Played a complete game with the kids yesterday for Father's Day. It was interesting.
Perry (playing Turan) played a money strategy (it was a strategy he could easily grasp, I guess). He didn't conquer anything, but used emissaries and other means to get as much gold as possible. He got bonus Empire Points at the end for being the richest (by far) kingdom on the board. He lost the game, but then again he is only nine. He also controlled Conan most of the time throughout the game because if he did a court action he always took Strategy cards (he had a hard time understanding the mechanics of the Kingdom cards), so he always had high bid number cards.
'Kayla (playing Hyperborea) also had an emissary strategy, but also focused a lot on defense and Objectives. She had a fair number of Empire points because she kept hitting the objectives. She had a huge pile of Sorcery and was able to re-roll her way to success. She ultimately lost the game because she tried to crown Conan the King of Hyperborea, but failed - and Conan killed her.
Victor (playing Stygia) almost won the game. He played a purely military strategy. He never improved his forts - but had forts all over the place. He gathered quite a few "Crom, Count the Dead" tokens, which also gave him a bonus at the end. In military might, he was the strongest at the end.
I (playing Aquilonia) won the game, but narrowly. I managed to get control of Conan after 'Kayla was removed from the game and crowned him as King of Aquilonia. I was playing an Adventure Track strategy, and was racking up huge amounts of Adventure tokens. Because I crowned Conan, only I could get Empire Points for having lots of Adventure Tokens, and that gave me +15 Empire points at the end, bumping me over Victor and Perry. If I hadn't managed to get control of Conan and crown him King, Victor would have won the game, with Perry coming in second.
It was neat seeing different strategies at work throughout the game. Now I need to play a complete game with adults who can really work the strategies. However, three ages = an all day game, at least three or four hours unless everyone is just hovering over the board (we got interrupted a lot during our game, playing from 1 until 5).