Let me preface this with the following: I played a demo version of the game at Gen Con. This was open for all to demo, and many did. No NDA was required (like a few other games FFG was demo-ing/testing) and I was told that posting a review wouldn't be an issue. If, however, it is, let me know and I'll happily take this down!

Played this one at Gen Con, they had a demo copy together but it was obviously just for playtesting, as the cards were paper and the figures were spraypainted.

As the game is incredibly long we just ended up playing a demo, which cut the game down to about 1/3 of the normal time. Here it goes!

Each player starts the game with a single city, 3-4 troops (number dependent on faction) and 2-3 emissaries. You also have your own deck of cards you draw from, you begin the game with 2 of these and 3 cards from a 'common deck' that has a different type of cards. You start off with 3 gold and, depending on your faction and how many troops you got, one or more sorcery tokens. All of your troops start in a single province.

Players start the game with several tokens used for bidding. These range in value from 0 (worth nothing, but will get all tokens you have bid with in the past back) to 6 (at least, the highest I had). During the beginning of the game you will select one of these tokens, and one of the 3 cards you drew from the ‘common deck’, that also has a numeric value assigned to it depending on it’s strength. Every player reveals the token and card selected, and the highest total is the Conan player for this round. A Conan figure is placed on his starting location on the board and a ‘quest’ is drawn from a deck, that displays a location he must reach (which is also marked) and the length of time he has to get there, which is the number of tokens placed on a track. The Conan player then begins the game by rolling a handful of dice.

These dice are the central mechanic of the game. They are very similar to the dice rolled in War of the Ring in that they determine which actions you can take through a variety of symbols, but there is one notable exception: the Conan player will be taking one of these actions, removing the die from the pool, at which time the next player will take one of the actions remaining, removing it, etc. Thus the players go around the table, each taking an action until the pool has run out of dice. At this time the player whose turn it is will roll the entire pool again and the process will begin anew. This will continue until Conan has completed or failed the current quest.

On a given players turn, based on the results of the roll, the following options may be available:

Military Action:

This is represented by a banner and allows the player to take over land. This is important, because this is the primary method by which one gains victory points, and thus wins the game. A military action can be used for several things, but generally it will be one of the following: move troops and attack, or add a single new troop to one of the lands you control. The latter is rather self explanatory, so I’ll focus on the former. In order to attack a province, you will be moving some or all of your units in one province to an adjacent province. For the first several turns this will be a neutral province. At this time you have to convince the locals that you are the new boss, which involves taking a look at each provinces traits. First, each province has a strength. This will usually range from 2-5. Second, each province will have a number of symbols reflecting the various challenges present in subjugating said province. This will usually be from 2-4, and represent the number of successful battles that must take place before the province is yours. Still with me? Good.

When you take the military action to move your troops into the province, you move all units to their destination and then roll a number of combat dice equal to the number of units you moved. Combat dice display the following six sides:

Blood Splatter (Hit)
Blood Splatter + Sword (Hit, or 2 Hits if you are the Conan player)
Color Reversed Blood Splatter (Hit, but only if you are the attacker)
Axe (May be a hit, see below)
Shield (May be a hit, see below)
Blank (Always a miss)

Before rolling the dice the player has a chance to play a single card from his hand. This will be a card he has drawn from the common deck all players draw from. At this point he is looking for the card to contain a symbol that matches the leftmost symbol on the province. Just to refresh, this would be one of the symbols mentioned above that determine how many battles are to be fought. It could be a forest, mountain, plains, etc. If the player has such a card and wishes to play it, he will either count Axes or Shields as hits as well in this combat, depending on the card. Once a player has played a card or opted not to, the dice are rolled. The player to his left then rolls a number of dice equal to the strength of the province. Whoever rolls the most hits wins the combat, with the ‘defender’ winning ties. If the attacker wins, he takes a single troop and places him on the next province symbol to the right, to show that he has successfully passed the first challenge and is on to the next. If the defender wins the attacker removes a single troop and is done for the turn.

Additionally, the if the attacker is successful, he may choose to ‘forced march’ his units. He destroys a single unit, then moves on to the next challenge and repeats the above process. He may do this as long as he wishes, as long as he continues to win and has troops to burn. If the attackers successfully completes the last challenge in a province he may place a fortress in that province and add the provinces’ strength to his current victory points total. He only gets these points as long as he holds that province.

The process is similar if an opposing player occupies the province, but that player will always roll the dice as the defender, the defender will roll a number of dice equal to his number of troops or the provinces’ strength (whichever is higher), the defender will have the ability to play strategy cards (this would be where your personal deck comes into play) to bolster his troops, and a successful combat will destroy the army of the other side. Further combat actions (or forced marches) must be taken to then conquer the province.

Intrigue Action:

This is represented by a cup and allows the player several different options, the most important being to move his diplomats and attempt to take over a province in a more friendly manner. This is a bit of a risk/reward: you can control a province (and gain victory points) much easier, but it is also much easier for your opponent to take control. To do this you move one of your diplomats from any of your provinces to any province adjacent to one of yours. This must be a neutral province, or a province with an opponents embassy (but not fortress or any military units). You then roll a number of dice equal to one plus the number of provinces you control that are adjacent to this province. Your leftmost opponent rolls dice equal to the provinces defense, as usual. If you fail the roll your diplomat stays put, but the province isn’t yours. If you make it you discard the diplomat from play and set up an embassy. This gives you control of the province but will not produce troops, like a fortress, and can be discarded by an opponents diplomat if they ‘attack’ the province. Note that only one successful roll is required here, even if the province has several different icons on it. Also note that like attacking, you may discard a card from your hand to have axes or shields count as hits, but the cards you are able to play go by the region displayed on the card, not the icons shown on the card.

Conan Actions:

This is going to be a bit different, depending on if you are a Conan player or a non-Conan player. If you are a Conan player you will remove the rightmost token from the Conan track. This token you can keep (for future bidding on artifacts: I’ll get to that at the end) or discard immediately for gold or sorcery (depending on the token). You then move the Conan figure one space (presumably towards your destination). The space Conan is on will be a bit tougher to hold, which adds another layer of strategy to the movement. If Conan reaches his goal destination, the quest is completed. Otherwise it continues.

If a non-Conan player takes this action, he takes a token from the Conan track as above and may keep it or trade it in. He does NOT, however, move Conan, as he is simply trying to burn out the track and cause him to fail his quest. No matter which player takes the action, you are then able to draw cards from your own strategy deck (2), the common card deck (2), or both (1 each).

Attack/Intrigue Actions:

This displays both symbols and allows you to take either action.

Wild Action:

This allows you to take any action. It WILL allow you to draw cards with the Conan action, but will not allow you to control Conan or take a token off his track. This cannot be used to take any action that is currently still shown in the pool.

Strategy Action:

Some strategy cards show the symbol of one of the dice. This allows you to use that dice to take an action to play the card, and follow its text. This could be a variety of things.


Play continues as above until Conan has completed or failed his quest. If he has failed his quest a new quest is drawn and the Conan player position is once again auctioned off. If he completes his quest the same happens, but the Conan player also gets to draw an extra quest token from the pile, which he can keep or trade for gold/sorcery. Once 2 quests have been completed you enter a new Age. There is a whole lot of upkeep/maintenance here, which involves taxing your provinces for gold, adding troops to each province that contains a fortress, drawing cards, etc. You can then buy extra cards, troops, or diplomats with the gold you collected. Finally, three artifacts are auctioned off, using the Conan quest tokens collected. These artifacts give the holder a special power (winning ties in combat, gaining advantage in diplomatic contests, etc) that they will use until someone else wins the auction. Additionally, if Conan is residing in your starting province, and you feel you have the most of one type of token, you may attempt to crown him as your king. You reveal your tokens and if you indeed had the most, you gain a very large point advantage and a huge lead in the game. If you are incorrect, Conan beheads you and you immediately lose.

Other Details:

Sorcery tokens are gained at the start of the game, and through trading in quest tokens. These allow you to reroll ALL of the dice rolled in a combat, success or no.

Strategy cards come in several varieties. Some allow you to react to certain events, gain an advantage in combat, etc. Others take the place of a standard action and require a certain type of die to activate. Finally, you have character cards, which cost gold and are played at the beginning of your turn and laid in front of you. These have certain powers which you must ‘tap’ the card to activate. At the beginning of your turn you may pay the characters gold cost again to ‘untap’ the card and make it available for use once more.

Each Age several victory point cards will be laid at the top of the board. Each card has a certain goal that must be obtained (have the most fortresses, have the most embassies on the board, have the largest army, etc) and at the end of the age whoever meets the criteria on a certain card gains a bonus victory point. These are changed in every age and add another layer of strategy to the game.

Final Thoughts:

I went into the game unsure whether I’d enjoy it, as it seemed like a dumbed down version of War of the Ring. After playing through I definitely believe it has some similarities, but plays as an entirely different game. The action dice mechanic completely changes when every player draws from the same pool, and I feel combat is much more interesting. The game will be very combat centric, though I love the diplomat/embassy mechanic. Having Conan wander the board causing trouble is flavorful, and I feel well integrated into the game. My biggest disappointment was that I could not purchase the game after playing, as everyone who played absolutely loved it. The demo-er thought the game would be out by the end of the year, but wasn’t sure.

Hope this was helpful, I’m happy to answer any questions out there!