The Conquest Mission is brilliant

Played it for the first time last night and it completely makes you change the way you play your game. I played a Saracen force against my buddies Lost force. He uses a pretty elite force usually, last night was Bran, 2 Squamata Warriors, Maw of the Abyss, Vorneus, and Wormpile (oh how I hate Wormpile). I had Nazir, Chams, Shield Pillar, Hashishin, Lancer, Alchemist, 2 Berber Hunters, and a Sanctified Warrior. Our usual MO is to jump towards the middle and duke it out it seems and I'm usually on the bad end of that. Tonight, I kept what I wanted to do in mind for conquest points and stuck to that, he went mostly with out usual MO and I think it really cost him. I was now able to somewhat avoid Bran and take out his lessers, while fulfilling my goals during the game for a eventual 7-1 route in Conquest Points. Including a beheading of a Squamata Warrior and bring back to my deployment zone by Nazir.

One question and a couple rules questions. Can a model start with the artifact, or do you have to have it on the ground to be picked up at the beginning of the game?

Rules questions: Do 1's always fail? My Alchemist was knocked down and then attacked by a squamata warrior, the -2 DEF would have given him a 1 DEF, is that an auto hit?

Can you do movement/combat in any order? Can I throw a dagger with Hashishin and then move him afterwards if I didn't move before the shot? The action phase in the English PDF doesn't say you have to do your actions in any order, so I was wondering.

Thanks and we'll be playing this mission pretty much all the time, it's wonderful.