Conquest

Conquest represents the tides of war, as realms seize control and do battle across the Hundred Realms. Land is one of the most valuable assets that can be controlled, allowing resources to be gathered to fund a realm, borders to be secured, and treasures to be uncovered.

The next year's wars can be predicted by submitting orders and plans to the Oracular Mirror, and receiving the results. This page details how to manage your Realm and play the Conquest game. Importantly, it is worth noting that the battles foretold in Conquest will come to pass over the course of the next year (between events), but by the end of the Event will not yet have happened.

Example: The Realm of Aelaria comprises of the Territories of Southaven, White Forest and Woodpig. There is a Force in Southaven and a Stronghold in White Forest. Therefore, the Strength of White Forest is 1, of Southaven is 1, and of Woodpig is 0

• The conquest table shows the map of the Hundred Realms, who controls which areas, and where key assets are located.
• Only the conquest refs may touch the conquest tables, but while the tables are open anyone is free to view them.
• Each territory may contain a number of things:
  • Resources: territories may generate resources for the realm that controls it. This usually takes the form of a number of Beans and or Coins, which will be listed on the territory. Resources will be collected in strongholds for the realm, so if a realm does not control a stronghold then their supplies will become inaccessible.
  • Strongholds: major fortifications that exist within a territory. These provide additional defense for anyone who controls the territory.
  • Forces: Large armies that are at the bidding of realms. These are used to conquer new lands, and defend borders.
  • Improvements: These are Territory Improvements that provide non-combat bonuses to the owning Realm. These can be purchased by anyone from that Realm and are added to the map immediately rather than during Conquest resolution.
  • Other things: There may be a host of other things that appear on the conquest table. Often these will be things you may want to find out more about. You may also ask the Conquest Refs for more information about these.

• Everything on the Conquest Table runs on Phases corresponding to the seasons: Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Midsummer.
• At the start of the phase, the table will be opened, and at the end, the table will be closed, after which Orders and (Conquest) spells will be resolved.
• Each Phase, a General may submit Orders, by presenting their Crest to one of the Conquest Refs (or sending someone to do so in their stead) . Orders will only be resolved at the end of the current phase, so you may not submit orders for multiple phases at once.
• Each Phase, a Monarch may collect Resources generated by the Territories in their Realm by presenting their crest (or sending someone to do so in their stead) to One of the Conquest Refs . These do not accumulate if not collected. If a Realm has no Monarch or nobody to go in their stead then its Resources cannot be collected. Resources will be collected in Strongholds for the realm, so if a realm does not control a Stronghold then that realm will not be able to collect supplies.
• When the Conquest table is open, anyone may cast a Spell on the Conquest table by handing the Spell to one of the Conquest Refs. This Spells will only be activated and resolved after the phase has ended, before the rest of the orders are resolved.
• There are 5 Phases per event, times listed here. These Phases are roughly 2 hours long.

Orders will not last between phases. Once an order has been submitted, it cannot be taken back

Some Territories will generate Resources each phase. These are usually in the form of Beans and Coins. The Resources generated by the Territory will be marked on the Conquest map. Resources for each realm may be collected by presenting the Monarch’s Crest for a realm, though this may be given to anyone. Resources may only be collected by a Realm if it has control of at least one Stronghold.

Though Resources will persist between Phases (and between Events), Realms should endeavour to ensure someone is sent to collect the Resources every Phase. Resources can be collected at any point in each Phase as long as the Conquest table is open.

Anyone from a Realm may pay to have non-Combat Territory Improvements added that improve the Realm they're part of as detailed on that page. As these do not contribute to Conquest Combat they are added to the table when they're paid for rather than during the Order Resolution.

The Hundred Realms has always been a place of war, and with no clear leader, many Realms attempt seize whatever lands they can. To do so, forces from each Realm roam about under control of their generals, to both defend their own Realms, and to conquer new territories.

Each Force can perform one Order per phase There are a number of free Orders that a force can do, that require no additional cost. They can roughly be grouped into 3 different types:

By default, a Territory has strength 0. Each Force and Stronghold in a territory increases the strength of that territory by 1. In order for an enemy to move into a Territory, it must first be overwhelmed, by reducing the strength of the Territory to 0 or less. There are two orders which can affect the strength

• Fortify the current Territory to increase its Strength by 1 for the rest of the Phase (note the unit already has a passive increase to the strength of the territory by being in it).
• Attack a specified adjacent Territory to reduce its Strength by 1 for the rest of the Phase. The attacking Force does not move.
  • A Force that chooses to Attack the Territory it is currently occupying will destroy any Improvement present, reduce all outputs to 0 and yield the destroyed output of that Territory to the Force's owner.
  • This can also be used to destroy Gateways.

If a Territory is friendly, or has strength is at 0 or less after Attacks, Fortifies, and Spells have been resolved, then a Territory may be moved into. Depending on the type of movement a force does, may or may change the ownership of the Territory it has moved into. If multiple Realms are attempting to move into a territory, the total number of Move, Invade, and Support orders for each realm will be combined, and the Realm with the highest total successfully moves into the territory, with other competing orders failing. Forces that have been upgraded magically to have a higher “Invasion Strength” count as multiple Forces for the purposes of calculating the highest number of moves.

• Move into a specified adjacent Territory with Strength 0 or lower, or belonging to the same Realm as the Force. This does not claim the Territory.
  • As of Chapter 7, an amount of Riel can be paid to move a Force through multiple adjacent Territories at a time.
• Invade into a specified adjacent Territory with Strength 0 or lower. If successful, this claims the Territory for the attacking Realm.
• Support the Invade Order of another Force. This counts as an Invasion, but if successful the Force will not enter the Territory and it will be ceded to the Force you supported. Mutual Support orders fail - someone must be leading the Invasion.

This is the simplest type of Order. Disbanding is the process of getting rid of a force on the table. There is only one disband Order

• Disband the Force (which will be removed from the table) and provide 10 Beans to the Realm which can be collected in the same way any resources can be collected during the next conquest phase.

There are a number of special moves that require additional resources to perform. Often these moves are non-standard, and might not be orders given to an existing force. There are many special Orders that might exist, but only some of them are known. In order to submit special Order, you need to pay the cost to one of the Conquest Refs, and say which special Order that you want. You will be given a card for the special Order that can be submitted in the same way as a normal order a normal order. Note that once you have the special Order card it is your responsibility to look after it, and it will only take effect if you submit it.

• Build Stronghold (1 Defining Moment, 90 Coins) Create a new Stronghold on a Territory.
• Raise force (45 x [number of forces controlled by a realm + 1] coins) Create a new force on Territory (this new force will be under the control of whichever realm controls the specified territory during that step in the resolution phase)
• Cede Territory (30 coins + 2 x [current output of the Territory being ceded]) This order can be made by Monarchs to cede ownership of a Territory to a specified Realm. This will occur after Magic is resolved but before Force movement.

Only things that exist during the submission phase can be given Orders. This means that if a Force comes into existence (whether it be being raised using an Order, magic scroll, or anything else), it cannot be given another order until the next phase.

Submitting orders is a simple process. Around the Conquest table there will be slips for each of the free orders. You may freely take these slips to give your units orders, by specifying the unit and what you want it to do.

You then need to hand these orders to the Conquest refs. Once an Order has been handed to the ref, you cannot take it back. Only the General for a Realm may submit Conquest orders to the refs, this will be checked when you submit an Order. If multiple Orders are submitted for the same Force, they will be resolved in the Order described below, with only the first Order for a Force being selected. If there are two Orders that would be resolved simultaneously for the same Force, one will be selected at random for the Force. It is thus up to the General of each Realm to ensure that the correct Orders are submitted.

Orders that are deemed ambiguous, or do not specify which Force is being ordered, will be considered void and discarded.

If no Orders are received by any Force for a Realm, it will be assumed that all Forces have been given the Fortify Order. If one Force receives orders and the others do not, this assumption will not be made.

Some spells can work on the Conquest table, though like all scrolls you may not know exactly what it does. When Conquest spells are created, you will be asked to give the target of the spell. Once the scroll is created you may not change the target of the spell.

Anyone can cast a spell on the Conquest table. This may be done by handing a scroll to a Conquest Ref when the table is open.

Spells will be cast at the start of the resolution of the Conquest table, though any spells giving Orders will happen during the resolution step of the same type of Order (see “Resolution”). Any non-Conquest spell will have no effect if it is cast on the Conquest table.

After the table closes, all orders and spells will be resolved. This happens in the following order:

• Spells are cast
• Territories ceded by “Cede Territory” are ceded
• Forces and Strongholds are created or disbanded
• Strength of a Territory is calculated
• Moves and invasions are calculated
• Control of each Territory is calculated
• Forces may be destroyed (If there are units in a territory that is successfully invaded (i.e. there are Forces on a Territory which then changes control to a different Realm) then they will be destroyed. If a force is destroyed in this way then the Realm will not receive any Resources)

Some useful observations:

• A Territory with no occupying Force or Stronghold requires only 1 Force to claim
• A Territory with 1 occupying Force or Stronghold requires at least 2 Forces to claim (1 to attack, 1 to invade)
• A Territory with 1 occupying Force taking the Fortify order requires at least 3 Forces to claim (2 to attack, 1 to invade)
• The number of Forces needed to attack can be reduced or increased using publicly known Spells. The number needed to successfully invade cannot be.

Example plays for Conquest can be found on this page. The sheer number of combinations of Orders, and the unpredictable influence of Magic, means that we couldn't possibly cover everything that may occur, but hopefully the examples found there will shed some light on how some interactions will work.

• Certain Realms have bound themselves together under the terms of a magical alliance.
• Under the terms of such Alliances, Forces from those Realms may move freely through the Territories of their Allies even if they are occupied by another Force (provided that Force is also allied to them).
• Territories and Forces from Allied Realms are not considered to be Hostile to one another.
• Certain Alliances may have more specific conditions.

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• A Realm can become a Vassal of another Realm by signed agreement of Vassal Realm's Monarch and General (or just the one if only one is present).
• If the Vassal Realm's General crest still exists, both Vassal Realm and Overlord Realm can put in orders for the Vassal Realm's forces.
• If one of the two has already put in orders, the General presenting Orders will be told there are already orders in (they can always choose to add more to the box). We can be asked which forces the orders are for but we will NOT tell anyone what the orders are.