How to Start Playing Conquest in Australia

Conquest is a fantasy wargame by Para Bellum. Two games share the same models and the same world. First Blood is the skirmish game, around a dozen models a side, one box and you're playing. The Last Argument of Kings is the rank-and-flank game, where those same models go onto movement trays and shove at each other in blocks. The system underneath both was designed by Alessio Cavatore, who wrote large parts of Warhammer Fantasy, 40,000 and the Lord of the Rings game before he left Games Workshop. If you've played any of those, the grammar will feel familiar even though almost none of the vocabulary is.

Conquest has a relatively small community in Australia, which is disappointing for a game this much fun. Fortunately, getting started is easy. Grab a First Blood warband or a two-player starter set, find a friend, choose the models you like and start playing.

The rules are free, and Para Bellum's website makes that hard to believe

Every rulebook for both games is a free PDF. No account, no email, no purchase. They live on the Para Bellum rules and FAQ page.

The catch is that the page shows login prompts and talks about activating your account with a code from inside a product box. Plenty of people bounce off that and assume the rules are paywalled. They aren't. The download links sitting underneath work for anyone. The login gate applies to the Conquest Companion app, which is a different thing. Each box comes with an activation code for the app which gives you unlimited access to the app.

Read them in this order.

Start with the First Blood Quick-Start Guide. It's nine pages, it teaches the game step by step, and it ends with a complete scenario called A Clash of Warbands that you can play on a four foot square table. There's a video version too if you'd rather watch it. This one document is genuinely all you need for your first game.

Then print the First Blood Quick Reference Sheet. One page, every action on it, keep it on the table.

The full First Blood Rulebook, dated June 2026, runs 50 pages. Read it after you've played once, not before.

The Last Argument of Kings core rules are 112 pages and about 20MB. There is no quickstart for the big game, which is a real gap. If you want rank-and-flank, you go straight into the deep end. This is the main reason I'd point a newcomer at First Blood first.

Faction army lists are separate downloads, and each faction has two of them, one for each game. Don't bookmark the PDFs. Those lists were revised in March, April, May, June and August 2026, so go to the rules and FAQ page each time and take the current one.

One note on the app. Since 10 October 2025 the Conquest Companion app gives you 30 days free and then wants an activation code to keep building lists. Every Conquest box includes one of those codes, so if you buy anything at all you're covered permanently. If you're reading the free rules and haven't bought a box yet, you get a month.

What you'll actually be rolling

Worth knowing before you commit, because this is where Conquest stops resembling anything you've played.

Rolling low is good. Every round starts with both players rolling a die, and whoever rolls lower goes first.

Attacks work backwards from what you're used to. You roll a handful of dice, then keep the ones with the lowest results, up to your Clash value. Those are your hits. Sixes always fail, no matter what. Your opponent then rolls to block, using whichever of Defence or Evasion is higher, and each of their dice cancels a hit of the same number or higher.

There's no to-hit roll followed by a to-wound roll followed by a save. One roll, one block, done. It's quicker than it sounds written down.

The other structural difference is activation. You don't move your whole army then hand over. You flip one Command Card, act with those models one at a time, then your opponent flips one of theirs. A game is six rounds and you're never sitting there watching.

Para Bellum rebuilt First Blood for a new edition in February 2026. If you find a starter guide online that doesn't mention comparative dice or one-at-a-time activation, it's describing the old game. A lot of them still are.

The ten warbands

There are ten factions, and all ten have a First Blood warband box: Hundred Kingdoms, Spires, Dweghom, Nords, W'adrhŭn, Old Dominion, City States, Sorcerer Kings, Yoroni and Weaver Courts.

I've picked three to show you, and I picked them on looks rather than on how they play or what sells. If you're coming from Games Workshop, the useful question isn't which faction is strongest. It's which one puts something on your table that you can't already buy.

City States are bronze hoplite helmets with blue horsehair crests, gold armour, and Greek key patterns on everything. Clean and immediately readable. Games Workshop doesn't sell you Greeks, and this is the best-looking version of them in plastic.

Spires are pale, sinewy things in armour that looks grown rather than forged, with smaller creatures riding on their shoulders. The faction symbol is a distorted human face. They're the most unsettling models in the range and there's nothing remotely like them in a Warhammer cabinet.

Sorcerer Kings wear gold plate and a turbaned helm, and one arm made simply of fire. Persian and Mesopotamian rather than the usual medieval Europe.

For the record, the two I'd steer a Warhammer player away from first are Hundred Kingdoms and Nords. Both are good. Both are also the ones you'll look at and think you already own something similar.

Finding someone to play

Start with the Australian Facebook group, Conquest: The Last Argument Australia. There is also Para Bellum's official Discord, though it's global rather than Australian. It's linked from the community page on their site.

A First Blood warband is eleven to sixteen models. A two-player set is both armies in one box. Even a single warband comes with dice, a measuring tool, punch-out 3D terrain, command cards and the quickstart, so there is very little sitting between a box and a game.

This makes it easy to start playing with a friend. Alternatively, visit a local wargaming club and see who might be interested in giving Conquest a go. You don't need to spend hundreds of dollars or build a full army. A couple of warbands is enough to play your first game.

You could even buy two armies you like, paint them, and take a complete game to a club night at whatever shop near you runs Warhammer. Set it up. Someone will ask what it is, because the models don't look like anything else on the tables. Offer them a game and teach it to them in ten minutes, because the quickstart is nine pages and you'll already know it.

What else you need

If you've come from another wargame you already have all of this. If you're new, the warband boxes are close to self-contained but not quite. You'll want a pair of sprue clippers, plastic glue rather than superglue, and a starter set of paints in whatever brand your local shop carries. None of that is Conquest-specific and none of it needs to be expensive.

You'll also want about a four foot square of table, which is what the quickstart scenario is built around.

Where to start

A single First Blood warband runs a bit under ninety dollars and contains a complete playable force plus the bits to play with it. If you want both sides so you can teach the game, the two-player starter set is City States against Sorcerer Kings and works for the big rank-and-flank game as well. All ten warbands and the rest of the range are on the Conquest page.

That's the shopping done.

The rest of it costs nothing. Download the quickstart, read nine pages, and then go and find one person to teach. Build both warbands if you have to. That's how this game grows in Australia, and at the moment it's the only way it does.

If you're in Queensland, or anywhere else, and you want a game, come and say so on The Hobby Armoury Facebook page.