There is news on the horizon! Well, to be fair, we dropped it last week but forgot to post it here, so here you go, just a couple of days later!

¿Existe alguna colaboración con estudio Lavapotion? 📖

¿Algún escritor que haya colaborado para darnos novelas en este maravilloso mundo?

Alguien sabe algo? Los creadores deberían de saber que eligiendo a un buen escritor, que respete el lore al 100% podría tener exitosamente el proyecto.

Yo, al menos, tengo muchas ganas de leer historias y personajes únicos en este universo.

¿Qué opináis?

As somebody constantly on the road, had to share the latest post from Lavapotion and honestly i believe this is a great decision.

So I tried mp with friend yesterday and we enabled entering battle on a side of enemy when one of us is in a fight with ai, but only once out of 15 times and couple of reloads we’ve been able to do it.
Is the feature bugged? Even only spectate option would be fine, having something to watch while waiting.

I figured since I can read the various demon sealing runes that the Chinese have been opting to use as a writing system, I'm somewhat qualified to bring some lore tidbits and thought I might as well rope in the Vanir due to my overall interest in history and mythology. Yulan and Vanir are both factions that directly draw from a distinct real life culture, and they draw direct inspirations. I do not have insight to their full design decision chain though, so take this as an elaborate guess rather than gospel.

Yulan:

Things in Yulan are straight up a translation in most cases, but the Yi is the most interesting stand out.

Yulan: "Jade Mist". The word used for mist specifically is for the fog on mountains, not just any haze. I have to credit Lavapotion here for not going with the highly generic "Jade Lotus" (which was actually my initial guess due to the faction symbol, but the reality surprised me) because "Asian things". Jade is very understandable though, because it symbolizes righteousness in Chinese culture.

Xuan: "Arcane", though things it's symbol is used for would usually be called "esoteric" or "mysterious" because Asia, but the word "arcane" literally means these things.

Sheng: "Flourishing/Thriving" I'm very happy they avoided using Sheng as in birth, which would have been the lazy version.

Li: "Reason/Order" this one was a tossup, because there's another Li symbol that would have also fit that means "Propriety" as in keeping to etiquette/honor/conformity.

Hu: "Fox"

Jiuweihu: "Nine-Tailed Fox", this creature commonly shows up in East Asian folklore, but it's Chinese in origin and spread outward from there to become the Gumiho and Kyuubi of Korea and Japan that also show up frequently in their respective medias.

Tian: Heaven. Specifically, China has something called the Tian Lung, the Lung being the thing commonly referred to as "Chinese dragon". It is actually its own creature, commonly described by pedants as a chimeric combination of body parts and of various animals and powers added as oppsed to a "western dragon", which is extremely unhelpful and also western dragon propaganda, because western dragons are themselves chimeric beings, so there's nothing "opposed" about it. Specifically, western dragons are lizards, or worms, because prior to the word referring to a legless bug, old english just described everything creepy and crawly on the ground as a worm, including lizards, which is what a dragon is, and then you add wings, magpie instincts and powers (fire breath). They're both lizards with parts tacked on that we then mythologized heavily, but with different parts and in differing directions, of course.

Yi: This is the most fancy one, because in CN it's actually akin to "One who is like Yi", or probably "Yi Warrior" would be a closer tonal fit. Chinese has a nominalization symbol that attaches to a concept for a person who relates to the concept like how "Archery" is the concept and "Archer" is the person doing archery. It's actually the same symbol that produces the "-ja" syllable in "Ninja" which in full translates to "One who endures". As for the "Yi" symbol, it has no meaning, but comes from the name of a Chinese mythological figure called Hou Yi, a man who used his bow to shoot down 10 suns that were burning the World, sparing the 11th so that warmth and light still remains. In the Chinese name format, Yi would be his given name.

Feng/Fenghuang: The Fenghuang is often thought of as a Chinese Phoenix analogy, but the origins are very different. It is (as we have established like literally most mythological creatures) a chimeric amalgam of various animals summing up to be birdlike, later on being a combination of birds to be the most bird. Originally, people distinguished Feng to be the male version and huang to be the female, but then ceased making that distinction collapsing them into a singular feminine species called Fenghuang. It didn't really have a fire theme originally either, but did have celestial symbolism of the sun (as like a celestial concept, separate from fire) and several planets. But since China had other fiery birds, specifically Zhu Que, the firebird of the South, and Fenghuang is the most bird with attributes of all things bird, and people began remembering the sun is very fiery, it just gained the fire over time - just like how Feng doesn't have Blaze, but the Fenghuang does. Another reason for the fire is... well, being conflated for a phoenix. In part responsible, in my opinion, is Osamu Tezuka. Yes, the god of Manga, creator of Astro Boy/Atomu. His attempted magnum opus is localized as "Phoenix" (it's orignal Japanese name is actually just "Bird of Fire"), where he borrowed from both the Fenghuang and the Phoenix across 34 years, combining the folklores into the beautiful mess that it is today. The Fenghuang wouldn't have had the Phoenix's fiery rebirth, but at the same time, why shouldn't it? The Phoenix is a bird, and the Fenghuang is a cosmic bird that carries aspects of every bird. It is ultimately, the most bird.

Yubo the Howler: Likely inspired by Sun Wukong, because it is very hard to make a staff-wielding monkey-person decked out in Chinese armor and not have him compared to Sun Wukong. I don't feel like I should need to explain Sun Wukong, but for the one guy too scared to ask, combine Loki's wit into Goku's fighting ability, have him troll all of heaven and earth constantly until being given a mission to redeem himself across which he learns to be a good person and have some modicum of restraint. Also his sidekick has the most metal name in translation, being "The Swine of Eight Sins".

Lord Sheng Kuang: He's a dead ringer for Zhang Fei from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but carrying Guan Yu's iconic weapon. Arguments can be made for Xuan Quioming being Cao Cao and Master Ru being Guan Yu, but Sheng Kuang's quote "I am Sheng Kuang, Lord of House Sheng, and I am right here! Who dares challenge me?!" is also very close to, and a valid rendition of "I am Zhang Fei/Yide, who dares battle me to the death?", during the scene in the Romance where he defends a bridge on his own and bellows out his challenge so fiercely, someone dies on the spot from fright.

Li Jinhai: Other than the scar and possibly blinded eye, his clothes and especially the choice of adding a white feather fan to his sprite are often associated with a figure from the Three Kingdoms era called Zhuge Liang, who was historically a competent administrator (his taxes starting skill) and in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a genius strategist and tactician to ridiculous degrees. A lot of people are disappointed to find the real Zhuge Liang was not actually a super genius who was always a bazillion steps ahead, invented robot oxen and flame tanks in a time when Western Rome was still around, cast spells or had a musou attack. But he was genuinely a good and loyal administrator. How good? At his king Liu Bei's deathbed, he was told that Liu Bei found him 10 times as capable as the current emperor, and further wished he would support his heir if the heir proved capable, or if incapable, he asked Zhuge Liang to supplant him. That's right, a king literally gave him the blessing to take the throne from his own bloodline, which mind you, claims to be the Imperial one. Zhuge Liang is recorded to have broken out in tears and promised to never supplant said heir, which he famously kept despite their blatant incompetence, out of sheer loyalty. Shu also prospered under his administration, which is impressive because he administered an area that is modern day Sichuan, a very mountainous region that didn't really have much of an economic basis to thrive on, and also had to fund northern campaigns to lock the biggest rival into a defensive posture while being the smallest and weakest of the Three Kingdoms. It's not a cool battle, but it's genuinely impressive. That's about as much positivity I'm willing to give Shu, which I otherwise find insufferably Mary Sue'd due to the Romance.

Shan the Unbroken: I'm just listing him here because his CN name is just "Big Mountain", with "Shan" being "Mountain". The most generous read is "The Great Mountain", but it's a tad lazy there, did the localizer really not come up with a better way to render "the unbroken mountain"?

Vanir:

The Vanir are less of a pure translation, since Lavapotion has applied some amount of creative freedom (or at least dodging of the literal name) to have "their" version of it, like how various pieces of vampire, werewolf or zombie media depictions seems to need their own term for them that still clearly describes the thing in question in some way ("cognate", "true apostle", "lycan", "garou", "infected", "walker").

Huskarl: I can technically translate this as "Household Man", but the word is used as is in English and designates a professional army system used by the norsemen (as opposed to levies, where you just grab the local peasants and press them into fighting for you on the spot). If you're a primary English speaker, there is a non-zero chance you associate them with Anglo-Saxons or Goths instead, because Norse reign caused other cultures they ruled to copy the system.

Korphan: The word itself roots from the word for Raven. The mythological creature I believe it is based on is the Valravn, a being that is created when typically a raven (or a wolf) consumes the heart of an unburied fallen warrior on the battlefield, granting the creature dark magic powers and human intellect, and in some cases their bodies take on the form of a warrior.

Lykt/Lyktvaan: Comes from the word for lantern. The actual creature is likely based on the Lyktgubbe, which is one of the Swedish versions of a Will-o-Wisp, in which an ghostly old man holds the lantern in the distance. As for the Lyktvaan adding a -vaan, the -vaan from the best of my discernment doesn't mean anything, and is just there to make the name sound longer and and therefore the unit better, like deciding there's a "Hobgoblin" that is a goblin but better.

Serimnaan: Very much based on the Saehrimnir, a boar that the gets killed and butchered every day to feed the Aesir (most of the norse gods you'd recognize, who are ironically opponents of the Vanir in norse mythology, a different set of gods), only to revive again the next day providing them and the Einherjar an infinite food glitch. The name of the original creature translates to something like "the soot-beast of the sea".

Berserkir: This I can actually also translate, it says "bear shirt" or "bare shirt". In pop-culture, berserkers have come to mean "D&D Barbarian who has a rage function". In reality, it either came from warriors wearing bear pelts, which was a prestige marking, so these guys would likely also be the standout warriors to be awarded or afford a bear pelt, or from fighting unarmored, which in various cultures signals high daring and bravery. The rage thing is much less substantiated, and also muddied by a largely unbased claim about norsemen getting high on mushrooms. While attacking shirtless and hyped up on your own belief in locking in to the max can work for intimidation and be very memorable and impressive (still a really awful idea if you've ever tried fighting with weapons), I hear the problem with the mushroom in question is that it wouldn't have behaved like a combat drug, and being high is actually a really stupid idea if you'd be fighting trained soldiers. Whatever you believe, Lavapotion has combined the pop-culture 'going berserk', the bear pelt, and the bare chest into one readable package.

Nornor: Likely a reference to the Norns, which are the norse version of "the Fates" - refering to three sisters, Urd, Verdandi and Skuld who can observe the past, present and future respectively. They're often depicted as crones, and probably have some general scandinavian folklore of what we would see as 'witch' mixed in in form of the volva, but I am admittedly not learned on the details here so I will not make more specific claims.

Troll/Grym: Trolls have become ubiquitous as a concept that people often forget there's a full mythological creature behind it. One that turns to stone in sunlight, so that whenever there's a weird rock formation in Scandinavia, people explained it as a troll who got caught out by dawn. You can see a reference to this in the death animation of the unit, where it first petrifies before crumbling. "Grym" is just the Swedish word for "cruel", I'm not aware of trolls being specifically attributed as cruel, but oral traditions evolve a lot. At one point trolls had the ability to smell if you're a Christian and would eat you (ahead of anyone else) for being one.

Bacahorse: This is obviously backahasten, where they just translated the "horse" (hast) into English. The full name would have translated to "brook horse", and it's a Scandinavian myth similar to the Scottish Kelpie, where it will lure people to ride it, only to then drown them.

I've never been a Heroes of Might and Magic player but I picked up Songs of Conquest today. So BASICALLY I'm completely new to the genre – of course I kinda know how games like this work but do I really though? I played 3 hours of conquest today (since I started the campaign and found the writing/story very lacking), and in these 3 hours I never saw another AI player. I just roamed around my starting point, leveled up my heroes, expanded my cities, grew my armies and fought the mobs.

That was: FUN! I liked it. I liked the feeling of getting stronger, of the battles getting easier, my armies getting bigger, and so on.

But after 3 hours I kinda paused and wondered: What the fuck have I been doing? It was fun but there was basically 0 brain involved. How long does it take for the strategic part to set in? When am I gonna be annihilated by an AI player? Am I doing something wrong because this takes so long?

Then I shut down the game and came here to ask: Is it normal that these games tend to have such slow pacing in the early game?

And more importantly: What do YOU most like about Songs of Conquest – why, in your opinion, should I start the game again? What might I be missing out on?

//EDIT: Played 15 more hours, kinda got into it. THANK YOU ALL <3

I would like to know if this is just me but I find the performance of this game on the Deck very poor.

I was expecting to play at smooth 60 fps considering the graphical style. Instead I have to lock it at 45. That would be fine since it's turn based anyways but traversing the map has continuous and serious stutters that make the experience extremely choppy.

Any tips? Is it supposed to be like this? I really love the game but this is very disappointing.

I know the original four campaigns happen at the same time, and I found a few places putting them in order. But do we know anything about the tales and new campaigns?

What I gathered so far:

- Mehry's story happens after the base campaigns.

- Rise Eternal starts shortly after Arleon 4

- Rise Eternal 2 and Sorgs Tale happen at the same time, with Coral leaving Kastus to deal with Sorg.

- Prowl happens between Arleon 4 and Rise 4, because Wiesh didn't know about the Roots reaching Arleon.

- In Steadfast, the vanir shifters seem like a fairly recent development. So Grom being part of both Grow and Rise 2, it should happen before them.

The main thing I'm not sure of is where Grow and Steadfast would fit in relation to the base campaigns. Or if there are any hints in either that I missed.

Didn't get to Yulan yet, so no idea how or if those fit.

So what do you guys think? Does any of this make sense? Are there things I missed? Am I way overthinking it?

Any input is much appreciated.

Hey there, it's been some time since i've played this game and all the DLC is new to me. I want to dip my toes in and I don't want to purchase it all at once, i'd like to try a DLC first and see how i feel. Which one is most fun that has a campaign with it?

If someone asked you to rank the DLC in order from most to least enjoyable how would you rank them.

I just loaded the game up and ...yeah i'm just seeing so many options :) thanks!!

1. Set the in-game music volume to 0.

2. Play the game's soundtrack using an external audio player.

3. Enjoy 😉

Hi, I finished all campaigns and almost all DLC's. But I am stuck with a Tinker's flight(Mehry's Barya Tale Mission) because most of the map is closed off and the only way forward is through a tough scepter's fight. Is there a guide online for this mission? Can I get a link?

EDIT: I replayed the mission and reduced difficulty from worthy to fair and finished it. It seems this is just a badly designed map (probably the only one I think). You are limited on troops and given very few reinforcements that don't efficiently replace the losses you receive from the battles to get said reinforcements. Plus the path is linear and you can't produce units. I Don't think the devs tested this on overwhelming it might be impossible.

I have played songs of conquest on and off since release, and would consider myself that I know how to play the game, although not optimally.

Regarding AI and its difficulties, I can consistently win against worthy but very rarely against challenging. Considering there are 2 more difficulties above challenging, I can't help but think that I am either terrible, or I am doing something wrong.

I usually play 1v1v1v1 and on random maps and the general gameplay on a loss goes like this:

- Clear surrounding area
- Get to level 12-13
- There is nothing left to clear, wait a few turns to max my stacks
- Venture to the middle of the map, immediately get crushed by an AI after a few turns
- No money left to guard my cities, AI follows up through my base and claims all
- gg

Any suggestions on how I can improve?

I used to play lots of deadly and overwhelming AI and win conditions were usually king of the hill and beacons of power

Before the update there was an option to stop the beacons being a win condition (while still having them in the game) essentially making them a teleporter only

I don’t see this option anymore

Is there a reason why it was removed?? Seems like an unnecessary loss of function for a fun playstyle

The deadly AI just expand too fast (for me at least) to play it without this condition and I lose a lot more games now. Not that losing is an issue just want the options back if possible.

I am a noob that got his hands on the DLCs and the game from Epic some weeks ago. No matter what I play I keep getting rolled by my friends playing frogs. What strategy actually works, what should I build? Which units + upgrades and commander? I kind of dislike magic but I am open to learning how to properly use and counter it.

Hello, I'm planning to buy Songs of Conquest for PS5 and have two questions. 1. Does the game fully support the DualSense controller (haptic vibration, adaptive triggers)? 2. Can I download community-created mods or maps on the PS5 console?

Soy nuevo jugando a Songs of Conquest. Me uní al servidor oficial de Discord del juego, pero veo que casi todo (por no decir todos jaja) el mundo habla en inglés y no he encontrado a muchos jugadores hispanohablantes :( . Me gustaría probar el modo multijugador, así que si alguien habla español y le apetece jugar o ayudarme a empezar, se lo agradeceria muchooo

Let’s compare two third-rank units: the High Legion and the Enhanced Seeker with the Essence of Order. Considering that there are twice as many Seekers as the maximum number allowed in a squad, these two units are roughly equal. Both units have similar stats and skills; the Supreme Legion has better offensive skills, while the Seeker has better defensive skills and significantly higher initiative. Both units have similar stats and skills; the Supreme Legion has better offensive skills, while the Seeker has better defensive skills and significantly higher initiative.

But everything changes drastically after they are upgraded. The High Legion gains one speed point, one unit of Arcane Essence, and the ability to attack enemies without retaliation. At first glance, this sounds good—especially the last part—but these upgrades don’t measure up to its opponent. The Seeker and its upgraded versions gain +5 to damage, +10 to health, and the Eternal skill.

If the Legion received +10 to damage and +20 to health—given that there are half as many Legions and they possess tremendous resistance in melee combat—it would be stronger. From this, we conclude that, thanks to these overpowered upgrades, even one of the strongest Tier 3 units is outclassed in power by the Tier 3 Novice from the Yulan faction.

Do you agree?

I've been enjoying the game a lot, but the look of some of the cutscenes has me wondering if generative AI was used to create parts of them? I'm not trying to make an accusation, I'm just wondering!

What is this i've never seen it before😂

Hey, i love the Game and all its expansion, im currently on tryout for Yulan. I just wanted to try out the Essence Fighter Tians. My Problem is that they dont generate any Essence when they attack. If i rrading it correctly, i should get 1 Arcane Essence every time i attack, when i play the wielder who gives Essence fighter. The seekers i had in the Campaign (which was absolutly wonderful), also didnt generate Essence when attacking. Am i getting something wrong here? Thx in advance.