Historical Conquest Cheswell Starter Deck

Making history exciting just got a little easier! Historical Conquest is a historical card game of, well, conquest - with plenty of learning thrown in the mix. The premise of the game is simple: each player begins with six country cards, one from each colonized continent. These are separated out from your other cards and placed in a land pile. All other cards are placed in a face-down deck. Players then pull one land card (as their starting country) and five cards from their deck to form their hand. These cards may be armies (used to defend land); leaders (who can defend or attack lands and provide bonuses); explorers (who find new lands); artists, athletes, authors, and musicians (who improve your culture and make your nation happier); and events such as the Black Plague or Great Depression (which can be used to attack your opponents culture). Every card includes a historical paragraph that gives you the time period, a brief history about the event or person, and an ability related to what they did in real life (such as Genghis Khan, who can take over any country on the same continent as his army).

Cards are placed face-up in front of you in rows: land closest, then armies, leaders, and explorers. Event or culture cards are played in front of your draw deck for an immediate effect (such as increasing your nations morale or peeking into your opponents hand). There are two ways to win the game: take over all of your opponents land, or increase the morale of your civilization.

Starter packs represent all different periods of world history at different times and are made up of 50 cards including six countries, six explorers, armies, people, and events. These include everything you need to get started with the game. (Note that each player needs a 50-card deck, requiring at least two starter decks for play, though these can be different.) Expansions are based off of different eras or events and include 20 cards; these can be mixed and matched with starter decks and other expansions to create customized 50-card decks. Just remember: each 50-card deck requires 6 land cards and 6 explorers, which can only be found in starter decks. Beyond this, players are free to create their own decks with all their favorite historical figures and events!

Please note that Historical Conquest decks were updated in 2018 and newer cards feature two additional icons to make the cards abilities easier to understand. Cards with new and older copyright dates can be played together, but the publisher has created a conversion table to help. You can find the conversion table here.

Play mats are not required to play the game, but they do help by providing a play area, signifying where cards and decks should be placed, and giving civilization morale tracks for each player. They are made of high-quality material (think of a large, fancy mouse-pad), come with a travel tube, and can be machine washed (but not machine dried!)

When you are ready to play, find an opponent, get set up, and prepare to take over the world. Who knows - George Washington may just end up taking over England!