Songs of Conquest brings back an almost extinct genre in the test

The Heroes of Might and Magic series is an unfortunate victim of the demise of 3DO and successive New World Computing. The third part of Jon Van Caneghem's series in particular is still considered a great classic and one of the most ruthless time burners of the 90s. After Ubisoft took over the series rights, things continued quite solidly until the seventh part (2015). But almost ten years after the last attempt, the strategy RPG sub-genre, which actually only consists of King's Bounty, Disciples, the earlier Age of Wonders and Heroes of Might and Magic, can now be described as a dead branch of the evolutionary tree of gaming history.

It goes without saying that I was particularly happy when Lavapotion and its opulent Songs of Conquest went into early access two years ago. I've never understood why this type of game isn't still popular with players today. After a good 40 hours with Songs of Conquest, I am convinced that the Swedes at Lavapotion could bring about a small renaissance of this type of game.

Songs of Conquest is big, finds a beautiful balance between magnificent, stylish pixel work and modern gloss, and literally slays with a wide variety of options to continue playing it alone or together, even beyond its four campaigns. This looks like much more than just another indie secret tip.

A shimmer in the pale shadow of an almost forgotten classic

Unless you're completely averse to retro pixels with an expressive comic fantasy color palette, I'd say Heroes of Might and Magic has never looked more beautiful. Especially since the design, with its subtle 3D effect including shadows and generous zoom, looks a bit like a tabletop game board. Except this one has come to life. Countless detailed effects, fireflies for example or trees swaying in the wind, transparent smoke rising from chimneys and shimmering waterfalls and gusts of wind caressing the landscape… You can't get enough of this and the slight tilting effect as you drive up amazes you for hours afterward Game still starting.

In terms of play, everything is extremely close to HoMM 3 and kept very classic. You move through the land with your heroes to wipe the fog of war from the map, discovering units to recruit, treasures, facilities that give you resource income or gold in rounds, or collecting temporary bonuses for combat and exploration. You regularly discover villages that you take over and then gradually expand and upgrade. When a fight breaks out, the hero known as the Wielder acts as a kind of general who does not wield the sword himself. Rather, with all his RPG-like equipment and abilities, he is a kind of personified buff that affects all of your units on the field.

Before the fight, you will receive a rough forecast of how promising the balance of power is, after which you can simulate the battle or fight it yourself. If you let the computer calculate the result, you can still decide to complete the fight manually if you don't like the result, which I really like. The turn-based battles, as known from HoMM, take place on hex battlefields and reward elevated positions and clever positioning at bottlenecks in equal measure. Enemies passing within a unit's radius are automatically attacked, so you can never rush behind the enemy's ranks too carelessly.

Magical magic, but also familiar problems

The magic system in particular is particularly exciting. Each unit generates one or two types of Essence at the start of its turn. Order, Chaos, Creation, Destruction and Arcana come out, each of which serves as fuel for certain spells. The configuration of your armed forces therefore also influences what type of spells are available to you. That's cool. Overall, it's not the most in-depth combat system, but it plays quickly, not on autopilot, and it looks good at the same time. Although I'm almost certain that significant differences in strength between two troops can really be balanced out through smart tactics, I simulated the fights much less often than in many other games where this is possible. That's a good sign.

As I said: It's very close to HoMM 3, if you subtract the large-format city view that has been deleted. You simply manage your settlement on the map by clicking on the individual buildings. This is visually very pretty and, above all, consistent. Nevertheless, I have to admit that the few weaknesses that Songs of Conquest has are almost entirely due to its proximity to the great classic. With a “HoMMage” you don’t even have to see this as a disadvantage, but some things still frustrated me in terms of gameplay.

There are still balance and transparency problems. It's rarely easy to predict whether you're in a good position for your first encounters with opposing wielders. Especially in the last campaign mission of the four campaigns, it often happened that I stumbled into an enemy general – or he into me – and then I realized that I had either dawdled too much or had not yet discovered the lucrative areas of the map. Often it comes down to keeping a wide distance, catching up in terms of power and praying that the other side is too confrontational. Some people will also use the tactic of scouting the map rather recklessly once and then making a second attempt with a little more planning and map knowledge.

Why is it still addictive?

That was no different back then and is just as much in the DNA of this game as the fact that you can have several generals at the same time, but often use at least one as a unit taxi to the front. When it comes to combat, you decide on a main wielder who you let level up; the danger of having to deal with a weak-chested colleague on map excursions with overwhelming opposition often put me off. But maybe that's my mistake and the reason why I so often cut my teeth on opposing armies? A little more courage would probably do me good.

Likewise, the decision between having a hero defend a settlement or collecting experience and goods through exploration is made on the basis of rather inadequate information. Several times I had Wielder in the base, only to forget him there twiddling my thumbs. I can't say that these long-standing HoMM afflictions stop me from playing. In fact, with titles like these, I love just playing straight away – and Songs of Conquest saves for you dutifully and at short intervals, so there's plenty of tolerance for mistakes. At the same time, I feel the gap between leisurely exploration and progression optimization is a little wider than I would like. But again: It's an inherent quirk of this type of game, to which the template didn't have an optimal answer. In this respect: Sponge over it!

It's just a lot of fun, even downright addictive, to look behind the fog of war step by step and, on top of that, to experience an above-average interesting story in the campaign, which is even sung loudly in the bardic sequences between the missions. In general, the music is excellent and sticks well in the ear. In addition, Songs of Conquest is most effective in multiplayer anyway when up to eight players compete against each other on pre-made, self-created or randomly generated maps. As a cozy hangout game, Songs of Conquest works really well.

Songs of Conquest Conclusion

Aside from the fact that, like just about every other title of its kind, Songs of Conquest occasionally falls victim to its own map size – and the players' freedom to waste their turns – Songs of Conquest is great fun that effortlessly overcomes the long, to revive secret nights on Dad's PC. Consistent updates made moderate changes to the concept in the two years of early access, audio-visually it's a nice dream that you don't forget for a change, and in terms of gameplay… it's just HoMM 3. Lavapotion analyzed exactly how to achieve that it's hard to tear yourself away from a strategy RPG. The Swedes are creating a tribute to the past that seems anything but comfortable, simple or superfluous, as large parts of the “Boomer Shooter” landscape are currently doing. On the contrary: you have the feeling that a game like this was needed again and you are a little grateful for it.