Age of Conan: The Strategy Board Game v3

A pittance to protect you from evil.

Announcing a complete revamp of the Age of Conan: The Strategy Board Game rules summary and reference.

A little while back I played a two player game of Age of Conan, for the first time since the expansion Adventures in Hyboria was released. It was a long, long game, and though it was quite enjoyable, I felt that it was sometimes bogged down by some of the fiddly detail in the expansion. It was particularly difficult to remember the sequence of steps required to advance Conan’s experience, and I vowed to add some quick reference visuals to my summary to make playing the game faster and easier.

Well I’ve been working on that for quite some time, because this is the kind of game that promises so much if you can just get comfortable with the rules, and I wanted to do it justice. It’s a bit like first edition War of the Ring in that respect, and it’s no coincidence that the game is by the same designers. There’s a lot of rich gameplay on offer, it can just get a bit obscured by mechanical processes. For example, there are three different types of military contests in the game, and while they all follow roughly the same sequence of steps, there are unique things to remember in each instance.

So, finally, here’s a completely redone third version of my rules summary and reference for Age of Conan. Not only does it include some visual aids for the new Conan steps, but there’s a new reference card for when you’re using the expansion, a reference card for the card backs (I can never remember which card deck is which), and a couple of new Conan player cards (for use with the just the base game, or the base game with the expansion).

Now crushing your enemies (and driving them before you) is easier than ever before!