City States vs. Dweghom
Got to sneak in a game with a new player this week on a long lunch break at my rotation. He’s a great guy that I’ve known online for years but finally got to meet in person. I’ll give a quick rundown of the awesome game that we had and then a narrative recap at the end! This is my friends first game so this was a great learning experience and we had a lot of fun talking out moves, strategies, and “basics” of conquest. It was helpful to verbalize and teach why it’s good to have characters first, or why lots of cards in the stack matters, or when to entourage action and when to delay.
My List
Eidolon with Anticythean Alloy Gears
3×3 Inquisitors
1×3 Clockwork Hoplites
Mechanist Warlord with Inscription of Lighter Alloys
1×3 Clockwork Hoplites
1 Talos
Ipparchos with Blades of Eakides
1×4 Companion Cavalry
2 Flogobollon
Opponents List
Ardent Kerawegh Warlord
2×3 Flame Berserkers
2×3 Magmaforged
Tempered Sorcerer Fire School with Drake Rider
Hellbringer Drake
1×4 Fireforged
Hold Raegh with Draegbhrud
1×4 Hold Thanes
Ironclad Drake
Early Game
We are playing maelstrom, don’t mind the larger zone we didn’t have smaller ones but we knew it was small. As you can see my list of Checks notes ZERO LIGHTS wasn’t able to get onto the zones before the flame berserkers. Dweg took an early lelad that I would have to really crawl back from. One thing it did allow me to do is position my Talos to absorb all of his shooting.
I went pretty heavy on the gamble that Talos could weather the shooting and really overloading that top side. It was fun to talk through step by step with my opponent. What would I do, what are options, etc. My opponent is a great guy that knows his stuff and has played a lot of wargames but is new to conquest. Demo games are a ton of fun
Mid Game
Here’s my big blunder. See those inquisitors in the middle? I thought I was too jammed up so in the last round I reformed and moved them to support the right side. My Chariots did absolutely horrible things to the Ironclad and I can see what people hate facing them. They’re so powerful. Like….Maybe too powerful?
So it ended up being a pretty close battle. With things on the left side going slightly my way when I got some spikes and killed the ironclad and began the lonnnnnng grinding process of killing the thanes. As you can see each of my 3 inquisitor squads is on life support, so a few different rolls and it was anyone’s game over there. The thanes and raegh just obliterated my clockworks and my center inquisitors spent a few rounds doing janky reforms and movements to get onto the zone and try to stop the light scoring that had last for 7 rounds.
Talos continued to be an absolute champ, laughing off the shooting and standing just far enough away that they were outside of march charge and effective range. If they wanted to come and get him they would pay dearly.
Late Game and Thoughts
Talos continued to live and be a pest. Eventually after the majority of the game the left side got cleaned up and my opponent called it there. It was a fantastic game and it was nice to meet an online friend after literally 8 years of knowing about each other (I went to school with a family member of his). My opponent was a fantastic player, even on their first game they very quickly picked up on the rules of conquest and how to be effective while playing it. I can’t wait to run into them again at local events and tournaments!
All in all I think I’ve had my fun with this list. Weirdly the things I don’t love are the Clockwork Hoplites, yes they are obscenely tanky, but they end up being too slow to leverage that tankiness into points. Which was VERY clearly put on display in this game against high pressure light scoring. So while the mechanical side of CS is definitely my favorite part, I will be adapting the list just a touch to this
My New List!
Eidolon
3×3 Inquisitors
Aristarch Warlord With Inscription of Impact Resistance
6 Hoplites with Auxiliary
Talos
Ipparchos with Atalanta’s Spear
2×3 Companion Cavalry
2 Skorpios
I am very excited about this list because I’ll get to mess around with the much more interesting aristarch warlord, I’ll increase my number of companion cavalry regiments and I’ll still keep my Eidolon and Inquisitors. And I am able to trade my clockwork hoplites for regular hoplites, hopefully giving me a bit more scenario power thanks to the speed of the aristarch warlord ability.
Gameplay wise I’m still playing the Eidolon and Inquisitors poorly even though I believe they have some power to them. I need to leverage more the strategic stack to allow some serious power punches with this group and the hunted rule. It’s a positioning puzzle for sure though. On a positive note I feel like I’m playing my chariots VERY well. So that feels good
Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to reach out to me to talk shop. I’m Arrest on the Discord and arrest_paints on instagram!
Narrative Recap
Theron Kallistides, Ipparchos of Telomarchon was haggard, his soul weary from a lifetime of fighting but too jaded to seek the comfort of the academy or his family farm. Too much open area, too many variables, too many memories, too many dead men waiting in his nightmares. He could only ever be comfortable on the saddle. He had returned home for a short resupply, fully intending to seek more work shortly. But he was surprised to hear the call to arms from the town square while on a recruitment mission with his senior officers. Outriders had seen a band of Dweghom invaders marching steadily towards the city and all able bodied men were to report immediately.
Thamyris spoke succinctly without passion as he mustered, organized and deployed the city’s garrison to repel the invaders. The Dweghom were marching faster than expected and the defenders had been put on the back foot. Theron and his outriders had already seen the Dweghom bersekers and their priests dug into strategic locations before the city. They had done so before Thamyris could even muster and deploy a counter attack. Thamyris always played with lives as if they were pieces in a game, and never was it more clear than it was now as the battle began. His forces rushed towards the entrenched enemy, taking horrific casualties as the arcane barrages rained down on the defenders.
Theron had ridden out on the eastern flank and slaughtered zealot after zealot. Becoming bogged down in the melee as wave after wave of the flaming madmen charged towards him. The blessed blade he wielded, gifted to him by Damatrios himself, cut easily through their flaming torsos and limbs. As the final body tumbled to the ground he felt, more than heard, the tell tale hum of artillery fire. He turned sharply northward to see a monstrous drake with two cannons aiming directly at his regiment. The cannons warped the air around them, and an impossible number of shots rained toward him. Just before impact a large shadow passed over them. Echelaon the Talos of Telomarchon slid in front of Theron and slammed his shield down, absorbing the majority of the barrage and granting Theron and his men time to regroup, retreat to safety.
As he approached the western flank he could still see Echelaon holding the eastern flank. Volley after volley catching upon his massive shield as he cut down rank after rank of berserkers. Great rents in his armor and shield, but no critical damage had been done. The western flank was collapsing in upon the Dweghom, he could see they were surprised by the ferocity of the inquisitors. He arrived in time to see nine of them climbing upon another giant drake, this one without cannons, but much more muscular, and much larger. The giant fell and the leader of the Dweghom signaled retreat. The fighting was done. All that was left was to burn the dead and inform their families. A task Theron always did personally, whether by writing them by his own hand or in person.
As he turned his horse towards the city again he noticed that Thamyris was again collecting the blood pooling out of the giant beast. Theron spat viciously onto the ground and hoped whatever evil the mechanist worked would never reach his home.