To get access to more resolution options. Go into the conquest.ini file in the game folder, and change this
"LimitResolutions = on"
to
"LimitResolutions = off"

This will now enable you to choose resolution in the options menu to match your monitor.

Any problems with the option? Is it going to break the game at any point?

Have not heard of any problem with this, and experiencing no problems myself so far.

Love the game but I am running this on 2 PCs - my laptop where I have had to use VMWare as I have Windows 8 and my Windows 7 desktop. The weird issue I have is that my desktop runs on a 58700 with a monitor that is native at 198x1024 - yet I can only select up to 1280x1024 on the resolution options.

The installation on my laptop however, which has a widescreen native resolution of 1366x768, allows me to select up to 1980x1024!

Does anyone know how I can force the resolution on my desktop so it plays at it's native resolution?

Fixed - make sure you "Run as Administrator" in windows 7.

Not to dispute this but the LimitResolutions settings to "off" are already in place on the GOG version.

Changing this setting would be good knowledge if you had the retail version of the game.

I was using my original retail when I did this.
Good to know it's already done in GOG version.

I have limited it and ran as administrator everything is still massive.

Make sure you check it in game. Because the menu gui and everything I believe does not change size, only when you start a campaign or skirmish etc, will you see the change.

In my system (Windows 7, 64) it plays well at 2048x1152x32. Above that, an error message appears and it reverts to the lowest resolution.

On the other hand, the higher resolution becomes apparent only during battles.