Conan by Monolith review

[Pijlie]

Conan, the boardgame by Monoloith, came to be in a Kickstarter campaign and became one of the most successful campaigns ever to do so. Over 16.000 backers provided more than 3 million dollars to create a boardgame based on the barbarian hero from Robert E. Howard's stories. So what has become of it?

Conan is an example of a genre that has become very popular in the last years: the miniature boardgame. The Kickstarter campaign has of course spawned a sprawl of stretch goal extensions and extras so for clearity's sake I will limit myself to the basic game: still an impressive set in it's own right and one that should be available for retail by now.



If you want to read more, check here http://pijlieblog.blogspot.nl/2016/12/conan-by-monolith-review.html

[supervike]

Very good review.

I too bought into the game, almost singularly for the miniatures...but I hope to finally break it out and get some games in the new year.

Were those your painted minis on your blog?  They look great!

[Pijlie]

Very good review.
I too bought into the game, almost singularly for the miniatures...but I hope to finally break it out and get some games in the new year.
Were those your painted minis on your blog?  They look great!

Thank you!
And yes, the photographed minis are mine, as is the paintwork. I am about three quarters underway with painting the whole bunch...

[DivisMal]

Dear Pilje,
Thank you for that review. I managed to get hold of a kings pledge at a reasonable price and am really as excited about both minis and rules as you are!

My only criticism - apart from some mediocre sculpts like the lion - is the strange stylistic break between the cool archaic minis (conan, picts, stygians etc.) and some models resembling conquistadors or late Renaissance soldiers.

Otherwise. Top notch game, and especially the innovative movement and endurance system surprised me in a very positive way!

[Pijlie]

My only criticism - apart from some mediocre sculpts like the lion - is the strange stylistic break between the cool archaic minis (conan, picts, stygians etc.) and some models resembling conquistadors or late Renaissance soldiers.

Otherwise. Top notch game, and especially the innovative movement and endurance system surprised me in a very positive way!

Thank you! The funny thing is, if you mean Zaporavo the pirate captain, that the sculpt is a spitting image of his description in the story he is in.  Complete with morion and all! But you have to be a total Conan nerd to know this. 

Actually Howard used a lot of historical sources and this resulted in many anachronisms, like the Aquilonean armies with pikemen, arbalesters and archers and heavy shock cavalry taken straight out of the Renaissance!

[DivisMal]

Thank you! The funny thing is, if you mean Zaporavo the pirate captain, that the sculpt is a spitting image of his description in the story he is in.  Complete with morion and all! But you have to be a total Conan nerd to know this. 

Actually Howard used a lot of historical sources and this resulted in many anachronisms, like the Aquilonean armies with pikemen, arbalesters and archers and heavy shock cavalry taken straight out of the Renaissance!

Well, shame on me! I didnt know that!

My main source of visual inspiration for Conan is (and will always be) the excellent Arnold-movie from the 80s and what I imagine the time between when Atlantis sunk and the sons of Ajas rose to power should look like (i.e. somehow late Bronze Age).

Zaporavo found a new home in my Oldhammer collection, where he will lead an expedition to the fountain of youth!

[Sir_Theo]

Nice review Pijlie.  I wrote my own thoughts on it a few weeks ago:

http://hootingintotheabyss.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/what-is-best-in-life-conan-2016.html?m=1

Like you my overall opinion was extremely positive.  It's a great game and one I'm very happy I own.  Unfortunately now I think I'll probably end up with some if not all of the expansions which will end up very expensive!

[Pijlie]

I dove head first into the Kickstarter and bought all the expansions. I am labouring to get Wave 1 painted before the expansions arrive this summer.

Expensive? I like to call it an investment with great immaterial return 

[palaeomerus]

Well, shame on me! I didnt know that!

My main source of visual inspiration for Conan is (and will always be) the excellent Arnold-movie from the 80s and what I imagine the time between when Atlantis sunk and the sons of Ajas rose to power should look like (i.e. somehow late Bronze Age).

Zaporavo found a new home in my Oldhammer collection, where he will lead an expedition to the fountain of youth!

Howard had a passion for historical novels but felt they took too much time and effort to research properly so he made the regions of his hyborean era form a loose pastiche of "proto" versions of ancient and even 19th century historical settings. This let Conan travel to various "familiar to the reader" settings without Howard having to worry much about accuracy or even contemporary settings.  Conan could thus go from piracy to horror, to mystery to pioneer western to knights  to ancient egypt-like surroundings just by Conan moving from one region to another.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyborian_Age

[Varangian]

Well, shame on me! I didnt know that!

My main source of visual inspiration for Conan is (and will always be) the excellent Arnold-movie from the 80s and what I imagine the time between when Atlantis sunk and the sons of Ajas rose to power should look like (i.e. somehow late Bronze Age).

They were solid sword and sorcery movies, I would argue that they're not really CONAN movies. They're pretty poor representations of the material to my mind.

[Elbows]

I will agree...having now read a bunch of Conan (even visited Ron E. Howard's house!)...the movies are comical by comparison.  The old books are worth reading (keep in mind he wrote these in what, the 1920s-1930s?).  He's not a phenomenal author but it's good old fashioned story telling.  If you can find the Del Rey printed collections they were printed in the order the stories were released to magazines/publications.  Note that the stories released were not in chronological order.  Some compilations try to order them from his beginning as a rogue/thief up to his time as a king etc.

One story will be about Conan as a thief sneaking onto a pirate ship, the next will be as a King commanding an army, etc.