Age of Conan returns

So... I backed another Kickstarter. This time, 'Age of Conan.' Ares picked up the title from FFG, and they're re-releasing the game along with an expansion that bolsters the Conan component. Additionally, they're adding some spies.

I didn't own 'Age of Conan' until this weekend when I scored an unplayed copy on Craigslist for twenty bucks. I know the game has it's detractors, but there also seems to be some love.

I did my best to find the Michael Barnes review, but alas - Crom must have swallowed it.

Is this game a clunker? Can an expansion fix / improve it?

Age of Conan KS link

Crom, count the tokens!

drewcula wrote: I did my best to find the Michael Barnes review, but alas - Crom must have swallowed it.

IIRC, M. Barnes never reviewed it because his group was never interested to try it or play it more than once. Barnes himself seemed to enjoy the game, with some reservations. You might find some posts on the forums.

I think a lot of the criticism in general was directed towards the implementation of a Conan figure driven by auctions, as well as the campaign aspect of the game, which focused for too many rounds on attacking the board rather than the other players.

We liked it well enough. It's not best in class, but I've kept my copy. It hasn't been played in quite a while though. I remember some of my mates disliking the fact that Stygia had an easily defensible southern area because you can't attack the home kingdoms.

I thought I'd written up a session report or (less likely) a review, but it appears I hadn't. To the best of my recollection, Columbob's thinking was rather like ours at the time. I didn't personally care much that I couldn't "be" Conan, although some people in 2009 were definitely bummed out about that. It felt at the time to be only vaguely asymmetrical, the map led to a lot of attacking of neutrals, and the rules in general just seemed a bit much.

jpat wrote: [...] the rules in general just seemed a bit much.

That was probably my biggest issue with the game. The rules weren't really heavy by any means, but the rules investment involved didn't pay out in terms of gameplay/fun.