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 Bioptic wrote:
The (non-expansion) add-ons were definitely not worth it for the price - they don't even come with the promised missions in the box! ..

They moved up the add-ons from Wave 2 to Wave 1. The scenarios will be on the website 2017.


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 Bioptic wrote:
I honestly wonder if the number of boards is what will slightly less this game down - there are so many characters, monsters, scenarios (especially with the book add-on), but only 6 fixed maps to play on, the expansions adding another 2 each. Underlying game has had an extremely positive write-up so far though.

Main issue on BGG has been balance, not the boards. If you swap, frex, a different weapon or spell than the suggested starting equipment, your hero may play entirely differently, depending on what monsters your opponent has, and the rest of the scenario design.

I think that's more of a feature, though. I have enough dungeoncrawlers where one weapon or spell is Always Better than another.


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 Nostromodamus wrote:
I know, doesn't make it any less annoying that those who give them the most money usually get their stuff last.

Well, another reason to ship "simplest first" is that if there's a problem in fulfillment (and this includes shipping to domestics before internationals), they can fix subsequent shipments easier.

I really hope Monolith then automatically ships the corrected rulebook and components (which hasn't been addressed yet) in Wave 2, rather than wait for individual requests from Wave 2 owners.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/806316071/conan/posts/1722454

From Monoliths last update, Ship Naked is only about a quarter through shipping packages from the previous update saying they were
about a third way done.. At this rate that puts us into December with the Christmas shipping season. This just means more delays..

Shipping simple first is just a method of losing customers unless they stated this before hand.. How you treat customers goes a long way..
And with messed up rule book;Cards that are incorrectly translated; knowing there is missing parts (apparently there was missions to
go with the box sets and extra gems and bases with the king set) with all need to fill out a new form to request it...
I'm not sure if this will make me want to come back for Mythic battles..

 Genoside07 wrote:
Shipping simple first is just a method of losing customers unless they stated this before hand..

Got any proof of that? Because CMoN ships simplest first, and their Zombicide-related KS have gained customers and revenue with each successive launch.

Not only that, but they no longer promise to fulfill backers before retail, and they're still going strong.

I am in for Mythic Battles, I think. I'm hoping they've learned from the Conan experience, and also (rather selfishly) hoping this doesn't take off quite so well as Conan did.

 Genoside07 wrote:
The other thing that gripes me about this is the 2nd wave idea, the additional box sets and campaign book is delayed till next year..

But they have a ton of stuff completed for their new kick starter Mythic battles.. Why could they not put the resources towards finishing
their first kickstater before rolling out the next..

If you look at what is done for their new game and think how much could be done with the original instead it kind of makes me upset.

Yes.. I am still waiting for my stuff..and the new kickstarter is starting next week.. Sorry I can not go another round with this again..

No matter how much stuff you can get for free...

Mythic Battles is not just by Monolith. It's a co-production with Mythic Games who did all the games design and art direction for it. Mythic Battles was ready to go to KS a lot sooner than now, but because Monolith came on board as a partner during the process the decision was taken to delay the campaign until Monolith began shipping the first wave of Conan so as to avoid generating bad feeling amongst the Conan backers. The creation of the Mythic Battles core set hasn't impeded Monolith's ability to finish production on Conan, and it could have come to KS even sooner without having any impact on Conan, but like I say they chose not to so as not to generate bad feeling.

Hmm, I hadn't realised it was a co-production. The Conan game is so very good, as a game, that I would definitely be picking up Mythic Battles if it was basically Conan with an Ancient Greece re-skin. What do we know about Mythic Games, and about the gameplay of Mythic Battles?

It's a head-to-head game in which you draft a force consisting of a god plus some monsters, heroes, and troops, and you win by either killing the opposing god, or collecting four of seven objectives on the board. You can play it 2-4 players and apparently there are going to be scenarios though I've no idea what they involve. If you want to see the gameplay in detail, Beasts of War filmed a full game - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kQR6oFpp4U

In terms of crossing over with Conan, I know the boards are fully compatible, and you can use Conan boards in Mythic Battles and vice versa, I have heard the MB minis will also convert, but that must involve statting them up differently as you couldn't use them in Conan with their MB stats. I don't know if the Conan minis will convert to MB though at a guess I'd say not as it wouldn't work as well.

Most of these are OK to pretty good, but wow that bone golem is awful! It has 3 arms and all manage to be awkward and terrible looking

Apparently, there's a hit piece making the news:
http://doctacynthia.tumblr.com/post/153097860054/grab-em-by-the-board-game

tl;dr: Woman is very upset that board game that literally realizes the literary 1930s Conan has 1930s sensibilities, that women are not empowered.

My take? She should calm down.

Didn't read the article as quite frankly I can't be arsed to be subjected to the assumed content, but the likes of Valeria and Belit portray women in quite a powerful light.

Ok so they might have their tits out, but so does Conan.

Wow, that writer is dilusional. Conan is no different than lord of the rings... it was a stortyline written for entertainment many years ago to the target market at that time. It isn't about race, and Conan has allies from many countries who are heroes too. There are female heroes as well. And saving a princess? Yea, what's the big deal. She also forgot that conan is a barbarian and is almost naked most of the time too.

Folks like that writer try to delve into purpose, intent, and undertones that aren't there. Needless to say, she wouldnt get probable cause in court if she was looking for intent based on her theory. Anyone can speculate anything about any game, music, etc. I'm just glad she left the game scene, there is no point of having a poisonous attitude towards plastic soldiers, toys, and games like she had.

Good riddance. This game, art, and minis are freaking great. So glad I backed the game.

Well I laughed at the blogs name, "mostly true"

Well indeed it is a nice thing she decided to leave, I wonder how many things she poisoned before she did though, from the read I get the usual SJW vibe dismiss everything to push their own agenda...

But seriously blaming Conan for the results of this years US elections.... ?

I think she makes some solid points, notably that this game of the 21st century actually manages to be *even dodgier* in terms of racial and sexual politics than the stories that inspired it from the 1920s and 1930s.

Don't get me wrong, I love Conan, but I don't think it's unproblematic, and when I've worked with the IP myself, I've attempted to remain true to the original while also avoiding the most problematic aspects. And, I would argue that I've kept closer to the original, if anything -- my Conan RPG for Mongoose fifteen years back didn't have "healing potions" available in every treasure chest.

Was it "dodgie" back then? most of "dodgieness" I see comes from contemporary critics ignoring the age and era of his work.

Is the boardgame "dodgier" now than back then? well if it was not an issue back then and some thing it should be now I guess it is.

As for health potions? I am assuming its a game balance thing that a boardgame may need to have and an RPG does not need to have?

Hmm, I've not come across any contemporary critics who ignored the age and era of his work, and I think I've got and read most serious criticism of Howard ("The Dark Barbarian" anthology and the Mark Finn book). Care to give some examples?

I'm not sure what your 2nd para means, sorry. The boardgame wasn't around back then. We have made a fair bit of social progress in the past century or so, though, which is great, right?

I think it's perfectly possible to base your game balance on the theme, rather than departing from the theme for game balance purposes. If you absolutely need a source of healing for game balance in a Conan game, it's probably not a very Conan-like experience, given that Conan tends to finish most fights covered in innumerable wounds. Given a choice of picking a locked chest in hopes of finding a healing potion, or charging headlong into the fray, WWCD?

See my comments above though -- I've already said I think this is a superb game qua game, probably the best dungeon bash type game available. It is a much better dungeon bash than it is a Conan game, though.

What I meant is that in his time I do not think he had any critics all the criticism I have seen is from modern authors and critics that judge his work with modern standards and to be fair to the man Howard at least according to wikipedia was quite progressive thinking for his era, he even wrote an article defending the intelligence of women, I cannot call him a misogynist.

That been said, since you touched it we have both progressed and recessed a lot in the past century n many subjects and on some we have remained stable for centuries, I think that is irrelevant on the subject and judging an old work on modern standards ignoring the basis it was build on and around is bad.

Beyond that both the article linked above and the shut up and sit down review objections she copies almost to the letter are ridiculous in their assumptions, so naked or almost naked women, that must be definitely a stronghold of misogynists bend on degrading women, a typical damsel in distress is in the rules described to be handled with the same rules objects are treated, sure it cannot be because these are the rules the designers feel it is best for the scenario it must be an ulterior motive to degrade women...

Intentions and motives where there is none demonetisation of people doing really nothing bad, I am quite sure the vast majority of people watching the female figures in Conan appreciate the beauty of the female form, say cool or whatever and not think "finally a game showing women what is their place", claiming on top of that that this is the reason US elections went this way propels it in such ridiculous grounds I start to wonder.

On the last part maybe you are right maybe they could do another mechanic to do the same thing maybe get a healing with kills, name it adrenaline or whatever, but I think they playtest it and decided to have a fixed healing instead of a generating healing, probably the fact actions is also the health does not help having a health buffer zone.

So, do you have any examples of those modern authors? Like I say, other than The Dark Barbarian anthology and the Finn book I don't think there are many; I guess there is the APA, and of course Moorcock's critical volume on fantasy covers him, but largely praises him. I've not seen *any* critical appraisal that judges him by modern standards, but I guess there must be some, since you have. Could you name some names?

You have to realise that treating the only female character in a scenario as a literal object, is going to be problematic -- and again is something that Howard himself never did! That's her and my point -- that though Howard can be problematic to a modern audience (as Moorcock acknowledges, while finding himself unable to condemn him due to the sheer vibrancy and power of his writing), this particular game manages to double down on those problematic aspects by being, in several measurable ways, more problematic than the source material.

Neither the article-writer nor I objected to naked women per se. I don't think there was anything prudish about the article, and I think it's disingenuous to characterise it that way.

Meh. It's not a big deal. Most Conan games are more game than they are Conan. This is a very, very good dungeon-bash, way more fun that Super Dungeon Explore or Descent. I don't think anyone is trying to "demonetise" it. Rather, if games are art (and I certainly think they are), they are valid for critique, like any other art. If anything, that exalts them, rather than demonetising them (demonising them? either could work I think, depending on what you mean).

 Ian Sturrock wrote:
his is a very, very good dungeon-bash, way more fun that Super Dungeon Explore

Um, which SDE are you talking about? Original? Forgotten King? Arcade? or Beta? All of those rulesets play *very* differently.

That said, I can easily conceive of Conan being a better game than any / all of them!

Yea, the game does go over the top (or rather, the source material) in what seems to be an effort to be sexy and titillating, as the few stories I've read (and the movie, even!) seem more tame than the game is.

i think the blog author has a reasonable point. And I also think the game is good.

Oh please she starts the article with this....

Oh wait she removed the lines that she and other Asmodee north america employees forced monolith to make the artwork of the damsel in distress with bikini because Amsodee threatened her with legal action misrepresenting the company and its employees, shut up and gak down likewise continue push how many naked breasts are there "joking" about it of course both object to the naked women, the article writer just goes a step further accusing the quite typical artwork as been a depiction of one step before rape (because in her mind this is the only thing that will happen).

Now the damsel in distress is a hostage an objective for the game if she is handled as an object why should they write an entire new set of rules that is essentially "this is handled in the same way objects are handled but we wrote an entirely new rule so that easily offendable people will not be so offended", its a waste of time and resources.

Except, isn't the "ritual sacrifice of a virgin" the more common trope?

All of SDE. I bought the original, felt it took way too long to play for the arcade style action we'd been promised, loved the minis, bought Forgotten King because it supposedly streamlined the system, found that it was even worse, sold it, haven't been able to sell my original set yet (anyone?). A dungeon bash boardgame should not take five hours. Not in the 21st century. Conan will happily play in an hour.

I bought into FK for the same reason - it was supposed to simplify things. Did not. At all. Now the Betas are out, and they're basically where we were with the Original. -sigh-

Conan being a quick play is a good thing. No need to bog the game just because.

My experience (still just three games) is that it's more tactical, and has more interesting choices, in an hour than any iteration of SDE in five hours. Which is a pain. A game where you basically have to give up a whole day is fine if you are fourteen, and don't have the internet. It's no good for the 21st century though.

A friend of mine brought this out to the club yesterday. We played the intro quest (save the princess from the Pict village) through 4 times. The heroes saved the princess once.

It's a great game. The action point allocation system is fun.