Conquest the Last Argument of Kings – a review

By Tom Gall

Does a tabletop miniatures game set in a fantasy setting interest you? When looking at a new game system to get into we all have a lot of questions, let’s look at Conquest The Last Argument of Kings or TLAoKs.

Simply, Conquest TLAoK by Para-Bellum Games is a rank-and-file miniatures war-game set in the world of Ëa. It’s a “newish” miniatures game that has started to sweep through the gamer ranks at D6 Games in Rochester Minnesota and more broadly here in the US. The game was originally released back in 2018, and, given the dark times of Covid, perhaps slowed in its potential growth due to those events. Regardless, as the system gains momentum, those dark days have given the rules time to be tuned, updated, and expanded.

Next question, does a rule set that is available online as a PDF for free interest you? The rules are a living document with a history of updates over time that have been improving gameplay. They were just updated to version 2.0 and while that might imply a huge set of changes, it was a smaller set of adjustments.

Does it matter to you if the faction books with all the army stats and information are also available for free online in PDF? All seven factions have their own army book which are available online for you to download for free. Like the rules, the army books are living documents that have been updated from time to time.

To put together a game you’ll need an army builder. Para-bellum again delivers, it’s free and it’s online.

It is really cool to have everything you need to play the game available for download, save for the miniatures.

Oh, last question, do you have a pile of dice that you’ve banished for rolling low? Well, get them out, TFAoK is D6 based, and, for the most part, you’ll want to roll low. [Editor’s note: cursed dice always roll the opposite of what you need. Check for curses on the dice before using them.]

The Setting

As mentioned, the game is set in Ëa where the various warlords, kingdoms, and races are going at it each with their own set of stories and history. The lore has been expanding especially as a campaign book was released this past fall. While it might not be a familiar setting don’t let that dissuade you.

The Units

You command one or more warbands made up of regiments commanded by a Warlord. Each faction has several characters to choose from to command your warbands. There are many different regiments to pick from for each faction, which gives you the player lots of flavor and freedom to choose what you’d like to play.

All units are point costed along with a variety of upgrades, extra characters, and so on. Locally we’ll set a point value for the week and people show up and pair off.

To field an Army you’ll need a Warlord, and you only get one. You can have as many warband commanders as you like as long as you have the points. These are the secondary commanders. Your Warlord or warband commanders control up to four regiments. There are limitations to which commanders can field which regiments. Leaders are always integrated into a unit and do not go running around on the battlefield by themselves.

The regiment is the heart of the army. These are your fighting units. The minimum-sized regiment is three stands. For gameplay, units are usually four figures per stand, or one figure per stand for larger things like cavalry, creatures, and so on. There are extra large creatures/special characters which are on enormous-sized bases and as you’d imagine make for very impressive models. A regiment can have as many stands as you have points for, so if you want 10 stands of Trolls (from the Nords faction) go for it! Just have the points and of course, be playing Nords.

Each regiment or warlord or warband command has a set of stats for movement, volley, clash, attack, wounds, resolve, defense, and evade.

• Movement – the distance in inches the unit can move per action. (Up to 2 per turn)
• Volley – the number needed to hit with a ranged weapon
• Clash – the number need to hit in melee
• Attack – the number of dice rolled in melee
• Wounds – How much health per stand or a character has.
• Resolve – Number you need to roll in order to keep morale or lose a figure or more wounds after you’ve been attacked
• Defense – Number you need to roll to avoid taking a wound in melee or volley
• Evade – Don’t have armor (ie Defense) well you might be great at dodging, this is the number you would roll to again evade a wound. You use the best value between Defense and Evade when avoiding wounds.

Units have keyword modifiers that might give them benefits in certain situations, like +1 to clash when on the flank of someone.

The Game

Turn Sequence

The game is divided into turns. You have cards that represent all your units and main characters. You arrange the cards for the units and characters that are either on the table this turn, or will be arriving, in a deck where the topmost card will be the unit/character activated first. You roll off with your opponent and the lowest die goes first. If you have fewer cards then your opponent then you’re able to +/- 1 what you rolled.

You flip over a card, which reveals the picture of a unit or character, you then activate that unit or character. If you have more than one of that unit, you’re able to place one of them on the table. Activation means movement, spell casting, charge, clash (melee combat), volley (ranged weapons), rally, and so on. You have two actions and once complete, your opponent then flips over a card.

Once all cards are revealed, you’ll tally up current victory points and move on to the next turn, re-arrange your cards as you like for activation order, roll a die to determine who has initiative, and so on.

When a game starts, no units are on the table. Everything comes on as reinforcements, This means the first few turns you’re determining where you want things to arrive and hoping you make reinforcement rolls. Each regiment has a rating, Light, Medium or Heavy. Lights start coming on Turn 1, mediums during Turn 2, and Heavies on Turn 3. With each turn of reinforcements, you’ll get to pick one unit to automatically arrive and then roll for the rest. Lights automatically arrive on turn 3 if your rolling hasn’t been great, mediums auto arrive on Turn 4, and heavy on Turn 5.

Games of TLAoKs are 10 turns in length, though they can be shortened in some cases by victory points accrued.

Combat

There are several modes of combat in the game.

• ranged which is called Volley action that captures arrows, stones, and all the other things that might be hurled in hopes of dealing damage
• melee which is called a Clash action when two units are toe to toe
• Impact when a unit collides into another and potentially results in damage

In all cases, a unit has a stat for the action which determines the number or lower you need to roll, and a number of attacks per stand which determines the number of dice you’ll roll depending on the number of stands that can perform that action. If you are successful, your opponent will roll defense or evade, there may be modifiers for armor piercing, shields, etc that raise or lower the value that needs to be rolled, again roll low. Any misses result in a number of wounds that are applied to the unit.

Lastly, if the wounds taken happened due to anything but ranged, resolve tests must be taken for each wound suffered, again failure results in more wounds being taken as part of the unit starts to run away.

If a unit loses half or more of its stands in an action it becomes broken. If it loses half again, it becomes shattered and is removed from the game.

Combat is fairly quick and brutal. For larger units, you’re often rolling a fair amount of dice. Due to the card system for activating units, timing plays a huge role in initiating combat, charging, and in general keeping your army effective as you try to take or defend objectives.

As a bonus, characters/leaders can duel!

Magic

Wizards and Priests are in the game and themed to your faction. Characters who can cast have a level that translates to the number of dice they roll when casting a spell. The more success, the stronger the spell is, don’t get enough successes and oops, nothing happens.

Armies Overview

There are 7 factions to choose from in Conquest. These are:

• Hundred Kingdoms – humans with a sort of Middle Ages feel
• The Spires – a sort of downfallen sci-fi who once traveled the stars but no more
• Dweghom – craftsmen, dwarves with war machines
• Nords – Major Norse vibe going on here
• The W’adhun – A fun mix of kinda Orcs and Dinosaurs
• The Old Dominion – undead, they’d like a word so you can join their merry band…
• The City States – A sort of greek mythology theme, very pretty!

There is an 8th faction under development. It was decided through a community process of voting. Para-bellum advances this idea of a living world, giving the community options and asking for votes as they look ahead to future products. This faction is scheduled to arrive in 2024. The City States faction is the newest and will be released shortly.

Miniatures Overview

Para-bellum has an extensive set of miniatures to offer with the game. My FLGS has been very successful in getting the product which comes all the way over from Europe. As players, we haven’t been waiting months for things to arrive. A week or two at most which is fantastic for international shipping and really a good sign that the pre-covid days for shipping things across the planet are back.

Typical packaging is for a minimum regiment of three stands or a complete character in a single box. Along with the figures you receive the command card for the regiment. The miniatures contain a number of different poses, and things can be fairly free-form in how to assemble. Some units require arms or legs to be assembled in a certain way else frustration will mount.

The miniatures are produced in a more “heroic” scale of about 38mm. They look good on the tabletop, but may be oversized for existing structures gamers or clubs may have. Fortunately, the game table is always an implied representation of a real world.

Assembly guides are online and free. (Are you detecting a theme?)

It should be no surprise that sale of the miniatures is what drives the game. It’s very important to point out that as compared to other companies Para-bellum is offering a fresh approach to how they are making their game available to you. Rules, scenarios, army builder, army book, it’s all free and online. The miniatures, the physical thing you need in order to play, that’s what you need to buy. A typical three-stand regiment box will cost you approximately $40-$60 US. (Your mileage might vary) There are army starter boxes that are good value as well as two army start boxes that you can split with a friend.

The regiment kits are for the most part plastic, with some of the larger figures as well as command figures being resin. Para-bellum has indicated they are converting older kits from time to time to plastic. Like all other miniature producing companies, this leaves them a choice of converting something existing or producing new content.

Organized Play

Conquest has an organized play scene. If you check the player’s guide for AdeptiCon this March you’ll find a Conquest tournament. Locally here in Minnesota, the very first tournament at the GameZenter located in Roseville Mn was just held in January. Another is scheduled at D6 games on the last Saturday in February 2023.

Discord and Facebook are the two paths I’ve found for meeting others. There is a larger Conquest discord at https://discord.gg/fUt8KGZX7H and more regional discord servers. With Facebook search for “Conquest last argument” and you’ll be presented with a long list of groups. Be sure to follow Para-bellum. Likewise there is a Para-bellum twitch channel that broadcasts material every so often that is worth following.

There is also the official Para-Bellum games events page. Organized Play scenarios can be found here.

Play Throughs

As videos are a great way to get to know a game and see how it plays, there are series that were done a few years back that are worth your time to give you an idea of how the game works. It’ll be version 1.x rules but don’t worry things haven’t changed much.

Play on Tabletop did a number of very well-done videos I recommend watching.

Summary

Conquest the Last Argument of Kings is a well-done miniatures game that gives you plenty of units, lots of build options for your units, different leaders, and magic too that combined make up for a fun time. While this summary can’t cover it all, know that you have a lot of material you can freely download to get up to speed on the game. Once you do get into it, the community and organized play are building so you likely will have people to play against in your local area.