Sorcerer Kings Rituals (english)

The Sorcerer Kings are the eighth and newest faction in Conquest: Last Argument of Kings and, like all factions, have their own unique faction rule. This rule manifests in the form of rituals, which allow us to incorporate moderate effects as cards into our deck. Despite their moderate effects, these cards are useful because they enable certain regiments of the Sorcerer Kings to perform a third action.

How do rituals work?

1. A Sorcerer King Spellcaster character's card is drawn.
2. The model receives a free action to perform an Elemental Rite action.
3. With Elemental Rites, one can either start a new ritual with a marker or add a marker to an already started ritual.
4. At the end of each round, you must add a marker to a ritual already in preparation if a Sorcerer King character is in a zone. Each character can add one marker, and it is not necessary to score or even be able to score in that zone.
5. Once the required markers for a ritual are collected, you may (but do not have to) place it in your deck for the next round.
6. When you draw the ritual from the deck, the effects trigger automatically, and it is treated like a normal activation from the deck.
7. A non-character regiment that matches the element of the ritual can activate directly after the ritual if it is the next card in the deck.
8. After a ritual card is drawn, the next regiment card, not a Charakter card, with the Elemental special rule receives a free action according to the normal restrictions. This is not bound to the element type and can either be stacked with the chain activation or simply be the next drawn card. If the last card in the previous round was a ritual, the first card in the new round would benefit from this.
9. The ritual is removed from the deck and the game after it has been used.

This sounds simple, and of course, the faction has special rules to speed up the process.

The Rituals

It is important to note that the same ritual can be used multiple times. There are a total of three rituals that require five markers and many that need more. In my opinion, there is no reason to ever start a ritual that requires more than five markers, as the effects are all manageable. Therefore, I will start with the only two rituals that I always use:

Conflagration (available for the Maharajah and Raj)

• Ritual Threshold: 5
• A friendly Spellcaster regiment or character stand may immediately perform an additional spell action out of sequence. The caster counts as having achieved four successes in casting. Draw the next card; if it belongs to a regiment with the Born of Flame special rule, it may activate immediately. Otherwise, place the card on top of the deck.

In my opinion, this is the most sensible ritual. The element is fire, which currently affects the majority of choices, especially monsters. Additionally, the "Kings of Magic" often struggle to cast their spells successfully, and this ritual helps significantly. I would recommend preparing this four times during a game.

Intrusive Thoughts (available for the Maharajah and the Sorcerer)

• Ritual Threshold: 5
• An enemy regiment currently within 12" of a friendly Spellcaster character stand cannot capture zones until the end of the round. Draw the next card; if it belongs to a regiment with the Born of Flame special rule, it may activate immediately. Otherwise, place the card on top of the deck.

This ritual is useful and almost always worthwhile. The problem is that your spellcaster must be within 12" of the enemy, which involves certain risks. Nonetheless, it is often helpful.

Other Rituals

Incite Rage (available only for the Raj)

• Ritual Threshold: 5
• An enemy regiment within 12" of a friendly Spellcaster character stand is targeted. Friendly regiments attacking this regiment receive the Shock special rule until the end of the round. Draw the next card; if it belongs to a regiment with the Born of Flame special rule, it may activate immediately. Otherwise, place the card on top of the deck.

This ritual is also an option with only 5 tokens, but the character stand must be very close to the enemy, making it situational in my opinion.

Fiery Dominion (available only for the Maharajah)

• Ritual Threshold: 6
• The next two enemy regiments whose card is drawn this round cannot perform Draw Events. Draw the next card; if it belongs to a regiment with the Born of Flame special rule, it may activate immediately. Otherwise, place the card on top of the deck.

The effect is not good because it cannot be used strategically. Additionally, effects like Biomancies, Pheromancies, or Battle Plans are not affected.

Spiteful Winds (available for the Maharajah and Raj)

• Ritual Threshold: 6
• An enemy regiment within 12" of a friendly Spellcaster character stand has a reduced charge distance (march value + 2") until the end of the round. Draw the next card; if it belongs to a regiment with the Born of Air special rule, it may activate immediately. Otherwise, place the card on top of the deck.

If the spellcaster is so close to the enemy, they can still be attacked. If the range were longer or the effect better, it might be worth considering. As it is, it is unattractive.

Sayf (available for Raj and the Sorcerer)

• Ritual Threshold: 6
• The next two friendly regiments whose cards are drawn this round receive the Opportunists special rule until the end of the round. Draw the next card; if it belongs to a regiment with the Born of Air special rule, it may activate immediately. Otherwise, place the card on top of the deck.

The effect is fine, but it is unclear why six markers are required.

Far Sight (available only for the Sorcerer)

• Ritual Threshold: 7
• Draw the next three cards and place them back in any order. Then draw and activate the next card.

The effect is very good, but seven markers make it completely unattractive.

Planning the Rituals

We have no way to start a ritual in round 1, so we usually choose a regiment with a character that can perform a ritual action in round 2 so that it automatically appears on the battlefield. Usually, this is the character with the Shu'laat, which allows us to start a ritual with two markers instead of one. Even if I have multiple characters in round 2, they usually all start a ritual.

In the following two rounds, only the Shu'laat bearer usually starts rituals, while the others diligently place markers on the existing ones. I try to complete one or two rituals in rounds 4, 5, and 6 to use them in the subsequent rounds. This does not always succeed, as characters must be in zones for this. Otherwise, you simply lack the tokens.

The Maharajah's supremacy is also important for good ritual management, as it allows you to place a ritual marker on two different rituals with the Elemental Rite action. I rarely manage six or more rituals in a game, as my opponents are actively attacking my army, and a dead character stand is extremely painful for the ritual buildup.