Welcome back to my mini-series on the smaller skirmish form of Conquest: First Blood. Through this, I’m going over how the game plays and each faction that you can place on the table, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to field them. In today’s faction focus, we will be taking a look at the Courts of the legendary Sorcerer Kings who tamed the elements and the ones who caused Hazlia’s Fall.
Having access to the four elements air, fire, water and earth, the Sorcerer Kings are a faction that heavily focuses on maintaining the balance of the elements that you have on your board, the various mortal units that makes up the bulk of your army and ultimately – and uniquely so – spellcasters who have access to these greater elements.
For the last two years, Sorcerer Kings players have only had access to the fire and air elements. The most recent update for both Last Argument of Kings and First Blood have included the long-anticipated courts of water and earth.
How to best utilize these unique spellcasters? What kind of elements are best suited to your game style? Sorcerer Kings list is a unique faction in which harmony and balance between the elements will lead to your victory.
Strengths
- Access to powerful incantations
- Unique ‘combo’ based gameplay, utilizing your spellcasters and their elements
Weaknesses
- Heavy focus on character
- Powerful incantations come at a cost to list building
- Relatively low defensive values across the board
Army Abilities
Elemental Conduit
This long paragraph of text can be boiled down to the following:
- Elementals with the Born of X special rule have the same elements as the incantation.
- Auto convert spellcasting failure into success for each regiment with the same element within 10” of the caster.
This means your spells have a very large chance of succeeding. On an average of six dice where you need to roll 3 or less, you will be successful 80% of the time.
Best of the Rajakur
Sardar is basically a decorated Rajakur who enlists back into the army. This veteran soldier essentially acts as your second character on the battlefield, lending their abilities and making your fighting capabilities much more powerful than they are. And besides, your army will probably respect a veteran soldier amongst the mix rather than some stuck up sorcerer. All abilities that relate to ‘character’ is not affecting the Sardar if he’s selected this way.
Empowered Incantation + Confluence
Borrowed straight from metamagic feat of D&D or any kind of spell enhancements from a similar tabletop RPG system, the empowered incantation essentially allows you to cast a greater form of that spell – by paying a certain cost.
Each character (outside of Sardar) has access to this resource generation called Confluence, noted by the Confluence(x) in their special rule section. This represents their mastery over the elements or any kind of training and wealth that they have access to in their exploration of the elemental planes. Several units (mostly the elementals) also have access to this resource as well.
When an incantation is successfully cast, you can expend 8 of these resource points to cast an enhanced version of the incantation.
For example: The Raj can cast a spell called Galvanic Crown that makes a regiment re-roll rolls of 6 when performing clash or volley. But the enhanced version gives that and gives them a free clash / volley on top of that.
This creates an interesting decision point when making a Sorcerer King list. Getting the resources needed to cast these powerful spells plus during the game as well. This creates a bit of ebb and flow to the gameplay of the sorcerer kings. Powerful during their tempo turn where they can cast a powerful spell – and then slows down just a bit during their off turns.
Character
What a surprise that Sorcerer Kings characters (outside of Sardar) are spellcasters. Stats wise, they all prefer to be outside of combat as much as possible (except for the Raj). With relatively low clash, defense and resolve value across the board. What this means is that its pretty clear: keep them alive as much as possible – and they can deliver powerful spells to decimate your enemy.
Maharajah
Maharajah supports the multiple element style of gameplay with their access to a second element allowing them to pick a second court, albeit at a higher attunement cost to cast the spell. This combo works well with their High Lord of the Elements, giving the same elemental unit inspire (increase clash by 1) if they cast the right element. Of course, the Maharajah has to be slightly forward in order to make his unit benefit from it.
The Maharajah also comes with the biggest confluence point to all the characters at confluence 3. They also have access to Magus, making them cast two spells at once.
What all of this ability tells you is that Maharajah is a damn good spellcaster. Like that sorcerer player who min-maxed all their stats on charisma and everything else is a dump stats. Keep him away from trouble and you will reap the benefit of his spells.
Fire Maharajah: Lords of the Inferno buffs your born of flame regiments by giving them aura of death – adding an extra damage when the enemy starts the turn engaged with them. Empowered version adds a morale test to the damage given from this inferno. Rebirth of the Phoenix adds a bit of sustain to your army – and the healing from the empowered version is enough to heal a djinn back to full.
Air Maharajah: Gift of Lightning speeds up your born of air guys and the empowered version also adds to their accuracy during the turn. Gift of Thunder is an interesting objective denial spell by naming a leader / acting leader and making whoever they are engaged with unable to contest objectives. The empowered version – tags the entire regiment making a huge bubble of area denial.
Water Maharajah: Fountain of Life reminds me of that healing wave spell from warcraft, it can chain heal from one regiment to the other. Rejuvenating Spring removes broken from a water regiment and then the empowered version makes them clash / volley on top of it.
Earth Maharajah: Raise Ground utilizes a terrain to give them obstructing to protect them from volley. The empowered version adds +1 defense on top of it. Jagged Armor gives a unit cleave or hardened. Or both, if they are empowered.
Sorcerer
You would think with a title like ‘Sorcerer’ in a Sorcerer King would make life a little bit harder. Everywhere you look, your title is calling out to you. Sorcerer this, sorcerer that. In any case, what makes the Sorcerer different from the other spellcasters is that they are very good at controlling Ghols. Ghols under their control lose the Feral special rule and gain the ability to re-roll their attack if the enemy regiment has already suffered an injury. Moreover, they also give +2 charge distance to any Ghols trying to charge a unit inside an objective zone.
The Sorcerer’s spell list also accommodates this kind of aggressive play – their spells are used to buff Ghols. The only question one would ask is: How many Ghols can you fit in this bad boy? (The answer is 48, since the game only allows four copies of the same regiment.)
Fire Sorcerer: Children of Ash and Cinders is a heal spell that targets a friendly fire regiment (yes, Ghols have this rule). And Blazing Sign is a straight up damage spell to a regiment within range.
Air Sorcerer: Children of Storm and Spray removes broken from an air unit and also gives them a clash / volley action. Fulgent Sign gives an air unit +3 to the march action but cannot charge. The empowered version removes this limitation. Suddenly your air Ghol can literally fly across the battlefield.
Water Sorcerer: Tidal Grasp is a unique control spell to slow down the enemy. Reducing the march characteristics of the enemy per-success. The empowered version amps that up to eleven by making them unable to declare a second march either. Corrosive Spray strips away defenses from hardened and also removes their ability to cleave until the end of the round.
Earth Sorcerer: Tremor is another damage spell, but it’s better at targeting clumps of infantry. The empowered version also makes them at defense 2 so the spell has more chance of killing armored units. Favorable Terrain – as the name implies – turns an objective zone into a favorable piece of terrain for you (my editor wants me to change this sentence, but all I want to say that it’s a favorable sentence to writ- ) . The empowered version also increases clash.
Raj
Raj is that player who really insists that they want to go melee when their specialization is magic, causing problems for everyone else in the party at low levels because ‘my build only comes online at level 10’ or something. Despite looking fragile and frail at a glance, with average defense and clash for a frontline and even more unimpressive attack stats, the Raj has two combination of things that makes him an impressive frontliner character.
Best Money Can Buy makes your retinue model stronger than the other characters. It’s okay if you yourself are squishy; the other people who form your retinue will take the brunt of the damage for you! Giving them +1 clash attack and wounds suddenly adds 3 more wounds if you bring the full compliment of rajakur. Jaaduee Bled morphs your wizard level into attack. You’re suddenly a less powerful spellcaster, but in return you become a whirling dervish of death!
In terms of spell list, the Raj has a combination of selfish buffs that lean on the offensive side.
Fire Raj: Strength of Fire gives +2 charge distance to all models in his and his character regiment. So that Best Money Can Buy retinue? Yeah they’re suddenly able to get wherever you need them to be. The empowered distance gives them a moderate charge range of 11”, enough to threaten archers that are on the other side of the objective. Blazing Crown is similar to the Maharajah’s spell Aura of Death, and gives you an additional damage when enemy is within the objective.
Air Raj: Galvanic Crown is an accuracy buffer and another free attack / volley if empowered. Strength of Air is a rare defensive buff that the Raj has access to, making them +1 defense or evasion and, if empowered, giving penalty to clash.
Water Raj: Hydrolance is a damage spell – that is also situationally unique that debuffs the enemy’s evasion when they are hit with this spell. Moreover, empowered version also shreds their defense by 1. Cleanse Spirit is a buff to one regiments giving them blessed. Re-roll attack on defense and the empowered version buffs two units? Hell yeah.
Earth Raj: Stone’s Resilience ignores the first time a unit becomes broken – powerful in a grindy matchup. The empowered version targets two regiments. Awakened Earth ensures that the enemy’s control over the objective is less. Making powerful objective play. The empowered version also gives damage.
Sardar
The only non-spellcaster in the Sorcerer King. Better at holding his own regiments of Rajakur and making them equally as resilient as a dweghom block. Unfortunately, right now there aren’t really any strong incentive of bringing the Sardar as a character instead of an officer. So let’s evaluate Sardar as an officer (explained later!)
Infantry Units
Rajakur
Shield and spear, the ideal frontline combination for a unit that wants to control objectives and act as basically a ‘meat shield’ to the rest of your army. Rajakur are pretty standard in that category; having defense 2 plus shield means they are effective defense 3. Hardened is good against random cleaves. Their biggest strength is that they are quite cheap for their cost, with a full twelve costing 260 points.
Dhanur Disciples
Every faction has their bog-standard ranged unit; these are the Sorcerer Kings’. The twist with these archers is that they have an ability called Mastery of the Bow – they may target an engaged enemy regiment and if they don’t perform a march action they may re-roll attack rolls of 6. Very solid unit to hide behind a block of Rajakur or Ghols to pick on softer targets.
Ghols
Ghols are basically elemental zombies. The first creatures encountered (and corrupted) in the elemental realm, they are simple and have a strong base impulse, like my demand for McDonalds after a night of drinking. In game, they are cheap-ish, have a large amount of attack and very squishy. What’s cool about these zombies is that they are the same element as your spellcasters, meaning the Born of X special rule affects them. Their biggest downside (outside of their low defense stats) is Feral, a rule that prevents them from seizing objectives. Some Sorcerer King characters (and units) deal with this drawback – allowing them to draw the strength of these creatures.
Mahabharati Initiates
A hybrid of sorcerer and warriors, these gifted mortals are blessed with an elemental that they train with from youth, allowing them to tap into the power of the elements to enhance their physical prowess. This translates in game to them having a certain buff depending on the element of your characters. Fire is useful to eliminate pesky Feral status from your units. Air makes them faster in terms of movement and gives them flurry and +1 attack on the charge. Water makes them a more prickly unit up close, and earth makes them more resilient for their point cost.
Cavalry/Brute
All elemental brute and cavalry comes with the Confluence special rule, meaning they assist in gathering the ‘mana’ needed to cast these spells. Moreover, the elementals have access to elemental resonance special ability, by which they gain variable buffs according to the elements of the empowered spell.
Efreet Sword Dancers
There are two versions of the fire elemental: Ranged and melee. This version is akin to dervishes. Fast movement, not so durable but they can output plenty of attacks. Five attacks, 3 clash on the charge with relentless blows means that they will hit six attacks on average.
With their resonance, they can go up to seven attacks. Meaning that they have the potential to spike up to double their numbers. Of course, if you scored 14 hits on these guys you might as well buy a lottery ticket or something (Goonhammer does not support gambling).
Efreet Flamecasters
Instead of having the relentless blows (that gives you two hits on a roll of 6) these guys are the ranged version. Their shots are quite short-ranged at 10” – however at barrage 5 and torrential fire, they can potentially hit 10 shots from that range. Just make sure to screen them!
Eternal Eidolons
The earth elementals comes in two flavors, and this first one is more defensively-oriented, with its massive eight wounds and protector spirit to ‘take’ the hit of a nearby unit. The resonance also heals them and ensures that their defenses cannot be reduced from 3.
Eternal Oppressors
With flurry and a larger amount of attacks, this block of earth elementals is the more offensive version of the eidolons. They are less durable, having only 6 HP instead of 8 – but they have the same resonance ability, which still makes them quite durable by nature
Marid Lancers
Mobile and somewhat difficult to kill, speed 7 makes the Marid Lancers adept at moving towards the backline and hitting the more soft targets. Their resonance, which forces the enemy to re-roll successful clash actions against them, can also make them flow like water.
Marid Sahar
The Sahar is the spellcaster version of the water elementals. Like a mini sorcerer thanks to their Corrosive Spray ability – albeit them being only wizard 3. A very unique unit, their combination of short ranged attack and spells makes them work well supporting your regiments on the side. Plus their resonance water’s defensive capabilities are still there.
Steelheart Djinn
Similar to their water counterparts, the air elemental has higher movement speed – they are not as durable as their liquid friends, but they make that up with an actual armor piercing attack profile at cleave 2. Their resonance also improves their accuracy plus the re-roll against both clash and volley.
Interesting that its quite similar to the water resonance, perhaps there will be an additional update in the future because there are some overlaps.
Windborne Djinn
Basically the ranged version of the Steelheart Djinn. Compared to their fire-slinging brethren, the windborne’s ranged profile is long ranged. This makes their role better to set up threat distance between you and the enemy.
Mahabharati Sorcerer Saints
The initiates who have survived their training are now elevated to Sorcerer Saints. They ride a cool…uh… we actually don’t know yet. The model’s look is unknown. So for now imagine they are riding a cool elemental horse.
With a stats nearly rivaling Hundred Kingdom’s Crimson Tower, the Sorcerer Saints are turned up to 11 by their Attuned Element special ability. This ability means that they gain the Born of X special rule – meaning that the character’s incantation that can affect the Born of X regiments now affect these guys.
So with the Sorcerer, for example – you take the Fulgent Sign incantation that normally only affects the born of air regiments. And then suddenly, you have a cleave 2 cavalry with impact 4 and blessed (re-roll attack or defense once per turn) suddenly barreling down 11” down your line. And this is just one example. While the Sorcerer Saints themselves do not contribute to the empowered incantation gameplay (since they don’t generate confluence), they have incredible synergy with your characters.
Monsters
Sorcerer Kings have access to plenty of monsters. Tamed beings controlled by the sorcerers from the elemental planes. Each element have a monster associated to them (outside of bakasura and ravanar..which should technically be a fire monster considering the many fire related rules about them)
Rakshasa Bakasura + Ravanar
These powerful controlled beings whose sole purpose is to wreak devastation and destruction come in two distinct flavors:
The Bakasura wants to challenge the mightiest foe – meaning that they get a free challenge action against the enemy character. This is bad news for whoever they are challenging, because at 12 attacks with clash 3 and cleave 1, whoever they are facing will have a terrible time.
The Ravanar wants to challenge the largest foe. They are more accurate against monsters, cavalry and brutes thanks to Fiend Hunter (re-roll attacks against them) and they have +3 charge distance against a monster regiment.
Moreover, these two powerful elemental entities contribute 2 confluence points – they can fuel your characters to cast their powerful incantations.
Mahut
According to the story, Hormus who Lays Mountains Low lost their loyal steed during the evacuation. He has created countless stone constructs to replicate his lost steed, but each has proven to be a disappointment. Now gifted to their loyal followers, this powerful stone construct is a mobile firing platform. And it is a very very tough model to kill.
Coming in at 28 wounds with defense 3, resolve 3 and hardened 1. Not to mention oblivious, meaning they take only 1 wound every failed moral test. To bring down this elephant means that you have to really dedicate effort.
Luckily, this construct is somewhat pillow-fisted. 10 shots at range 14, but they only have two volleys. Ten attacks with cleave 1 at close combat with a low clash of 2. They can take hits, definitely, but it’s somewhat balanced by the low amount of attacks it can generate back. Just make sure to throw your line infantries against this monstrosity!
There is also a character version of this. A Maharajah riding a Mahut. Neat!
Marid Lord
Again, I will leave to the reader’s imagination on how the Marid Lord looks. Is it a giant water elemental? Is it a kraken? How will parabellum defy our expectations once more?
In any case, this monster is a water bruiser. Decent stats across the board at clash 3 and ten attacks. Decent defense stats at 3 a piece.
The most interesting part about this monster is their grip ability. Locking them in place while everyone else pummel them is an interesting way to deny opponent of scoring opportunities.
Trinavarta Chandavat and Sabhagrih
Wind monster! The name comes from Hindu mythology in which Trinavarta is an Asura (an evil god) that’s famous for taking the form of a whirlwind. It represents chaos and evil in the story. So once again, very curious on how Parabellum takes a crack at this figure.
The Chandavat is the ranged version of the Trinavarta. And goodness, this is one damn good ranged monster.
Despite it’s low range, the Chandavat also has movement 8 and fly – meaning that they basically can go anywhere they want. But van, you silly goose – we can just lock the monster down in melee right so they cannot shoot back. Surely, right?
The Made of Air gives the Chandavat a free disengage without penalty. This ranged beast is very slippery and it can continue to output 10 shots with armor piercing 2 and deadly shot. And not only that, the Nexus of the Easterly Winds allows the character to cast an empowered Air spell for free.
The Sabhagrih on the other hand, is a melee version of the Trinavarta. Having a similar stats but somewhat swapped. 10 attacks on melee with clash 3 with cleave 1 and flurry. They also come with the nexus and a special new ability called windburn. This incentivizes list building in loading a bunch of made of air regiments so they can all add +1 attack to the target that the Sabhagrih is engaging
Officers
Sardar
As mentioned earlier, the Sardar is the only officer model that Sorcerer King has access to. At 70 points, he is much more expensive than any other officer in the game. His stats are also not very impressive, with clash 2 attack 5 – they are only average in combat. Defense 3 and resolve 3 is decent but nothing to write home about.
Where the Sardar shines is their ability to give Rajakur Tight Formation. Hardened +1 means that those buggers are suddenly hardened 2. They basically can shrug off many cleave attacks outside of the very rare cleave 3. Also, the Shieldwall! command can increase their defense by 1 more. Meaning those Rajakur suddenly have hardened 2 and defense 4. Talk about an upgrade!
If not buffing the Rajakur to a ridiculous degree, the Sardar also has Hold your Ground! to make any friendly regiment’s model count as 2 for the purpose of seizing objectives.
In short, if you have 70 points to spare – bring him. You won’t be disappointed.
Building a First Blood Sorcerer King
Oh boy where do we start.
The most logical start is selecting your character and the laundry lists of spells that they can give to the regiment. Sorcerer wants to play with Ghols and have ways to buff them to a ridiculous degree. Maharajah wants to play with different types of elementals so they can be flexible in their list. Raj wants to solo the entire army by himself (and his retinue. And his elementals) by enabling a chain activate gameplan.
And then you need to pick an element. Each element has a different playstyle that requires you to experiment and test around. Fire typically wants to have a more midrange approach. Air wants to be aggressive. Water has plenty of heals and buffs and earth typically has a more defensive selection.
The next question is how often are you reliant on the empowered incantation to play your list. You need eight confluence markers in order to play an empowered incantation. Your character generates 2 and each elemental adds another 1. If you include 2 elemental brutes in your list, you can cast 1 empowered spell every 2 rounds. This is probably a good number to aim at, meaning that you will have a ‘tempo’ turn and the off turn.
There is no ‘real’ synergy between the infantry and the character selection – outside of Ghols and Sorcerer. Rajakur is cheap and durable. Dhanur provides a vanilla shooting when the line is already engaged.
Same thing with monster selection. You can bring 1 and they will fuel your character’s confluence ability as well.
Consider the following as a ‘guideline’ for an Sorcerer King list:
- 1-2 Elementals: Elements that supports your chosen element
- 1-2 Objective holders: Rajakur, Initiates
- 0-1 Missile Troops: Dhanur Disciples, ranged elementals
- 2-3 Heavy Hitters: Sorcerer Saints, Monsters (any of them)
Sample Sorcerer King list:
=== First Blood ===
Flame on! [1000/1000]
Sorcerer Kings
* Sorcerer [0]: Court of Fire
* Dhanur Disciples (4) [120]:
* Rajakur (12) [260]:
* Ghols (10) [180]:
* Efreet Sword Dancers (1) [140]:
* Efreet Flamecasters (1) [130]:
* Mahabharati Sorcerer Saints (1) [170]:
Ghol forms the main missle of the list. Supported by Sorcerer, they can output a fair amount of attacks backed up by her incantations. Two elementals to fuel the confluence should be enough so that you can play a tempo turn at around turn 3 and 5. Sorcerer Saints is your independently strong unit – you can just throw them around and expect to do plenty of work against the enemy regiment.
Final Thoughts
Having four elemental courts to pick with alongside each character having their own list of incantations, the Sorcerer King does take a bit of learning curve to play them out properly. While a challenging faction to start, you will be rewarded in empowering the right spells at the right time and this should bring your turn into a powerful tempo turn.
Just like the kings whose meticulous effort and cost makes them discover the secret of the elemental planes, so too will a player be rewarded by mixing and matching different components of the Sorcerer King faction so that each piece will harmonize in one another.
Until next time, good luck in unlocking the secrets of the elemental planes!
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