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The spiritual successor to strategic fantasy classics like Heroes of Might and Magic, Songs of Conquest has plenty to keep players busy in their quest to recruit heroes, develop an army, and conquer the land. Whether playing the campaign or skirmishes, juggling characters, resources, and spells can be difficult.
It's easy to make mistakes in a strategy game, and some mistakes are more punishing than others. Even veteran players can find themselves suddenly exposed to the enemy and backsliding into defeat because of a couple of simple mistakes. Gathering resources, exploring, conducting a successful siege, and vanquishing the enemy all require careful attention to detail. Here are some of the biggest mistakes that a player can make in Songs of Conquest.
8 Not Buffing The Main Character
Wielders don't continue the journey from mission to mission during the campaign. This means that even as enemies continue to grow in strength, the player will continue to lose characters they might have buffed. For this reason, it's always advantageous to concentrate one's buffs on the only character who does advance through every mission: the main general.
Using other characters is important for success in missions, but the bulk of the player's time and attention should always be spent developing the general, as that's the best way to keep up with enemies late in the campaign. Before completing a quest, move valuable artifacts from other wielders to the general to avoid losing them.
7 Forgetting To Use Alt
Maps in Songs of Conquest have a lot going on, with places of interest scattered across them. These areas can grant experience, gold, or buffs to characters, so they're important to seek out when the player has the chance. Unfortunately, some of them can be hard to spot, even if the player is keeping an eye out for them. Overlooking a site of interest is easy, and missing one can mean the difference between winning and losing a crucial mission.
Thankfully, the game has an easy solution for this problem: "Alt." Holding down the "Alt" key highlights interactive objects on the map, letting the player tell at a glance what sites of interest remain.
6 Using Too Many Unit Types
Though the player could try to include every conceivable unit type in their army, doing so is a poor strategy. The balance between the game's economy and building trees makes it so that pursuing every unit type is impractical and difficult. A far better strategy is to limit production to only unit types that are actually necessary.
Which unit types to include will depend on the specializations of the player's wielders as well as the resources the player has at their disposal. As a side benefit, this strategy allows the player to reap maximum rewards from their research by fully upgrading a smaller number of units rather than completing partial upgrades for a wider number of units.
5 Neglecting The Military
Songs of Conquest often offers the player the choice between receiving new units or more money. Though money is obviously useful, choosing units is typically the better choice. Neglecting the acquisition of new units is a particularly grave mistake early in the game when the player is often stuck with plenty of money but no troops.
The importance of the military also extends to developing buildings. Doing so is expensive but well worth the investment since basic units are at a massive disadvantage against stronger enemies later in the game. If the player can afford to, it's almost always a good idea to develop, as buffed units are far more useful in battle.
4 Underestimating The Ballistae
Settlements with Guard Towers can be nasty to claim during sieges, as they have a greater number of defensive troopers in addition to Ballistae. The strength of Ballistae should not be underestimated, since they can do considerable damage from a great distance. Ballistae are also considered defending troops during sieges, so the attacker cannot claim victory until the Ballistae are destroyed.
Underestimating Ballistae is a good way to lose siege battles unnecessarily. Every turn that Ballistae are allowed to remain is an extra turn of unnecessary damage. Even if the attacking player has otherwise planned their attack well, making this one mistake can be enough to break the invading army during a siege.
3 Not Raising The Unit Limit
Wielders have a variety of skills that can be improved, and it can be hard to choose between them. A common mistake is not raising the unit cap as soon as possible, focusing on other areas of advancement instead. Raising the unit limit by unlocking additional unit slots is one of the single biggest ways that a player can improve their army.
Whether the player is using a mob of basic units, a handful of fully developed specialty units, or something in between, raising the unit limit gives the player more flexibility in combat. A higher unit limit also makes it easier to adapt to the enemy's strategy on the fly, since the player will be able to recruit the forces they need when they need them.
2 Not Knowing When To Explore
Exploration in Songs of Conquest is an important aspect of gameplay, and the map incentivizes doing so, scattering sites of interest and important treasures all over. Exploration comes at a cost, however: time. Every moment spent exploring is a moment not spent building one's army or preparing for the enemy onslaught.
That doesn't matter as much at the beginning of the campaign, but by the end, time will have become as precious a commodity as any of the player's other resources. Conquering settlements and sites that generate resources is the priority, and forgetting that fact is a mistake that will result in getting swept away by a tide of enemy units.
1 Not Using Magic
Magic can be the difference between victory and defeat in Songs of Conquest, turning the tides of even the most desperate battle. No matter how powerful one's army has grown, it's important to use magic to support one's troops. All wielders have access to magic, and different types of Essence will be generated depending on the types of troops in one's army.
As long as the army is still alive, the player can keep generating Essence and casting spells. For this reason, it's better to be liberal with one's spellcasting rather than hoarding Essence. With the proper balance of wielders, units, and spells, the player can conquer everything that Songs of Conquest has to throw at them.
Songs of Conquest is currently available on PC and macOS.