I often describe Age of Conan as "Risk on steroids." Players control the kingdoms of Hyboria, using their armies and emissaries to take control of provinces, gaining money and victory points. Ultimately, as a player your goal is to (all together now):
- Crush your enemies
- See them driven before you
- Hear the lamentation of their women
The game addresses the question of "who gets to play Conan" in an interesting way. The game is divided into three Ages, with each age consisting of four of Conan's adventures. Each adventure is represented by a card that sets Conan's destination for that adventure; as each new adventure starts, players bid for control of Conan for the duration of the adventure. Controlling Conan is a huge tactical advantage, but at the same time the game requires Conan's controller to make some interesting and sometimes agonizing decisions.
At any point during the final Age of the game, a player may attempt to make Conan the ruler of their kingdom. This doesn't guarantee victory, but if successful it gives the crowning player a major leg up in the final scoring. During our game, Katherine conquered a lot more territory than I did, but I managed to sneak a very narrow victory by crowning Conan.
The game accommodates 2-4 players, and it scales up or down based on the number of players so it plays really well with a full group or with just 2.
Even at $80, we've gotten our money's worth out of Age of Conan. We love this game and we play it a lot, which may be why so many of our other games don't see the light of day very often.
Rating: 5 (out of 5) We could play this game all day, and often do.
- Age of Conan official website
- Age of Conan on BoardGameGeek.com
Date played: November 28, 2013