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| Nearing the end |
As king, you are in charge of building your kingdom by expanding your lands and protecting your people. In the early times of the kingdom this is easy enough. You send out your pathfinders to find resources to help your kingdom and build new settlements. However, there are other kings doing the same as you. So you build protection, and forces to battle against their expansion. Eventually, you are able to erect a tower which allows your wizards to summon forth great creatures of legend to battle for you. Then, there is one high lord, who the rest pay tribute to.
Towers of Conquestis a strategy game for two to four players. I had the opportunity of playing a prototype with three others at the Salt Lake Gaming Con (website) this year (2016) and I look forward to seeing this game make it to market.
The game has three stages of play starting with an emphasis on collecting resources, then expansion, and ending in battle.
At the start of the game each player has a settlement and a couple of pathfinders (scouts). You claim areas where resources are available so you can build more settlements, grow your settlements, and build additional forces. A variety of the five resources is important, but specializing in a particular resource also comes into play later in the game.
As you are able to collect more resources you can start to build your kingdom. You can more pathfinders, but you also need to enhance your settlement. Once a settlement is upgraded you can bring on rangers. Whereas pathfinders scout area and collect resources, rangers are fighters. You need to keep collecting resources to build your tower and bring even greater forces.
With your tower built you are able to summon legendary creatures. Each of these creatures have specific abilities setting them apart from the others, and there is only one of each—so, first come first served.
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| Starting positions |
I sat down with three other people at Salt Lake Gaming Convention (Facebook), with the developers, to learn the Towers of Conquest. One person had played the game before, at earlier stages of its development. And two of us were being introduced to the game.
The rules were explained to us, and the information was easily understood. For me this is a good sign for a good strategy game. The rules were simplified over time instead of being layered with "What if" clauses. I talked with the creators about the rules and they explained that during earlier stages of development they were getting a number of special restrictions coming into play to address "game-breaks." Then, it was decided to go the opposite direction to fix the breaks before they happened instead of a special rule to address the break during play.
Our game took about 90 minutes to play. In actual time it took longer, but we had a number of interruptions being at a convention. We also had experiences strategy players, however, Towers of Conquest is a game a less experienced person could easily pick up. The game has great reference cards so you have the information needed right in front of you. Everything you could buy, and when, were listed on the cards.
The artwork of the game provides a great visual—one of the reasons our game was being interrupted often. The developers took the time to come up with a look that draws players in. I can see gamers using the pieces in other games just so they can use them more often.
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| A little closer to see the pieces in action |
Another nice aspect about the game is replay-ability. Towers of Conquest has a number of variables built in that allow the game to be played back-to-back without having the same expected outcome. They are also working on a number of additional variations players can add to the game without having to change the rules. We played one of their variant rules by placing the board sections instead of using a preset layout.
Towers of Conquest(Facebook) (website) is scheduled to come out on Kickstarter later this year. The developers are working on the rulebook and final layout. From the enthusiastic response at the convention, I think it is a game worth watching for.
Since this is still in development this information is based on my experience.
The game is designed by Troy Banks and Joshua Chinsky (BC Games) for 2-4 players (they are working on variations to up the number) of ages 13+, and a game should last 90 minutes.
If you have any comments, questions, or critiques please leave a comment here, or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.
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