Conquest

History

Although its exact origins are lost to history, it is generally accepted that Conquest was originally played in what is now the Shironia Dynasty. It is rumored that an ancient ruler was planning a siege on a neighboring region and he used a deck of cards to strategize, developing Conquest in the process.

Execution

During a game of Conquest, anywhere from 2 to 4 players will compete against each other. Their goal is to have the most powerful armies. To begin, each player is given the Jack, Queen, and King of one suit and sets them in front of them. If there are fewer than 4 players, the remaining face cards are set aside with the jokers. The remaining cards are then shuffled together, each player is dealt 2 cards, and the deck is placed in the center of the play area. The starting player is determined by the suit of their face cards. Spades will go first. If there are no spades, hearts go first. If there are no hearts, clubs goes first. Diamonds will never go first.

At the start of a player's turn, they draw one card from the deck. Then, the player can play any number of cards from their hand of either the same suit or value on one of their three face cards. After choosing whether or not to play any cards, the player's turn ends and the player to their left takes their turn. This process repeats until the last card is drawn from the deck. When a player draws the last card, they finish their turn and then the game immediately ends.

At the end of the game, players add up the total values of cards that they have played on each of their face cards, giving them three separate scores. Once each player has their three scores, all players compare the score of their Jacks. The player with the highest score on their Jack gets 1 point. This is repeated for the Queen, which is worth 2 points, and the King, which is worth 3 points. If any players tie, the player with the most aces played on the face card wins. After each player has received their points, the player with he most points wins. In the case of a tie, the tied players add up their three scores and the player with the highest total score wins. If there is still a tie, the player with the most aces played wins. If there is still a tie after this, the player who had the highest score on the Jack and Queen won.

There are three optional rules that make Conquest more challenging. The first is that aces normally have a value of 1. If an ace shares a suit with the card it is played on, however, it is considered to have a value of 11. The second rule is that at the end of the game, each player reveals any cards remaining in their hand. If a player has any cards belonging to the suit of another player, that player may immediately play those cards as they wish. The final rule requires that two jokers are added to the deck at the beginning of the game. On a players turn, they can forgo playing cards on one of their face cards, instead playing a joker on an opponent's face card. Jokers are considered to have a value of -5 at the end of the game.

Components and tools

Conquest is played with a standard deck of playing cards.

Participants

Although it was originally only played by nobles and wealthy individuals, Conquest has become popular among all people.