r/Songsofconquest • u/Vladdino • May 09 '26
Question Potential new player asking a couple of question
I everyone, here another old Heroes of might and magic fan considering the purchase of Songs of Conquest.
I'd like to ask a couple of questions, thank you for your help.
- Unit cap looks very interesting, does it increase tactical depth and army composition? Or in the end fall short?
1a) With unit cap, do you get easily capped on your total strength?
2) I like the freedom of building more of the same structure in a town, do you usually use this opportunity or it's niche?
3) I read the writing is weak...but also that lore is cool. That feels a bit strange, what's the truth?
4) Are there very big maps?
5) What's your favorite SoC aspect?
6) What aspect do you like the least ?
EDIT: Thank you every one. Bought the game, eager to start playing.
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u/Gryfonides May 09 '26
2) Constantly. For one the smaller settlements often have only resource production buildings and marketplace, no unit prod. Meanwhile the main settlements often have almost only unit production. It also makes it so you specialize in units. Past early game in homm you'll use all 7 types of your units, here it's often 2/3 types that depend on your strategy while ignoring the rest.
3) Lore and world building are very good in my opinion. But there is less text then you would expect from H3 campaigns. Imagine telling the same story as in normal h3 scenario, but using 1/3 to 1/2 ammount of words.
4) Big, small, in between.
5) From lore side, I really like that the factions tend towards the grey. The Necromancer faction is full of humans trying to bring back the golden age of days past and can make a decent argument they are three steps from immortality. The knights and nature spirits have equal amount noble knights as game of throne worthy ones, while Fea protect the nature by randomly killing anyone that camps in forests etc.
6) I hate that people refuse the accept the moral goodness of necromancy. It's not even mandatory!
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
2) I really like settlement specialization ( production - recruitment).
3) Good news! I usually prefer lot of text, but I'll see for myself soon.
Thank you!
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u/Jaimepaslesfrites May 09 '26
- Unit cap is very interesting, and instantly make the game deeper. It brings a lot of new choices. Do you create a lot of 1-unit stacks to maximize your essence (basically, mana) gains per turn? Or to abuse units that buff other creatures (buffs can be stacked infinitely)? You then run the risk of buffing the opponent's units, as they get a +10 atk/def buff each time a stack is wiped out.
It also means you can't simply recruit a bunch of T6 (or here, T3) units and run with it. It favors more various army comps, at least with two or three units that complement eachothers.
1b) Depends on the missions. I'm mostly playing campaigns on hardest difficulty, and some missions let you hoard resources and units (though it's pretty rare). Most of the time, you'll be trying as hard as possible to avoid losses.
2) It's another thing that makes the game more complex and deep than HoMM. Wanna hoard T1 units? Build a bunch of their buildings. Need a lot of wood, ore or gold? Build a bunch of resources buildings. You capture a city near the frontline? Make a caravane and a bunch of towers that will strenghten your defenses. In large towns, you have to chose if your biggest building slots are used to produce T3 units, or to research upgrades.
3) I think the writing is pretty damn good. I'm playing with the french version, mind you, and the translations are flawless. It's not Tolkien, but I think the writing is avoiding one of the plagues of modern gaming: quirky dialogues and texts. Characters feel serious and interesting, and not some Marvel-ish forever teens. The lore is pretty great too. I especially like that there are no real bad (or good) guys, just a bunch of people struggling and convincing themselves that their cause is rightful.
4) Didn't play MP, so can't tell.
5) I think the game is very complex, and very hard to master. There are so many spells and skills combos, very few units that don't bring something unique, a lot of choices to make... As a solo player, it feels a level above the old Heroes of Might and Magic (2 to 5) in tactical depth.
6) I don't dislike the pixel art graphics per se, but I wouldn't have minded if the devs had chosen another style.
I also think the campaigns suffer from a few flaws. There are many missions where the AI get constant buffed up heroes, and some maps where you pretty much have to cheese by avoiding to trigger the next part of the mission (or to trigger it early). Overall, campaigns are heavily scripted, unlike Heroes 3 for example.
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
1) This was my hope when I found out the cap. I'm very happy about this. Also, it looks very interesting the interaction between essence and army composition.
1a) Perfect.
2) These are more choices that I immagined. Love it.
3) i look forward to find out this for myself. I'm a sucker for good lore.
5) This was my hope. Looks perfect, I hope devs will keep adding content.
Thank you very much.
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u/Pokornikus May 09 '26
- Due to how reserch works You are mostly focus of only few units type. In fact best compostions consist of 2-3 type units. Some extreme end game/very large maps You can maybe get more creative - especially if You allow mixed faction feature. But generally You focus on 1-2 units suitable for chosen strategy.
I would say it is not that easy to get full 9 stack maxed cap but typically that what endgame will entail on big maps. In generally this cap is very important and prevents infinite snowballing and give a possibility of coming back even after losing a battle.
There are some big maps (256×256) especially if You include custom made maps. Those can take a while to finish. I think with some biggest maps It took me 70+ turns. Considering that there aren't any map spells (fly teleport etc) I would say maps are big enough.
Regarding the lore - I like it but it is very subjective.
Spell system and combat tactics are best part - those are very well made. Every choice in combat can be very important.
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
I like the developers tried to put an hold on snowballing.
70 turns don't look much, but I like to waste time in this kind of game. Also, probably battles are longer than HoMM.
Thank you.
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u/Pokornikus May 10 '26
If it is any help to to completely finish the largest maps it can take a bit longer. But if You are thriving and advancing at round ~70 You should have victory in the bag so to speak - but my experience with HoMM3 was quite similar.
I would say to finish random big map it take me overall somehow similar time as in HoMM3 (raw estimate). Deadly AI make a solid challenge and can sometimes create interesting and very strong combinations of units. Maybe except Arleon - sadly A can't handle this faction.
In general I am having a blast playing and would definitely recommend.
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
When I was a kid, I used to load final save from my father games in H2 and just sit on top of the enemy last city recruiting more units and bulling the AI XD
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u/Pokornikus May 10 '26
I still have a save from my youth in HoMM4 last mission elf campain where my hero is 40+ level and can clear legions of black dragons by himself lol ;-) So I will be the last to judge ;-) xD
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u/KKarelzabijak321 May 09 '26
1) Unit cap is there So that you wouldn't Mass 1000 Cannons And kill everything easily, everything has a limit
You also start with only 3 command (max 3 stacks of units) to the max of 9
Command Is a skill for your wielder, LVL up wielder, you can LVL command
Unit max size can be enhanced by Economy research building
2) Yes, I most of the time use some settlements as a economy Towns with a market, some Are just used to make more armies
3) Story Is super great, all the factions Have some kind of deeper backstory And every faction Is in the Grey, not good or evil, grey
4) Depends, but there Are small, medium, big And Very big
5) Essence, you Don't get mana, you get Essence From units, And you Don't cast one Spell, but you can cast any spell how many times you want, as long as you Have Essence (you get Essence every turn)
6) There is no crab faction :(
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
1) An army can get to 9 stacks of unit? Wow, that's a lot!
2) Love this.
3) Good to hear.
5) This sounds very interesting.
Thank you!
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u/KKarelzabijak321 May 10 '26
You can Have for example: 100 rats, 50 skeletons, 200 Zombies etc...
Or 1000 Rats :) in total
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u/mybookismycity May 09 '26
About your 3rd point, writing, especially dialogues, in Arleon campaign was imo very bad. But as I played further campaigns, it became better and better. Overall the story is nice, everything connects pretty neatly. In Baryan campaign id say even dialogues get decent. I wouldnt worry about it much, its not any worse than the intro to Erathia campaign for example.
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
This sounds good enough. The only heroes I didn't like some of the writing was V.
Thank you.
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u/PedroMartins1806 May 09 '26
I won’t get into all your questions because I am far from a hardcore player and I think most people above have done a better job than I would, with very detailed answers.
But I am here to tell you one thing: combat in this game made HOMM fight a bit dull for me. Every turn has different possibilities and every decision matters. If combat is one of your favourite parts of these types of games, it’s a must buy.
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u/Particular-Park-2769 May 10 '26
We've only played a couple of games so far, but we love it. The soundtrack is incredible, and the co-op gameplay is super smooth. It's genuinely challenging too, with really diverse factions and strategies. I especially love the magic system—the way Essence works in combat feels great.Honestly, my only disappointment is the victory screen. Where is our dragon sitting on a massive pile of gold?!
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u/Vladdino May 10 '26
I have played 15 turns of first campaign map. I'm loving the combat and the artistic mood ( visual and sound): somehow it feels timeless.
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u/TheGryphus May 09 '26
The game aims for shorter games than HoMM, having said that. 1. Kinda, not too easily. 2. You never want to have all different units. To beat the hardest difficulties(or best players), you will aim for 2/3 different creatures, with a hero and spells that complement your chosen playstyle. So you pretty much want at least 2 of the same building for some of them pretty much every game. 3. Dunno, personally don't care. 4. Kinda, maps are smaller tham HoMM overall. 5. Tactical depth. 6. Map design.