Conquest: First Blood Thoughts
I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Parabellum Games regarding the launch of their new Skirmish Game, Conquest: First Blood. After some out and back, Parabellum sent me a box of miniatures to help me get started. I’ll include a link to my video on YouTube regarding the game, but I wanted to get a bit more in depth on the rules here. Watch My Video Review
In essence, I think the game has promise and is mechanically sound. It’s a two action based game with alternating activations. What’s not to love about that? The first thing you do at the start of each round is roll for who has the decision to go first. Then, each player can play a command with any characters they have. These can be character specific or from a list of generic ones.
The action phase starts next where the first player picks a unit and activates all warriors in that unit one at a time. Warriors can march, take aim, shoot, fight in combat and more. Play then passes to the other player and this repeats until all units have been activated, triggering the victory phase. In the victory phase, players check for victory points and play cycles back to the beginning.
In the demo game I played, it was quick and fun. I did not, however, even begin to scratch the tactical depth the game potentially offers. I have a few issues that are more nuanced complaints, such as lower is better when rolling dice. Intuitively, my brain is trained for higher is better and I’m not exactly sure why people do the opposite except to stand out. In addition, the miniatures are huge. At 38mm scale, the game definitely sets itself apart in miniature size from other games I play.
The other thing I asked about and I’m hoping Parabellum considers is a two player starter set. My original response was they are not looking to make one but I do feel this is extremely important for onboarding new players.
This will be a game to keep an eye on. I’ll be curious to see how it does and I will consider supporting Parabellum once I get some additional time for more games!
PROS:
+ Seems like pretty comprehensive ruleset
+ Free rules
+ Excellent working list builder app
+ Crossover with Last Argument of Kings (factions, miniatures, lore, setting, etc)
+ Random turn priority
+ Alternating activations
+ Activation entire units one at a time helps with speed of play
+ Quality hard plastic miniatures
+ Scalability (starting with small warbands on a 2×2 up to larger warbands on a 4×4 board)
CONS:
- 38mm scale makes the miniatures not really compatible with other games
- Lower is better when rolling dice
- Complex profiles that include a lot of stats and special rules, especially for characters
- No 2 player starter box at launch or hardback book