Historical Conquest Review & Giveaway {closed}

Historical Conquest: The Journey Through Time is an epic card game where players can create personalized societies with key players from history and battle them one against another; anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Each card is complete with: fantastic illustrations of people, places, events in history; abilities in the game according to the abilities they had in real life; and a full summary of their actual history.

Eric the Red can help the Mongul Army conquer Argentina during the Black Plague. Albert Einstein can live peacefully in Japan under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln during World War I. The possibilities are endless, as is the fun!

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In order to review this product I was sent two “Starter Packs” in exchange for my honest review. My opinions stated here are my own, and have not been influenced in any way.

My husband and I sat down one evening, opened up the “Starter Packs” and began reading the directions. Two hours later we had an idea of the general flow of the game (thanks to the video they have posted on-line), but were discouraged with the amount of time and effort it took to understand the sketchy directions. For instance the printed directions state, “Begin each game with a minimum of 50 cards, customizing your deck to fit your objective.” Nowhere in the printed directions does it indicate that the 50 cards equals one deck and that 1 deck is only for 1 player. In order to play the game, you have to have at least two “Starter Packs” because each player needs to have a minimum of 50 cards (with a cost of $12.97 per Starter Pack).

Given our experience with the 1st Edition of this game, here are the Pros:

* The graphics on the cards are colorful and engaging.

* A wide range of historical figures, events and places are represented with some background information to get you started on the road to learning about each one.

* For someone with a knowledge of many of these historical figures and battles it could be fun to mix and match them to varying outcomes, almost like temporarily rewriting history!

Back in the day my husband was a fan of a game called Dungeons and Dragons. He was intrigued by this Historical Conquest game because he felt it had many similarities to Dungeons and Dragons. We would also compared it to Pokemon cards due to the idea of the cards being collectible, as well as the distinct characteristics (abilities) of each character (card). The graphics were engaging, and each card had certain abilities based on their real character traits.

Given our experience with the 1st Edition of this game, here are the Cons:

* What they have as a “Starter Pack” is not really complete. For two players, to play you would need to purchase two of them at a cost that is too high for a card game in my opinion. This game could use a nice board that would help with the flow of play as well as include a detailed map for those who can’t place all the countries in the correct continent.

* On the website they have a review talking about it being easy enough for a second grader. I did not find this to be true. Right off the bat, a person would have to have a reasonable knowledge not only of continents but of the countries contained in them. I think that is beyond your average second grader.

* The directions in the box are done in the tiniest of print. At first glance they appear to be daunting to get through. When you do get through them you still don’t have a full grasp of the game. After watching both the video play of game & tutorial on their website, as well as reading through the directions and sifting through all the material on their Kickstarter fundraiser site, my husband and I still found aspects that did not make sense. Things like the World War 2 with Japan card that refers to a battle with numerous attacks, but you are only allowed two attacks per turn. The flow of cards that stay in front of you for further use and how they are used as opposed to those that are used and discarded is unclear. In my opinion, you should not need multiple resources and extended periods of time to learn and understand how to play a game.

All in all I would say that if you love history and are a major history buff, you might enjoy this game. For us as a homeschooling family with children ranging in age from 6-13, I would say the amount of money spent and the time required to figure out the game are not worth it in the end.

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The folks over at Historical Conquest are in the process of raising funds to mass produce a 2nd edition of this game. They are looking to reviewers like myself to offer feedback on possible improvements for the 2nd edition. My pros/cons in this review are based solely on the 1st edition and not on possible improvements or revisions for the 2nd edition.

Here are a few things I think would be worthwhile improvements for the 2nd edition:

* I would say a “Starter Pack” should include enough cards for at least two players, as well as a nice board.

* Less content and more substance in the directions of the game (allowing for less printed word and thus larger font). Making the directions more complete, and creating a more clear and obvious flow for the game.

* Possibly including “Junior” directions. We have many educational games that utilize the same game pieces but offer easy and harder methods of play.

To All Readers,

Heidi was exactly right about the 1st edition of Historical Conquest and we are overjoyed by her reviewing it and giving us feedback. After she played the game, wrote this review, and allowed us to look it over for accuracy she was nervous about the post, we on the other hand were delighted because she stressed the importance of the game and the importance of printing our 2nd edition.

First a little background. This project began in college, when our teacher gave us an assignment to create a product that would realistically change the world. At the time, we were big gamers who were very familiar with products like Risk, Settlers of Catan, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, and Magic: The Gathering. Also during that time there was a controversy stirring about the loss of interest youth were showing in education. So we as a group decided to fix that problem regarding history. We decided that we would create a product that would help young people, as well as old, enjoy learning about history once again.

After testing the product on groups of all types (ages, background, locations, etc) we found that we had a few problems in the game and needed to fix them. Sadly we had already spent all we had on printing the 1st edition. The solution was to raise enough funding to print a new and improved 2nd edition of Historical Conquest. Here are some of the problems of the 1st edition and their solutions for the 2nd edition:

1) The first problem we found is that we designed this game with a similar rule-setup as some other popular collective card games, so the rule book tended to be long and drawn out, not at all favoring the large majority of people who are not familiar with these types of games.

To solve the first problem we enlisted a writer who was outside the realm of gaming to simplify the rules. We were able to shorten the rules so that it fits on the front and back of a playing card, with more advanced rules on our website, and a tournament set of rules soon to come. In addition, we have published a video of an example game explaining each step on how to play. The video is available on our website.

We have asked one of the top independent game reviewers in the United States to look through the game and pick it apart. They’ve also made a video explaining how to play, which is available on our Kickstarter page. So we are taking all the steps possible to make sure everyone is able to play this game, no matter their background.

2) To our surprise, many in their sunset years have desired to play this game but were burdened by the small print in the history and abilities sections of the game.

To solve this problem we redesigned our cards with: larger print, trying to include as much history as possible while making it easier to read; newer more realistic drawings, to interest younger gamers; revised and edited abilities; and added over 100 new characters to our 150 original cards.

The 2nd edition includes new characters like:

3) Many have shown a concern in the current pricing; each player would need their own deck which will cost between $10-12. This may be the only thing that is not in our control as much as we wish it could be. We have been fighting to keep all printing inside the United States. We have gone to printers around the US searching for the lowest price with the best quality. To print a decent-quality deck of cards in the United States costs anywhere from $5 – $7. In order to print for less you would need to print 5,000 – 100,000 decks, which will be shipped overseas for printing and assembling. A retailer will only buy the decks if they are $6.50 or less each, and they will sell it for $10-12. To be competitive with other game producers, we need to sell them between $10-12. We are fighting to keep the printing in the United States in order to keep the pricing around $10, and to bring our customers the best possible product. We are still working on this.

These reasons are why printing the 2nd edition is so important. We need to reprint these decks to give our customers the best product possible. For this reason we have teamed up with Kickstarter.com to run a fundraiser in order to print these cards.

This is why we need your help. We have already raised a great deal of funding from many loyal supporters, but we are still coming up short. Our goal on Kickstarter is $5,000, of which we have already raised $3,300, and we only have 9 days left.

We don’t want to ask for handouts. Instead we would like to reward our backers with gifts for their donations, including cards, playing mats, even creating your own cards with people in history. And if you act now, there are some great deals for the cards and other merchandise. We need help to create this product and bring interest back to history.

In addition to this fundraiser we have been asked by two local homeschooling groups to sell our product through their groups. One of the organizations has asked us to go on tour with them at their conventions across Alaska near the end of April, this is where we would debut the 2nd edition. This would be a great opportunity for Historical Conquest, but the printing won’t occur without your help. Please visit our website to learn more.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Zack Edwards
CEO and Creator of Historical Conquest
The game that is “Kid Tested, Mother Approved.”

Historical Conquest Giveaway

We have two Historical Conquest starter decks to give away this week! One winner will receive a 1st Edition deck – definitely playable but also valuable as a collector’s item – and one winner will receive a 2nd Edition deck. Just enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway