Two years ago, after a few weeks of gentle but firm persuasion, I managed to convince one of my friends to break out of the Games Workshop ecosystem and try out Conquest. He obliged, taking to Old Dominion for the appeal of undead wizards casting dark magics. As we played more, we started tweaking his army from a second-hand lot to a more refined list. I suggested picking up a Xilliarch and Varangian Guard who were (even more) powerful at the time.
My friend politely declined, instead collecting more Karyatids, Kheres and the newly released Centaur Kerykes. What this led to was something akin to a ‘Zombie T’au gunline’, with a monstrous list that could blast whole armies off the board using a combination of arrows and sorcery. Not only is it distinctly ‘off-meta’ for Old Dominion, but its very potent by its heavy use of ranged attacks and spells to systematically cripple and destroy units from a distance. When he mentioned he was considering taking a second unit of 5 Karyatids in his list, I nearly kicked him out of my car in sheer disgust.
Whilst this is a more extreme example, most armies will bring some form of ranged damage to the table that you’re going to have to contend with. This article will examine why ranged units can be so effective in Conquest, and some of the ways you can play into them with your factions.
How to Shoot
To start with, let’s summarise how ranged attacks work in Conquest. Units with a ranged weapon have a Barrage X value in their special rules, determining how many shots each stand may make. You’ll then get any rules affecting those shots in brackets afterwards including Range and any additional effects applied to those rules.
You’ll make those attacks using your Volley stat and resolve damage as usual. If the Regiment spends an action to Aim you increase your Volley stat by 1, and if a Stand is within Effective Range (half the maximum Range) that Stand gains an additional shot. Notably ranged attacks are one of the few effects in the game that does not cause Resolve damage, making them generally less efficient at doing damage that melee or spellcasting Attacks.
The targeting rules for ranged attacks are relatively permissive compared to other wargames. The Target Regiment must be at least partially within the front arc of the Volleying Regiment and within Range. As long as at least one stand of the target regiment is in arc, the entire Volleying Regiment can shoot.
Each stand then checks for a Clear Shot to the Target Regiment, measured by tracing a straight line from the centre of each stand to any part of the Target Regiment. If there’s nothing intervening on this line, the stand makes its Volley unaffected. If it is Obstructed by intervening regiments or terrain, you cannot make your Volley. If either the Target Regiment or Volleying Regiment are a larger Size value than the intervening regiments or terrain, you aren’t Obstructed. It’s worth noting there’s no penalty to firing into combat either, unusual in many wargames.
Yeah yeah, I’ve read the rules. So what does this mean?
So taking the rules above, we can see that ranged units generally don’t inflict much damage for their cost but can reliably make these attacks even once the battle lines have closed. This can lead to deceptive amounts of damage over the course of a game, as long as you can protect your units and have them attacking every turn. A single close range volley can do a lot of damage and maybe break a unit, but your unit is likely to get tied down immediately afterwards. Even if they only kill a single stand a turn, over a 10 round game that could add up to multiple regiments if they can consistently make their attacks. This is why the most important stat in a Barrage value is its Range, as that lets you keep that safe distance from your opponent and contribute every round.
The Boogeymen
Let’s contextualise this by talking about some of the best ranged units each faction can bring. Whilst it’s less common to see full blown gunlines, its common for many armies to bring at least one of these ranged units to give the list some damage output.
100 Kingdoms: In keeping with their design, 100 Kingdoms don’t have a single unit that is outstanding but can bring a number of solid ranged options. I’ll focus on Longbowman who mitigate their average Barrage and Volley stats with an absurd Range 22”, Armour Piercing (1) and access to Arcing Fire to ignore intervening units. Longbowmen disintegrate like tin foil around a baked potato, but a good player will have them buried in the back line and chipping away damage every turn.
Spires: Spires brings us to our first Death Star-style unit with the infamous Marksmen Clones. With an astonishing Barrage 5 and Range 20” they start as apremier ranged unit who get cranked up to 11 by a Biomancer handing out Deadly Shots and Unstable Enhancement. The latter increases their Volley up to an elite V3 with only slight chance of them melting at the end of their activation. They often run in 4-5 stands with a High Clone Executor attached, who not only brings his own ranged attacks but also gives them Loose Formation to half ranged attacks back at them. Nasty stuff.
Dweghom: Dweghom have a variety of ranged units that tend towards more elite values. Looking at one of their centrepieces, the Hellbringer Drake, you get a potent ranged platform that powers up each turn with its “Overcharge” rule. If firing every turn, you’ll see 12 shots at Armour Piercing (2) but it can store them for even more shots if it doesn’t have a good target. They sometimes see a Tempered Sorcerer riding on top to add his own Barrage 5 and offensive spells to the mix too. This is our first instance of a Size 2+ shooting platform, meaning it can stand behind almost any unit and fire freely whilst being protected from retaliation.
Nords: The Bow Chosen set the standard for what an elite ranged unit can do. Boasting a base Volley 3 and Barrage 5, they also bring Precise Shot to ignore Defence rolls on their 1s to hit. This makes them one of the highest damage output ranged units in the game, only mitigated by their 14” Range forcing them in close. Gods help you if they can trigger Opportunist from their Tribal Tactics and rerolling to hit! They’re also one of the few ranged units that can hold their own in a fight too, so be careful trying to tie them up in combat.
W’adrhun: W’adrhun players have been tormenting everyone with Slingers for as long as the game has been around. A high base Volley 3 and good 18” Range is a strong statline, enhanced by their chant rule Singing Bullets. When chanting, Slingers will treat their entire range as Effective Range to get up to effectively Barrage 5. They’ll often be paired with a Predator to grant Ceaseless Hunt, allowing them a free March action after they have shot and generally letting them pull back to 21”away from whatever they went into.
Old Dominion: Karyatids are a force to behold in the Old Dominion bringing both high Range of 20” and Armour Piercing (2) as standard. Like all old Dominion they get better as the Dark Power pool grows, quickly getting to Barrage 4 and threatening Barrage 5 in extremis. As Size 2 Brutes, they can easily fire over the infantry in the way. Their real strength is their durability however, with 5 Wounds each and Defence 3 making them surprisingly hard to shift, and Fluid Formation letting them withdraw from combat and fire backwards into whatever tied them up.
City States: City States are unusual in that their best ranged units are small, short ranged pieces in their War Chariots. Both have a relatively small number of shots but are fast and great at getting into awkward positions in the flanks. The Skorpios excels here particularly, using Exploit Flanks to force rerolls of 1s on Defence Rolls whilst its own shots do an additional hit on 1s to hit due to Rapid Volley. In keeping with the combined arms style, the Chariots need to be used supporting main fighting units, rushing around the flanks and adding chip damage in support. That damage adds up fast, and with their narrow frontage and Fire and Advance, they can be surprisingly hard to pin down.
Sorcerer Kings: Sorcerer Kings have a huge range of ranged units, but in this case, we’ll look at the Efreet Flamecasters who have particularly monstrous output. The Volley 2 and 14” range are deceptive as to the ridiculous number of shots this can make. Starting at Barrage 5, they bring Rapid Volley to gain additional hits on 1s in the first instance. By targeting an Inflamed Enemy (that’s already been hit by a Fire attack) they trigger Rapid Volley on rolls of 1s and 2s. You can stack this with the Homing Winds spell to give rerolls to hit too. If activated from the Conflagration Ritual they get a third free Action, to get into Effective Range or Aim depending on situation. With all this, a 3 stand unit moving into effective range and not aiming will fire off 19 shots and obtain on average cose to 20 hits! only upside is that you’ll be within 7” of the Flamecaster, but this is the exception to the rule of relatively low damage output.
Yoroni: New on the block, the only dedicated ranged unit for Yoroni is the Tengu Ayakashi who make a pretty respectable firebase. Barrage 4 and Rapid Volley along with base Volley 3 is a solid unit, but at 80 points per stand you pay a premium for this capability. Its yet to be seen but small two-stand units of Ayakashi could fit a similar niche to City States Chariots, harassing enemy units and supporting whilst being just a little too durable and awkward to really focus on.
How to Get Closer, and Hit Them with Your Sword
So we’ve established that ranged units are widely available and can take an alarming toll on your army over the course of a game. You’ll need a plan for dealing with ranged units, so lets talk about three ways you can approach them. For no real reason, each method begins with the letter D.
Destroy
The best way to stop your opponent getting 10 rounds of shooting off is to destroy the unit as soon as possible. Nothing controversial here, removing your opponent’s strengths is standard wargaming tactics after all. To do this you’ll need a way of reaching out and inflicting damage on the enemy, as they’re unlikely to want to leave their ranged units up Front.
The easiest way is to return fire with your own ranged units, especially if you have a greater range than them. Ranged units tend to have lower defensive stats and quickly lose output once a couple of stands are gone. This is a tough balance as you also want your own ranged units supporting your melee engagements but try not to get too tunnel focused on the closest model. A single good Volley into a unit of Slingers can quickly strip away a stand or two for example, whereas the same shots into an Apex Predator will do less damage and not reduce the offensive output of your opponent.
Alternatively you can close the distance with fast units, to tie the unit up and hopefully run it down. You’re unlikely to be able to Charge and Clash in the same turn though especially if your opponent is maximising their weapon ranges. What you’ll tend to find is you need a fast unit, ideally Movement 8 or greater, that can March and Charge into the ranged unit to tie it up. Units with good Impact attacks are especially effective here as they get value on the Charge without needing to Clash. Failing this, try to ‘tag’ the unit late into your turn and place that unit early in your Command Stack to get the Clash off as soon as you can.
In either case, a Destroy plan requires you to commit resources away from the main battlelines so you need to factor that into your target priority. This can also depend heavily on what type of Ranged unit you’re playing into. Mounted Squires will wrap up whole units of Marksmen Clones but will probably bounce off Karyatids. Don’t throw away units recklessly, do the maths and make sure your decision is likely to return some value on your resource.
Defend
An easier option is to build in protection for your units into your list that makes them resilient to enemy shooting. Whilst its almost impossible to achieve this army wide, every army has some units or equipment that add defensive bonuses against ranged attacks, and adding these to your frontline or elite units can minimise the damage being done. One of the best rules is Loose Formation to half the number of shots each stand makes at your unit, but rules that apply Tenacious or even the humble “Reroll 6s of Defence rolls” can be a huge benefit. Another stealth defensive buff is any form of healing, undoing the damage your opponent has already committed to.
Another consideration is to look at the terrain on the board that can protect your troops. Whilst Obstructing Terrain is hard to hide behind due to the targeting rules, Obscuring Terrain halves the number of shots each stand makes, a massive reduction in output. When choosing the board edges, and when deciding where to advance on your forces, keep an eye on any protective terrain you see and use it when you can.
Finally, remember the adage: “Everything counts in large amounts!” It can be very tempting to always push forward with your units to engage, but in a game where your army arrives staggered you may end up feeding your opponent your force in manageable, bite sized chunks. Don’t sacrifice units for no reason; instead let your units build up to critical mass before moving into range and overwhelm them with too many targets at once. Its hard to delay yourself to get to this point, but sometimes that extra turn or two can make the difference between breaking a flank and not.
Defensive choices are to many of us, a boring choice in list building. I’d much rather take the artefact that adds Cleave and Flurry to my character than the one that gives Tenacious, but the latter is likely to be more useful in more games. But that being said, a few choice defensive bonuses to your key units can be just enough to protect your force as it crosses the table.
Deny
The final option is the lowest investment, but one of the trickiest to apply as it tends to demand a good understanding of your opponents force and how it plays. In essence, you try to play your normal game plan whilst minimising the amount of ranged value your opponent can get from their units.
The simplest example is to ask your opponent their threat range (generally a March and Volley action). If this is 19” in the case of Bow Chosen, place your units 19.1” away. Now your opponent loses a turn of activity on that 300 point brick. Easy right? The problem is that you are starting to cede board space for protection, and at some point you’re going to have to cross no man’s land to contend with that unit. Don’t give your opponent free damage if you don’t have to, but understand that sometimes you need to absorb that damage too.
Another form of denial can be as simple as what targets you offer your opponent’s units. If your opponent commits their ranged unit to one side of the board, you could consider a refused flank style plan to send your cheaper and more expendable units that way whilst your more elite ones push on the other side, making it harder to get in range. This also works with sending high Evasion units towards Armour Piercing shots. You’ll still take the damage but you’re making those expensive attacks less efficient by not getting the value from their Armour Piercing.
A Denial plan is not straight forward response, but focuses on preventing your opponent from getting value from their ranged units over the course of the game. Remember, ranged units generally do little damage turn by turn which adds up over the course of the game. Every turn that they are not making attacks, or are making attacks into bad targets, is meaningful for you.
Overall, ranged attacks are a key part of Conquest and will be almost always part of your plan. Even if you choose not to take any ranged units, you’ll need to have a way of dealing with them when your opponent inevitably does. Don’t underestimate their damage output over the course of a full game, it adds up faster than you expect whilst also getting increasingly hard to deal with. Hopefully this article gives you some ideas about how you can approach ranged attacks in your games!
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