Songs of Conquest – first impressions

I’m such a huge, huge fan of Heroes of Might and Magic. I’ve played the series from the start and the second game is my favourite game of all time. Well, the wonderful folk over at Lavapotion have developed a fantastic homage to this hallowed series called Songs of Conquest and I’m giving my first impressions before my full review later down the line.

If you cannot wait for my review you can dive right in and buy the game on Steam now. With all my hyperbole aside, Songs of Conquest does look like a genuinely excellent turn-based strategy title and at first glance has all the hallmarks of a Heroes title. My impressions here are of my two hours with the game and what you can expect from playing through the first campaign. TO WAR!

The main game starts with a choice of four factions each with their own campaign to play through. I started with the first on the list which sees a war brewing following mines being stolen by some mercenaries. I won’t go into the details of the story for this preview but suffice to say that the usual fantasy trope of raising an army to take back your lands is the general just.

The game is broken down into exploration, army management, building up your towns and battles. Unlike Heroes games, there isn’t a separate town screen and the only action that doesn’t take place on the main map screen are battles that have their own screen. The interface is very slick and lots of quality-of-life features make taking turns a breeze. It takes a little time to get used to the map but I found hovering over map locations helped to discover if you need to visit a building or interact with things.

The opening level was a tutorial that gradually builds up the gameplay mechanics of moving your character around the map, how to end turns and how to command your troops on the battlefield. It also explains how to level up your main characters, called Weilders in Songs of Conquest, and how to use spells in combat. It was a great introduction to the game and

Following this tutorial level, we moved into the second stage of the campaign where I was introduced to building up settlements. Interestingly, Songs of Conquest uses a mechanic that has different-sized towns that determine what can be built. A small settlement can only produce weak units and produce small amounts of resources while a large one can give access to powerful units and buildings that improve your armies with upgrades.

By the end of the second stage of the first campaign, I had all the information needed to build an army, explore the map effectively, build a working town and perform well in combat. Songs of Conquest is a quality game that takes everything great about my beloved Heroes and builds on it with smoother transitions in turns, streamlined battles and an intuitive interface that speeds everything up. I’m looking forward to getting through the game and writing up my full review. In the meantime, if you have any love or nostalgia for the Heroes games, just buy this, you won’t regret it.