As the game of Warhammer Conquest develops, new warlords and units lead to new strategies. One thing that has been introduced is the idea that the planet colours are significant. For example Broderick Worr (see below) loves himself some green planets!
What this can mean is that if you’re lucky you can get a significant advantage by the planets coming out in your favour. For example in a game I played last week as Worr, the first four planets were all green. I had a great start and an easy win. But it could have been that only one of the first five were green, then my job would have been much harder. Of the ten planets each colour is represented six times, so the worst you can get is only one out of the first five, but the best you can get is all five of the first shown being of your favoured colour. This is obviously a major random factor in your matchup.
I therefore came up with the idea of a drafting mechanism for the planets. This would help alleviate any potential imbalance, without giving either player too much control over the layout.
After revealing which Warlord both players are, shuffle up the ten planet cards and deal five to each player.
Each player then takes one planet and places it face down in front of him.
Then hand the four remaining cards over to the opposing player without revealing which planet you’ve taken.
Keep doing this, taking a card and passing back, until all the planets have been drafted.
Then, starting with the player who doesn’t have the initiative, each player places one of his drafted planets face down on the layout, starting at position one, then two etc, until seven planets have been placed. Then reveal the first five planets and play the game as per normal.
I feel this variant can eliminate some of the luck element that the planet colour rules bring to the game. You can draft a planet you definitely want to see in the layout, or, if there’s one you don’t want your opponent access to, “hate” draft it so it never sees the table.
If you try this out, let me know how you get on!