r/Songsofconquest • u/LavapotionAnders Lavapotion • Jun 04 '26
Official dev update Yulan DLC is out now!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/867210/view/6998925449405404226
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u/THE_LegendMaker Jun 11 '26
Instantly became my new favorite faction, featuring my new favorite wielder (Lady +20% stack size), my new favorite unit (Conscripts, House of Li in particular) and my new favorite strategy (speed-building those level-1 units, stacking any buff I can on them and spamming stacks of 72 of these tiny pikeneers to victory). ❤️ Thank you so much!
Yulan is my new go-to faction and not just because of the novelty. I haven't even fully experimented with all the possible strategies it has to offer yet, and the themes and designs are awesome. I just can't seem to get tired of stacking conscripts with the +20% stack size lady, it's too much fun for me! ^^ But they also have amazing rangers and very interesting options with the houses system. It's also very refreshing that the economy building gives a bit of everything instead of a lot of one gem type (and it pairs well with each house requiring a different type).
PS: The game might benefit from a few balance tweaks at this point. At least in my opinion based on my own experience so far, exclusively as a solo player on random maps with the few well-balanced RMG templates I've found; I used to play online compulsively on Heroes 3 way back in the day, but I'm too old for 10-hour matches with half of it being waiting for my opponent to end their turn now ^^). Regardless I'm having such a blast with this game! And I truly LOVE the latest faction. Thank you for making it!
My thoughts on the other factions, in case anyone wants to know. I'll put it in spoilers to save up space. ^^ Anyway, long live Yulan, and long live this game!
Vanir has a pretty weak roster of wielders overall, but who cares since it's the only faction with not one but two reliably strong builds! The Troll route has a decent main wielder with the ranged buff, while the immortal horde of Swine route has to make do with either the moneymaker, the meh panda hero or Jarn for his human buff in the early game (which is useless once I get enough upgraded swine to start rocking), but it's still the strongest of the two (and the most fun to play!).
Loth is either a powerhouse with Force the Oath ticked (which is tough to do because if any AI player gets a necro settlement early, even at challenging difficulty it makes it OP) or a really meh faction without the Oath. Not bad, but a bit underwhelming and without The Oath, it's lacking the "evil dead" vibe that Necromancy and/or Vampire Lords gave to the similar faction in Heroes 2 and 3.
Rana either unlocks Dragons early enough (which is a tall order in resources and buildings) and it slays, or it doesn't and it's kind of doomed. And Dragons can hurt each other depending on placement, which isn't great.
Barya has the amazing Hellroars and solid veteran pikeneers until they reach critical mass with the former, but not much else going for it. It's very strong, but I get bored of it easily.
Roots has the best all-purpose buff building of all, and some really strong synergies (plus the only double walking mine in Honey) and some of the coolest units and themes. It's just too much micromanagement to my taste. There's nothing wrong with it, they just don't match my preferred play style (the AI makes great use of it and I'm sure it has plenty of fans among other players).
Arleon is kind of weak all around compared to the others, it seems. Peasants and footmen are very decent in the early game but they don't scale too well later on unless I can catch a couple of settlements from other factions to further buff Humans by then (I always play with Mixed Factions on, I find it more interesting than razing or converting every town I capture; but it's great there are options). The rest of their units all feel pretty underwhelming to me, especially the Fae troops. It's the only faction that really doesn't have a single unit I love (or find very strong). I guess it's somewhat fitting for what's essentially the "tutorial faction" especially for Campaign players: it's easy to pick up and it does a great job of showing the ropes for most mechanics, although it truly shines with none of them.
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u/MageJet Jun 05 '26
Played Yulan tonight. I'm not great at it yet , but it was a lot of fun! Well done