Conquest is a game that thrives on taking human history and seeing it through a filter of the lore of Eä. The Nords are immediately recognisable as Vikings. The Old Dominion are another excuse to think about the Roman Empire. Most recently we have the introduction of the Yoroni, a faction so strongly influenced by Japanese lore that the in-game names of the core Yoroni mechanic were changed within 24 hours of release in order to more closely align them with their Japanese meanings (and well done Para Bellum for having done that).
With this in mind, the City States do a great job of allowing you to put a bunch of Ancient Greeks onto the tabletop. Many of the character and unit names are unapologetically stolen from a proverbial history book about Alexander the Great, but don’t let that think that they feel plastered on to this fantasy world – far from it. Like everything else on Eä everything is intrinsically connected, and the backstory of this surprisingly steampunk faction feels as at home here as the very presence of the Spires themselves.
Created Gods
Let’s start where everything in Eä seems to have its beginning: the Fall of Hazlia. One particular human, Constantius Domulexor – renamed Platon – had a vision for a new land led by reason, with faith and even the gods themselves tightly controlled to bring order out of the chaos of the ungod.
This new nation would orbit around the idea of cities governed by philosopher-administrators, known as the Scholae. Pallas is the only city still standing that embodies Platon’s original vision, and operates as the poster child for a dystopian world in which the people accept that what’s best for me is what the leaders tell me is best for me.
Nothing is perfect, of course, and the way the City States evolved is tragically human and timeless, as well as timely. City populations began to distrust their leaders, new influences emerged and the fabric of existence pulled away from the limited visions of the gods that lay in Platon’s original plans.
One symptom of these forces was the populist cities, which look through a squinted eye to be almost democratic. Citizens can vote, while the other-than-human creatures are relegated to military service or the lower strata of society. Agoras and ekklisia are the homes of decision-making, although in practice politics is what politics always is.
Other cities have pulled in a different direction, becoming theocracies under gods that have escaped from their bindings. Cults that have developed around the gods expand outside of the cities in which they have their home, with obvious impacts on the population as a whole and the presence of faith-fueled priorities in civic life…and on the battlefield.
Humans, and More Than Humans
When they go to war, the City States stand out for their disciplined infantry. Their soldiers are as professional as they come, drilled to perfection as humans, yet supported by non-humans that are born, not made.
The Bred are the City States’ evidence of influence from the Spires, having engineered auxiliaries with particular attributes. Rather than attempt to train superhumans, why not create some that are particularly fast, strong or hardwearing?
And if breeding creatures isn’t the right way to go, other specialists within the City States will construct marvels to do their work instead, powering them through the practice of archemy (not a typo) thanks to the power of phlogiston. Living and yet not living, the City States is the home of Eä’s artificial intelligence that benefits from remote communication as well as a lack of emotion, which is as helpful as ever when facing one’s enemies.
Ruthless Pragmatism in the Name of Science
The vision behind the City States was for a society designed with reason at its heart, not knowledge. It was only a matter of time, therefore, before the very real threat of curiosity would need eliminating. Enter the Inquisitors, a not-very-secret police force whose role is to identify discoveries deemed too dangerous to exist, and remove them.
The creation of an Inquisitor in itself is a good example of the City States’ commitment to the cause, augmenting human initiates with growth factors derived from Spires technology alongside exposure to phlogiston, with the outcome being something effectively not human at all.
Like the rest of the world of Conquest, even the Inquisitors refuse to sit within the neat box created for them, and a secret project has started to govern their work, leading to a pushing of the boundaries as to what removing dangerous discoveries even means, and increasing tension within the City States.
Why I Love the City States
The City States feel pretty unique for me in a wargame. Inspired by human history and human future, with intentional design behind society and the divine yet allowed to run into the reality of human imperfection over thousands of years. It’s a wonderful lens through which to see human ingenuity, selfish ambition and a world destined for conflict. With clockwork thrown in for good measure.
There are beautiful cavalry, chariots that can pull off drift manoeuvres, disciplined rows of infantry, terrifying titans and Eä’s version of the Terminator. Varied, delightful and so true to the heart of the game, they’re the perfect Conquest faction to fall in love with.
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