10
Julius Caesar
Rome"Dictator Perpetuo"
8 9
Once per game: deal 4 damage to the enemy commander.
The Rules
How to play.
Conquest is a fast card duel for 2+ players. Here's everything you need to take the field.
Field
5 Unit Slots
1
2
3
4
5
Graveyard
Siege
5 Tactic Slots
1
2
3
4
5
Army Zone
Turn Structure
Four phases, in order, every turn
The online engine walks each turn through these phases in sequence. You can only take phase-specific actions while that phase is active.
Phase
Draw
Draw your turn-start card and gain +2 CP (cap 12). The very first player skips their opening Draw to offset going first.
Phase
Main
Deploy units to your 5 Unit slots, set Tactics face-down, lay a Field, equip Artifacts, change battle positions, and activate effects. Half-cost (round up) to Set a unit face-down.
Phase
Battle
Attack once per unit. Clash with enemy units (higher ATK wins, equal ATK destroys both). If the opponent has no blockers left, swing directly at their Commander this same phase.
Phase
End
Resolve end-of-turn cleanup — equipped Artifacts and one-shot effects move to the graveyard — then discard down to a 7-card hand. Play passes.
No Battle phase on the very first turn of the match.
Play Area
Each player commands these zones
Unit Zones
5 front-line slots — Units, Heroes, Siege engines and your Commander all deploy here. There is no separate Commander Zone.
Back Row
5 Tactic (Trap) slots, your active Field, plus a viewable Graveyard.
Your Commander
Sits off-field at game start. Pay their CP cost to deploy into any open Unit slot — kill them and you win the game instantly.
20 Life Points
Reduce to 0 to win.
Command Points
Start 3, +2/turn, cap 12.
Hand · Deck · Graveyard
Hand limit 7. Deck 40+.
Play Open
Pay full cost. Unit enters face-up. Stats and effects are visible to your opponent. Charge units may attack the same turn (except on turn 1).
Set Face-Down
Pay half cost (rounded up, min 1). Unit enters hidden — opponent sees only a card-back. It can't attack. On a later turn, Flip it to reveal: it acts immediately like Charge for a surprise strike. If attacked while face-down, it's revealed and takes the hit without countering.
First Turn Rule
No attacks are allowed on either player's very first turn. Use it to deploy, set traps, and station siege weapons. The fight begins on turn 2.
Battle Positions
Units sit upright in Attack position and rotated sideways in Defense position. Set face-down cards always lay horizontal. During your Main phase you may switch any of your face-up units between Attack and Defense (once per unit per turn, never the turn it deploys). Defenders cannot attack — but when struck, only their DEF is compared to the attacker's ATK; the attacker takes no return damage.
Equal-ATK Clash
When two units in Attack position clash, the one with the higher ATK wins and stays on the field unscathed; the loser is destroyed. If their ATK is equal, both units are destroyed simultaneously. Pick your duels carefully.
Card Effects
Card effects fire automatically — Supply Train and Mass Burial draw 2 cards, Egil and Stone Circle draw 1 on deploy, Valkyrie draws 1 whenever a friendly unit falls, and Ancient Dragon scorches every enemy on entry.
Card Anatomy
Every card tells a story.
A Commander card at a glance — Julius Caesar shown here. The same anatomy reads across every Conquest card.
Rank Chip
The top-left chip names the rank — Commander, General, Lieutenant, or Officer — so you can read the card's role at a glance.
Command Point Cost
The amber sword in the top-right corner is the CP cost to deploy. Caesar costs 10 CP to bring into one of your 5 Unit slots.
Name & Title
Julius Caesar — Dictator Perpetuo. The italic flavor line frames the legend before any number is read.
Set Code
A unique 3-letter prefix + serial (e.g. EAG-001) shows which Starter Deck or Booster the card was first printed in.
Allegiance
Rome. Every Rome card on the board gains +1 ATK or +1 DEF while Caesar leads — your call on each deploy.
ATK / DEF
ATK strikes; DEF soaks the return blow when the unit is defending. Higher ATK wins a clash, equal ATK destroys both.
Versus Effect
The first effect line is the Versus rule — what the card does in a Versus duel. Caesar's bends the rules around aggressive line-pushes.
Conquest Effect
The second effect line is the Conquest rule — how the card behaves on the 16×16 board. A dash means the card has no special Conquest behaviour.
Card Size
2.5″ × 3.5″ (63.5 × 88.9 mm)
Standard poker size — sleeve-friendly and table-standard. Every card on the website previews at the same 5:7 ratio.
Deck Building
Build your 40.
Six card types, one 40-card minimum deck. Mix to match your commander's strengths — your Commander rides on top, not inside.
Suggested ~24
Units
Soldiers, riders, and beasts. ATK and DEF stats, with traits like Charge, Volley, Guard, Flying, or Siege.
Suggested ~9
Tactics
Spells and traps. Play from hand or set face-down to spring on your opponent's turn.
Suggested ~3
Field Cards
Terrain that rewrites the rules. Only one Field is active at a time — choose your battlefield.
Suggested ~2
Artifacts
One-shot relics. Activate to remove a threat or equip a unit; sent to the graveyard at end of turn.
Suggested ~1
Strongholds
Built structures with their own DEF. Sit in your back row; opponents can attack them directly.
Suggested ~1
Locations
Battlefields, cities and wonders. Capture them for round-by-round bonuses while they stay under your banner.
Rules of construction: 40-card minimum deck · max 3 copies of any single card · 1 Commander chosen separately (deployed into a Unit slot during play, not shuffled in).
Allegiance Synergy. Every card and every commander fights under an Allegiance — Rome, Macedon, China, Carthage in the launch wave. While your Commander leads, every card in your deck sharing their Allegiance gains +1 ATK or +1 DEF (your choice on deploy). Build a mono-faction deck for crushing synergy, or splash Neutral cards (which never gain or lose the bonus) to stay flexible.
Browse the galleryArtifact Effects
Seven removal & equip patterns
Every Artifact in the game resolves one of these effects when activated, then heads to the graveyard at end of turn. Battlefield wipes are intentionally rare — only a handful of Artifacts in the entire set carry them.
- Targeted destroy. Pick any one card on the battlefield and destroy it.
- Wipe all units. Destroy every unit on the battlefield. (Rare.)
- Wipe all Tactics. Destroy every Tactic card on the battlefield. (Rare.)
- Hand peek. Look at your opponent's hand and destroy one card of your choosing.
- Equip. Attach to a unit: +1 ATK / +1 DEF until end of turn.
- Destroy 1 Siege. Target and destroy a single Siege card on the battlefield.
- Destroy 1 Field. Target and destroy the active Field card on the battlefield.
Game Mechanics
The Cost Curve
Every stat-bearing card is priced against a published curve. It's the invisible math that keeps Conquest fair — and the reason you'll never open a booster and find a card that just wins.
Units
ATK + DEF ≤ 2 × cost + 2
A 3-cost soldier sits around 8 raw stats (e.g. 4/4, 3/5, 5/3). Anything pushed higher must give up stat budget for an ability.
Strongholds
DEF ≤ 2 × cost
Walls are durable but not free. A 4-cost keep tops out around DEF 8 before its passive starts pulling weight.
Artifacts
+ATK + +DEF ≤ cost + 1
Equips are budgeted as a tax on the unit they boost — the splashier the bonus, the steeper the CP.
Why a curve at all?
Trading-card games live and die on power creep. Without a published curve, every new commander tempts the designer to print "just one stat better" — and within a year the starter decks are obsolete. The curve is a contract: a 3-cost unit will always trade roughly with another 3-cost unit, regardless of which expansion it came from.
The +1 tolerance band
Cards may sit up to +1 above the curve to make room for personality — a faction's signature build, a Mythic flourish, or a starter-deck headliner. Anything more must trade stats for a real downside (high cost, harsh activation, single-use clause). On-curve and below-curve cards are fine; their text is what earns them a slot.
Automated regression suite
Every change to the card library re-runs an automated balance audit: bun run balance:audit. The script walks all Units, Strongholds, and Artifacts, checks each against its curve, and exits non-zero if any card lands more than +1 above its budget — blocking the build until a designer either nerfs the stats or accepts the deviation.
Step 1 — Edit
Designer touches a card in src/data/cards.ts.
Step 2 — Audit
Suite re-checks all 140+ stat-bearing cards in milliseconds.
Step 3 — Gate
Offenders print with their delta; CI fails until they're addressed.
Current status: 141 cards on or under curve, average Unit budget −1.7 stats below ceiling — designers are deliberately spending stat budget on abilities and flavor rather than raw numbers.
See It In Action
A Sample Game, Start to Finish
Follow Mira (playing Alexander) and Dev (playing Hannibal) through a full 2-player match. Read it like a story — every rule appears in context.
Setup (about 2 minutes)
- 1. Each player sets up their play mat: 5 Unit slots on the front line (Units, Heroes, Siege engines and your Commander all share these), 5 Tactic slots + a single Field zone in the back row, plus Deck and Graveyard. There is no Commander Zone.
- 2. Each player picks one Commander. Mira chooses Alexander (ATK 9 / DEF 8). Dev chooses Hannibal (ATK 8 / DEF 7). Set them face-up beside the mat — they deploy into a Unit slot mid-game by paying their CP cost.
- 3. Each player shuffles their 40-card deck and draws 5 cards.
- 4. Each player starts with 20 Life Points and 3 Command Points (CP). Gain +2 CP every turn (cap 12).
- 5. Roll a die — high roll goes first (and skips their first Draw). Mira wins the roll.
Turn 1Mira (Alexander)
- Skips Draw (going first). CP: 3.
- Plays Field card Open Plains in her back row — terrain favors cavalry. Cost 1. CP: 2.
- Summons Hoplite (ATK 3 / DEF 5) in Defense position. Cost 2. CP: 0.
- Sets a Tactic face-down (Counter Charge) in her back row. Cost 0.
- Ends turn. No Battle Phase — units sit one turn before attacking. LP: Mira 20 · Dev 20.
Turn 1Dev (Hannibal)
- Draws 1. CP: 3.
- Summons War Elephant (ATK 6 / DEF 4) in Attack position. Cost 3. CP: 0.
- Ends turn — fresh summon, no attack yet.
Turn 2Mira
- Draws 1. CP: 2 (3 + 2 − previous = 2).
- Summons Crossbowman (ATK 4 / DEF 2) in Attack. Cost 2. CP: 0.
- Battle Phase: Crossbowman attacks Dev directly? No — Dev's Elephant blocks the field. She passes battle. End turn.
Turn 2Dev
- Draws 1. CP: 2.
- Battle: Elephant (ATK 6) attacks Hoplite (DEF 5 in Defense). 6 > 5 → Hoplite destroyed. No LP damage (Defense position).
- Mira flips face-down trap Counter Charge: redirects the next attack to the attacker — but it triggers next turn, not retroactively. Trap stays armed.
- End turn. LP: Mira 20 · Dev 20.
Turn 3Mira
- Draws 1. CP: 4.
- Equips Artifact Excalibur on Crossbowman: +3 ATK (now ATK 7). Cost 4. CP: 0.
- Triggers Alexander's Phalanx Surge — Crossbowman gains piercing this turn.
- Battle: Crossbowman (ATK 7) attacks Elephant (ATK 6, Attack position). Elephant destroyed; difference 1 → Dev takes 1 LP damage. LP: Dev 19.
- End turn.
Turn 3Dev
- Draws 1. CP: 2.
- Builds Stronghold Iron Keep (DEF 6) in his back row. Cost 4 — but he doesn't have it. Plays Forge Blessing instead (cost 1) to dig for resources. CP: 1.
- End turn — no attackers on board.
Turn 4Mira
- Draws 1. CP: 3.
- Battle: Crossbowman (ATK 7 with Excalibur) — Dev has no Units, so it attacks directly. Direct hit: 7 LP damage. LP: Dev 12.
- Hannibal had deployed into Dev's front line on Turn 3. Alexander (ATK 9) attacks him directly — Commander Knockout attempt. 9 > Hannibal's DEF 7 → Hannibal destroyed. Dev loses by Commander Knockout.
- Mira wins.
Endgame & Victory
Mira wins by Commander Knockout — destroying Dev's Hannibal. The other paths to victory are reducing your opponent to 0 Life Points, or making them try to draw from an empty deck. The whole match took about 25 minutes.
CP matters
Spend every turn — banking 6+ unused CP usually means you've fallen behind in tempo.
Equip + pierce wins
Excalibur on a Crossbowman turned a finesse unit into a finisher. Look for two cards that multiply each other.
Set traps early
A face-down Tactic bends your opponent's plans before they're even drawn.
Common Questions