Conquest Tactics (2011)

Conquest Tactics is a strategy card game with a fantasy theme. Players lead their armies across a battlefield to clash with their opponent, employing hand management, resource allocation and battlefield strategy to outwit each other. Players deploy troop cards to a grid battlefield and pay tactical points to move, attack and cast spells. Skills and Spells are taught to a player's entire army and reused each turn. Each player chooses from a selection of victory conditions and must achieve three victory conditions to win the match.

The first chapter of Conquest Tactics features three army factions, but troops from different factions may be combined into one deck. The initial factions are:

• Humans: A balanced faction with a wide variety of Spells and Skills
• Kaborha: A powerhouse faction with strong, expensive troops and an emphasis on melee skills
• The Malice: A swarming faction with overwhelming numbers and a penchant for dark magic

For five hundred years, human civilization languished under the rule of the Kaborha, a society focused solely on honor, battle, and a tri-annual tournament for supremacy. Now a young hero has emerged, bringing hope of returning humanity to its former glory. But even as Humans rise up against their oppressors, a new threat has come to their world. The Malice -an interdimensional army of evil creatures- has descended upon the homeland of the Kaborha and Humans, lurching the Fire Continent out of a centuries long stagnation and into war! Traditional ways will be broken and unlikely alliances formed to repel the oncoming evil. Only you have the power to determine the future of the Fire Continent and the world of Yen-Sen.

The time has come for you to lead your chosen forces into battle in Conquest Tactics, a new strategy card game. Choose your Victory Conditions and your Base, assemble your Troops and march them across the battlefield. Teach them Spells and Skills to use again and again, and empower them with Equipment. Bend fate in your favor with Circumstance cards, and claim powerful relics as your Trophies. Vanquish your enemies by using real strategy, movement and range to your advantage. Never before has a collectible card game given you this much control and this level of strategic choice.

Rather than pursue a single goal, Conquest Tactics has several different Victory Conditions that can be achieved in order to win. You might choose to invade and occupy your opponent’s side of the field, destroy their base, challenge troops that are stronger than your own, or upgrade a troop to it’s highest potential. As a reward for achieving a Victory Condition, you are bestowed a Trophy which grants a special onetime benefit, such as the ability to draw extra cards, deal additional damage or search for the perfect troop you need at the moment.

Each army in Conquest Tactics has its own types of troops. Unique to the world of Conquest Tactics are the Kaborha, a strong and proud race matching the cunning of humans with raw animalistic power. Troop cards have deployment, movement, and attack costs. The troop card also lists the damage done by the troop in an attack and the ability of the troop to defend itself. Finally, each troop card details the health of the troop and any special abilities that unit may have. Some troops have the ability to cast magic or use special skills.

When your Troops can't get by on courage alone, give them Equipment to better their chances of survival. Equipment comes in three varieties: Armor, Weapons and Accessories. These improvements attach directly to a Troop, making it more powerful in the midst of battle. Troops may also use spells and skills on the battlefield. Spell cards consist of fire, light and dark magic that may be used to heal, harm, cripple and defend in battle. However, only troops that are able to cast a particular type of magic are able to use that magic's spells. These abilities are put into your Knowledge Pool where they may be used repeatedly throughout the game by your various troops, but they have a cost each time they are used and may only be used once per turn.

Each deck has one base which serves as a stronghold and is one of the principal sources of a player's power. Bases give their armies additional strengths such as the ability to upgrade troops faster or replace fallen troops. However, Bases are not without their weakness as they may be destroyed, removing the benefits granted by it.

Circumstance cards may be played at any time and do not need to be cast by a troop with the ability to use magic. These cards may enable you to increase your tactical points, negate an attack or even reflect an attack back at a troop when your opponent least expects it! Circumstance cards are paid for using the cards in your hand. If you don't have enough cards to discard from your hand you can't use your circumstance cards, thus hand management is another essential skill in Conquest Tactics.