If you love the look of medieval foot soldiers and knights on the tabletop then look no further than the One Hundred Kingdoms faction in Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings. The 100 Kingdoms have everything a wargamer who is missing the Old Worlds Empire and Bretonnia armies needs. From large blocks of Men-At-Arms to heavy plate wearing Household Knights this faction really hits the mark when it comes to playing a Human faction in a fantasy wargame. However, knowledge of the Old World’s human factions will only take you so far in the relatively new fantasy massed battle game Conquest. Below are some things every new 100 Kingdoms general won’t regret learning before their first few games of Conquest.
Army Rules:
When building a 100 Kingdoms army list the first thing you will need to decide is which of the three army wide special abilities your 100 Kingdoms army will benefit from. The first option of these gives you the option to spend additional points on your regiments to make them Veterans. Each unit you want to upgrade to Veteran status doubles their command upgrade costs and must take an additional command model in addition to a Standard and Leader. These extra points can add up when building an army list, but you will be getting +1 Clash AND Resolve (to a max of 3 Resolve) to each unit upgraded in this way. This army rule benefits large blocks of regiments who will be hitting extremely hard with that +1 Clash, and lends itself to an army with fewer units than other 100 Kingdom options.
The second army wide rule is extremely simple. By selecting the Relentless Drill army rule all Infantry units in your 100 Kingdoms army get the Support (1) special rule. Usually in the game of Conquest, unit stands that are not directly in contact with the enemy during melee get 1 supporting attack instead of the normal amount of attacks on their unit profile, but the Support special rule lets you add the number of attacks listed in the units Support rule to their 1 supporting attack. While this may not seem as good as getting +1 Clash and Resolve, this upgrade is complete free and can be a huge benefit for units like Militia who already have Support (1) giving them Support (2)! Throw in one of the many buffing characters from the 100 Kingdoms, and suddenly those inexpensive blocks of Militia are hitting well above their weight class with a ton of attacks!
Finally, a 100 Kingdoms army can choose the Dynastic Alliances army rule. This allows your army to benefit from two Supremacy abilities instead of just one. While this ability still only lets you activate one Supremacy ability per turn, multiple 100 Kingdoms characters have Supremacies that are always active like the Noble on foot’s Best of Men or the Imperial Officer’s Rapid Deployment. If you choose this Army Rule make sure you choose two characters with Supremacy abilities that will provide the maximum benefit to your army list.
Characters:
Speaking of Supremacy abilities that benefit a 100 Kingdoms army, the 100 Kingdoms have some of the best character combinations in Conquest, and it starts out with the character included in the Two-Player Starter Set in the Mounted Noble Lord. With his Supremacy ability the Mounted Noble Lord makes every unit of Household Knights in your army go from a solid cavalry option to one of the best hammer units in the entire game. This guy belongs right at the front of a 5 strong regiment of Household Knights carrying the Laurean Lance with either Relentless or Arms Master to personal taste. Not too many units in Conquest want to be on the receiving end of a Charge and then a Clash from Household Knights who are getting the benefits the Mounted Noble Lord provides.
The foot version of the Noble does what his mounted counter part does for the cavalry in your army for your infantry regiments. The Best of Men Supremacy ability giving out re-rolls of 6s in both attack and defense is extremely strong. While it is only a 6 inch range from the Noble’s stand it can be just enough to pile onto two units holding a center objective. On the defensive, a block of Men-At-Arms with the Bastion Draw Event from their Season Veteran upgrade are Defense 4 re-rolling 6’s while they are attacked in their front arc! As for the offensive utility this unit provides look no further than the Household Guard who will be hitting enemies with Clash 4 re-rolling 6s by having a Noble in their unit with the Regalia of The Empire banner and their Armsmaster upgrade.
The Imperial Officer is also all about buffing units, but he does it in a bit of a different way than the Noble. His Supremacy ability is extremely powerful as it gives all of your units +1 to their roll to deploy onto the board. One of the most interesting aspects of Conquest is their system of rolling for units to arrive, with heavier classed units coming on later in the game, and it is extremely important to make sure you have a solid board presence as quickly as possible. The Imperial Officer also can be upgraded with up to two Battlefield Drills which give units special Draw Event rules. Almost all of these can find extremely good uses based on the units in your 100 Kingdoms army, but some of my favorites are Bastion, Fire and Advance, and Double Time.
The 100 Kingdoms doesn’t only have characters who are good in melee. The Chapter Mage is an extremely versatile spellcaster who can pick from a variety of schools of magic to get some absolutely amazing buffing spells. Sometimes it can be difficult to pick from the schools of magic, but just look at your army list to determine what spells will best help your army’s overall strategy. For example, if you want to build an army with devastating ranged damage look no further than the School of Air. Seeking Winds gives the caster’s regiment the buff to ignore the Obscured rule during a Volley action due to the range to the target. The School of Water has a solid healing spell that targets the caster’s unit, and the cheapest option, the School of Earth, comes with some very interesting spells that can limit your opponents ability to charge.
The other spellcaster for the 100 Kingdoms is the Theist Priest. The 100 Kingdoms priest can put out some serious hurt with his Holy Fire spell, but he can also be used to buff all the Devout units in your army with his Supremacy ability. The Devout keyword isn’t found everywhere in 100 Kingdoms, but for the units that have it your Theist Priest can give them +1 Defense and Evasion until the end of the Turn, or the ability to re-roll all of their defense or attack rolls once per Round.
Part 2:
The 100 Kingdoms are the most versatile faction in Conquest, and just from looking at their Army Rules and characters it shows! Part 2 of the article will dive into some of the regiments available to a 100 Kingdoms player. One of the best parts about the game of Conquest are some of the army synergies that can be created during list building by identifying your units strengths on the battlefield and using your characters abilities to turn those strengths up to 11.