Conquest of the Fallen Lands is one of those small-press games you never hear about. It is the only game published by Assa Games, and yet the company manages to stay alive and actually gain new fans. Most game companies release several games every year – it’s kind of key to publishing. But Conquest of the Fallen Lands grows a little more every year, and every year a few more people find out how much fun it is to play this little game from a little game company.
The premise of Conquest is simple – monsters have taken over the realm, and it is up to the lords of the land (represented by the players of the game) to drive them back. It is similar to a territory-grabbing game, in that players expand through the area, battling as they go, yet players never actually battle each other. After all, the players are out to beat monsters, not good guys.
The board is made up of several hexagonal tiles, each with a number representing the difficulty value of the monsters in that area. The board is assembled randomly every game, so each game presents a different dynamic. A master plan that worked for the last game might be completely worthless in the next.
Players use colored glass beads to mark territories as they expand, which they do by playing troop cards onto newly-acquired territories. Each troop card has three important numbers.
The first number is the attack value of the troop. A troop with an attack value of 2 can defeat any area with a difficulty value of 1 or 2 – this is fairly self-explanatory. The innovative part, however, is the support value, because every troop lends its aid to any attack attempt made adjacent to it. So archers with an attack of 1 might only be able to take a weak tile, but with a support value of , they can help a troop of swordsmen (attack of 3) take down a tile with a difficulty value of 5. Put enough troops in the right place, and they can beat anything on the board.
The final number on every troop card is not so much a solid number as one or more symbols representing followers. Each player starts with two followers, which can be warriors, craftsmen or mages. In order to play a troop card, a player must flip over one or more of his followers, which cannot be used again until his next turn. So a troop of spearmen can be deployed for only one warrior, while a team of swordsmen requires the use of three warriors and two craftsmen.
The beauty of this system is that it allows the game to start slow and finish big. Players are able to draft one new follower at the start of every turn, so by the end of the game, every player has a host of followers and is able to send out those paladins and knights he’s been hoarding since the second turn of the game. Once-mighty dragons fall quickly to a paladin supported by a couple cannons – but you can’t get that paladin out until you’ve played long enough to build up some followers.
Two additional types of cards can be played, and these are both well-designed and key to the game. The fortification cards can improve a player’s field, adding anywhere from 1 to 5 support, allowing even a team of crossbowmen to move in and take out those really difficult spots on the board.
Magic cards are those game-busters that can grant an edge to the player who plays them well. By using a mage or two, players can get additional support, block opponents from taking key fields, or draw on a few additional followers. The edge these cards can provide cannot be discounted, and the magic cards add dimension to the game without unbalancing it or supplementing the strategy.
Each time a player wins a field, he claims gold equal to the difficulty of that tile. More importantly, however, he blocks that area so that other players can neither support it nor take it for themselves. Often it is more important to take a low-payout area than to take the high return, simply to cut off other players from being able to expand.
At the end of the game, players count up their gold, and the highest earner wins the gratitude of the king – and, incidentally, wins the game.
Possibly the most interesting thing for serious board gamers is how Conquest of the Fallen Lands combines elements of Euro games and the breed commonly called Ameritrash. The game tells a story, is steeped in theme, and has some fantasy elements to excite the players. On the other hand, luck is kept to a minimum and the game uses traditional European scoring, so it is more or less a hybrid, despite coming right out of Washington state.
There are two sets of rules for Conquest of the Fallen Lands. The normal rules are easy enough, and can make for a truly enjoyable game. However, the advanced rules allow for a much deeper gaming experience, by allowing players greater flexibility and punishing them more harshly for poor deployment.
Aesthetically speaking, Conquest of the Fallen Lands is better than you might expect from a small publisher. However, that’s not always saying a lot. The art on the cards, board and box is decent, but not exceptional. The material used to make the tiles and cards is obviously lower in quality than you might find in a higher-end game. All things considered, however, the quality is more than adequate. It does not detract from the game, and considering the high playability of Conquest of the Fallen Lands, low-budget production is easy to overlook.
Conquest of the Fallen Lands may be a small-press game, but it is good enough to have been produced by a much larger publisher. While plenty of me-too games are being churned out by the big players, Conquest of the Fallen Lands quietly offers a fun and exciting experience that can be enjoyed by players of nearly any age.
Substance: 4 – Great strategic possibilities, and it never plays the same way twice.
Style: 4 – Great game play more than makes up for cheaper components and affordable art.
Review Summary