Ares Games recently announced a deal with Conan Properties International LLC to relaunch the Age of Conan strategy board game as well as release the new Adventures in Hyboria expansion after a Kickstarter funding campaign.  Ares has shared details with ICv2 about the expected trade release, according to hobby retailer news website ICv2.com.

The Adventures in Hyboria expansion expands Conan’s role in the game, and tracks his progress from warrior to mercenary to general.  With each adventure, Conan gains experience and moves from one stage to the next, becoming more powerful.  His goal is to be crowned king, but he is also subject to fits of melancholy, so his emotional mood is tracked with a Mood Wheel – which affects his statistics and dice rolls.  Not every game will end with Conan reaching his goal.   There are also Story cards, new Companion characters, Spies to help win wars, new Kingdom cards, and prisoners added to the game.

The box contains 4 new Objective cards, 29 new Adventure cards, 30 Story cards, 20 new Kingdom cards (5 per Kingdom),  20 Spy tokens (5 per Kingdom),  9 Companion cards, 12 Adventure tokens (including Companion tokens), 3 special Conan dice, a Mood Wheel marker, a Conan reference board, a Conan experience marker, and a rulebook.

Box contents may change as the Kickstarter campaign progresses, and Ares said that while some backer goals (Sorcery cards, the Cloth bag) will not be included in the trade version, some will.  “Every time we achieve a goal, we will make clear if it becomes a part of the retail-level expansion or not,” an Ares Games representative clarified. “In any case, these upgrades are not exclusives, and they may become available to retail as accessories or as a part of future products.”