Conquest of the Fallen Lands (self-published, 2005 – Andrei Burago) is a bit deceiving at first glance. With a lot of hexagons depicting battle scenes, and cards that show different troops from an ancient, fantasy army, I thought that the game was one of light warfare. The theme of the game is warfare, to be sure, but the mechanics are that of an “area control” game, and the fighting is cooperative. Each player is a leader in an ancient kingdom, trying to conquer as much of the Fallen lands as possible, in order to please their game.
Note that this does NOT make the game a friendly one, as players must carefully look for ways to stop their opponents and be the first to conquer the most valuable fields. Conquest of the Fallen Lands is a very clever game with difficult decisions and high replayability. There is some luck as to what cards a player might draw, but a player must learn to best utilize the cards in their hand to maximum benefit. With great artwork and fairly nice components (especially for a self-published game), Conquest of the Fallen Lands is an area control game that is clever, has an interesting theme, and works well equally with three to five players.
From sixty-one “fields” (hexes), a board is randomly put together – with the size determined by the number of players. A deck of cards is shuffled, and eight cards are dealt to each player, with the remainder forming a draw deck. Players also take a pile of stones in their color, as well as fifteen silver coins to start the game, with the remainder of the coins being placed in a bank. Three piles of “followers” (Craftsmen, Mages, and Warriors) are placed near the board; and after looking at their cards, players take three of the followers of their choice and place them face up in front of them. One player is chosen to go first, and then play proceeds clockwise around the table.
On a player’s turn, they first draw one card into their hand and then proceed to do as many actions as they want/are able to do. The actions a player may take are these:
- Recruit Troops: A player can buy the top two cards from the deck for seven coins. If they “expend” (tap) a Mage they control, the price drops down to five coins; expending two mages drops it to three coins; and three mages makes it only one coin.
- Exchange Cards: A player may expend a Mage to discard one card and draw a replacement from the deck.
- Magic Card: A player may play a magic card from their hand, expending the number of Mages shown on the card, and then following the text on the card.
- Conquer a Field: Most of the cards in the deck show a different troop type. Troops have a name (such as Archers or Spearmen) and two statistics – attack and support. To attack any field on the board, a player must play a troop onto the field from their hand, expending the followers the card requires. For example, a Halberdier (2 attack, 2 support) requires the expenditure of two Warriors and one Craftsman to place. Each field may only have one troop card placed on it. More importantly, each field has a number from one to twelve, denoting the strength of the army taking that field. To place a unit in a field, the sum of that unit’s attack value, plus the support values of all adjacent troops to the target field (whether they are of that player or not) must be equal to or higher than the field’s number. On the first and second turn of the game, a player can attack any field they want (except adjacent to another player on the first turn). After that, players may only attack a field adjacent to one that they’ve already conquered. When capturing a field, a player places one of their stones on the field and receives a financial reward in coins equal to the value of the field.
- Flying: A player may pay seven coins to “fly”, which means attack a field which is NOT adjacent to one they’ve already conquered. For each hex “flown” over, the player must expend one Mage.
- Fortify a field: A player may play a fortification card, expending the followers needed, onto any field they currently control that does not already have a fortification card. These cards add to the support value of the troop already in that field.
After taking their actions, a player restores all of their followers and may hire a new follower if they wish for five silver coins. Play then passes to the next player. The game continues until every field on the board has been captured, or until two turns have gone by without anyone conquering a field. At this point, the players all sum up the amount of coins they have. The player with the most is declared the King’s Champion and is the winner!
Some comments on the game…
1.) Components: The game is quite well packaged for a self-published design. The cards I had to punch out myself; but it was actually quite easy, and they have absolutely gorgeous artwork on them. This artwork also extends to the hexes, which are soft and made of sturdy foamish material, and to the followers, which are on the same material. There are little nicks here and there that might alert you that this is a self-published game, but over all it’s quite an impressive package. The artwork is not of a humorous slant but is still of a light enough flavor to give the game an “adventure”-type feel. Each hex’s artwork gets darker and darker as the numbers get higher – from two bewildered soldiers on the “1” to the foreboding dragon on the “12”. The coins, which come in three denominations (green = 25, gold = 5, silver = 1) look like toy coins that my kids play with but fit the game’s theme well. Glass stones are used for the markers for each player, and everything fits inside the medium-sized box – barely, as it’s chock-full-of bits.
2.) Rules: The rules are on four large pages that include examples and color illustrations. They are well formatted and easy to understand. Even better, a nice little reference card is included with the game, to help players remember the different actions that they can take each turn. I found that the game is simple to explain to others, although the concept of support vs. attack can be daunting to newer players. After a few turns, it all sinks in, and the “expenditure” of followers will become second nature to Magic the Gathering players (or any CCG, for that matter).
3.) Followers: Knowing what followers to buy is critical to one’s strategy. Having a good host of Mages allows players to get more cards for cheap, do a last minute “fly”, or play the fairly powerful magic cards. However, Mages are no good for actually getting troops onto the board – Craftsmen and Warriors are needed for that, the former for support units, the latter for strong attack units. Since each follower costs a good five coins, players can’t buy too many, or they will have too little money near the end of the game. At first I thought having three of each was the magic number, but two powerful units need four of some of the followers, and it seems like you never have enough Mages to do everything you want to do. This mechanic may have been lifted from resource collectible card games, like Magic; but it works well, causing a player to make some meaningful decisions.
4.) Money: The money flow of the game is critical, since the player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. But, as the old adage goes, you have “to spend money to make money”. The problem is one can get caught up in spending money so much that they have none near the end of the game. Every time a player buys cards, purchases followers, and “flies”, they spend some of their points, per se. This is, of course, quite necessary, but where does one draw the line. In one game I bought cards (out of desperation) for seven coins - twice! At the time, I thought it was my only option, but it turns out I lost the game by only about 15 coins, which could have been avoided. The game’s money is very well balanced, and by conquering large areas, a player can take a lead – but not an insurmountable one.
5.) Support: The game is all about support. A player needs to have support to take any field that is a five or higher and often needs quite a bit before taking the big prizes (“10” – “12”). The neat, yet dangerous thing is that a player can use others to capture a specific area. Thus, players who set themselves up with a lot of support to take a specific field may be allowing an opponent who is near to snatch it up. This happened many times in our games and requires players to constantly be wary of all the hexes that their current troops are supporting.
6.) Area Control: The game feels like a larger version of other games, in which players are forming lines of hexes that they control, trying to hem in the other players so that they can capture fewer places. Yes, a player can get out of a tight jam by “flying”, but it’s quite expensive. Initial setup is important, as most players will capture a “1” or “2” spot on their first turn, then try to set themselves up to take a more powerful spot on future turns.
7.) Cards: At first I was curious to know just how much the luck of the draw played in the game, as I couldn’t imagine why people wouldn’t want the more powerful cards. But the cards are balanced tremendously well, so a player needs to learn to work with the cards that they get. Getting a lot of magic cards might mean a player should hire more Mages. Powerful units are only helpful when the weaker ones back them up. It’s a colorful, varied deck.
8.) Fun Factor: Each time the game is played, the board is different, the cards drawn are different, and the player can try a new combination of followers. That variety is a lot of fun for me. I enjoy games that play differently each time, yet hold some basic precepts and offer decent strategy and tactics. The box states the game lasts from one to two hours; yet I found that my games came closer to the single hour, which is just right for a game of this level. It’s fun to set yourself up to capture a “12” space, and even more fun to steal one that an opponent was about to take. The theme has fantasy, but not too much; it’s more medieval than fantastic, and the theme adds just enough to add flavor to the mechanics.
The price point is a little high at this game, currently available at www.unclesgames.com, but I think the game is worth the money to be spent. It plays great with three, four, or five players, and has an interesting, engaging theme. Area control games are quite common these days, but this one adds flavor, options, and is simply a lot of fun to play. From varied setups and playings, to the ability to use your opponent’s forces, this is one game that will not be shoved to the back shelves, but should see plays several times a year. For a self-published game, Conquest of the Fallen Lands is a winner!
Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
www.tomvasel.com
