Pre-Release Review of Conquest of Nerath by Wizards of the Coast

[delericho]

Well, we played "Conquest of Nerath" last night, and I'm afraid it sucked. Really badly.

We found ourselves with three players, which wasn't ideal of course, so we went with a 2-vs-1 "alliance" game. We also screwed up the turn order - Nerath should have gone last; we actually had them going first. That's probably important.

The net result of this was that my turn was last. So I waited for the first player to have his turn. Which wasn't fun, as his forces busily conquered several of my outlying regions, and there was basically nothing I could do about it. Then I waited for the second player to have his turn. Then the first player had his second turn (for his second army). Which wasn't fun, as his forces busily conquered several of my outlying regions, and there was basically nothing I could do about it.

Finally, my turn arrived. Problem was, by this time my forces were thoroughly penned in, the regions I'd just lost had been thoroughly fortified, so there was no way I could win them back. In short, there was almost nothing I could do.

Then came my chance to reinforce, and maybe build my forces back up to strike back later in the game. Problem is, income is dependent on controlling land, so in losing all that land I also lost the ability to meaningfully reinforce. I was utterly screwed.

So, on to the second go around the table, and the better part of another hour spent waiting. Which saw the opposing player take yet more of my land and build up his forces still further. Basically, I just got steam-rollered, and as the game went on, it swung ever more in my favour, with no hope of ever coming back.

It turns out that the winning strategy for this game is really simple: go first.

Overall: The game is visually stunning. Everything else about it sucks. Avoid.

 

[Neuroglyph]

Well, we played "Conquest of Nerath" last night, and I'm afraid it sucked. Really badly.

We found ourselves with three players, which wasn't ideal of course, so we went with a 2-vs-1 "alliance" game. We also screwed up the turn order - Nerath should have gone last; we actually had them going first. That's probably important.

The net result of this was that my turn was last. So I waited for the first player to have his turn. Which wasn't fun, as his forces busily conquered several of my outlying regions, and there was basically nothing I could do about it. Then I waited for the second player to have his turn. Then the first player had his second turn (for his second army). Which wasn't fun, as his forces busily conquered several of my outlying regions, and there was basically nothing I could do about it.

Finally, my turn arrived. Problem was, by this time my forces were thoroughly penned in, the regions I'd just lost had been thoroughly fortified, so there was no way I could win them back. In short, there was almost nothing I could do.

Then came my chance to reinforce, and maybe build my forces back up to strike back later in the game. Problem is, income is dependent on controlling land, so in losing all that land I also lost the ability to meaningfully reinforce. I was utterly screwed.

So, on to the second go around the table, and the better part of another hour spent waiting. Which saw the opposing player take yet more of my land and build up his forces still further. Basically, I just got steam-rollered, and as the game went on, it swung ever more in my favour, with no hope of ever coming back.

It turns out that the winning strategy for this game is really simple: go first.

Overall: The game is visually stunning. Everything else about it sucks. Avoid.

Sorry your experience differed from my own, but yeah, turn order is very specific in the game. The rules note that the gold income and battlefield strengths of the factions' armies are factored into when they take their turns. So playing out of order probably gave a skewed experience.

For my own part, in the 4-player game I played to prepare for the review, my side, the League I think it was, goes last, and I won. Admittedly we did not play a full game, but a short game based upon victory points, but I still managed to accumulate the total needed to win pretty quickly. I will also admit that I was stomped on pretty hard as the last guy to go, and lost several territories before I turned the tables on my enemies. But a few choice dungeon raids, some smart magic item use, and a some good timing of when to play an event card, can turn a rout around and score big VPs in no time flat.