Conan [Monolith Boardgame] - KS over and funded

[Eithriall]

It's over...

$3,327,757 Dollars
16,038 Backers
35,055 Comments
95 updates
55 Stretch goals
22 Add-ons Over
200 models

        

Officially the most successful board game on Kickstarter…

The KS link : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/806316071/conan

An important link about KS FAQ : http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1302710/conan-board-games-and-ks-faq

Hi guys,

I hope it's the good place for this...

A new game about Robert E. Howard's character Conan The Cimmerian will be published in 2015.

This game is described as "a scenario-based semi-cooperative asymmetric miniatures board game" and is based purely on Robert E. Howard's novels and short stories. The publisher has hired Patrice Louinet, one of the finest Howard expert in the world, to make sure the art and the scenarios are compatible with Howard's vision.

Scenario-based : Each game is a scenario and each map can have several scenarios set on it. The game is fast, one hour approximately. It's possible to play several scenarios in a campaign, but you can also play each scenario individually. There will be a dozen playable scenarios in the base box.
Each scenario can have very different objectives and the game usually plays in a limited number of turns.

Semi-cooperative means 1 to 4 players are playing Conan and his companions, (Shevatas, Valeria, etc....) and playing together against one only player (the opponent) who leads all the opposition forces (picts, pirates, monsters, etc...).

Asymmetrical means that players (the heroes vs the opponent) don't use the same rules of play and don't have the same goals to win.

A video showcasing the game rules:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFCBl8kxpFs&feature=youtu.be

ALPHA VERSIONS OF THE RULES

The Heroes rulebook : http://www.studiobombyx.com/CONAN/conanrulebookus.pdf

The Overlord rulebook : http://www.studiobombyx.com/CONAN/conanoverlordrulebookus.pdf

The skills sheet : http://www.studiobombyx.com/CONAN/conanskillsheetus.pdf

And the Print & Play pack, which should allow you all to try the game : http://www.studiobombyx.com/CONAN/PNP.rar

The Kickstarter campaign will start the 12th of january 2015 with a release date preview for october 2015.

Conan on Kickstarter will launch on January 12th, at 1:00 p.m. on the East Coast of the United States (UTC-5 ), 10:00 a.m. on the West Coast (UTC -8), 6.00 p.m. in the UK (UTC +00 ) and thus 7:00 p.m. in France (UTC +1). There will be early birds, so check it out!

The KS link : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/806316071/conan

And an important link about KS FAQ : http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1302710/conan-board-games-and-ks-faq

Official KS trailer :

All you need to know is here, on the BGG site : http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/160010/conan-hyborian-quests

And here are two site links with some artworks and sculptures previews (with some renowned guys behind) :

http://whelpslayer.wordpress.com/2014/06/10/conan-the-legend-first-look/

http://www.lesmaitresdujeu.fr/jeux-de-plateau-avec-figurines/item/332-conan-the-legend-les-visuels-de-shevatas.html

Quote from Fred Henry, designer of the game (november 2014) :

- Conan: Hyborian Quests is today 27 people working on the project: 8 sculptors (all worldly renowned), 5 artists (all worldly renowned, at least in the boargamers world), 14 designers (with some "known names" like Antoine Bauza, Ludovic Maublanc, Croc, Laurent Pouchain, Pascal Bernard, soon Bruno Cathala, and myself, along with some enlighted amateurs, gifted and passionate), the Bombyx brothers, 2 community managers and 1 product manager.

- Conan: Hyborian Quests is, in 6 months, almost 400 players who could try out the game in France, Germany (in Essen Spiel) and even Quebec.

- Conan: Hyborian Quests is is one of the biggest development budgets ever used for a board game in the sector history (3-4 times the development budget of Zombicide for instance, 5 times the budget of Adventurers or 20 times the budget of Asteroyds).

The list of illustrators :
Adrian Smith,Kekai Kotaki, Georges Cl4renko Xavier Collette, Brom, Paolo Parente

The list of sculptors :
Yannick Hennebo, Stéphane Simon, Grégory Clavilier, Jacques-Aleandre Gillois, Stéphane N'Guyen, Thomas David, Mikh, Rafal Zelazo, Gaël Goumon, Thomas David

And some more renowned guys working on scenarios and future thematic packs (Antoine Bauza, Ludovic Maublanc, Croc, Laurent Pouchain, Bruno Cathala et Pascal Bernard...).

A small part of the all-star team :
From left to right, we have: Stephane Simon (sculptor), Frederic Henry (author of the game), Adrian Smith (illustrator), Jamie Parsons (community manager), Patrice Louinet (world expert on Robert E. Howard), Leonidas Vesperini (community manager) Loig Hascoët (graphic designer), Georges Cl4renko (illustrator), Stéphane Nguyen (sculptor, with headband), Adnane Badi (scenario designer, with cap), and Jeremy Pingert (scenario designer). And in the background, the scene of the shooting: the Tric Trac offices!

I'm aware i'm in a miniature specialists forum, so, as far as i know the game box will contain over 100 miniatures (32mm scale) and all of 'em will be of the same quality than the miniatures released with the games with miniatures called The Others and Dust Tacticts.

The game rules are already play-tested for weeks by gamers (who are associated in rules development) and Fred Henry, designer of the game, wish to release the rules just before Kickstarter campaign starts....He wants pledgers totally aware of what they pay for.

 There will be 2 main pledge levels in the KS: the Classic box and the Deluxe box.
- The Deluxe box will contain 7 heroes and 104 miniatures (including those of the 7 heroes), 12 scenarios, 3 boards (6 faces), special dices, etc... around 130 euros.
- The Classic box will have somewhat less of both - perhaps 80 euros.
74 Highly detailed, 32mm, plastic models
1 Book of Skelos (Plastic overlord dashboard)
25 coloured base sleeves
9 engraved, six sided dice (3 Yellow, 3 Orange, 3 Red)
60 Plastic energy gems
4 Hero character sheets
1 Turn counter sheet
43 Creature tiles
55 spell and equipment cards (1.65x2.48in / 42x63mm)
2 double sided game boards 24x28in / 60x70cm (4 maps: Pictish village, Pirate ship, Inn, Fortress)
Over 80 tokens (doors, chests, villagers, effects...)
1 rule book (includes: 8 scenarios)

There will be the same number of boards (and thus of maps) on the Deluxe box and the Retail box pledges, and that the stretch goals will apply to both pledges.
- Valeria is in the Deluxe pledge, not the retail one.
- The Deluxe pledge contains 10 mummies, not 15.
Which means that the base pledge will include 74 miniatures, and the Deluxe pledge 104, so exactly 30 more: 3 heroes (Valeria, N'Gora and Zelata), 1 ally (Zelata wolf), 1 monster (Thog) and 25 minions (15 skeletons and 10 mummies).
So the only difference between the Deluxe and retail box seems to be the number of miniatures (and everything related to these missing miniatures.).

And, of course, the Facebook link : https://www.facebook.com/monolithedition

Edit of the 22nd december from the TricTrac TV :

The rules of the game explained in english on a game prototype :



An exemple of an entire game on a game prototype (using the Pictish village map) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmDZRbExeg&feature=youtu.be

Edit of the 18th october from Essen Spiel 2014 :

Conan video preview on BoardGameGeek !

Conan demos are running wild at the Essen fair. Very international demos, with German, French, Italian... and American players. Eric Martin from BoardGameGeek (BGG), who covers the Essen fair for the renowned website, honored Monolith with a video presentation of the game. A good opportunity to discover details about Conan: Hyborian Quests

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/34977/game-preview-spiel-2014-conan-hyborian-quests

Edit of november : the art with the sculptures

Conan The Cimmerian

Bêlit shemit pirate from the "Queen of the Black Coast" story.
Sculpted by Yannick Hennebo
Art by Adrian Smith


Shevatas master-thief from the "Black Colossus" story.
Scuplted by Stéphane Simon
Art by Adrian Smith
 

A Pictish warrior
Sculpted by Stephane Simon
Art by Adrian Smith
 

A Bossonian archer
Sculpted by Stéphane Simon
Art by Adrian Smith
 

Thak the ape-man from the "Rogues in the House" story
Art by Adrian Smith
Sculpted by Thomas David
 

Thog a lovecraftian horror from "Xuthal of the Dusk" story
Sculpted by Stephane N'guyen
Art by Adrian Smith
 

The witch Zelata and her wolf, from the novel "The Hour of The Dragon"
Sculpted by Gregory Clavilier
Art by Adrian Smith


Valeria, pirate of The Red Brotherhood from the "Red Nails" story
Sculpted by Yannick Hennebo
Art by Adrian Smith


A mummy
Sculpted by Rafal Zelazo
Art by Adrian Smith

[Estarriol]

Figures look good! I'll read more of the stuff when I have more time, but I'm a ducker for Conan.

[Giger]

I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[Cubs]

Ironically the iconic Conan image - even from the book art - is not correct, since most of the time in his stories he wore armour. But barbarians need to expose their torsos and it wouldn't be Conan without the straight fringe and 'boobs out' look.

[robh]

Looks good, and for me that is pretty close to being the full set of the "a list" fantasy sculptors. If they can get a figure material (PVC/Restic presumably) that does justice to the sculpts those guys can create the figures will be amazing.

[Cherno]

Hmmm... At first I was amazed by this announcement, but then I read the BGG description and it turns out that it's like Descent, with the evil player playing competively against the hero characters  I don't like these kinds of games; The balancing is impossible to get right and in the end it's either far too easy or far too hard for one of the sides. I'd have loved to see a true cooperative system with one player as a GM of sorts, or even with AI rules for GM-less play. Maybe some fans will cook up custom GM rules

[Eithriall]

Ironically the iconic Conan image - even from the book art - is not correct, since most of the time in his stories he wore armour.

All artworks and miniatures will be based upon Robert Howard's descriptions. Nothing from imitators or corrupters of Howard's original works.

Here are the characters announced at the time :
Heroes : at least 3 different sulpts of Conan (as thief, mercenary and king), Shevatas, Hadrathus, Bêlit, Valeria, Zelata with her wolf, N'Gora and a bossonian archer.
Bosses : Zogar Sag, Thog, Khosatral Khel, Akivasha, Thak, Zaporavo, Devil from outer dark, a chief guard, a necromancer, a giant serpent,...
Enemy troopers: picts, beast men, guards, pirates, dogs...

[Paleskin]

Figs are of interest,game less so

[Doomsdave]

Yes.  I will be in it for the minis. 

[Driscoles]

As a big Conan fan I will follow this game and see how it develops.
Keep in mind : the Conan adventures are no dungeon crawls or group adventures.
They are pulp stories spun around a strong individual leader who rarely leaves space for others when he is present.
His friends and followers are short lived sidekicks to push the story.
The true Conan is hard to create for  movies and games.
But good luck to this project I am really curious !
Björn

[beefcake]

Looking forward to seeing how this goes. Have to agree with the above. Conan and occasionally some minions for him is what Conan stories were all about to me.

[Eithriall]

I forgot something that matters : designer of the game aim a sell price of 100$.

[Cubs]

All artworks and miniatures will be based upon Robert Howard's descriptions. Nothing from imitators or corrupters of Howard's original works.

Cool. It would be good to see him in chainmail for a change instead of a skimpy pair of furry speedos.

[Vermis]

Is that the one with the sculpt of Conan where his axe has somehow snagged on thin air and he's trying to drag it along behind him?

[Eithriall]

Cool. It would be good to see him in chainmail for a change instead of a skimpy pair of furry speedos.

I agree with you Mr Cubs, and i know the sculpt project of Conan as a mercenary shows him in armor.

Is that the one with the sculpt of Conan where his axe has somehow snagged on thin air and he's trying to drag it along behind him?

Mr. Vermis are you talking about this :
(Sculpture by Jacques-Alexandre Gillois)


This sculpt project is now abandoned because it's property of the 1st publisher (Space Cowboys) that was working on the project at it's early start and before hiring of Patrice Louinet. The publisher is now Monolith (especially created for this game)

As far as i know, no sculpt project of Conan has been shown at the time.