because I asked Matt to try and review this one since I love Battleball.

Matt is a super great guy and I talked my way into a 2nd game, and this game was COTFL. I was really thinking of getting Mr. Jack, but the wife hated the theme and I was looking for more games that she would enjoy. I hate to admit this, but I have not played ElfBall yet, and I am oh so very happy I got COTFL because it is such a wonderful game and everyone I have played with ( around 15 people ) have all really enjoyed it and all have wanted to play it again. I have a few friends who said they are going to look into getting it themselves.

This is a self published game and for that reason alone I feel more Geeks should own it since we all dream of making our own games some day. I want to make my own game, but I really doubt I can make something that would be as cool as COTFL, but if I keep spending most of my time playing games and cruising the BGG who knows what I might wind up making.

Components: The Box is sturdy and the cover art is attractive yet simple. It depicts the 3 type of followers you will be buying and using through out the game. the game comes with 61 nice big think tiles that have simple yet very pleasing to the eye pictures on them and they are all numbered 1-12. There are a lot of the low #'s and only a few of the higher #'s. I actually really enjoy just playing with the tiles and seeing what kind of board I can make. Check out the variant threads for this game and you will see what some of my ideas for this game are. You have 3 stakes of follower tokens: A Warrior, A Craftsman, and A Mage. They are a little thin and do the job fine, but living in the tropics where the dry season is over 92% humidity I have started to keep this game in our gift shop with AC on in the day to help them from warping a little, but that is more because of where I live, i am sure they would be fine in Ohio where I am getting a 2nd copy of the game so I can play with my old gaming group when I go visit. There is a bunch of round cardboard coins in 1,5, 10, & 25. They are nice quality and the colors are different enough that they are easy to tell apart. I personally think you really don't need the 25 pt coins , it could just use more 10 pt. coins, but that is a minor thing. You then have a big stack of little cards that are also very nice quality. I am not a fan of small cards but I don't mind these at all. You need small cards so they fit in the tiles when you claim the tiles for your own and collect $ from them, so big cards would not really work for this game. The cards have troops of all kinds, 4 types of Fortifications, and magic cards. It is a game for 3-5 people so there are also the standard glass chips ( rounded on top glass buttons ). There are plenty of chips and I have actually used some for markers in my micropul game ( a great little PNP ). I like that they give you plenty of markers. The Rules are 4 pages and very well written and very easy to read. My eyes are getting worse by the year and I love big printed rules and these are super easy to read, but also easy to understand. There are plenty of good pictures to help explain everything so the rules are very easy to follow. Then you get another 2 sided page of rules for the Advanced game. I am not so sure this is an advanced game as much as it is another variation of the game. I have only played this way once and it is very fun and has a very different feel from the regular game ( they call it basic but I feel it is more the standard game. Basic in most games means a version for kids, but this is not the case at all for COTFL ). You then get a very handy little easy to read and of good quality reference card that has a side for the regular and advanced game. If I find any fault in the components then it would be that there is not at least 2 of these reference cards so more then 1 person could be looking at it at 1 time. But that is pretty minor complaint. The box has cardboard dividers in it with 9 separate compartments so everything has a place to sit on its own and I really like that the box is divided like this.


Rules: Like I mentions above the rules are straight forward and very easy to learn. You can teach someone the rules in under 5 minutes and by their 3rd turn they totally understand how to play. The rules give you 3 different starting amounts of tiles you lay down. You put them down randomly so the boards are different every time. Less tiles means a faster game, so you can plan on a shorter or longer game. I play the short one with newbies the first time so you can finish their learning game and then play one where they fully understand the rules and what is going on. As with any game it really helps to see all the cards so you have a better understanding of the game as a whole. Everyone then picks 8 cards and hope they get some good ones that they can use right off the bat. If you get all cards that can not be used you can redraw all 8 cards on your very first turn only. You then get to choose 2 followers that are what you need to play your cards. Every turn, starting with the first, you can also buy an additional follower ( you can only buy one follower per turn ). A big part of the game is figuring out the followers that will help you best and when you should stop buying followers. Everyone gets 25 gold coins to start and it costs 5 gold to buy a follower. So you start the first round with 25 gold but you buy a follower right away and are down to 20. This matters because the winner at the end of the game is the guy with the most $.


Your turn has 4 phases:

1. Hire a follower ( that is buying a guy for 5 GP )

2. Complete tasks ( conquer a field, fortify a field,&/or use a magic card )- as the game progresses you have more followers in your hand so you get to play a lot more cards then in the beginning of the game.

3. Draw/Exchange cards ( you get to draw one more card at the end of your turn and an additional card for every mage you have not used. So you have to think about not using the mages as much as you would like or you will get low on cards and not have the options of cards when you need them. You can also trade in any 2 of your cards for 1 card. In the beginning of the game if you get troop cards that need a lot of followers to use you may be better off trading some of these in for new cards.

4. Restore your followers ( you turn your followers upside down when you use them, so you know what you have left to still use. You now turn them back over and next turn they can all be used again ).


Each follower is different and has a Attack # & a Support # on the top left side. Below this is a picture or two of the followers you will need to use this card and then a # beside it of how many of that type of followers. For example a simple Spearman card has 1 attack value and 1 support value, he only take 1 Warrior to use. A Halberd card has 2 attack and 2 support and he needs 2 Warriors and 1 Craftsman to use.


Game Play: Like I mentioned earlier it is a pretty easy game to understand after just a few turns. So who ever goes first will have 3 followers and be limited on his options of where to go. A lot of luck is involved in what cards you get in the beginning and through out the game. So all the tiles have a # on them. You need to match that # with your attack value to claim that tile. So a Halberd troop who has 2 attack and 2 support could take over a 2 point tile on your first turn by using all 3 of your followers. You then put the card on the tile and colored glass chip on the card to show you have conquered that tile. You then get to get 2 GP for conquering that tile. Your turn is over beacuse you have no more followers that can be used so you pick up your one new follower card and turn over the followers and wait for your next turn ( although this is the time where you figure out where you want to go next ). On your next turn you would buy another follower because in the early part of the game you always need more followers. So lets say you buy a mage. Now you could conquer a tile anywhere on the board but if beside the 2 pt. tile you just took over last turn their is a tile worth 4 pts. you could try and take it over. Since your original halberd guy has a 2 support that means any tile next to him you already have 2 attack from his support. So if you had another halberd guy in your hand you could place him on the 4 pt. tile because his 2 attack + the 2 support from the adjacent tile equals 4. You would then collect 4 gp. Now lets say you have a battle mage ( which has 1 attack and 1 support and takes only 1 mage to use ) you could end your turn and collect 2 new followers ( 1 extra for the mage you did not use ) or you could use your mage to take over another tile. There are lots of 1 pt. tiles and you could get one anywhere on the board which is a good thing to be a little spread out sometimes and to deny other players the easy low point tiles. Lets say beside the 2 and 4 pt tiles you have already conquered with 2 different halberd troops are by a 5 pt. tile you would have 4 support from the 2 halberds and could use your battle mage card to take that space ( your 1 attack + 4 support from 2 differen tiles that are touching the tile you are going for equals 5 and you would conquer this tile and get 5 more GP. You would only get one new follower troop then since you used your mage to lay your battle mage follower ).

Are you still with me good, if not, oh well. You can only lay one follower per tile, so you can not stack a few guys on the same tiles to build up your support #. But you can lay down 1 fortification card on a tile you have already conquered. The fortifications come in #'s form 1 to 4 and that is how much extra support they give. So if you had the tile with the battle mage on it that has 1 attack and 1 support he is not giving much support if your trying to take over a 8-12 pt. tile. So you could lay a fortification that is worth 3 support on it and then you would get 4 support in total ( 1 from the battle mage and 3 from the fortification ). On top of that there are a lot of magic cards that can add to your attack value or do all sorts of cool stuff to mess with the other guy ( you can steal a card, you can put a plague on everyone else, you can flood a tile you can not get to and keep others from getting those points, you can have a magic builder so you can build a higher pt. fortification then you have cards for, you could get a shadow army and get to use a lot of extra cards, and some other really fun cards ).

Part of the strategy is to not let yourself get boxed out at the end of the game where you can not get conquer any tiles. It is also important to make sure you position yourself so you can get the high point tiles if you want to win. A lot of times someone else snakes the tiles you where going to be going for next time and you have to figure out a new place to go, just all part of the fun.. A big part is deciding if the other guy can take what tiles and try and snake them from him to screw him over, or to help yourself.


The warriors give you good attack value and poor support value, the Craftsman give you poor attack value and good support value, and the mages give you magic and extra cards. You will always have different strategy in this game depending on what your starting cards are. You have to pick followers that match up with your cards. It actually turns into a really fun balancing act trying to make the best decisions and use the cards and followers to their best advantage. The game will always be different and you have to be able to figure out what you can do with the hand you are dealt. For me this makes for a lot of replayability and keeps the game fun to play even after multiple plays.


Fun Factor:For me this is a very fun game and so far everyone I have played with has asked to play again. A few of my friends have really enjoyed it and ask to play this one first on game days. I find it to be a very interesting game and am not sure what to call it. I would almost lean towards a Euro game since the fighting monster they talk about is more about managing cards and area control. But I am pretty new around the BGG and may not really have my terms down yet.

I would like to say I have figured this game out, but I don't think I am even close to that all said and done since every game is so different from the last in the way I play. Sometimes you are using lots of Craftmen and getting great support all over the place, sometimes you are just using brute force with lots of warriors, sometimes the Mages can win it for you with all their magic, and most times it is balancing you hand between all 3 styles. It can be a screw your neighbor game if you want it to be, or it can be a more friendly game although at the end when there are few tiles left you can not help but take a tile someone else was looking to get on their next turn. The game takes about 35-60 minutes which is just the length of game I like. With 3 or 4 people I think it plays great, with 5 it has a little down time, but not to bad to make it not worth playing and really it just gives you extra time to figure out the very best place to go with the cards and followers you have to work with.


Pros:
Supporting a Self published game
Easy to learn
Replayability factor high
Always different strategies
Good solid components
can make the game longer or shorter by how many tiles you use
2 different games versions to choose from


Cons:
No dice involved
No real violence to speak of ( you are killing orcs & dragons & attacking fortresses but compared with Ameri-trash games that I have played it just doesn't feel like you are )
No 2 person version of the game ( my only real complaint on this one )

Hope you enjoyed my review and

Game On'