Para Bellum’s latest faction spotlight makes the City States sound like one of the most distinctive armies in Conquest: First Blood.
So, this is not just another shieldwall faction with polished bronze and heroic poses. Instead, the article frames them as a force where discipline, engineering, and battlefield planning all matter at once. Moreover, the preview leans hard into the contrast between rigid formation fighting and sudden bursts of unleashed violence. This is a quick summary of their news that you can explore here.
Strategic order, formation tricks, and brutal shock units define how the City States play
The biggest hook is that City States Warriors of the same Battlefield Role can move through each other thanks to Soldiers From Birth, which means their formations can shift in ways that feel much more drilled and flexible than most armies. As a result, units like Agema, Phalangites, and even bulky Thyreans can reposition through one another instead of getting tangled in their own battleline.
Meanwhile, the faction can also set its Command Cards into a Strategic Stack at the start of the round, which rewards careful planning by letting all Warriors re-roll Resolve rolls of 6 and unlock further synergies depending on the units and characters you brought. However, the article also makes clear that City States are not trapped by that order. At any point before activating a Command Card, you can Break Formation and abandon the stack for greater flexibility.
That is where the army’s wilder pieces come in. The Minotaur Thyrean, for example, can use Bull Rush to make a free Clash Action while Breaking Formation, which sounds like a perfect way to turn a neat battle plan into a sudden wrecking charge. Then, backing up the whole warband, the Mechanist offers support through Logistical Epoche, effectively helping you recover from a failed key roll at the exact wrong moment.
Altogether, the City States come across as an army that rewards smart sequencing, controlled aggression, and knowing exactly when to stop being civilized.
