Conquest – The First Word in The Last Argument

Took Conquest out for more demos this weekend.

This time I introduced a peice of Garrison terrain.

This is a really elegant way to place solid buildings on the board and make them work with r&f mechanics.

On contact, the unit is removed from the table and models are placed on the building so they look cool. The unit is then considered to be the building. They lose their flank and rear arc, gain 360 and height (x) LOS (x is height if the building), +1 Defense and immune to impacts (screw you cavalry XD).

I made it an objective to capture.

2 games in a row, the force grown drones made it in first (one time was against the odds) and tanked the whole game.

1st game, the 100 Kingdoms got tabled, the second ended in a grind between 100k knights and steel legion laying siege to the drones in the Garrison.

Given time, the Steel Legion’s skill at arms, greatswords and steele resolve won the war of attrition (whilst the House hold Knights slapped the building like a wet lettuce XD XD XD)

I’m torn between finishing more models or adding more terrain to my board as the craters were somewhat out of place…

Some rubble low ruins and corner ruins to replace them.

So I’ve been on the hunt for nice big scenery pieces to build up a Hundred Kingdoms, city under siege style table… and the distinct lack of 38-40mm fantasy stuff has become increasingly apparent.

Now I have used Dave Graffam card buildings in the past but only at 25mm (printed at 85% scale)… so I thought I’d have a go at upscaling.

To my delight at 110% the components were perfect for the scale and still fit on A4 pages for printing so I ran off a batch I’m 190gsm card and assembled them with scotch double sided tape.

The cut edges have been coloured using a black sharpie marker to better disguise the material and it’s come out great. This kit also came with some support pillars which I’m currently building to help add some structural support to the floor levels.

I’ve also found that Pegasus Hobbies do big bags of grey bricks in 40mm scale so I’ll scatter those about to help them blend into the mat.

Very satisfied 🙂

And I’ve already made a start on the second.

A watch tower 😉 I wanted to have an intact building to use as a Garrisson. In conquest, you can occupy buildings for +defense, you lose you’re flanks and gain 360 deg vision as well as being immune to impact hits 🙂 all in all, it’s like having a mini siege battle within a larger game, which sounds so cool to me.

Garrisons are balanced around being approx 6inch diameter so to make it look like a good defensible position, I went vertical.

All that remains is to make the balconies

Done my Household Knight Lancers to escort my Noble Lord about the field 🙂

Next of the line is a awesome unit. The Spire’s Brute Drones.

I really enjoyed building up the bonemold armour, playing with the shading and contrasts.

First unit completed in its entity was… a one model unit XD but a bloody big one.

From its day glow green beginnings it got a dark red glaze (watered down) to produce the skin finish I was after.

Palid and greenish but with a warmth that says “It’s aliiiiive” 🙂

The finishing touch was toxic purple colorshift paint from greenstuff world’s chameleon paint range to give it that insectoid feel. Very satisfied with the results.

So job done. Para Bellum got a bit of exposure, some snazzy pictures and I got the opportunity to paint some amazing models…. everyone’s happy.

… now I’ve still got all these models and the rules for them….

Would be a shame not to…

So we played it and OMG! They just happen to make the most slick, dynamic and exciting rank and flank fantasy game I’ve ever played.

It’s definitely broken away from the status quo to produce a very unique game.

Now I’m under no further obligation to do anything with these minis. I could eBay them or put them in the shredder for all anyone cares…. but I can’t.

I can’t stop wanting to play this game… And to show it people.

And so I have. Since April I’ve been demoing it where ever I happen to be, Hampshire, Lancashire, Cornwall and South Wales so far 😀

I even reopened my old YouTube channel but only now dedicated to Conquest XD

Stay a while and listen 😉

So I finished a select few models to do some nice photos for Para Bellum…

And with a little magic worked, they won the Para Bellum seal.of approval 😀

So I decided to paint the whole lot in one hit starting with base coats. These will be built up to the final colours.

Omg did it take a long time. Probably at least a month or 2… it highlighted that I’m a reeeeally good procrastinator XD

anyways, they got done eventually….

The Hundred Kingdoms was an easy choice, I wanted leathers and steel but the heraldry to be split turquoise and a sandy orange.

The spires were to be palid flesh, dark green and bonemold armour… k know it look day glow green but bear with me. I know what I’m doing…  ish!

So I quickly set about getting all the bases and stands textured.

Queue the gorilla woodglue as half a tonne of sand and mixed grit….

I decided to go for a flat grey coat of spray primer as it works well for light and dark colours..

And it’s all looking like a black.and white horror film 🙂

So I received a huge bag of resin…

The guys at Para Bellum are mental. I was expecting 5 models tops….

These are resin casts from 3D prints with mdf bases. The retail product will be plastic with plastic bases and stands.

And for anyone wondering, here’s a sneak peak at the plastics…