Path of Conquest – Conquest Eternal

August 24, 2021

Path Of Conquest: Dave’s InSPIREing Blog – Part 4 “Drones sir, Thousands of ‘Em!”

Milestone 3 has been completed! We have now successfully converted our First Blood Warband into regimented blocks for the Last Argument of Kings massed battle system.

The Spires now sit at 1250 points and comprises the following:

As you can see, the main thing we have done this month is increase the sizes of the regiments that we already had in order to make them legal for Last Argument of Kings. I’ve added in some retinue and some upgrades into this list so let’s have a look at the new stuff in greater detail.

Biomancer

This lovely chap comes with the Biotic Renewal Draw Event as standard which is in itself a wonderful thing. There is an awesome combo (that I have shamelessly pinched from Andy Sparks – THANKS DUDE!!!) that enhances the healing ability even further. The Essence Transfer Biomancy lets you heal 2D6 wounds on an infantry regiment, at the expense of suffering 2D6 wounds on the regiment that the Biomancer is part of. This is brilliant for keeping your frontline regiments intact, but only whilst your Biomancers wound pool remains stocked. By adding the full Mastery of the Flesh Retinue, the Biomancer is able to use 2 Draw events per activation. This means he can Essence Transfer a pile of wounds onto a regiment that needs it, and then use the Biotic Renewal to heal D6 of those. It probably won’t heal up all of the wounds lost but it limits the amount lost for sure.

Mimetic Assassin

We have added the Degenerative Aura mutation to our Assassin. This is a really effective upgrade that bestows the Decay(3) draw event on regiments that are in contact with him or his regiment. This forces an enemy regiment that begins its activation in contact with the Assassins Drone regiment to roll 3D6 per stand at the end of their activation, and suffer a wound (Not a hit, a WOUND!!!) on the roll of a 5 or 6. It doesn’t cause resolve checks but it does ignore enemy defence and evasion so it can be really effective and certainly makes opponents think twice about engaging the regiment. Normally a good way of neutralising this would be to engage the character in a duel, but lets face it – who wants to be duelling an Assassin?!

Force Grown Drones

We have taken all 3 of our regiments up to 4 stands strong (16 models), each with the Pheromantic Node. Unlike in First Blood – you have to pay for the banners, and it is quite expensive at 25 points (the same as another whole stand!) but we already have them painted up and to be fair, rerolling charge distances isn’t a bad idea, plus they count as a leader so if we find our support characters engaged with something nasty, we wont take as many wounds as we run away! The reason I have gone for 4 stands instead of the minimum 3 is mainly because they are rather fragile and I want to be able to absorb a decent number of wounds without the unit being removed. No amount of healing will bring back a unit that is destroyed!

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I actually got this force onto the tabletop recently (well – a slight variation of it, but broadly the same!) and it did really well. The drone wall was able to control the board really well, the assassins regiment got stuck in and wiped out a regiment of Milita and a Theist Priest in one glorious flank charge. The heavy hitters all dealt consistant damage with the Marksmen, Vanguards and Abomination all racking up quite a kill tally.

There was not anything really I would have changed, though there were a couple of times I messed up the order of the cards and couldn’t benefit from the Biomancies and Pheromancies. Still, that is all something that will come with practice and the list performed well against a solid opposing army.

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So what next? As we move into Milestone 4, as are going to take ourselves up to 1600 points. I will add in a regiment of 3 Brute Drones for additional combat punch, and will increase our 3 Force Grown Drone regiments by another stand or two each. To round off the points, we will make our Assassin even more deadly by giving him the Venom upgrade. The force will (hopefully end up looking like this.

Will i stay on target? Will i run out of blue paint?! Will I follow through with my insane idea to name ALL my drones? Stay tuned next month to find out! You can follow the work in progress of this project on my instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/david_resinbunker_richardson/). Give it a like and a follow!

August 13, 2021October 1, 2021

Path Of Conquest W’adrhun Milestone 2 and 3

Well it’s been an absolutely crazy few months but that path keeps going and the W’adrhun keep on getting painted. I walked into this excited for the W’adrhun and all they were bringing to the game and the feeling definitely hasn’t faded over time. I am just as excited for this army as I was at the beginning of the year and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of their amazing sculpts.

Last Milestone saw us end off with a fairly sizable first blood army, we are now looking to branch out and move to a mid sized The Last Argument of Kings list. We will be finishing that unit of Braves this month and bringing them to 12 models strong, we will be adding 2 stands to the Blooded giving us 20 models of blooded, and finally we will be adding Hunters and a Predator for some early pressure and ranged firepower. This will set the framework for our second warband and get us ready for the glorious Raptor Riders we will be adding next month.

The Predator we are adding this month is a very solid character with plenty of fantastic and tricky options he can take. We will be using him as our Warlord and his Supremacy is a thing to behold, rerolling charges for the turn and a litany of other bonuses based on the weight class of a regiment is just too good to pass up. With our Predator we bring out our trusty Hunters, Fast and deadly with the drawback of being fairly short ranged are their claim to fame. Hunters pack the coveted Deadly Shot, along with ap1 to help crack armor are solid stats. One could be confused looking at their 14 inch range and think they need to be right up on your opponent to effectively shoot but their Strong Arm rule solves that issue by letting them get unobscured shots at max range.

Milestone 3, while a little smaller, adds several of my personal favorite units from this army, The Raptor Riders. These guys are beasts and exemplify exactly what you want to be doing with the W’adrhun, hit hard and hit fast. Raptor Riders have a laundry list of special rules and each one is huge, Flurry, Deadly Shot, Fluid Formation, and a Barrage too is just icing on the cake. Their stat line is nothing to sneeze at either, March 8, and 5 Attacks each make these things deadly harassers and give them the ability to hit well above their light weight class. Raptor Riders are critical early game units for W’adrhun, giving us the ability to threaten large sections of the board early and allowing our mediums to come onto the board aggressively and in a great position.

As of the end of month three we are really starting to flesh out our W’adrhun and you should be starting to get a feeling of how this army plays. W’adrhun plays aggressively but they are not your normal Point and Click Aggressive army, you need to pick your fights and pick them right. Our battle cries give us the ability to punch way above our weight class and turn most fights in our favor but they require planning and require target prioritization. The best advice I can give to newer W’adrhun players is to set up your chant tokens while you make your command stack. This will allow you to see where you will hit your battle cries during your turn and possibly help plan them just a little more easily.

With milestones 2 and 3 come and gone we are nearly half way done with this Path of Conquest, The army is over half way completed and we are beginning to understand how to army ticks. Milestones 4 and 5 seek to fill out the army with more staples and also add the powerhouses of Warbred to our disposal. With all that being said, keep on painting, keep on playing games, and keep up the great work with all the great pictures you guys have been posting all over the place.

July 26, 2021

Audun54’s Dweghom Parts 3+4

Full Army shot before Fireforged were finished

Greetings my fellow Path travelers! The last two months have been incredibly busy but I am still maintaining a good pace with getting the Dweghom of Grel’Hof ready for battle. June saw the completion of my Milestone 2 and part of Milestone 3 by accident. When making my First Blood and Last Argument lists I did not realize that I had included my Milestone 3 Dragonslayers in my Milestone 2 First Blood list. So instead of being sensible and just painting what was called for I went ahead and did the whole regiment! Then do to various delays I put off this article until I had also finished the rest of Milestone 3 as well. Given that this will be the Milestone 2 and 3 update combined.

Now my list stands at a Hold Raegh accompanied by 24 Hold Warriors with a Leader and Standard Bearer and 12 Dragonslayers with a Leader and Standard Bearer all supported by a Tempered Sorcerer leading 12 Hold Ballistae with a Leader, 12 Fireforged with a Leader, and 3 fearsome Inferno Automata. Now lets do a breakdown of what we’ll be doing with this army.

=== The Last Argument of Kings ===

Dweghom – 800/800

Grel’hof

Hold Raegh [80]: Select as Warlord

– Hold Warriors (6) [260]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (3) [165]: Leader

– Inferno Automata (3) [200]

Characters: 2

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 1

Hold Raegh

Quite a few people I know really love to tool this character up to make him a regiment annihilating monster. Trust me that I can definitely see the appeal but I prefer to run him with minimal upgrades for a very simple reason: the Raegh does not need the help. At Clash 4 with 6 Cleave 1 attacks he is already plenty dangerous and his high resolve makes his regiment virtually immovable. Why spend the extra points on making him deadlier when I can just bring along even more Dweghom?

Hold Warriors

What is a rank and flank battleline without a solid shieldwall to anchor it? Raw stats wise Hold Warriors are not much to look at but they makeup for it with dependability. Solid Defense paired with a character’s high Resolve makes it so they can grind their opponent into dust.

Dragonslayers

When you want any living thing sliced apart though that’s where Dragonslayers excel. Abomination rampaging along the lines? Dragonslayers will take care of it. The main difficulty with these guys is that they are not very fast and are Heavy infantry. So while they can and will kill anything on the battlefield they simply cannot be everywhere at once. This is why it is better to give them a specific mission or target to focus on. Destroying the right target at the right time will often time be the difference between victory and defeat. A tired adage admittedly but still accurate.

Tempered Sorcerer

Now we come to the most infamous and most popular unit in the Dweghom roster. Other’s have written more extensively and exhaustively about the terror this character inspires. I personally have had the most luck with just giving him a Fireball and sending him off to battle with either Hold Ballistae or Fireforged so that he can Volley and set people on fire throughout the game. Again I like to keep my character’s cheap so that I can bring more soldiers to the field.

Hold Ballistae

Like the Hold Warriors, Ballistae are a solid reliable feature of Dweghom warhosts and for good reason. They are decent shots but are shockingly durable. With a range of 24” and Defense 3 from the front these Light infantry honestly feel more like a Medium or Heavy in practice.

Fireforged

These fiery lads fit a very interesting role in the Dweghom roster in that they are quite literal tanks in the proper military sense. Heavily armored so that they can hold the line or break through while armed with anti-armor cannons makes these a priority target for any enemy. Given their high armor and ranged attack that also makes them a perfect bodyguard for the Sorcerer. They are not melee specialists but they have decent Clash while their high Defense makes them very difficult to shift out of combat. In either the next Milestone or the one after they’ll be accompanied by a Flamecaster to make their short range firepower significantly more threatening.

Inferno Automata

Honestly, this unit is one of the main reasons I picked Dweghom for my Path of Conquest army. Pseudo daemon possesed Light Cavalry equivalent running around on fire? How could I pass that up. Their speed more importantly allows me to put my opponent on the backfoot from the very beginning of the match. That high speed also makes them very flexible by making them excellent flankers assuming they survive by the time battlelines clash.

In addition to getting everyone painted up, the Dweghom of Grel’Hof actually took to the battlefield this month! Both in a demo game between two newer players and against Karnthis’ Nords the Dweghom emerged bloody but victorious.

Now by the end of July I aim to finish Milestone 3 which would have been the 12 Dragonslayers and 12 Fireforged bringing some much needed anti-armor assets to the army.

=== The Last Argument of Kings ===

Dweghom – 1185/1200

Grel’hof

Hold Raegh [80]: Select as Warlord

– Dragonslayers (3) [255]: Standard Bearer

– Hold Warriors (4) [180]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (3) [150]

– Inferno Automata (3) [200]

– Fireforged (3) [225]: Leader

Characters: 2

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 2

Heavy Regiments: 1

June 7, 2021June 7, 2021

Audun54’s Dweghom Part 2

Milestone 1 is complete and I met my goal. It took a bit to fully nail the colorscheme I wanted aside from the given of using Turbo Dork’s Let Them Eat Cake and Sweet Dreams. Knew that I wanted to do something different from my more grounded Hundred Kingdoms scheme and decided to go with blue fire and orange cloth to accompany the purple. Decided to also prepare for the future milestones by making sure everything was primed and some of the future units at least basecoated. Didn’t get as far on that goal as intended due to a combination of increased ability to demo in person and the beginning of 1.5 playtesting.

Regardless I was able to successfully complete 1 Inferno Automata, the Hold Raegh, the Tempered Sorcerer, 6 Hold Warriors, and 6 Hold Ballistae. Also thanks to Walter’s Workshop’s speed painting challenge I also painted the Tempered Steelshaper. One challenge I decided to take on for this army while painting is to make sure that there are a variety of beard colors and some variation in skin tone. The latter will be more evident as I get more painted since this time was more about figuring out the general recipe for the army. I am predominantly using Scale Color and Turbo Dork paints for this.

For the weapons I decided to go with Scale’s Necro Gold highlighted with Victorian Brass and Heavy Metal for the blades and the hafts/ballistae are Turbo Dork’s Six Shooter highlighted with Scale’s Heavy Metal. That steel recipe is also what I did for some details like the designs on the shoulder pads. Was originally going to go for a gunmetal but found that when the armor shifted that the shift color made the gunmetal very hard to see. For the clothes I used Indian Shadow followed with layer of Kalahari Orange. After that I did some stippling with Tenere Yellow followed by a wash of GW’s Casandora Yellow. The skin in this milestone was primarily Indian Shadow followed highlights in Arabic Shadow and Pink Flesh.

I am particularly happy with how the fire on the automata and sorcerer turned out. That is all Turbo Dork paint, about five layers of Ice to Never followed by Da Ba Dee on the edges and Pearly Gates in the crevices. Ice to Never is supposed to be a colorshift but it’s not too noticeable with mine since I think that bottle was part of a dodgy batch but it’s still a lovely shade of blue that looks nice and ethereal.

Decided also to try a more traditional method for basing. Wanted to have it look like they are taking the field after a light snow has fallen. So I based with a mixture of unpainted sand, grit, and green meadow flock. Then I glued some flower tufts from Huge Miniatures on the characters and those will make an appearance later as well. Once that all set I dabbed some modpodge on to the ground for sealing and lightly on the flowers then dusted them with some old Citadel snow flock I had laying around. Really happy with how it looks and think it provides a nice complement to the overall paint scheme.

Anyways now it’s on to Milestone 2 where I’ll be painting two more Inferno Automata, six Hold Ballistae, and 18 Hold Warriors since I want to have both a well rounded First Blood force and a small Last Argument warband.

May 16, 2021May 16, 2021

Judgewyrm’s Path of Conquest W’adrhŭn

Over the past several months I have made no secret of my love for the new W’adrhŭn faction entering the game. I was lucky enough to run the army through its paces in playtesting and have a very good feel for it now. My excitement for the army has only increased with every sculpt and piece of support we have received for the W’adrhŭn. All of this taken into account, I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone that I decided to take on yet another path of conquest for this fantastic army. Over the next 5 months I will be grabbing any and all W’adrhŭn kits I can to make one hell of a stunning 2000 point army. I will break down the whys and hows as we expand the army from a humble 400 point First blood list all the way to the end game of a full The Last Argument of Kings army.

There is some very good news and some less than good news when it comes to the initial release of the W’adrhŭn. The less then good news is that we have a fairly limited roster consisting of 6 regiment choices and 3 characters, However the good news is that each and every regiment we have can pull its weight. Receiving 6 regiments off the bat that can all pull their weight is just fantastic and will really lead to some nice balanced lists.

For month one and my first blood army I will be ending some something that looks like this,
=== First Blood ===

The W’adrhŭn – 397/400
400 path of conquest

Scion of Conquest [195]: Select as Warlord, Aberration, Crescendo, Mantle of the Devoted, Famine

Blooded (12) [132]: Standard Bearer
Braves (7) [70]

Blooded are absolutely amazing in the army, backed up by an aberration and mantle of the devoted to make them fanatic and they are primed to be a major powerhouse on the board. The Scion of Conquest is a jack of all trades character and fantastic at pretty much everything, his spell is impactful, he can smash faces in melee at cleave 2 and he even has a few points of evasion to save himself in a pinch, overall a fantastic character. Finally we have some braves to round out this list, these guys are more defensively built then the Blooded but still have some bite. The Braves will really shine down the line when we get a little more support for them.

An easy first month to start off a new Path and I am just so excited to get this underway. Make sure to keep an eye on social media for all our other players following along with the Path of Conquest and watch out for more events and challenges as we move along.

April 24, 2021April 24, 2021

Path of Conquest: Dave’s inSPIREing Blog – Part 1

So here we are again. Another Path of Conquest series where you dear readers get to enjoy me slowly losing my mind painting up a 2000 point army through a series of milestones.

This time around I am amassing a Spires Army. Whenever I begin a new project I always like to pick a theme that I then shape my force around. My theme for this particular army is “MEAT WALL!”. I want to have a massive horde of Force Grown Drones led by supporting characters to keep replenishing their ranks. The full 2000 point army I have planned will look like this:

As you can see, there are a LOT of Force Grown Drones! These humble spear wielding meat-sacks will be the backbone of my force. They certainly have number on their side, but are individually weak. In my own experience, they benefit greatly by having characters attached to them to boost them, either by providing them with a boost to the number and quality of attacks they dish out or by increasing their resolve so that less of them run away (fall apart?) in combat.

The Biomancer will be the powerhouse of the list. I have shamelessly stolen this idea from Andy Sparks who used this build against me (to my absolute horror!). The Tier 3 mastery of flesh allows me to replenish the ranks of one of the frontline regiments with Essence Transfer and then activate them immediately. He then replenishes the casualties suffered by the first biomancy with his Biotic Renewal. It is really thematic and horrifying to face. His warband brings a pair of awesome Abominations for some late game rip’n’tear.

The Pheromancer is there to also heal up casualties with his Accelerated Hibernation Pheromancy ability. He also has the expensive-but-useful Pheromantic Drive which can allow a regiment to act twice, but taking decay in the process. This is really useful for Marksman clones firing double volleys at something or for really amplifying the damage that an abomination can do in a crucial turn. Worst case scenario you could even stick it on a Force Grown Drone regiment to unleash a total storm of rubbish attacks for a giggle. His warband also unlocks the wonderful Brute Drone regiment, who are fast and hard hitting with a decent number of attacks.

The Assassin will become a decay bomb with the lovely Cascading Degeneration mutation. He is also really tasty in combat anyway, doubly so with the Venom mutation. Whatever they connect with in combat will have the triple threat of a combat character, a storm of weaker drone attacks, and will receive Decay which will thing their numbers in their own activation.

My Warlord will be a High Clone Executor who will have a small bodyguard warband of Vanguard Clones (He won’t sully himself with Drones!). This regiment is incredible good in close combat, especially as i’ve upgraded them with an Assault Preceptor Commander. This grants them the Fury draw event for a massive number of attacks. The Executor also unlocks a regiment of Marksmen Clones. This ranged regiment is rightly feared for the large numbers of long ranged attacks that they can dish out. His supremacy ability is utterly brilliant (Possibly too good? In line for a nerf? Who cares! For now I’m activating 3 cards in a row on a crucial turn!). He’ll also add a nice bit of cleave to the force.

So to summarise, The idea is to intimidate the enemy with walls of meat that simple wont die and who will engage the enemy in a war of attrition. The characters will lead the Drones, and will keep them alive and punching. The Clones, Abominations and Brute Drones will be the heavy hitters of the force that will deal with anything truly nasty.

The Path of Conquest challenge requires me to split the army into 5 milestones. Milestones 1 and 2 will initially be for the First Blood Ruleset. Then milestones 3-5 will bulk out the army to its final 2000 point total.

Milestone 1 begins with a 400 point First Blood force. Force Grown Drones are very cheap so we can afford to have a pair of fairly big units. When a Force Grown Drone regiment has 8 or more models, they get a free Pheromantic Node (which gives the benefits of a Leader and a Banner) so these chaps are hopefully going to be rather effective for their points. The force will be led by a pair of characters. A Pheromancer who is equipped with Accelerated Hibernation for healing shenanigans, and a High Clone Executor who is decent in combat, and who also brings his amazing Supremacy ability. We will round off the small force with an Abomination for a fast moving and heavy hitting punch. This gives us a bit of variety as well from a painting point of view, with two wonderful character models and a mighty monster straight away.

I’m looking forward to see how this force comes together. After painting a lot of metallic armour for my Hundred Kingdoms and Dweghom, I’m making it my personal mission to not use a single metallic colour for the Spires. The main scheme will be as follows:

a bone colour for the weapons, rags and skin.
Blue/teal for the armour
Purple for the Cloth and various other details

Hopefully I will be able to keep smashing out the large number models I’ll need to complete each month for such a horde army. To this end, my scheme will be fairly basic, using Games Workshop paints and shade washes. The bases will be done in my standard fashion.

Looking forward to seeing how we get on!

April 20, 2021April 23, 2021

Path of Conquest: A Wee Start

New Beginnings

I started my Conquest experience years ago with a demo by a local friend (Audun54 actually). The only released armies at the time were 100k and the Spires, and neither really caught my attention. Fast-forward to Winter 2020, and he gives me a Nords starter he won in a giveaway. I now have a pile of unbuilt Nords models that are waiting to be assembled, with more on the way. This journey we will take together will be about finding a place for many of those models in a ready-for-battle 2k point The Last Argument of Kings army, and a couple of First Blood lists along the way. I will be sharing pictures, lessons learned, and tips as I discover them during this Path of Conquest. Below I will share my lists if you wish to build the same as I, but I encourage you to find inspiration from what I share and not directly follow step-by-step as we all conquer differently, and what works for me may not work for you.

I am including purchasing tips so you know what you need to buy for a given milestone if you follow my footsteps, so you don’t end up like me and spend your whole budget on something you don’t need right away. (Full list at the end)

First Blood

Our first (of two) First Blood forces we will build during the course of May and June are as follows at 400 and 600 points:

Milestone I

Our first force! 400 points of Nords just waiting to kill something. This will be a taster of the rest of our 2000 point force, which will expand on this foundation.

Buying Guide:

1x Nords First Blood Starter OR 1x Jarl and 1x box Huskarls
1x box Trolls
1x box Bow Chosen (this might be on backorder so order early)
1x Blooded character

The Nords – 395/400

Blooded [70]: Warlord

Trolls (4) [80]
Bow-Chosen (4) [80]

Jarl [100]: Vinda the Dancer, Dragon

Huscarls (4) [65]

Characters: 2
Light Regiments: 1
Medium Regiments: 2
Heavy Regiments: 0

Milestone II

Expanding on our 400 point force, we will be adding additional units to the First Blood army for a total of 600 points, plus roughly 200 points towards our final force. We will do this by painting the rest of the contents from the milestone 1 boxes.

Buying Guide:

1x box Huskarls (if First Blood starter was purchased for milestone 1)

The Nords – 599/600

Blooded [70]: Warlord

Trolls (6) [120]
Bow-Chosen (6) [120]

Jarl [185]: Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1, Thegn, Vinda the Dancer, Dragon

Huscarls (8) [104]

Characters: 2
Light Regiments: 1
Medium Regiments: 2
Heavy Regiments: 0

Milestone III

Our 3rd milestone is creating another First Blood force, this time focused on our good friend the Jarl and his Huskarls. This list (and its expanded form) will take us through July and August.

Buying Guide:

1x Jarl character
2x boxes Huskarls

The Nords – 393/400

Jarl [185]: Warlord, Thegn, Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1, Vinda the Dancer, Dragon

Huscarls (8) [104]
Huscarls (8) [104]

Characters: 1
Light Regiments: 0
Medium Regiments: 2
Heavy Regiments: 0

Milestone IV

With milestone number 4 we add and redistribute Huskarls and add another Jarl. Again, we will round out the extra 200 points with models from milestone 3. This would also be a good time to buy and work on one of the additional Trolls boxes for the 2000 point list.

Buying Guide:

Nothing! (We reuse the Jarl from our previous First Blood force)

The Nords – 595/600

Jarl [185]: Warlord, Thegn, Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1, Vinda the Dancer, Dragon

Huscarls (7) [91]: Leader
Huscarls (7) [91]: Leader

Jarl [150]: Combat Tier 3, Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1, Rjóða the Red Bringer, Dragon

Huscarls (6) [78]: Leader

Characters: 2
Light Regiments: 0
Medium Regiments: 3
Heavy Regiments: 0

Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings

Milestone V

With milestone 5 we are rounding out our remaining forces. To be frank 3 boxes is a lot for one 400 point sprint, so I would advise getting a box or two during the lighter milestones 2 and/or 4 to keep things rounded out more evenly.

Buying Guide:

2x boxes Trolls (if you have not purchased extra along the way)
1x box Huskarls (only if you did not purchase the First Blood Starter)

Nords – 2000/2000

Blooded [95]: Warlord, Wolf, Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1

Trolls (5) [430]: Leader, Standard Bearer
Bow-Chosen (3) [250]: Leader
Trolls (4) [350]: Leader, Standard Bearer

Jarl [155]: Dragon, Combat Tier 3, Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1, Vinda the Dancer

Huscarls (5) [295]: Leader, Standard Bearer, Thegn

Jarl [130]: Dragon, Combat Tier 3, Combat Tier 2, Combat Tier 1, Rjóða the Red Bringer

Huscarls (5) [295]: Leader, Standard Bearer, Thegn

Characters: 3
Light Regiments: 1
Medium Regiments: 4
Heavy Regiments: 0

Summary

There we have it, the plan for our zero to hero 2000 point Nords Path of Conquest.

Total Buying Guide:

1x box Nords First Blood Starter OR 1x Jarl and 1x box Huskarls
3x boxes Huskarls
3x boxes Trolls
1x box Bow Chosen
1x Blooded character
1x Jarl character

You can find me on the official Para Bellum discord as Karnthis, feel free to reach out with questions!

April 15, 2021April 20, 2021

Path of Conquest, A Call to Arms

It’s been an exciting few months in the Conquest world and I’m sure everyone is excited to kick off the second Path of Conquest, featuring everyone’s favorite dinosaur riding orcs, The W’adrhŭn. This is now my second foray into the Path of Conquest event and I am incredibly excited to get underway with this one as the W’adrhŭn are very near and dear to me. I had the absolute pleasure of playtesting this army and without a doubt this is the most fun army I have ever played in all my years of miniature games. All this aside let’s break into what the Path of Conquest is, what your part will be in it if you want to join in, and what’s in it for you by following along.

So, what is the Path of Conquest? Simply enough, we set a goal, any goal will do. For the group of dorks I have roped into this the end goal will be a 2000 point The Last Argument of Kings army, starting with a First Blood army to get things rolling. Our goal is to hit Five 400 point milestones and show off our progress along the way. While painting we will be uploading articles about our builds along with any advice for painting and playing the army we can come up with. Going more in depth, Milestone 1 will be a 400 point First Blood army. Milestone 2 will expand that army to 600 points while adding an extra 200 to our Last Argument of Kings Army. Milestone 3 we will start again, a second 400 point First Blood army and Milestone 4 will have the same goal as number 2. Finally we will wrap up with Milestone 5 and add the last 400 points to finish up our full 2000 point army. It sure sounds simple now but i’m sure things will get hectic.

With that out of the way, where do you come in on this equation. My goal for this event is to, as a community do something we can be really proud of, get some more people into the game, show off and celebrate what we can paint, and most of all show people how great this game is and its community. By signing up below you can sign up to join this Path with us, set your own goal and join us in blowing up social media everywhere with the amazing game that is Conquest. We will follow your posts, see your progress, and at the end there will be some fun rewards for those who followed along.

On that note let’s talk about what’s in this for you. First off. For those who signed up we will be raffling off a First Blood starter kit of your choice to help you get started with milestone one. This will be a great opportunity for those wanting to start a new army or if you have a friend who hasn’t quite taken the plunge just yet. Second, when all is said and done, the six of us will decide who produced our favorite army, that lucky person will receive a founders model of their choice from the original four. Our second favorite army will receive 100 dollars to be used on the eshop, and last but not least our favorite First Blood army will receive 50 dollars to the eshop. Now, finally and most importantly, we will all receive the opportunity to grow this community and show people that this game is here to stay as we walk this Path of Conquest.

So that’s The Path of Conquest, I encourage everyone to sign up below and join in so we can make this as big as possible. It’s time to get those minis out that are collecting dust, get that friend into the game that’s been thinking about it for months, or get that army that you have been eyeing on the side. Get painting, get posting, and get ready to listen to six guys who barely understand the game try to form coherent sentences for the next 5 months.

April 11, 2021May 6, 2021

Path of Conquest: Audun54’s Dweghom

Hello there! I’m normally a Hundred Kingdoms player but I’ve been feeling an inexplicable draw towards painting beards and testing out some unconventional colorschemes. Therefore it was clear that my area needed a fully painted Dweghom army stomping around and setting the field ablaze! By the end of this event I plan to bring the below force to bear:

=== The Last Argument of Kings ===

Dweghom – 2000/2000

Grel’Hof

Hold Raegh [80]

– Dragonslayers (3) [255]: Standard Bearer

– Hold Thanes (5) [320]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (3) [150]

– Inferno Automata (3) [200]

– Hellbringer Drake (1) [180]

– Hold Warriors (5) [220]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Steelshaper [125]: Select as Warlord, Potent Scryer, Unmake Armour

– Fireforged (3) [235]: Flamecaster

– Hold Warriors (3) [140]: Standard Bearer

Characters: 3

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 4

Heavy Regiments: 2

As can be seen this will be a Dweghom force very firmly along the Tempered path with a focus on close quarters firepower and brawling. Moreover these are all models I’ve been really looking forward to painting. My colorscheme, at this time at least, will center around Turbo Dork’s Let Them Eat Cake and Sweet Dreams paints. Both of these are a very nice colorshifting purple/blue color.

For Milestone 1 however I’ll be starting a bit smaller and having the Dweghom of Grel’hof start with sending scouting parties to the surface. This will be a First Blood force of 400 points:

=== First Blood! ===

The Dweghom – 398/400

Grel’Hof

Hold Raegh [100]: Select as Warlord, Perfectly Balanced

– Hold Warriors (6) [60]: Leader

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (6) [78]: Leader

– Inferno Automata (1) [65]

Characters: 2

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 1

Heavy Regiments: 0

The idea is that the Tempered Sorcerer is bringing a scouting detachment to the surface so his warband is focused around light units. The Automata will take point and engage enemy skirmishers while the Hold Ballistae and Sorcerer provide support. Meanwhile the Raegh will lead a detachment of Hold Warriors to provide support and deal with any surface dwellers foolish enough to stand against the firstborn of War. This force provides a really good foundation to Dweghom since it is based around units that will form the core of really any army and can easily be made Ardent themed by swapping out the Raegh or Sorcerer for a Kerawegh.

For Milestone 2 the scouting detachment will receive more reinforcements with extra Hold Warriors and Inferno Automata. They’ll also be joined by the devastating Dragonslayers to take care of any heavy armor. These may be overkill for First Blood but come on, they have halberds. How can anyone resist Dweghom in plate with halberds?

=== First Blood! ===

The Dweghom – 598/600

Grel’hof

Hold Raegh [80]: Warlord

– Hold Warriors (12) [120]: Standard Bearer, Leader

– Dragonslayers (5) [95]

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Inferno Automata (2) [130]

– Hold Ballistae (6) [78]: Leader

Characters: 2

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 1

Heavy Regiments: 1

Milestone 2 will also be when the our First Blood forces begin to coalesce into the more conventional forces seen in the Last Argument of Kings. So as part of this we flesh out the First Blood forces into their proper sized regiments.

=== The Last Argument of Kings ===

Dweghom – 800/800
Grel’hof

Hold Raegh [80]: Select as Warlord

– Hold Warriors (6) [260]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (3) [165]: Leader

– Inferno Automata (3) [200]

Characters: 2
Light Regiments: 2
Medium Regiments: 1

Then in Milestone 3 we more properly move from the skirmishes of First Blood to the clash of armies in the Last Argument of Kings!

=== The Last Argument of Kings ===

Dweghom – 1195/1200

Grel’hof

Hold Raegh [80]: Select as Warlord

– Dragonslayers (3) [255]: Standard Bearer

– Hold Warriors (4) [180]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (3) [150]

– Inferno Automata (3) [200]

– Fireforged (3) [235]: Flamecaster

Characters: 2

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 2

Heavy Regiments: 1

The army gets some reinforcements as the First Blood regiments get increased to battle strength and beyond. This creates a flexible and fast moving force with a decent threat range. It will certainly be outnumbered consistently but that is the Dweghom way from what I understand. Continuing the theme from the First Blood forces, this Dweghom hold very much venerates the close quarter aspect of war. In my mind this is a hold that has spent a very long time fighting underground and that tradition has shaped their general tactics.

Milestone 4 brings us to 1600 points and the force is now pretty solid.

=== The Last Argument of Kings ===

Dweghom – 1595/1600

Grel’hof

Hold Raegh [100]: Select as Warlord, Perfectly Balanced

– Dragonslayers (3) [255]: Standard Bearer

– Hold Thanes (3) [200]: Standard Bearer

– Hold Warriors (3) [140]: Standard Bearer

Tempered Sorcerer [95]: Fireball

– Hold Ballistae (3) [150]

– Inferno Automata (3) [200]

– Hold Warriors (5) [220]: Standard Bearer

– Fireforged (3) [235]: Flamecaster

Characters: 2

Light Regiments: 2

Medium Regiments: 3

Heavy Regiments: 2

—–

We can now see almost all the elements of the full 2000 point army here with the Raegh’s new bodyguard of Thanes to hold the line. And now even more Hold Warriors! Because what is a battleline without a solid shieldwall. But where is the Steelshaper in all of this?

He’s showing back up in Milestone 5 with the Hellbringer Drake! I figure it would be best to finish the Path with the big centerpiece of the army and even more Thanes. With these additions I feel I will have a very solid army focused around a few large durable regiments. Quite a few people like to have their characters do the heavy lifting but I’ve always been a fan of having more bodies on the field. For one thing that gives me more to paint which is why anyone is reading this.

Thanks for coming along and I can’t wait to see how this army comes out and to see what everyone else comes up with!