As a game Conquest was nearly complete, resemblent of what it is today. However, as you well know, there is much more to a trading card game than just the game - interesting cards are what make the game worthwhile.

There is no easy way to describe what the next year meant for Conquest. Above all, ascension had to be scrutinized, tested, edited, tested, and so forth to death. As is recalled, new decks were built and scrapped almost every day, with only minor changes occuring after tireless playing. It was our duty to find a way to utilize every card, in every possible way, to determine if it was too good, too bad, or not quite right.

Through all of this testing we realized that there was some specters of the past that needed to be exorcised. They simply made the game more complicated, and not much more fun. For this reason, class levels were removed. Inventory was removed, and it was decided that all warriors would be able to equip two weapons, while all other mercenaries could only equip one. Unique was also removed, because the most practical justification for making a card unique is because it is too good to use three of, but we decided it would just be better to try not and make any cards that were that much better than others. Guard also changed at this point. It now only doubled base armor, rather than armor bonuses provided by items.

In addition to all this rigorous testing, all types of templation and rules changes were going on. Upkeep became sustenance, actions gained their very unique writing format, and cards now held both their cost and their card name in the first sentence (as opposed to separate areas for cost and title).

Eventually, the 400 card ascension shrank down to a more manageable 200 card ascension. The remaining 200 cards will slowly find their place in future sets, along with other cards bearing unique abilities (and don't forget the over 1,000 cards in the "database" awaiting usage, most of which are horribly unbalanced from years past). By the end of this phase, Conquest had truly come together. The only area to tackle now was the visual element (and the business element, and the marketing element, and the production element...).

We hope you enjoyed this in-depth look into the history and making of Conquest. As always feel free to write to us with questions, and we'll do our best to answer.