The May 12th Conquest: the Last Argument of Kings update has dropped! Full copies of all the updated rules can be found at https://www.para-bellum.com/rules-and-faq/ and armybuilder.para-bellum.com, and Goonhammer is here to talk about the changes that stood out to us across all of the various factions. There’s no big changes to the core rules this time around, so let’s dive straight until the changes to every faction.
Hundred Kingdoms
Very expectedly, the Hundred Kingdoms have seen only modest changes in this update cycle, which tracks with the broad consensus that the internal balance of the faction is amongst the best in the game and that the mechanical feel and interest in the faction remains strong off the back of the January rework. Some points adjustments here and there, but only a couple of notable rules changes.
Rob: This is an update of gentle but mostly welcome tweaks for the Hundred Kingdoms. Gilded Legion, Steel Legion, Crimson Tower, Mounted Squires, Sicarii, the Archangel, Crusaders and Household Guards have all received either small mechanical buffs or small points decreases. These are particularly welcome for the Sicarii and Crusaders, who only needed a tiny push to feel about right in the broader context of the faction and now occupy more distinct niches with the 5 Attacks per stand on Sicarii making them more reliably dangerous and the 130pt base price for Crusaders putting them fairly close to our other efficient baseline infantry, well-suited for use in Theist lists.
The changes to Steel Legion (Hardened 1) and Crimson Tower (a 10pts cost reduction) unfortunately aren’t going to move the needle on either unit, both of which still struggle badly to meet the performance obligation that accompanies being a Heavy unit, but small changes are better than no changes and might combine with further small changes again in future to get these two iconic regiments where they need to be.
The two most notable changes, positive and negative, are to the Armour of Dominion and Household Knights respectively. Armour of Dominion has been reworked to remove any contact requirements and flat-out renders the attached unit immune to Cleave, Armour Piercing and Smite. Brutal Impact remains a risk, but being able to pay 30pts to shrug off anything either flavour of Dweghom Drake can throw at a unit is a potentially very attractive proposition. This one will be a meta consideration for most players, but even just a character in a unit of Men-at-Arms might welcome the reworked Armour as only another 15pts more than a Seasoned Veteran.
A bit more questionable – or perhaps cautionary – is the change to Household Knights, increasing by 10pts to 170pts per unit. As a regiment that was often taken as an MSU, this represents a proportionally bigger change than the same points discounted from typically-outsized infantry units like Gilded Legion and Crusaders, and is reflective of the performance profile of the Knights at their absolute best. And there’s no denying that when a Household Knight unit was made veterans, and was inside a Feudal Lord’s Professional Troops aura, and was benefiting from a Theist or Orders factional rule, they could perform very efficiently; this points change is a reckoning with the inevitable balance debt that comes from being the faction’s best vehicle for stacked force multipliers. 20 extra points to get a couple of units into a list isn’t the end of the world if you love your knights, but I’ll probably be putting them aside for just a little while in favour of things that need a bit less work to justify their cost.
The Spires
Spires haven’t been doing fantastically, with Para Bellum’s own data showing a pretty terrible 41% win rate globally. To address this, Spires get… not much. Free banners for all units and a range of 5-10 point decreases across the army may get you an extra stand or two, but they don’t address the fundamental issues affecting the faction. Avatara (now even fightier) remain made out of spun glass, and while the Abomination turning into a Medium is neat, it… actually no, this one may actually be a big deal. The ability to put as much pressure as possible as early as possible is currently a staple of Conquest, and this lets Spires compete in that race to the midline. The one nerf the faction suffers is Marksman Clones going from 22” range to 20”, which, fair enough. An army doing poorly with an unfun mechanic still needs to have that mechanic tweaked; we’re just not sure this list of changes will be enough to pull the army up to a 50% win rate.
Thanqol: This is a gentle buff to the Spires overall, but it’s a huge realignment of the Spires’ internal balance. For a long time there have been entire sections of the rules where one simply does not go, and for a while that has included the entire concept of Spires infantry. Previously Spires infantry were simply overcosted based on the idea that they were paying for the synergy with very powerful Biomancer abilities, but successive nerfs to the Biomancer resulted in garbage infantry backed by only above average characters.
Now that old anchor has been done away with. Bound clones are 30 points per stand and can be made clash 3 for a negligible cost in Superior Creations. That is cheap as dirt. For players used to maneuvering a huge cloud of Force Grown Drones the idea of doing the same thing with a unit that has +1 defense, +2 clash, Bastion and is scoring without even a points raise feels like water in the desert. A big Clone block is so tempting that you might even want to run one with a Mimetic Assassin, which opens the door to my poor assassin seeing the table for the first time in years.
So while this won’t blow open the Spires win-rate, as a three month holdover I’m extremely excited to finally get some list variety back.
As an aside, this might be the final death of Unstable Enhancement. Its biggest surviving value proposition was to be a big boost to Impact hits and now it’s possible to very realistically build entire armies where everything is Clash 3 base. Still, though, that might be considered as saving me from myself.
The Pteraphon is a great addition to the toolkit. I think what it represents more than anything else is the ability to take a Pheromancer or Biomancer as a restricted option rather than an entire warband; a Biomancer and minimum unit of bound clones to carry her starts at 220 points and if all you want is the healing and support abilities the Pteraphon gives you essentially the same capabilities for 170. It’s another blessing for opening up listbuilding and making the Spires less reliant on certain characters.
Magos Sockbert: They finally got rid of the Mindless Protectors Mastery after getting rid of Seek New Escort over a year ago! That’s nice of them.
Dweghom
No rule changes for our Dwarfish brethren, who are looking to receive a complete rules refresh later this year. The Army Builder has a preview of this, showing a Lost Ancestor Brute character, and two Brute regiments in the Lost and Found. Try them out and let Para Bellum know how they go!
Nords
Lightning fast raiders indeed. Nords escape the pandemic of Flank loss impacting other armies, with it now considered a core part of the faction’s identity, and make out of this update like bandits, with a swathe of tweaks to address internal balance and units performing below what their lore might suggest.
To address some internal balance issues, Vargyr taking a slight hit, now only granting Flurry to Werewargs and capping Fenr and Goltr at 2 Mainstay. Having seen some very pig heavy lists around, this is an excellent change. Jarls can now take Bow Chosen, a terrifying unit who were probably overly punished for their sins of earlier iterations of the game. Previously limited to Konungyr only, a common complaint of Nord players was that it was simply a struggle to play with their toys, having to build entire lists to fit in one cool unit. They’re cheaper too, but sadly the update doesn’t catch the “Bow-Chosen” pickable under a Konungyr vs the “Bow Chosen” regiment in the list and now available to Jarls. Yes, we did run into That Guy once who argued they were different units. Huskarls going to 5 Attacks helps reinforce their more elite role, while (just like the Spires Abomination) a medium Monster in the Mountain Jotnar becomes an actual Medium Unit.
Magos Sockbert: If you’re a fan of Half-Bloods, you’re a fan of this update. Werewargs are cheaper and harder to shift, Ugr (already one of the best Brutes, be still my poor Warbred) hit harder by gaining Shock, Fenr rock up earlier with Flank (taking it from Stalkers, who lose it) and Goltr go up to Impact (4). You’re still going to want Mortal and Exalted units to build up a full combined arms force, but by Nidhogg is an entirely beastial army now tempting.
The W’adrhŭn
That sound, from far away. Could it be drums? Beasts roaring? The chant of a people seeking to make their place in a hostile world? Nay, ‘tis the manic giggling of W’adrhŭn players the world over.
Magos Sockbert: W’adrhŭn have probably had the most re-works of any faction as Para Bellum seeks to balance the seemingly impossible: importing narrative to the table while ensuring that situational buffs are impactful but also units aren’t costed as if they always have, or do not have, those buffs. They’ve done… okay… at the latter, with W’adrhŭn demonstrating strong showings at a range of events, including Adepticon, but there’s always been a haunting background of players finding something about the Chant mechanics or faction a little lacking. Right up front, Chanting now works in addition to each unit’s unique Chant, while also dropping the Chant to a single tier innately. You’re going to want a lot more units chanting a lot more often, no longer saving up tokens just for Slingers or Thunder Riders, but this introduces the big flaw of this update. Yesterday, we had too many tokens and not enough to spend them on. Now, you have far too many things you want to do, and not enough resources. You’re going to want to be very disciplined in your Chanting, or you will just starve your army.
There’s a lot to go through here, so we’re going to stick to a few highlights. Stay tuned for our Faction Focus!
We’ve been trying to make Chosen of Death for a while, but they were just too expensive and too fragile for what you got. PB has heard our cries, dropping from 220/70 points down to 180/60, and gaining Tenacious (2) against shooting, and though they lose innate Flawless Strikes (now gaining it when they chant Death, which grants Deadly Blades), this is a fair trade. The unit is now a blender when they Chant, in large part because a Scion of Death’s Supremacy grants +3 Attacks to Command Stands which Chant Death. So, three Chosen of Death will have 22 Attacks at Clash 4 (if you’re Inspired), Deadly Blades, Flawless Strikes, and Flurry. That is a lot of damage going through, with a likely 5 Flawless Strikes, and 2-3 more suffering from Deadly Blades. Throw a Scion of Death in there to make the unit even scarier, and you’re looking at “I don’t want to see that Tontorr anymore” levels of damage. If your opponent strikes back, Infantry in the Scion of Death’s Warband gain Evasion (+1), putting your Chosen of Death at Evasion (3). Sucks to have a lightsaber, City States players!
The Scions of Death and War have some very fun, very powerful army tweaks, and we are absolutely going to run mass Chosen of Death and War for a while, before we… hard pivot back to a Scion of Conquest as Warlord in competitive events. With a Scion of Conquest as Warlord, Chanting from Conquest would give your units pseudo-Dread (currently Engaged Enemy Regiments can’t benefit from Inspired), and every friendly regiment always adds Conquest markers (which remain able to be used for any Cult), and once per game you just kinda… ignore the Command Stack, letting you search your deck and play any card. This is insane, and immediately replaces Thunder Chieftain as the most powerful Warlord by a country mile.
Oh, and once again Para Bellum has tried (and failed) to make a Mounted Predator’s Supremacy Ability relevant (Indomitable (2) if you break or destroy an enemy regiment). Why do you hate this model, PB? It’s so beautiful.
Chieftains now grant Flurry to a regiment they’re attached to, rather than just any Veteran unit in the Warband, which is a slight nerf since it only applies to one unit, but in a good way since it opens up a whole range of options of other units he can join (Blooded. It’s going to be Veterans or Blooded), and Crushing Force’s range drops to 8” to give units Trample (1) rather than Impact, likely after being scarred by a brick of 5 Veterans at Adepticon. Finally, Warbred now gain Vanguard (3) in his Warband. Chieftain’s have grown to be a real buff-bot in W’adrhŭn, and they’re in a good offensive and defensive place. Some other factions would kill to have all of that, and then 6 Attacks at Cleave (2) and Flurry, but you can’t have him. He’s ours!
It can’t all be wins. Slingers have tanked hard, going to flat Barrage (4) and losing Torrential Fire, to the joy of many. This drops an Aimed, Chanting volley from an expected 15 hits down to 10 while still copping a 15 point points hike. Were they overperforming? Maybe, but units are allowed to be strong. Will you see them in many competitive lists going forward? Maybe as a niche pick, but we’re not convinced.
Quatls of both types lose Fluid Formation (booo) but gain Barrage (+1), killing a core ecological niche, while both Tontorrs and Drum Beasts go down in points and move a tweaked version of their Chant to the new “gain this bonus when you Chant”. Something you might miss just flicking through this update is that Tontorrs are now Resolve 4 Oblivious, seriously upping their survivability in an increasingly lethal world. Chanting granting them Uniyelding means they can’t be buried in a flood of bodies; you need to kill this guy to take the zone, and that’s harder than it’s ever been.
Overall though, this update is exceptional for the W’adrhŭn, opening up a range of cool new abilities and ways to play (right up until play coalesces around the Scion of Conquest), but we’re a bit sad that the dinosaurs continue to miss out. You’re never going to go wrong slotting an Apex Predator or Quatl in your list, but you’re also never going to make any of the monsters the centrepiece of your army. For the first time in a while W’adrhŭn have range. An army focussed on all Brutes? Cultists? Tribes? You can build those right now.
General Cross: This is a much better realised rework to W’adrhun than the one last year, and it shows. The main criticism was that, whilst still competitive, chanting was simply not impactful for most of the faction (stand fast Chosen of Conquest and Slingers). I really appreciate that Para Bellum haven’t been afraid to dig deep again into W’adrhun and take the faction where it can go.
The good news is that almost everything that was working, still works. The non-monster dinosaur focused lists we were seeing are still viable with things like the Thunder Chieftain retaining Flank for Thunder Riders and the Raptor Riders and Hunting Pack retaining Fluid Formation. Quatl’s loss of Fluid Formation looks like a big cut (and the patch log goes as far as to say this is to reduce the number of triple activations in the game) before you realise they have a whole second still-intact mechanic that gives them a free volley action every turn, and since that was mutually exclusive with fluid formation anyway, Quatl have mostly come out of the change with +1 Barrage.
There are plenty of winners here across the board, opening up some new options. The new chanting is broadly a sidegrade, losing speed and threat for greater offense and defence, but only needing two matching tokens makes mixing cults a much more viable option. Chosen of Death get a massive points drop and will now see play, as will the Chieftain who has a wealth of good unit options to pick from whether on foot or mounted. Blooded may see play too over Braves finally, and with the amount of chanting you’ll want to do, a small unit with an Aberration is a solid pick for generating tokens fast; we may finally forgive PB for taking away our Lethal Demise.
The Scions and Chosen of War are bound to make a splash on arrival. All three Supremacies are compelling, and Chosen of War will bring W’adrhun’s first D4 unit to the table, an exciting prospect. They’re expensive, but with the Scion of War they are getting a lot of rules for their cost.
Not all is good news however. Slingers have paid heavily for their sins, losing Torrential Fire for an extra barrage is a massive damage output drop, and combined with a points hike and the competition for tokens, I think we’ll see them fade from play. Similarly, the Chosen of Conquest losing a third Action was an expected change in line with wider nerfs, but are now likely passed over for other units even with their healthy points drop. The Mounted Predator continues to languish well behind the curve even with another new Supremacy, and the foot Predator losing Forward Force is yet another nail in the Predator/Slinger coffin.
This feels like what we were hoping for 6 months ago with the initial rework, and it’s been worth the wait. The faction has both depth and breadth, and we think we’ll see a broad range of builds as people test out all our options. A great day to be green!
The Old Dominion
Overall minor changes to the Old Dominion, with a mix of nerfs and buffs to apply the usual moderating hand on over- and under-performing list styles and regiments. At time of writing we haven’t seen the rules for the new double-stand mega-chungus undead pope mobiles, which can be expected to arrive some time soon.
Rob: Okay, let me get this out of the way first so I can talk about the rest of the update with a more reasoned dispassion: the sentence ‘the Strategos supremacy has been buffed to include Vanguard (3) for all arriving units, which should help it compete with other supremacies that were seeing much more play’ might just be the most masterful winding-up I have ever been subject to by a game design team. Not only was the Strategos supremacy the most powerful and flexible supremacy available to the army before this update (I will die on this hill), it has been shockingly nerfed to the point of milquetoast ineffectuality by this change. The actual change here, not mentioned in the sentence above, is that the most important part of the supremacy – the free reform for all units during their activation – is now gone. Imagine my response to that as something resembling the strangled howl of a dying wolf echoing across barren moors, and let’s move on.
The rest of the Old Dominion update is, as noted above, fairly restrained with the exception of the Hetarios change which I’ll let Thanqol discuss below. I note that the change to Overrun would have been an astounding power spike if the Strategos supremacy had remained unchanged (as a not insignificant portion of the power of Kataphraktoi in good player hands was previously in combination with the now-nonexistent Strategos supremacy), but it’s still one of the easiest 10pts you’ll ever spend in any list if you’re already taking Kataphraktoi.
The largest changes to the existing Old Dominion metagame come with respect to Light units. Notwithstanding their mechanical presence as a late-game army, Old Dominion lists have been drifting (along with the rest of the game) toward increasing levels of early-game strength, culminating in some very ghost-heavy lists in the competitive scene. This has been addressed in small part with a gentle nerf to Moroi (not Kheres; the patch notes correctly identify that the same change to Kheres is effectively not a change at all as they routinely used their action to perform memories of old at the lowest dark power tier). I was always more of a Kheres than Moroi player personally, but the Moroi threat range was difficult for a lot of people to play around, and this forces them to work a bit more for their egregious threat range extension.
Accompanying this change, however, is a Kerykes rework into a light regiment, with a fairly tasty native Barrage (4) and the speed to slot them into the role of models best suited to set an early reinforcement line for the Old Dominion. The change to Kerykes’ Memories of Old does make them more difficult to use in a Fallen Divinity list, but it’s possible we’ll see a unit slot into other lists here and there for early game options. Hassassins have technically also been buffed alongside Kerykes but remain a unit without a clear design identity in Old Dominion.
Thanqol: The commentary on these Old Dominion changes have been some of the most shocking patch notes I’ve seen from a game design team, and I played competitive StarCraft 2 during the patch where they let deployed Siege Tanks be picked up by Medivacs. The Strategos change may as well have been ‘The Strategos has been buffed by removing him from the game’.
I think the Hetairos change is also a mistake, just in the other direction. Overrun was easily countered with positioning, but here’s the thing – forcing that positioning was valuable. There were very few things in this life that could kill a Longbow unit, and then kill the Longbow unit behind that Longbow unit – thereby putting pressure on MSU spam and high activation lists. In the place of this technical, situational ability they’ve merely made the Hetairos the best ten point upgrade in the game. Lad is juiced, it’s unreal, I hope everyone is ready for the bone horse meta.
I’ll also note that the ghosts only becoming Priests as a memory of old is a mild setback to the Old Dominion countermagic game, because they’re not projecting Interference until they activate.
The City States
Magos Sockbert: We’re glad that Chariots are taking a hit, but ‘the oppressive power level of Talos’ referenced in the patch notes does seem to have passed us by.
Some of the pain points I’ve felt locally seem to have been missed here; Thorakites go down in points after losing Fluid Formation except when drawn from the Strategic Stack, but retain the ability to be an ungodly fast, cheap missile with easy access to Cleave (3), or (4) with a Blade of Eakides Character in there. Gaining Tenacious (2) against shooting means it’s harder to deal with them before they do unspeakable things to you. The loss of Fluid is a big deal, don’t get us wrong, but this unit (combined with the untouched Combined Arms Drill) are likely to remain a problem, occupying a powerful niche; having a unit that can actually do serious damage while also keeping ranged units in check is high value stuff under the right circumstances.
Phalangites gain Aura of Death (6) when drawn from the Strategic Stack should be read primarily as a thematic rule on an already powerful unit – which is fine. Technically it represents a buff to a unit that doesn’t at all need one, but the timing on the Strategic Stack means it’s going to be difficult to get reliable value out of – though, we’ll also be honest, a fully armed and operational Phalangites brick is going to maul most things it’s in contact with, Aura of Death or not. Another brick unit, Hoplites, gives other units in contact with something they’re fighting Opportunists, which is just neat. Hold the line and have something else slam into its flank.
Satyroi are… weird. There’s a common opinion online that they’re a solved problem competitively, but they saw play at least in Australia, because the means by which they could be solved competitively still imposed restrictions on your opponent’s play that could be exploited. Now, they’re a bit directionless; they can set a reinforcement line, but Thorakites as Lights does that much better for fewer points. The change here was probably necessary more for the effect they had on casual play, but we expect to see more changes to the Satyroi in future as the developers dial them into their new role.
A flurry of Supremacy changes round us out. The Polemarch’s Supremacy is cleaned up a little and now gives units within 6” reroll 6s on morale, cavalry and chariot units in an Ipparchos’ army only stop you scoring if they’ve hit you in the flank or rear, Eidolons are demoted to “never the army’s Warlord”, and Mechanist Supremacy bonuses when drawing a unit from the Strategic Stack are capped at Hardened (2), but they do lose the -1 March characteristic.
Oh, and Promethean Oracle’s Skorge Axe is now Cleave (3), which is great, because we’re not sure we saw anyone model it with anything other than a spear before…
Rob: I’m overall a big fan of the City States changes, and I will genuinely go to bat for the removal of flank on Chariots especially, for reasons totally unrelated to the general speed of the game. Chariots occupied so much space not just in lists but in play, because Flank is a fundamentally inflexible rule. Yes, it lets you choose your arrival time (‘as soon as possible’, usually), but it also means the Flanking unit cannot interact at all with your reinforcement dice pool and the choices that arise from it.
This might be overdoing it, but I am cautiously of the opinion that City States lists might be stronger overall without Flank on the Chariots in the hands of good players. It’s so easy to imagine a play pattern where a larger reinforcement pool allows more important or powerful infantry elements to be given reliable deployment priority early and then have chariots easily catch up with them and contribute as normal in later turns thanks to Vanguard.
I’m also a big fan of the Hoplite change, not just because it’s quite a nice rule but because it’s an outstanding signpost. Rules like Hold! help show newer players how they can get value out of a unit like the Hoplites, by pointing them in the direction of plays they might make and then rewarding them when they make them.
Finally, if after the addition of Juggernaut a City States player still can’t make Thyreans work, that’s a them problem.
Sorcerer Kings
Rob: There’s too much to cover here in anything like a reasonable amount of paragraphs, because Sorcerer Kings have had what amounts to a near-total rework. The ritual mechanic has changed, all the characters have changed, supremacies have changed and the breadth of the faction has nearly doubled with the addition of the water and earth elemental courts. These deserve an entire article by themselves, but here’s the good, the bad and the ugly:
The Good: Almost all of it. I knew intellectually that the addition of the extra courts would flesh the faction out but I was totally unprepared for how complete they feel now with the extra choices. Each of the courts has distinct factional identities of varying complexities and different warlord choices push you toward focusing on one court (Sorcerer, Raj) or marrying up two (Maharaja). This is some good stuff and it’s a good day to be a Sorcerer King.
The Bad: Homing Winds is still the most powerful ranged unit buff in the game and can now be cast multiple times per turn. I hate this spell. I hate that I’m already writing a list built around casting it four times a turn even though mechanically I want nothing more than to be writing Water Court lists because those units seem cool as hell. Water Court have free spellcasting which is one of my favourite mechanics in the game, and water elementals have fluid formation which means my list would come with built in puns, which under normal circumstances I would be powerless to resist and yet I’m sitting here skewing Air because the power of goddamn Homing Winds is seared into my brain. Maybe I can take a Maharaja warlord and trick myself into running mostly water somehow by stealth.
The Ugly: The Kiss of the Earth ritual is a valuable teaching tool about the importance of reading comprehension both for playing games and for use in life generally, because if you don’t exercise reading comprehension you’re going to have a memorable learning experience when you read too quickly and miss that the second word of the first effect paragraph of this ritual is ‘Friendly’.
Yoroni
Thanqol: Finally our long national nightmare of Kami Kami Oni is at an end. The overwhelming winner of this update is the Tengu Bushi, who not only got a larger buff in terms of health increase but also a doubling of their Flawless Strikes output. Now they’re a perfect unit: two running for a reasonable 150 points is fast, capable of putting out volume hits and cracking armour. I think they’re the centerpiece of the next generation of Yoroni lists.
The Domaru are also now some of the most murderously costed Light regiments in the game, but don’t sleep on Origami Warriors at 6 wounds. 120 points for a full 12 Lethal Demise wounds puts them on the same level as Stryx, and I have never seen Stryx make less than their full 120 point value back – and the Origami warriors are a much better vehicle to carry a scoring character than the Domaru. I’m actually looking at Origami-Origami-Oni – you give up Vanguard (3) but who cares?
In fact, this update has caused me to recontextualize Yoroni as an early game faction, with world-class Lights and amazing Tengu that can flood the board early and front-load so much damage they can seize a dominating position. It actually strikes me as a much more fun way to play than what was previously available so I’m definitely here for it.
The Daimyo change is excellent, and the ‘free space’ to get any desired Ideal card into a list – and more pertinently, open up any Discipline set – is a wonderful line of colour that opens up list building. It’s actually incredibly difficult to select a Supremacy in Yoroni now, but the Daimyo is very much what I’ll be reaching for when I don’t know better.
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