Frequently Asked Questions

While two players could play using identical decks, the game is much more interesting when different Starter Decks are used. Each Starter Deck has its own unique set of cards, not based on a particular theme or time period but spanning world history throughout time. Each player needs his or her own Starter Deck to play (minimum of 50 cards). Expansion Packs, which are based on a historical era or event, have 20 cards each and may be used to enhance or customize a player's personal deck.

We suggest that each player receives their own deck of cards and keeps that one. Trade, customize your deck, and then put them in multi-coloured sleeves to distinguish whose is whose.

You can play with up to 10 players, but the best games are between 3–4 players. With more players it takes longer to go around the table; with fewer, less strategy is needed because there are fewer players to keep track of.

The best package for a family or group of 4–6 is the Ultimate Package, because it gives you a 30% discount on the complete set of Starter Decks, Expansion Packs and 2 Play Mats, which help players organise, learn and play the game. Additional Play Mats may be purchased if desired.

The recommended age is 8 to adult. From the founder: "My son started playing at 6 years old. He is now 7 and is a master at the game, but this is not the norm. We suggest 8 years old for beginning play, because this is the age when most youth begin to really comprehend what they are reading. I used this game as an incentive for my son to learn to read, because his 8-year-old sister was able to play. They are very competitive, so he virtually taught himself to read through his desire to play."

Think of what happened to Germany when the Berlin Wall fell — instead of West Germany and East Germany, it became just Germany. No player can have a duplicate on the same battlefield. If you win the Land and later discover one with an Explorer, since that Land is already discovered it would be placed in the discard. And you can't draw another one, because many times Explorers discovered the same Land as other Explorers and never got credit for it. So in cases of having a duplicate on your own battlefield, the owner must discard the card and you end up with only one in that battlefield. — question from Giovanni C.

You can do three things:
1) Challenge them to a game of just World Domination. This eliminates the need for Morale boosters, except that they still need 800 Morale points to attack.
2) According to the rules he can only accumulate 800 Morale points per turn. Some families have instituted a house rule of only 500 per turn to make it fairer.
3) We release Starter Decks filled with Morale downers — the equaliser against deck-stacking. Working on other ideas to keep stacking from being a problem — if you have a good one, send it to office@historicalconquest.com.

The rules state that Explorers may transport one Character or Army card to another Land — one Explorer per turn per player. That Land does not have to belong to you; it can be your opponent's. So when you have an Army in a Land with an Explorer, transport that Army to another continent and attack that Land. Highest points win. If, at the end of the two attacks, one or more of your opponent's Characters or Armies are still occupying the Land, send your Explorer and Army home. If you discarded all their cards in the defending Land, take it over and bring it to your side. Big hint: Explorers are the most valuable cards in the whole game besides Land, because they 1) find new Land, 2) transport cards, 3) attack different continents, and 4) have all their own abilities. What card is better than that?

Reverse cards play that ability back on the player who originally played it on you. Be aware, though, that someone can reverse a Reverse card. That can really make the game interesting.

The Atomic Bomb eradicates all cards occupying that country. Even Armies are destroyed.

An Army is classified as more than one warrior. Those Armies that were not strong, despite being in a large group, were given smaller strength points — for example the Steel Workers, small in size, whose fight didn't last long.

This card demonstrates the need to learn a little more about the Character cards you are playing. For example, even though Napoleon is on a Conqueror card, he was in fact a French military leader who also happened to be a Conqueror — so these abilities may be awarded if he occupies that country.

This is true, for now. The Spain card will be released in a coming Starter Deck. We were hoping for a faster release, but experienced such an enthusiastic response and high demand for the game that we had to focus on meeting that demand first.

When we created the game, Russia was one of our first Land cards, and we only allowed a Land card to reside in one continent. Later on, my partners and I decided to accord Egypt this dual status, but never made changes to other Land cards. Russia is one Land that could fall under the same dual-continent status, as it is a Eur-Asian Land. We will take this into consideration in our next printing. Thanks for the suggestion — we always appreciate input from our players.

Each year, on or about September 1st, we send out information about the contest. We have a form for you to fill out that asks for the card name (a person, event, document, etc.), a short summary of the history, and the abilities the card should have. The winner receives a cash prize, and the top 12 creations have their cards printed and win a stack of them to pass out to friends and family. Those top 12 are rare cards that may be earned at local tournaments, or by players who submit an essay about the "Rare Card of the Month" — they are not sold in decks or packs. You can enter as many submissions as you like. We may also choose figures from the contest when creating new Starter Decks, even if they aren't in the top 12.