Conquest of the Fallen Lands is an exciting board game for 3 to 5 players. It is easy to learn, fun to play, and a typical game ends in about an hour. Even so, this game has the richness, atmosphere and depth of a larger-scale wargame.

You will find the complete rule set for Normal play below. If you are after a more complex game, you can move on to Advanced rules, which provide for even richer strategic options and deeper gameplay.

Here is what some reviewers say about it.

Tom Vasel, www.tomvasel.com (full review):

“Conquest of the Fallen Lands is a very clever game with difficult decisions and high replayability… It plays great with three, four, or five players, and has an interesting, engaging theme.”

“Each time the game is played, the board is different, the cards drawn are different, and the player can try a new combination of followers. That variety is a lot of fun for me. I enjoy games that play differently each time, yet hold some basic precepts and offer decent strategy and tactics.”

Greg Schloesser, www.easttennesseegamers.com, writing for the Counter magazine:

“There is much to like here. Conquest of the Fallen Lands has numerous clever ideas, particularly the concept of using previous conquests – whether your own or your opponents’ – to support future attacks…

Conquest of the Fallen Lands is quite good and has a fresh feel. While the objective is similar, it is not your typical attack and conquer game. It also successfully avoids the usual pitfalls of most conquest games, which is quite refreshing. In fact, that is a good word to describe the game:  refreshing.”

CONTENTS

A Deck of Cards. It contains Troop, Fortification, and Magic cards. These represent the assets and spells that you may deploy in your struggle to conquer the fields of the Fallen Lands.

Follower Tokens. There are three types: Warrior, Craftsman, and Mage. These Followers are responsible for carrying out all of the actions you perform on your turn.

The Fields. These are hexagonal tiles that depict the various monster forces that inhabit them. Each field also shows its difficulty number, a large number from 1 to 12. The higher the number, the more difficult the field will be to conquer.

Coins. There are coins of different denominations, and each one is marked with its value. Bronze coins are worth 1, Silver coins are worth 5, Gold coins are worth 10, and Diamonds are worth 25. Coins are used in the game to purchase assets and abilities, and are also used to determine who has won the game, once it’s over!

Color Chips. There are five colors, one for each player. Players use their chips to mark a field as their own once they have conquered it.

A Reference Card. This large card summarizes the general game rules (both Normal and Advanced) for quick reference during play.

SETUP

• Decide If you will be using Normal or Advanced Rules. (Only Normal Rules are presented on this web site.) Setup is the same for both rule sets.

• Lay down the fields in random order to form the gameboard. The gameboard will be different every time.

• Shuffle the cards and place the deck face-down near the gameboard. Choose a spot near the deck that will act as a discard pile for discarded cards. (lithe deck ever becomes exhausted during the game, shuffle the discards and reuse them) Make a face-up stockpile for each of the three Follower types (Mage Craftsman, and Warrior), and keep all of the coins together in a bank. Lay the Reference Card on the table for all to see so that the correct side (Normal or Advanced) is showing.

• Each player gets all of the chips of one color, and coins equal to 25 bronze in value, to begin the game. Each player also draws 8 cards from the deck. Cards are kept hidden in each player’s hand.

• After looking at their cards, each player draws a total of 2 Followers (any combination they like of Mages, Craftsmen, and Warriors) from the stockpiles. Followers are placed face-up on the table in front of the player who controls them.

Choose who goes first, and begin. A round consists of each player taking a turn. For the first round of play only, play rotates counterclockwise around the table. For all subsequent rounds, play rotates clockwise around the table. Thus, the player who goes Last in the first round will go first in the second round and thereafter.

TURN PHASE ORDER

A player’s turn consists of the following phases, in this order

1. Hire A New Follower: if you wish, you may pay 5 bronze coins to the bank and draw a single Mage, Craftsman, or Warrior token from its stockpile and add it to the table In front of you. This Follower becomes immediately available for use.

2. Complete Tasks. Carry out actions using your Followers and cards. There is much more detail on this phase in the Completing Tasks section below.

3. Draw/Exchange Cards. Take one card from the top of the deck, plus one card for each unexpended Mage you retain after completing your tasks, and add those cards to your hand. If you wish, you may also discard an even number of cards from your hand in exchange for cards from the deck. The exchange rate is 2 to 1; you draw one new card for every two cards you discard during this phase.

4. Restore Your Followers. Return all of your expended (face-down) Followers to a face-up position. This indicates that they are fresh and ready to be assigned more tasks to complete, on your next turn.

• The next player may begin their turn once you have finished the Complete Tasks phase of your turn. It is OK for turns to overlap in this way.

COMPLETING TASKS

Any task you wish to complete will usually expend the efforts of one or more of your Followers. When you have expended a Follower, turn its token face-down so that you can keep track of which ones have been expended.

There are three types of tasks you may complete on your turn. These tasks are

You may complete any of the tasks you want to, in whatever order you want, as many times as you want, as long as you have the available Followers and cards to do so.

a) Conquering A Field. You conquer a field by placing a Troop card onto it, where it will stay for the rest of the game. The following rules must be observed:

1) You may only play a Troop card if you have the correct unexpended Followers to do so, as shown on the card. For example, playing a Halberdiers card requires you to expend 2 Warriors and 1 Craftsman.

2) The sum of the Attack value of the Troop, plus the Support values of all of your Troops and Fortifications on adjacent fields, must be equal to or greater than the difficulty level of the field.

3) You may only conquer fields that have not been conquered already, by any player. Each field may only contain one Troop card.

SPECIAL STARTING RULES: If you are unable to conquer any fields during your first turn ONLY, you may opt to discard your entire hand and draw 8 fresh cards from the deck. You must do this BEFORE completing any tasks.

4) Treasure! Once you have conquered a field, you must place one of your color chips on it to mark it as your own. Conquering a field also gets you a monetary reward equal to the difficulty of the field. For example, if you conquer a field of difficulty level 6, take 6 bronze coins (or their equivalent) from the bank.

b) Fortifying A Field. You may fortify a field, and thus increase its overall Support value, by placing a Fortification card onto it. ‘The following rules must be observed:

1) You may only play a Fortification card if you have the correct unexpended Followers to do so, as shown on the card. For example, playing a Garrison card requires you to expend 1 Craftsman.

2) You may only play Fortifications onto your own fields that you previously conquered with a Troop card. even if it was earlier on the same turn. Stack the cards carefully in the field so that the Support values of both cards can be dearly seen. Only one Fortification card may be played per field.

c) Using Magic Cards. Magic cards introduce a variety of special effects and abilities to the game which can benefit you greatly. Each Magic card requires the expenditure of one or more Mages as shown on the card. For details on when to play specific Magic cards and the effects they produce, read the descriptive text on the cards themselves.

VICTORY!

The game ends when all of the fields of the gameboard have been conquered, or if each player goes through one turn without anyone conquering a field or playing a Claim magic card. The game can also end by mutual agreement of all players. (...Once the battle wanes, the King summons you all to his throne room and counts the treasure that you each have accumulated during the valiant struggle... The one who has the greatest hoard will be declared the King’s Champion!) Once the game has ended, count up your coins. The player with the greatest value of money wins the game!

©2006 Assa Games Corp. All rights reserved.