Conquest Board Game: The Making

You can download a print and play version of the game here:

Conquest Print-and-Play Board Game - Click to Download

Back in Middle school, class didn't start until 9:30, and kids who were dropped off by their parents at 7:00 had nothing to do for two-and-a-half hours. I had a couple friends, and we would play card games to pass the time. I would also make board games using The Print Shop and cardstock paper, then bring them to school to test them out. Some of these designs were actually really fun to play, including a game played with two dice and a few pieces on a board 15 spaces long in a single line.

However, my favorite design of all of these was a triangular board game called "Conquest." The spaces were triangular, movement was determined by cards, and there were even special cards in this version for anyone who reached the center. The goal is to capture all 3 of your opponent's pieces. The game was inspired by Backgammon, where movement was determined by luck and strategy comes into how you choose to move. You can also move more than one piece at a time in Backgammon, a concept few other games replicated quite as well. This made the game easy to play and understand but with a very deep strategy, plus the chance factor to keep things interesting turn-by-turn. Other games like Chess, Checkers, Sorry, and Trouble rely either a bit too much on strategy or luck to win, and the turns are not as interesting. While they do what they do very well, there are moments where Chess is not surprising or interesting, and losing a game like Sorry always feels terrible.

The cards in Conquest may require moving one piece 2/3 spaces or split 2/3 spaces among multiple pieces. The moves are never very complex, but they change the game dramatically and players are surprised by every turn. In a very early prototype of the game, I had all my pieces right next to my friends. I thought it would be more difficult to take me out if I was right next to him, but then he drew a Split 3 and destroyed all my pieces in a single move! The balance of chance and strategy made this game one of the most fun to play.

In Ringling, I chose to make this game a reality by constant playtesting and fixing certain design issues. The board was changed to a diamond shape but kept the same triangular spaces, balancing the distance between all players. Certain cards were changed slightly, and it was here I thought of an interesting mechanic: play for your opponent's turn. The game was a huge hit amongst playtesters and the professor gave it very high remarks. Most other students wanted to make RPGs with complicated attack/defense systems, and few had enough time to design it well. A year later I spoke to the upcoming freshman about game design, stressing the importance of simplicity and allowing players to understand how to play the game as soon as possible, and offered suggestions on how to keep things simple but still interesting and fun.