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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neuroglyph" data-source="post: 5593943" data-attributes="member: 85633">For those of us who play D&D 4E, we tend to immediately think of Wizards of the Coast as only the makers of our favorite role-playing game.  But, of course, that is looking at only one piece of the greater whole.  [align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/con-cover.jpg[/align]As many know, Wizards of the Coast, as did its predecessor TSR, also makes board games.  And not too long ago, through its parent company Hasbro, WotC acquired the famous war game publisher Avalon Hill as a subsidiary in 2004.  So it’s no surprise that Wizards of the Coast is expanding their board game market, bringing elements of D&D into recent releases.  Just last year at GenCon 2010, WotC released Castle Ravenloft, bringing the famed setting and villain alive for D&D gamers, as well as horror game fans, to enjoy in a new board game format.And at the end of this month, Wizards of the Coast will bring the Core D&D setting to the tabletop, creating a fantasy war game set in the world of Nerath, and pitting the forces of good against the powers of darkness in Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath board game!  Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Designer: Richard Baker</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Illustrators: William O’Connor (cover), Adam Gillespie (board), Wayne England (tokens)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Publisher: Wizards of the Coast</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Year: 2011</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Media: Board Game</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cost: $79.99 (available from [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Nerath-Wizards-RPG-Team/dp/0786958499/ref=as_li_wdgt_fl_ex?&camp=212361&creative=383961&linkCode=waf&tag=neurogames-20"]Amazon.com[/ame])</li> </ul>Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath is a board game for 2 to 4 players of ages 12+, simulating a fantasy “world war” between the four great empires in the 4E world of Nerath setting.  The game comes complete with a 24-page Instruction Booklet, a game board showing a map of Nerath, reference cards for each realm, 252 molded plastic figures, 50 plastic chips, and 16 polyhedral dice.  Additional components include die cut cardboard control markers to mark new territories for each realm, gold tokens to keep track of wealth, and 30 dungeon guardian tokens to be fought by heroes of the empires to gain magic items and treasure.  Finally, there are 5 decks of cards: a 20-card event deck specialized for each of the four empires, and a 30-card treasure deck containing fabulous magic items which can be used in the conquest of Nerath.  Production Quality  The production quality of Conquest of Nerath is exceptional, with a level of attention to details which made playing this board game a truly memorable experience.  The instruction booklet is well-designed, and was written in a clear and concise manner to convey the rules in a pleasing format. Furthermore, there are plenty of illustrations and pictures to enhance the text, as well as handy reference charts and sidebar tips on important nuances of tactics and play.  The board is beautifully rendered, with the lands and seas of Nerath divided up into regions which are clearly marked on the map.  Icons denoting the placement of starting units are also printed on each region – although I must admit that the symbols were too small for my eyes to pick out across the board.  A Victory Point track runs down one side of the board, where each empire can track their successful conquests of land and dungeons.  The reference cards for each empire are also well designed, and lists the starting unit locations on the backside.  Once play begins, this card serves as a place for each empire’s event deck, and has charts for turn order, sequence of play, and the battle sequence for easy reference.  A fifth card is provided for quick reference, showing a summary of game piece powers and replacement cost, as well as victory conditions and the dungeon exploration sequence.  The reverse of this card is for holding the treasure cards, dungeon guardian tokens, and gold reserves - but really we tended to just set those pieces and cards beside the game board, and pass the quick reference card around the table to whoever was taking their turn.  The plastic game figures are really well detailed, and about half of them are uniquely designed for each empire. [align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/con-forces-move.jpg[/align] Each empire’s foot soldiers, heroes (fighters and wizards), monsters, and dragons are all come from different models appropriate to the nature of the realm they serve.  This makes each piece easily recognizable on the board, and makes clashing forces look rather spectacular.  For very large forces, small red and gray poker chips can be placed under a figure to represent multiples of that type of piece, as some regions are rather small and can look a bit cluttered when more than a half dozen pieces get placed on them.  The die-cut cardstock components are of decent weight, and come lightly coated to give them a nice finish.  The event and treasure card decks are a little thinner than a standard deck of playing cards, but are sturdy enough, and they too are coated to make shuffling easy and quick.  Even the box itself is sturdy and well-made, and comes with a molded interior for easy organization of the playing pieces – more on that later.  Unboxing Conquest of Nerath  Like all modern board/war games, Conquest of Nerath takes a little time to prepare before one can present it for night of play to one’s fellow gamers.  Wrappers need to be unwrapped, pieces have to be organized, and die-cut tokens have to be punched out before anyone can really “let slip the hounds of war”.  But I have to say that Conquest of Nerath was really well organized in this regard.  The plastic playing pieces for each empire all came already separated in individual bags, dice in another bag, leaving only the die-cut tokens as the only real chore.It took me about 30 minutes to get everything punched out and organized – and, as mentioned, the game box contains a molded interior into which every piece, token, and die fit perfectly.  The back of the instruction booklet even shows a diagram of where every piece, token, and card is meant to be placed in the game box - and once the game board is in its spot and lid are on it, everything stays right where it is supposed to be!  Nothing is more frustrating than opening a board game and having to waste time separating out one side’s pieces from another due to internal spillage, and the designers went the extra mile here to ensure that didn’t happen with any regularity.  Gaming Night Conquest  I interrupted the flow of my usual D&D 4E gaming night in Toledo to spring Conquest of Nerath on my players so I could give it a good trial play before writing this review.  The folks in this particular group are made up of gamers I’ve known from college, and between the six of us, we were well over 150 years of board game, war game, and role-playing game experience sitting around the table.  Yea, we’re old “old school” gamers, but if anyone was going to put Conquest of Nerath through its paces, I knew these guys would help me do it!  Conquest of Nerath Game Play  Game Setup  Conquest of Nerath is intended for 2 to 4 players, with an option for free-for-all or alliance play to make the play experience different.  As there were six of us and we were new to the game, three of us each took one of the empires – The Iron Circle, Vailin Alliance, and Nerathan League – while two guys decided to team up and play the Dark Empire of Karkoth as a joint venture.  [align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/con-setup2.jpg[/align]Our sixth member (Tizzbin) decided to take help organize the treasure and gold, take pics during play, generally kibitz on how the war was going.  During alliance play, The Iron Circle and the Dark Empire of Karkoth would be allies, while the Vailin Alliance and Nerathan League would seek to oppose them, but we opted for free-for-all play.  There are some additional rules governing alliance play which are not used in free-for-all, but as with any war game, some pacts and agreements can be made around the board during the course of a game.In games with less than 4 players, the alliance rules are called into play, with two players playing two allied sides, or for three players, having two empires against a third who plays an allied empire.  Regardless of players, all empires are meant to be in play at the start of the game, and there are no empty land spaces up for grabs in Conquest of Nerath.Overall, it took probably about 35-40 minutes to get the pieces organized and set out on the map, and after a quick synopsis of the rules, we were ready to play.  Obviously, with familiarity would come speed, and all agreed that future games would set up in 20 minutes or less.  General Game Play and Units  Conquest of Nerath has a set turn order, with the Dark Empire of Karkoth starting play, followed by the Vailin Alliance, The Iron Circle, and finally the Nerathan League.  During a turn, each empire takes the following actions in order:  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Draw: Draw a card from their event deck.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Move: all pieces can be moved as desired.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fight Battles: armies invading territories fight defenders; heroes (fighters and wizards) can attack dungeon guardians</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reposition: flying units (dragons and elementals) move again; heroes exit dungeons (assuming they survive)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Reinforce: new units are bought with gold, and then deployed</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Collect Income: Empires collect 1 gold for each land territory they control</li> </ul>            There are nine different types of units making up the armies of each empire in Conquest of Nerath, and each type has its own movement capabilities, attack dice, and in many [align=right]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/con-dragon-attack.jpg[/align]cases, special abilities.  Foot soldiers and siege engines form the basic land units, and ships make up the basic water unit.   But there are additional units which make up these fantasy armies, and these have specific uses in the game.  Hero units, consisting of wizards and fighters, can take part in land and sea battle, but can also enter dungeons to capture magical treasures for their empires.  Each empire also has monsters – Zombie Hulks, Treants, Iron Golems, and Stone Giants – which can launch powerful attacks, and even run amok when victorious, capturing unfortified territories.  Storm Elementals can fly over both sea and land, but are most efficacious in water battles, and dragons are both highly mobile and can deliver devastating damage to an army.  And although each empire has roughly the same number of units on the board, give or take a unit type here or there, their starting locations, unit mix, and turn order make for a very different experience for each player.  For instance, the Dark Empire of Karkoth has more territories and income, as well as four dungeons within easy reach, but has fewer starting gold, ships, and storm elementals, than does the Vailin Alliance or Nerathan League.  This lends itself to giving the game a definite “replayability” factor, which is an important consideration when buying a board/war game.  The designers of Conquest of Nerath also made a wide range of Victory Conditions, which can vary depending on how long the players want to play.  For instance, a short game consists of only 13 Victory Points (20 in Alliance play), while a full game requires that all enemy capitals are taken and 8 treasures (12 in Alliance play) are captured.  Victory Points are accrued for taking over an enemy territory (1 VP), capturing and using a treasure (1-3 VPs), and taking over an enemy capital (5 VPs), so a Short or Medium game can be played in only a few hours.  Obviously, a Long game takes a while to capture treasures and enemy capitals.  Tactics in Conquest of Nerath  Tactics in Conquest of Nerath are pretty straightforward – each type of unit gets to roll a particular type of dice.  A 6 or higher on that dice scores a hit, and kills an enemy unit, and each side rolls dice simultaneously, removing hit units until the attacker either wins, loses, or decides to retreat.  That’s the basic concept of waging a battle – but that's just the basics - the reality is considerably more interesting!  Certain units get to roll larger dice than other units – foot soldiers roll d6, while dragons roll d20 – and even roll multiple dice, as in the case of storm elementals which roll a [align=left]http://www.neuroglyphgames.com/rpgblogs/home/neurogly/public_html/rpgblogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/con-battle.jpg[/align]d8 on land, but have greater power in water regions, rolling 2d8 to capsize enemy ships.  Wizards and fighters roll d10 when they attack, but wizards have a first strike ability allowing them to roll their attacks and resolve hits before the combat occurs, possibly taking out units before they can even attack.  Monsters roll d12, and if they survive the combat, can run amok into an adjacent unoccupied territory and claim it, making it a chancy strategy to leave lands, even behind the front lines, without troops patrolling them.  And dragons are durable taking two hits to destroy them in a battle – after the battle, they heal back up and are a good choice to take a first hit on in a combat!So there is some need to plan out one’s strategy against the odds, based upon the dice the enemy can throw in defense of one’s attacks.  Even sending heroes into dungeons must be done with care, as the generals of the Dark Empire of Karkoth found out in the first turn of play during our game last weekend.  When not knowing what guardians might be lurking in a dungeon, it’s very risky to send in a lone wizard or fighter against such denizens as a basilisk (d12 and first strike), a troll (2d8 and heroes need an 8+ to score a hit), and beholder (d6 and d20 with first strike).  The heroes of Karkoth did not last long soloing against creatures such as these!Of course, the outcome of battles and a campaign can also be affected through the use of Event cards, which can add new and surprising tactical elements to the game. Each empire in Conquest of Nerath starts with a hand of two event cards, and draws one per turn, which may be used during the course of play to hurt enemies or bolster the troops.   Certain cards must only be played during the draw step, others are played immediately, and some can be held for just the right moment in battle.  For instance, the Dark Empire of Karkoth has the ability to create the Rain of Colorless Fire over a territory during his draw step, allowing that player to roll a d12 against every enemy piece there and potentially wiping out a whole region!  And the Nerathan League have a card which increases one silver dragon’s potential in battle, giving it a Chill Breath which adds an additional 4d12, giving it the potential to inflict 5 hits in just a single attack!Likewise too, the magical effects of captured Treasure cards can be used to change the fortunes of a battle – assuming, of course, that an empire’s heroes manage to defeat the dungeon’s guardian and make off with the plunder!  Many well known D&D magic items and artifacts - such as Winged Boots, a Vorpal Sword, and the Hand of Vecna - have been given abilities in the game which can be of great benefit to the empire that possesses them.  For example, a Staff of the Magi allows a player to roll a d20 when one of his wizards is destroyed, possibly taking out one of the victors in a retributive strike.  Or having a stock of Keoghtom’s Ointment allows a general to cancel 1 hit against his forces during their turn.  It’s not much, but might be enough to save at least one unit to win the battle.Discerning D&D gamers might notice a large number of “Greyhawkian” references in the Conquest of Nerath, which admittedly irritated one of the Karkoth generals a bit - he happens to be quite a sage of Oerth Lore.  But with Nerath being the new D&D “core” world, there is going to be quite a bit of “old school” lore and magic from previous settings now attributed to it.  And other than to occasionally raise a D&D loremaster’s eyebrow, does not hurt the playability of the game one bit.  Overall Score: 4.7 out of 5.0    The Generals’ Assessment  After playing through a short game, I polled my fellow emperors and armchair generals to ask what they thought of Conquest of Nerath.  Overall, the response was very positive to the board game, with some interest in trying to get together for a longer play session in order to try a full game of “capture the capitals” as well as the alliance play rules.  All the players agreed the game looked great, had some great features, and a decently short learning curve for the rules.  A couple of my test players found the game reminiscent of a good session of Axis & Allies, although it should be mentioned that they noted that, also like A&A, a spate of bad dice luck in Conquest of Nerath can ruin even the best laid strategies.  Several of the players felt that there would be a solid amount of “replayability” in Conquest of Nerath, which easily justified the price.  By playing with different empires, different game lengths, or using the alliance play rules, a gamer will certainly have a different experience every time they sit down to Conquest of Nerath, which is an important consideration for many.The only real concern any of the players brought up was the size of the map.  While of decent size for a board game, some of the territories were a bit crowded when the game got rolling with added reinforcements, and a slightly larger scale of map board might have been better – maybe 25% larger say.  But overall, we had a really great time playing Conquest of Nerath, and I have no doubt that we will be getting together just to play it again sometime soon.  The game has a good mix of tactics in it for gamers who like to play the odds, as well as a certain surprise factor from the powers of magical Treasures and Event cards which can change a victory into a rout if used at the right time.  Considering the cost of other board games on the market, and the quality of the materials it contains, Conquest of Nerath is very competitively priced, and offers gamers many hours of fun, fighting fantasy wars in the realms of D&D 4E.  So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!  Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product from which the review was written.[Photos by Tizzbin]  Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)  <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Presentation: 4.75</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- Design: 4.5</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- Illustrations: 5.0</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Content: 4.75 </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- Crunch: 5</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- Fluff: 4.5</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Value: 4.5</li> </ul></blockquote>

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