Conan By Monolith Launches On Kickstarter! [Updated!]
January 12, 2015 by brennon
Conan by Monolith has now launched on Kickstarter in an effort to bring the Hyborian world to the tabletop and put you in the boots and loincloth of Conan for the first time. It's looking pretty impressive in terms of miniature quality and gameplay so give this one a look if you like dungeon crawling and adventure board games...
The game centres around you playing as Conan and his adventuring allies as you take on a number of quests against an Overlord who will be controlling all of the enemies. These quests range from raiding a Pict village to rescue a Princess from their Warlord to ship-to-ship battles on the high seas with Belit at your side against ravaging pirates.
Update: Stretch Goals
It's already time to see what stretch goals are popping up for Conan and they've got two so far with an extra to come focusing on another hero for you to play with in the game...
There's a wealth of content to explore with Conan and it certainly tells when you look at what's in the box...
You'll have to click this one and open it in a different tab to view it in full but this is just what you get in the BASE version of the game. It's packed with a whole bunch of miniatures, tokens, dice, character cards, maps and of course that rather awesome board which charts all of the things the games master can do. This feels very HeroQuest, an almost pseudo-role-playing game, and I love it.
Of course it wouldn't be a Kickstarter without the addition of a whole bunch of exclusives and as you can see above the King Pledge gives you a whole new collection of heroes and villains to fight against meaning that your amount of quests is going to ramp up as well. It even comes with the deadly Thog.
Above are some of the heroes complete with a description showing how close to the source material the games creators have stuck. It's great, especially when you read Shevatas' entry, how meticulous they have been with every detail.
Above are some of the Kickstarter Exclusive heroes that will be joining if you go for one of the higher end pledges. Checking the Kickstarter anything that carries that label is for Kickstarter backers only and will probably only be available in the future through special conventions and events. If you want them, you'll have to aim for them now it seems.
It's a shame that that's the case but I can see why they've done it. It would have been nice to see them come out as seperate characters later on down the line after launch simply to keep the life of the game going but I'm sure there are plenty more expansions planned to do just that.
Above are some of the enemies that you'll be facing off against as well and the Book of Skelos which is what tracks everything that happens on the Overlord side of things. The track at the bottom works as a way of tracking the activation of your various warriors while the spaces above are where you'll spend your gems in order to give them boons and re-rolls.
This game is looking very good from first impressions and it appears to have all of the qualities that make these kind of adventure games worth playing. Great miniatures, some neat quests, lots of cool enemies, good mechanics, and a solid intellectual property driving it on.
You can watch the How to Play above and then head on over for more information on this pretty epic Conan adventure.
What do you think?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this one is going to do well lol. I’m watching the total spin as I type!
Crom, count the pledges! 😀
Im sure its a great game and look fwd to playing it some day .. must say though i dont think the minis are all that, for starters Conan himself looks rather rushed and inferior to the concepts. But maybe this is a good thing, for my wallet anyway 😉
The models look quite poor. Also 135$. Ouch!
You can get the full game and all stretch goals for $90 and worldwide shipping is included.
But that’s only $10 cheaper than retail but you’ll get stretch goals of course and shipping will be calculated after it’s finished and isn’t included.
I misread the shipping bit.
From past experience, I usually pay a little more than retail for big box boardgames I’ve backed, but I get lot more for it. I’m not backing this because I can’t afford. If I could I think the price is fine.
I’ve a big box full of Warzone stuff still not touched from that KS yonks ago lol. If I back another minis game on KS she’ll go crackers =) although I’d risk it for Journey to the West game that was from the guys in HK.
While I never really cared for Conan, I appreciate that for a lot of people this is their Star Wars. So, I hope it does well. I’m sure it will 😀
Conan is usually my thing, I’m just not sold by the mechanic – it seems D&D without the role-playing, traps, intrigue or story…..
maybe if I see it like miniature war game with an a-symmetric feel? but then it weird because there are multiple people on one side.
Having just convinced myself that I’m looking at this wrong, can someone sell me on this game (nice minis won’t cut it 🙂 )
looks interesting.
Not my cup of tea. I’ve never understood the whole Conan thing … maybe it’s Arnold S. that I can’t get over. Anyway, I wish them luck. This seems like it will be huge.
I was a bit tempted untill I saw the minis. They’re a bit on the naff side.
I read all the Conan books before I left school which was well before Arnie., so the Conan in my head was influenced books and the artwork at the time. Apart from the picts the other models look like I’d imagined the inhabitants of this world to be.
Need to put a guitar in Conan’s hands lol
Backed, I am super excited about this.
Is it just me or does Conan look like he’s playing a guitar?
He does NOW. 😀
Backed it since it launched, but im a bit concerned about the quality of the miniatures (not about the concept). They say they are made in the same plastic as Dust Tactics, but you are getting a massive number of miniatures (and more being unlocked by strecht goals) for 90$-135$. Miniatures are getting right now near 1$ each. This means that, or the miniatures are going to be really crappy or other companies just scam us.
Dont know what to think but i find funny that some people complain about the price of the game.
The variety of sculpts and the size of the range is much more important than the amount of minis, especially when it comes to plastic for which the material cost is pennies per mini but the tooling costs are enormous. Big box boardgames which use minis, such as this, Super Dungeon Explore, Zombicide, and Arcadia Quest, can give a lot of minis for the price because the range is narrow, many sculpts are duplicated, and the consumer essentially bulk buys.
Love Conan. Still not sold on this current trend of games that seem to be a cross of Diet wargame/complex board game with slight role play elements. Those mimins arnt bad though, can see why Conan was head over heals for Belit.
What I never liked about games like this are the game boards themselves. But I guess you can’t do without those. Anyway, backed the game out of pure love for Adrian Smith’s art. 🙂
Gee, I hope the creators of Blood Rage (another boardgame illustrated by Mr. Smith) have the smarts not to launch their Kickstarter until the Conan hype is over.
Looking forward to this, not only will I get a board game which I’ll hopefully enjoy, but it’s also enough minis for a couple of small armies. Especially the undead, I like the look of both the skeletons and the mummies.
Hi,
I created an unoffical pledge manager for Conan; King Pledger.
Don’t hesitate to give me your feedback!
http://www.kingpledger.com