During the 2008 edition of Lucca Games (Italy), I've been given the honour of being the offical demonstrator for Age of Conan boardgame (I will also post pictures of the event soon), in the Nexus stand. In four days of continuous play (from 9 a.m to 7 p.m.) I've played and taught to play enough games to gain a decent understanding of both rules and mechanics of this highly expected boardgame. I've talked at lenght with one of the authors (Roberto Di Meglio) and so I've decided to write this preview/review.
I will not focus on the rules, as many other reviews in this forum (from demo games) have already told you about "the rulebook"; I will instead attempt to offer a deep insight into what is the final "version" of the game, and its gameplay.
WARNING: Please note that some of the game terms will be different in the English Rules. This is because the Demo copy in Lucca was in Italian, therefore I have not been able to read the English rules.

Box content
Judging from the "final" demo copy of the game, the box will contain a rich hoard of materials that will enhance the gaming experience. The game, as most of you may have learned, is for 2, 3 or 4 players. Each player takes the role of one of the major Powers in Hyborea during the Age of Conan: Aquilonia, Turan, Stygia, and Hyperborea. In a 2-players game, only Aquilonia and Turan will play. The 3rd player will take Stygia, and Hyperborea is reserved for the 4th player.
Each Power has its uniquely sculpted Military units and Emissaries (Diplomatic units), while Fortresses and Towers are similar for all players (but of course different in colour). Furthermore, each Power has its own card deck, called Reign (or Realm) deck. Each power starts with 4 Military units, and 4 Emissaries.
Finally, each player takes 3 Gold counters. Aquilonia and Turan take one more Military unit, while Stygia and Hyperborea take 2 Sorcery counters each. Then each player draws two cards from his own Reign deck and two card from the Strategy deck, which is a "common" deck of cards that have several uses (see below).

The Game Map
The game map is about half the size of the War of the Ring map. The game can be easily played on almost every table (unlike War of the Ring).
The map is divided in 4 main sections.
On the top of the map there are the Adventure section and the Objectives section.
The main map represents Hyborea, subdivided in 4 main regions, differently coloured: the North (Purple), the East (Yellow), the Central Hyborea (Brick red), and the South (Green). Each main region is further divided into Provinces, which in turn bear, printed on them: its name, a number (2,3, or 4), and a series of coloured circles, that represent Terrains (see below). The player provinces have only their name printed on, and they cannot be attacked, conquered, or diplomatically annexed.
All the other provinces start as Neutral.
Finally, we find an area dedicated to both the Strategy card deck, and the Fate dice pool. On the bottom of the map we find the Score Track (Empire points).

The game: Conan Adventures and Ages
The aim of the game is to have more Empire points than anyone else at the end of the game. The game is divided in three Ages, and it ends either when the Third Age ends, or during the Third Age whenever Conan is crowned king.
Each age lasts 4 Adventures. Let me explain a bit more about Conan's Adventures, then. During the game, while the players vie for the control of Hyborea, Conan moves around the map to accomplish quests, called Adventured, that are represented by a deck of Adventure cards. on each Age, 4 cards are drawn and the first is turned face up. That will be the first Adventure. Each Adventure card shows a target location (a Province on the map) and has a number of steps, that in turn are represented, in the game, by Resource counters. There are just three resources: Monsters, Treasures, and Women (the only things that matter for Conan,
after all). The couters are placed in the Adventure track under the Adventure cards space on the map. These counters are used for several reasons. First, they can be immdediately exchanged for either Gold or Sorcery counters. Second, they can be used to bid for the control of special Artifats (I will tell more of them later). Finally, they are used to crown Conan during the Third Age.
Whenever the Resource counters in the Adventure track are exhausted, the
Adventure is over, and a new Adventure card is drawn. When the 4th Adventure is over, an Age ends, and the score is calculated.
If, at the end of an Adventure, Conan is in the "target" province, the Adventure is successful, and the player who controls Conan (see below) gains a further Resource counter. Otherwise, no one gains anything.

The Game: Empire points and Artifacts
Now, let us see how to gain Empire points.
Empire points are mainly gained via Military occupation of Neutral provinces (or Enemy ones, once you have destroyed their garrison AND Fortress). Whenever one occupies a Province with an Army, a Fortress is placed there, and the corresponding points are gained. When an Age ends, the Fortresses give further points. A Military conquest uses (of course) Soldiers. There are also Objective cards in play, and each one gives normally 1 to 2 Empire points if fulfilled. Note that several players may fulfill any given objective, so that they ALL gain points. If an Objective card is fulfilled, it is discarded and a new Objective card is drawn. Otherwise, the Objective remains in play until it is fulfilled. Objectives are checked only at the end of an Age.
Finally, at the end of the game one can gain Empire points also in other ways, such as crowning Conan, being the Richest empire, and/or controlling the majority of one or more Resource types. It is also possible to gain control of a Province with an Intrigue action (that is:
diplomatically), and then a Tower is placed in the conquered province; but in this case the player gains Gold but not Empire points. Once a player places a Tower in a Province, he cannot attack that province again (unless, of course, he loses the province to an enemy player). For the Intrigue actions, Emissaries are used, instead of Armies (Soldiers).
Artifact cards are to be mentioned at this point: they represent powerful Hyborea Artifact (The Heart of Tammuz, the Crown of the Cobra, and the Sword of Atlantis), and are used to gain particular benefits during the game. Each player controls only ONE artifact at any given time. Artifact are gained randomly at the beginning of the game, and after each Era they are obtained by bidding Resource counters.

The Game: Combat Dice and Actions
Both Military and Intrigue action are resolved with special combat dice. The attacker rolls the appropriate number of dice (usually one for each Army or one for each Emissary in or around the contested Province, and always a maximum of 5 dice, 6 in special instances), and the defender does the same. If the defender is a Neutral Province, the dice rolled are equal to the number printed on the Province. The winner is the side who rolls more successes. Some symbols on the dice can be used as successes only by playing the appropriate Strategy card.

Intrigue actions are relatively easy: whoever wins the first round wins the Province. On the contrary, Military actions are a long and complex affair. They give Empire points, so they are vital to the game.
You may remember that each Province has a series of circles that represent Terrains (Hills, Forests, Plains, and Cities). Well, each Military action allows to fight for just ONE of the Terrains in a given Province. Victory means that the attacker may step on the next Terrain, and he must either Force March (lose one Soldier) or wait for his next turn to attack again. When the attacker wins a battle in the last Terrain of a Province, he conquers it, and places a Fortress on the Province, gaining Empire points. The Strategy cards can be played in Military actions but only on the appropriate kind of terrain.
Whenever there is a battle between players, each victory eliminates an enemy unit (first Soldiers, then Towers or Fortresses), and when the last unit is gone, the province becomes Neutral (so it can be conquered again). Winning a battle against another player gives to the victor a "Crom counts the dead" token (which is exchanged for an Empire point at the end of the game).

The Game: Conan
OK, the game is called "Age of Conan". Then let us talk about Conan himself! It is vital to obtain the "control" of Conan (I would use the word "control" with caution, if you know Conan...).When a player controls Conan, he can draw a Resource counter and move Conan at the beginning of each of his turns. So if you control Conan you gain a lot of Resources. Furthermore if Conan successfully completes an Adventure (even because of another player's action) the player controlling Conan immediately gains another Resource counter.
So how you can hope to control Conan? Each Strategy cards shows on its upper right corner a number, and each player also has 6 numeric counters. Both these numbers show the Face of Conan symbol. Before the Dice of Fate are rolled (more of it below), players will bid a Strategy card AND a numeric counter to gain control of the Cimmerian. Cards used in the bid are always discarded, numeric counters are usually discarded (except the "3" counter). The player who bids more controls Conan and becomes the "Conan" player.

The Game: Fate and the Dice
Then we will talk about the Dice of Fate.
As in War of the Ring, in Age of Conan there are some special dice (seven of them) called the Dice of Fate. The "Conan" player will roll the 7 dice, and place them in the Fate pool on the map. In turn, starting with the Conan player, each player will select ONE and only one action die, discarding it and taking the corresponding action. This means that by selecting an action, you take it away from other players. Whenever the dice of Fate are exhausted, a new bid for Conan is played, and the process continues.
The possible actions are: Military action, Intrigue (diplomatic) action, and Conan - Court actions (on the dice there are also two more symbols: a "Crom" action, which is a jolly, and a double symbol Military/Intrigue which allows a player to choose EITHER one or the other action).
The Conan - Court action is the most complex one to explain. First the player plays a Conan action: if he is the Conan player, he can move Conan and place a Raider counter (a counter which gives some problems to the other players); if he is NOT the Conan player, he can take a Resource counter from the Adventure track (thus accelerating the end of a quest...). Then, the player takes a Court action (either plays a Court card from his hand - Court cards are from the Reign deck, or draws cards).

The Game: Gold and Sorcery
The last thing I will talk about is the use of Gold and Sorcery counters.
Gold is used during the turns to activate Power cards (cards from the Reign deck that "upgrade" military or diplomatic units), and to pay for the "upkeep" of these cards as well. Also, at the end of each Age, Gold is used to buy units and cards.
Sorcery tokens are commonly used to reroll ALL the combat dice, but Stygia and Hyperborea may use them to activate special effects from their own Reign cards.

Personal Impressions
After four days and at least 40 games played I think that this game simply rocks. I have had some perplexity about War of the Ring because it is sort of "guided" in many ways, being it a perfect reproduction of the book. Age of Conan instead is completely free. Players have very high degree of freedom in the choice of actions. Furthermore the interaction between players is nearly perfect, as pretty much anything you choose to do will influence other players.
The Fate mechanics are much better than in War of the Rings, and the gameplay is under two hours with 4 players - with very little downtime (almost none), and continuous action. The game scales perfectly with any number of players, and conflict between players are very very common.

The balance of the game is well done, and each Power has a very appropriate Reign deck that helps to recreate the Age of Conan feeling. There are many strategies to win, and none (at this moment) works better than the other. The Luck factor is present but does not break the balance of the game (furthermore, I cannot conceive a wargame without dice).
Battles are a complex task to undertake, the supremacy in the Military field is not easy to obtain, and completely conquer an enemy province is a long and bloody affair; diplomacy gives you easy money but reduces the number of Empire points you may gain.
Strategy cards are important in many ways so you have to decide whether to use them in Intrigue, Military or Conan Bidding actions. A very very good game indeed!

All in all this game works perfectly and I think it is a vast
improvement over the already successful War of the Ring, that will please any fantasy player. The saga of Conan is very well rendered in this ludic form, and I think that this game will further place the Authors in the Gotha of Game Designers. Age of Conan really has all the numbers to rise and shine above the gaming landscape.
So, to use the words of Conan himself: Enough Talk!
Let's fight!