Stats:
No. of players: 1-4
Amount of time to play: 30 – 90 min (depending on the scenario)
Age requirements: 14+
Set-up time: 5-10 minutes

Mage Wars: Conquest of Kumanjaro is a spell tome expansion for Mage Wars that includes two new wizards. Find out what the new spells and tactics these alternate mages bring to the arena.

Mage Wars: Conquest of Kumanjaro Description:

The Conquest of Kumanjaro expansion gives you the back story for two new mages, the Priest of Malakai and Johktari Beastmaster. It also includes tokens needed for the expansions new special abilities and status effects.

I am going to assume you have played the base game if you are reading this review. If you have never tried the base game, you’ll probably want to start by reading my review of Mage Wars. The information here will mostly pertain to the Conquest of Kumanjaro expansion.

Neither of the new mages introduces a new school of magic. However the new Johktari Beastmaster has a different feel than the beastmaster in the original game. She is a hunter and her creatures help her stalk and take down her prey. She has a +1 Range attack for her non-spell attacks and has the Fast trait. She can also mark a damaged creature (not a mage) with a Wounded Prey token. This gives her and all friendly animal creatures a +1 Melee trait when attacking the marked creature. Once marked the token cannot be moved until the creature is eliminated.

The Priest of Malakai is an alternate mage for the priest class. He is much more offensive than the priestess in the original game. His basic attacks are light based and allow him to add Burn tokens to his victims. He can also make any non-legendary creature his Holy Avenger. This creature gets +5 Life and attacks with +2 Melee and +1 Piercing against any creature that has damaged an ally (not itself). Only one Holy Avenger can be assigned at a time and may only be reassigned once the current Holy Avenger is destroyed.

Of course there are new spells and creatures for the included mages, but there are also new spells and creatures from other schools of magic.

There are several new tokens and traits introduced in the Conquest of Kumanjaro expansion. Bleed, Stuck and Tainted are some of the new tokens that mark conditions a unit is under. Also included are small tokens to show a unit has Armor, Melee or Ranged +1. Extinguish is an attack that removes Burn tokens from a unit. And Intercept is a trait that allows guarding units to become the target for ranged attacks.

Quick Review of Conquest of Kumanjaro:

Conquest of Kumanjaro has a couple of nice additions for Mage Wars fans. The contents of this expansion add some nice new abilities, elements and components to the base game.

The components of this expansion are of similar quality to those in the rest of the series. That means they are very good. The art looks great and the card quality is appropriate. I kinda wish the expansion included more spell books, but that would drive the cost up. You can buy them separately, but it’d be a nice-to-have item.

The new mages play fairly differently from their counterparts from the base game. It is nice to see Arcane Wonders give extra options for the priest and beastmaster mages. I also like that some of the spells and creatures are from different schools of magic. It really makes the expansion more useful than if everything included was focused solely on the new mages.

The new intercept ability, spells and creatures are a good addition. I like that they add to the game and bring new tactics to it without a ton of new rules memorization.

The new tokens for tracking +1 Armor, Melee or Ranged are icing on the cake. They are not necessary to play the game but they really help keep track of things.

If you play Mage Wars and want to continue to expand your tactics and spells you should pick this up.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6