In Age of Conan, you will find 12 different sculptures depicting the armies, heroes and villains of the Hyborian Age. And here, you can preview them all!
In Age of Conan, each player is in control of the fate of one of the 4 major kingdoms of Hyboria – Aquilonia, Stygia, Turan and Hyperborea.
The goal of the game is to make your kingdom the greater of this time, and there are two ways to achieve this – intrigue and military action.
Your emissaries are the means by which you do intrigue. Intrigue is fundamental as an empire-building activity, as it’s the major way to accumulate gold for your kingdom – and gold is necessary to increase the might of your armies and make them unstoppable forces on the field of battle.
Your emissaries will persuade with diplomacy, guile, treachery and sorcery the minor powers to become your allies, establishing the foundation of your power. They will also adventure, trade and intrigue in enemy lands, bringing more gold to your coffers.
You will place a tower with the color of your kingdom – another of the figures included in the game - to mark the alliance with a neutral nation.
In the end, they can’t win the game for you – but you can’t win without them, either.
The sculptures of the emissaries are based on archetypes of non-military figures of the different kingdoms, so you will see in the game a noble Aquilonian, a wily Turanian diplomat, a Stygian sorcerer and a Hyperborean wizard.
Your armies are of course the hammer by which you will crush the opposition – first you will go out and conquer the small neutral kingdoms, then you will have to face the armies and the allied kingdoms of your opponents.
You will need gold and military actions to recruit armies, and you will need more gold to put in play the “play on the table” cards of your Kingdom deck – these powerful cards, representing characters and elite units, will make your armies much more powerful in battle than mere numbers would suggest.
Only with armies you may subjugate the minor kingdoms and gain empire points – which, together with a number of bonus points, make up the bulk of your final score in the game.
Whenever you subjugate a neutral, you will mark your conquest with a fort – in time, however, your forts may develop into cities, and you may also mark this development by stacking a tower and a fort together (the figures may lock onto each other).
The sculptures of the army units are based on some of the best-known military of the different kingdoms. Aquilonia brings to battle powerful, armored foot-soldiers, while the Hyperboreans fight with the mighty Gurnakhi Giants. The Stygian army is composed of snake-warriors, fierce fighters wearing into battle helms with the likeness of a serpent, while Turan fights with light, agile soldiers carrying bow and scimitar.
Last but not least, the mighty figure of Conan the barbarian stands taller than everybody else on the board, sword in hand. Conan will be a powerful force which from time to time may help or hinder the player, and at the end of the game your performance in controlling Conan may be as important as the strength of your empire in determining whether you win or lose.
Conan will always be traveling from an adventure to another, and the obelisk figure, Inscribed with ancient runes from a forgotten time, marks the location where he’s traveling to.
www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/345949