Conquest/Strategies

These are potential strategies to use in Conquest. Note that not every possible strategy is listed here.

IT'S A TRAP!

 * Units: 1 Champion, 1 Knight, 1 Archer, 2 Mages, 5 Scouts
 * Commands: Battle Cry, Stoicism, Charge, Shield Wall

This strategy consists of more defensive, hit-and-run style attacks. The object is to use your scouts to lure the opponent into using Charge to get to one of your scouts. You can then use another of your scouts to get to the unit that just charged (without using your charge). The opponent will likely not be able to reach you during their next turn, if they can, just reset the trap. You've got 5 scouts to use as bait - so long as you have one leftover to actually do the dirtywork. Once you have your scout into position, you should be able to charge to your opponents Champion if they have one. If not, go for the units with 300 hp, preferably knights. What you'll do is Charge to the unit you're attacking, then use Battle Cry and Shield Wall. This will allow you to attack (and potentially kill) the unit you're targeting. If the unit is not killed (Champion), it will recoil back 100 damage (because of Shield Wall). On your opponent's next turn, they will likely Chastise you if they have it.

Sometimes, people will attack the Chastised Scout, thinking that it cannot do recoil damage. The Scout has 200 HP still, and can take a maximum of only 100 because of shield wall. If they do not Chastise you, use Stoicism on the Scout and proceed to attack any unit with 100 hp, preferably a mage. If they did Chastise you, just use stoicism and end your turn. They will still be unable to kill you with anything, unless they use their berserker, which is a drain on their points and leaves them having to cool down for 5 turns - a major setback. If they don't decide to kill the Scout, your'e free to attack the Champion again, bringing it to 200 HP - within killing range for your Mages. After this point, most of the "bait" units (e.g. Archers/Scouts) will have been removed from the opponent's team. Their Champion should be severely weakend, if not dead. Now, you are free to use the EXACT SAME SETUP with your remaining Scouts, then the Mages - Rinse and Repeat process. Use the knight for defence, and the Champion to clean up any leftover messes.

The Archer can be switched - possibly for another Scout and a Halberdier, or just another Mage if you are worried about your opponent ignoring your bait and taking out your Mages first.

If you encounter a team with 2 or more Champions, you will not have a very good chance at winning - I suggest you resign immediately, as there is no penalty for doing so.

Champion/Mage

 * Units: 2 champions, 2 mages, and another optional unit, such as a knight.
 * Commands: Battle Cry, Vigilance, and Regenerate.

This setup uses only two champions, two mages and another optional unit, preferably a knight. In this offensive strategy, use the two mages to kill off approaching enemy units. Now use one of your champions and clear away the remaining units. You can even dispose of the enemy champion in one turn by using Battle Cry on your champion. You can use the other champion as backup, in case the other dies.

Championeer

 * Units: 3 champions, and 2 or more scouts.
 * Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, Regenerate, and Shield Wall. Note that this depends on personal preference and the number of scouts placed.

One of the most common setups in Conquest, the Championeer build uses scouts with Charge in order to take down units with low HP like archers and mages. Three champions deal with the rest of the units, making the most of commands. Note that this build isn't well liked, and there have been calls by players to limit the number of champions in a setup down to 2.

Champion Trap

 * Units: 1 champion, 1 mage, 1 knight, 1 archer, and 6 scouts.
 * Commands: Battle Cry, Regeneration, Charge, and either Chastise or Vigilance.

This setup uses a sneaky tactic in order to ensure victory. If you are faced with certain setups like Fast and Brutal, this setup will take their champions out. Note that this setup requires a lot of patience to use correctly. The army should be aligned like so:



At the beginning of the game, start by sneaking with the scout not in the pyramid to the far right. Try to take out a mage, archer, or an enemy scout. Do not use Battle Cry yet. When your scout is killed, go to the pyramid formation, which is the trap. If not, move the scout back to the trap to help defend. This tactic is related to a leaf trap with 2 baits - either the archer or the mage. The scouts and the knight are the leaves. The champion is the spikes, the real trap.

Be patient. Wait until a champion or other foe comes. The archer and mage can attack through the scouts. If any of the attacking units are a mage, archer, or scout, kill it with the archer. Halberdiers can be killed by the mage. If a champion comes, make sure you have Battle Cry available when one of the baits or the leaves are killed. If one of the baits are killed, move the champion to that spot, unless the attacker is a Halberdier or other long-range foe. Use the other bait to kill it, if that is the case. If the enemy champion is the attacker, cast Battle Cry on your champion and kill the opposing one.

Should the enemy use Stoicism, Battle Cry, or Chastise on their champion, simply wait till the effect wears off and let the champion kill some of the other troops. If your champion is wounded by a mage, kill it normally with the champion.

This tactic can take a long time and you may get a message saying that "If you don't take another action in the next turn, you will automatically forfeit." Move one of the scouts forward and back to where it was. End turns early to speed this tactic up.

Default with Extra Archer

 * Units: 1 champion, 2 halberdiers, 2 archers, 2 scouts, 1 mage, and 1 knight.
 * Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, and Chastise.

This is a setup which puts away two foot soldiers from the default setup to get an extra archer. The setup's purpose is to snipe down 100 HP units like scouts, other archers and mages using your archers. If you let a mage follow your archer, you can kill halberdiers without the use of commands unless your opponent uses them. After you have killed as many units with your archers and mage as you can, they will probably die and you'll have your melee units left, who are most likely outnumbering your opponent's units. Now it's a piece of cake to finish your opponent off. The biggest counter to this is if your opponent uses Charge on a scout or archer to kill your archers. Using Chastise could help you escape from this, but not always.

Recommended commands are Battle Cry, to make archers able to kill any unit but the champion in one shot; Charge, to kill other archers very easily; and Chastise, to kill halberdiers in 2 shots.

Devastation

 * Units: 2 champions, 1 archer, 1 mage, 1 knight, and 1 scout.
 * Commands: Charge, Shield Wall, Battle Cry, and Stoicism.

This setup sacrifices a beserker champion for several other enemy pieces, successfully killing one/two champions and other strong pieces, leaving them with a tattered squad and you with another champion, a knight and at least a mage/archer/scout. Whether you start first or not doesn't matter. The army should be aligned like so:



First, move your archer 3 squares forward. Depending on which unit the opponent moves, follow the directions below.

Archer
Move either champion out four spaces. As the enemy's archer advances, send forward your scout as the enemy will no longer advance, and kill your scout. It's okay, the scout is only for fodder. Make sure the scout is in range of the archer, so that when the archer attacks he is 8/9 squares away from the champion. By now it should be your third turn.

Mage
Move your archer just beyond the mage's range (so there are eight spaces between your archer and her). If the mage retreats, try to lure them back out a little, but not too close so that they can attack. If the mage doesn't retreat, you are able to kill her, because an archer's range is farther than a mage's. Make this last until your third turn.

Scout
Move your scout six spaces ahead. The enemy scout will either retreat, do nothing, or move forward. If the latter happens, send out your archer to either push him back or kill him. If he retreats or does nothing, skip your turn. If your opponent puts forward a different piece, follow the instructions for that soldier. By now you should be reaching your third turn.

Other
Do nothing and skip your turn. If the unit put forward is melee, move your archer in range to attack to either kill or weaken him. This, at least, will hold back the enemy's attacks.

By your third turn, continue holding back the enemy while putting either champion forward 4 spaces, if you haven't already. Make sure an enemy soldier with the command value of at least 75 is within the champion's range as you are able to use Charge. Do so, and attack the mage, archer or whatever it may be. By killing it, you have gained 100 or so command points. Do not use any other commands until your next turn.

The opponent may attack you, but if they do it doesn't matter. shrug off that blow and move into the opponent's strongest piece, most likely a champion. Use Battle Cry and kill the champion. If Chastise has been used on your champion, use Stoicism and kill another medium-strength soldier on your next turn. If not, you will survive another turn. If your opponent has a knight or another champion, use Shield Wall. If they attack, you have taken out another one of their soldiers. Play the next turns freely, trying to keep your champion alive and killing for as long as possible.

At the very best, this setup can kill the entire enemy team with one champion. If minimal soldiers were killed, especially if your opponent has Chastise, it's fine because you still have enough high-powered and varied soldiers left to win the game. This doesn't necessarily work against Championeers, so you can just resign as soon as you see them, because there is no penalty for resigning at the very beginning.

Elitist

 * Units: 2 champions, 1 archer, and 1 scout.
 * Commands: Regenerate, Shield Wall, Bombard, and Charge.

This setup uses two champions, an archer and a scout. In the game, one unit moves at a time, so having massive armies is not necessarily helpful as you can only move one per turn. So it is better to have a few elitist units. Here the player has the archer for sniping at the start as well as the scout, so they are able to take out other mages or rangers. If your opponent is hiding from you you can always use Bombard to snipe the other pests, mainly archers or mages. The champions with their big damage and high HP will then be able to decimate the rest of the melee units, using Shield Wall when HP falls to 200, or an attack would otherwise kill. Use Regenerate at 100 HP to bring them back to full HP. Charge allows your scout to deal with an archer that is hiding from you. It can also be used on the other units to out-maneuver your enemy.

Fast and Brutal

 * Units: 2 champions, and 8 scouts.
 * Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Regenerate, and one more of personal preference.

This setup has two champions in the middle, with four scouts on each side of them. With all those scouts and Charge, you can easily kill off the mages and archers from nearly anywhere in a single hit. Battle Cry can be used to increase the damage of scouts to 300 HP, making it possible to take out stronger units such as halberdiers or knights from anywhere as well. Alternatively, Battle Cry can be used to take out the enemy's champion by using your own. The scouts make up your "sweep" team to take out the annoying archers and mages, while the champions make up the brute force of your attack.

Health over Damage

 * Units: 2 champions, 2 mages, 1 knight, and 1 foot soldier.
 * Commands: Stoicism, Charge, Shield Wall, and Vigilance.

This setup makes the most of low HP, long ranged units, and then finishing off with champions. Without Battle Cry or Chastise this tactic may seem weak against Championeers, but it works very well against them if you know what you're doing. The army can be aligned like so, but it is personal preference:



If your opponent uses scouts, you should start with your knight. Otherwise, start with either mage. Go near enemy units with your knight/mage and eliminate any of them, preferably long ranged ones, which you can kill in one hit. By now you should have more than 100 command points from killing units. If you used your knight, cast Shield Wall on it. If you used your Mage, cast Vigilance. End your turn now. If your opponent attacks your unit, it will most likely die, and you'll get points. Next turn, use Stoicism if needed, if, for example, your opponent uses Vigilance on an unit you want to kill, and kill one more unit. If you can use Vigilance, Stoicism, or Shield Wall for your knight, use it. Your unit is not likely to die in your opponent's next turn, so you will be able to eliminate one more unit in your turn. Using this strategy, you can kill up to 5 enemy units, giving up one of your own. After your berserker dies, use either another mage, your champion, or your knight, if still alive, to try to finish off your opponent. There are no specific tactics after your berserker is dead, but you should use the commands to maximize your health, thus letting one of your units to stay on the field for much longer, even if it normally has low health.

Range/Halberd

 * Units: 2-4 archers or mages, 2 halberdiers, 1 champion, and 1-3 scouts.
 * Commands: Battle Cry, Vigilance, and Chastise.

This setup uses at least 2-4 archers or mages, followed by about 2 halberdiers (a knight could also work, but halberdiers are cheaper). With the extra funds you could buy a champion and perhaps a few scouts for suicide missions. Keep the distance attackers out of harm's way but within striking distance. Your objective is to lure the opponent's troop to your side of the board where you can overwhelm it with rangers and halberds from a safe distance. The opponent will get wise to the tactic soon, but by then you will have a good defense and a slight advantage because you have likely taken out one of their pieces. This technique is particularly useful against Chaimpioners (people with 3 champions and little or no other reinforcements).

Recommended commands are: Battle Cry for taking out knights and other halberdiers (but if you have a mage following your archer(s) you can use them to kill the halberdiers); Vigilance for a defense against other archers (this can be countered by Battle Cry); and Chastise, for binding pieces and allowing halberdiers and distance attackers to safe spot.

Note that this is similar to the Default with Extra Archer build above.

Tips

 * Always remember that Battle Cry gives not only does 200 extra damage, but also adds 200 health to that turn.
 * An important thing to know is that commands like Chastise does not work on the opponent's last unit. If you Chastise an unit and kill the second-to-last one, then the effect of Chastise goes away as well.
 * Archers and mages have much better odds when going up against a champion one-on-one. They can pick them off from a distance while moving away, forcing the champions to retreat or follow. Use this to lure them onto your side of the battlefield where it will be cut off from support from its allies. However, bear in mind that with mages, if you are within the 4 square attacking range, your opponent's champion can attack you on the next turn too. Archers are most effective at this, but they can be caught up eventually as archers only move 3 squares while champions move 4 squares.
 * A common technique for archer versus archer fighting is for one to use Vigilance, which discourages the opponent from attacking. A way to get around this is to use Battle Cry to raise the unit's HP by 200, allowing it to take the hit from Vigilance and still take out the archer. The only negative side is that Battle Cry has a 5 round cooldown.
 * A knight with Battle Cry and Shield Wall can take out an unsuspecting opposing champion. Charge is useful to pull this off, as is using your own champion for bait.
 * Each turn you gain 25 command points. However, the person who goes first does not gain the 25 points on their first turn.
 * If the foe uses Vigilance, do not attack that unit this turn. Attacking it will cause it to counter attack before you hit your attack, thus giving that unit the potential to kill you easily. Instead, use a unit that is out of that unit's potential range.
 * Regenerate is extremely helpful for those who sacrifice lower level pieces for champions, because it fully heals it. This can be quite annoying to those who focus on archers/mages.
 * Scouts can be used as cheap one-time suicide attacks by equipping them with battle cry and charge, which allows them to reach virtually any part of the map.
 * Try to keep tabs on the abilities that your opponent uses, so he/she doesn't surprise you with one. It also helps to try and predict how many Command points they have left, or when the cooldown period for their abilities are done.
 * Unless their health is boosted, do not use Shield Wall on an mage, archer or scout as they only have 100 health.
 * Use barriers on the battlefield to your advantages. Melee units (barring the halberdier) cannot attack over them, and walking around them is slow, while affording protection to your archers and mages.
 * You can resign at the start with no penalty to either player. However, once both players have made a total of 11 moves together, then the game counts for Commendation points and ranking.