Last month I
started to play Conan, a boardgame from Monolith, the game
company who developed Conan as a kickstarter project. We like to play miniature
driven wargames (like Memoir '44) and thematic fantasy battle games like
Warhammer (40K) and Lord of the Rings, so playing Conan is a next logical step.
So, why do we play Conan? Since there are many fantasy miniature games around, like Dungeons & Dragons, LotR, WH40K and good old classic Runequest.
First of all, Conan is a fun game, that let you laugh and play an interesting wargame which is quite entertaining.
Secondly, we like the lore and mythos of Conan. Although not so elaborated as Lord of the Rings, Conan has a specific World setting, wich feels both genuine and classic since it was deveolped by Robert E. Howard in the 1930's. An old world full of long forgotten people and kingdoms, but reminiscent of our own well known Earth in earlier times. It's the Hyborean world of Conan, which existed long before mankind populated Europe and Africa. Interesting fact is, that all the different peoples, tribes and countries have there look-a-likes in the modern world. So, although the World of Conan is a fantasy world, if feels also familiar since the setting is our own planet - many eons ago. So, no orcs, elves, goblins and dwarven races in Conan, but real or undead people. The monsters can be weird, but are in a way familiar too, like the monsters of old in the Greek and Babylonian stories
Scenarios
One of the interesting things of the Conan board game is playing one of the many scenarios, which are provided by the Base Game or the various expansions. Also, there are two excellent websites where you can find community written scenarions to expand your world of Conan.
These sites are:
1. The Overlord website, with many official scenarios.
2. The Conan Scenarios website, a gold mine of many official and custom made scenarios.
Overlord vs. Overlord scenarios
If you like the Warhammer 40K small skirmishes (WH40K in 40 minutes), than many of the Conan scenarios feels much the same. One way to play these scenarios like Warhammer, is to play it with 2 players, who are only using the Book of Skelos. So, in fact this is a 2-player variant where tiles in the Book of Skelos determines what is going on at the battlefield.
One example of such an Overlord vs. Overlord scenario, is the Ball of Saint Val scenario, made by Joce. It is originally in the French language (mind that Conan is developed by a French company and French game designers - Frédéric Henry as main designer -, and there is a rather large French fanbase who make custom scenarios), but I translated and adapted it in English.
Here is the first example of a game of 2 Overlords, to be played at or near St. Valentines day on the 14th of February (or, in ancient times on the 15th....). Have fun with it!
