Sword, Sorcery, and two ways to live the legend, new adventures and massive reprint!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/monolithboardgames/conan-by-monolith-tales-of-tortage-and-zamora
After all these years this is still one of my favourites.
A couple of new expansions this Kickstarter but importantly its possibly the last time you’ll get access to the older content.
What’s the best older content
For newcomers, the King Pledge, is the main entry point into the game. For €89 excl. VAT, it brings together the core game and its original Stretch Goals in two large boxes containing 227 miniatures, 3 double-sided boards, 25 Hero sheets, 156 tiles, 21 dice and 16 scenarios.
The core box — more than most would ever need just here. And if you prefer extra scenarios in hard cover vs digital you might consider, Chronicles of the Free Companions.
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Or were you after feedback on the older expansions?
How are you normally playing this? It has three game modes- solo, co-op, and one vs all.
I am mostly curious about the experience as a solo player.
Solo and Co-op are basically the same thing. The heroes spend their energy in any way they choose, then you randomly activate enemies and events for the Overlord following relatively straightforward rules.
It’s a great scenario based skirmish game. The mechanics are centred around an energy resource which you can expend each turn. Blowing all your energy at once can lead to the most epic turns only to leave you limping about for the rest of the scenario. Or conserve your energy from round to round waiting for the right moment to cut loose.
There’s the odd single hero scenario but for the most part you will find yourself multi-handed with an incarnation of Conan and some of his friends. Managing several heroes is not a huge brain burner, and given the free form nature of how players take turns, its really quite natural to play out a round moving between heroes as needed until you decide you’ve spent enough energy.
Campaigns are a series of isolated skirmishes related by a storyline. You can often transfer some items and companions from scenario to scenario but there’s not a huge sense of progression; sometimes the story even has you switch sides and play the bad guys to give you a different view point.
I love the game. But many do not.
PS. It’s fun to play with others, and I really wish I had a playgroup that would embrace the one vs many adventure mode.
I was a bit concerned of the possible simplicity with the game. Someone said it was like Hero Quest in a post I read. Which is a bit too light for us. But after watching this single character scenario attempt by Rolling Solo I think I’m more likely to pick it up:
We have Imperial Assault and enjoy that in coop with the fan-made companion app. Looks like this is fairly similar but without the need for an app.
Are the other characters as fun to play as Conan? Or does he get more options and energy than everyone else so that he stays the star?
Thank you for the information!
I also watched the Rolling Solo video and was turned off by the single character in solo mode. I’m glad to hear other scenarios utilize more characters. That will make the gameplay feel more dynamic. I will try out the TTS mod I found to sample gameplay. (Although I always find the digital versions to be pale ghosts of the tactility of cardboard and tokens.)
Watching that video made me reminisce about Burncycle. I enjoy the puzzle of committing resources before the check to determine how many dice I will roll.
You have a pre-defined scenario that you play out on a pre-set board; sort of similar to Hero Quest. However, the skirmish rules including energy, hinderance, hero skills, line of sight and so on make for a much more involved game.
Older scenarios nominate specific heroes for each encounter. In more recent years, co-op scenarios target 3-4 players and suggest you take a warrior, rogue and mage; these classes are loosely defined with suggested hero lists for each. So you have a wide range of party choice if you’re not too bothered about the thematic accuracy of Conan lore. You don’t even have to take Conan with you – but where’s the fun in that?
Some hero’s are just better than others stat-wise and this is mostly true of the host of “Conans” you can choose from; conqueror, pirate, rogue, berserker, general and so on. This upsets some but is true to the Hyborian Age; Conan is built to drive his enemies before him and hear the lamentations of their women.
That said, the difference is not too dramatic and rogues and mages offer specific skill sets that are crucial for success in many scenarios; spell casting, evasion, lock-picking and more.
Single hero scenarios are few and far between. Individual co-op scenarios can range in hero count, often setting the scene for a specific story or tale. Campaigns (a chain of scenarios) are designed for 3 heroes with an optional 4th hero.
Awesome! Thanks for all the info. I’m sold on getting some assortment of things here. Still deciding what will be the best bang for my buck.
I’ve been waffling about this game since the original post here. These days I can usually turn down a crowdfunding campaign and easily walk away if there is any doubt in my mind about if I have space in my collection for it. Space really is the limiting factor these days.
I think this game is different because it peaked my interest ten years ago after the initial campaign. It’s like backdoor access to my loss aversion.
After several play sessions on TTS I’ve found myself really enjoying the game. There are tense moments when something that shouldn’t work out does, or when a “sure thing” falls flat. With more plays I began to understand the tradeoffs of saving energy for later or risking it to widen the success margin a little. And playing as the overlord has different paths with their strategic depths.
I ended up backing this one. Thanks to NotPeople for your analysis of the solo content on BGG. I was able to use that guide to create a lower tier pledge that fit my budget for a new game.
I’m glad my thoughts on BGG helped you. I had a very slow workday and got to spend most of it figuring out what might be a good amalgamation of items to throw together. I didn’t write it there but we eventually decided to not go for any of the extra heroes. It seems like switching characters out can greatly effect scenario balance, and knowing the rate at which we change the games on our table I’m not sure we’d end up messing with that aspect. So my pledge ended up being for an assortment of what would give us the most scenarios for a reasonable price.
