Songs of Conquest

I love the game, but... I mean come on... AI dumbly cheating on higher campaign difficulties, we're already been through that with some HoMaM games. Why do we have to still pretend to have a fog of war when AI clearly knows what I am doing and what I am stacking even before I come into a vision? How do I know? Reloading multiple saves of the same scenario. Whenever I have bolstered my ranks before coming out of Fog and into the range enemy Rana have done the same to ensure higher force without officially knowing what I have done, and they had only one turn to do so (switched army stacks). This can be only explained as: Enemy sees my stacks way, way ahead or has complete vision. That's just lazy difficulty scaling and I am frankly quite tired of it.

Глубокая красивая красочная вилка героев. Довольно таки неплохая. Своих денег стоит. Разрабы молодцы, поддерживают спустя год+ после выхода. Чувствуется душа и вовлеченность создателей в проекте. Классные истории, классный графоний. Но. Не забываем) Героев никто не переплюнет) 7.8 из 10

I would certainly recommend Songs of Conquest, but [b]buyers beware[/b]. [h2]THIS IS NOT HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC 3![/h2] It is recommended as being modern take on HoMM3, but at best it is [b]heavily influenced[/b] by it. Many of the key features that make HoMM series so special is [u]not[/u] present in Songs of Conquest at all. There are many things to like here. Magic system is overhauled and takes getting used to but evens the playing field. Pixel graphics are gorgeous, unit design is great, everything is beautiful. I like the city tiers system, where you have 3 tiers of settlements, where higher tiers allow more building slots which forces you to plan and customize settlements according to your needs. The lore is well developed and it works well to bring the stuff happening in the game closer to player. You can highlight all items that you can interact with on the map with ALT key which makes skipping stuff impossible which often happens in this type of games. Map editor is great and its nice that we get the option immediately to create beautiful maps and interesting scenarios to play through. Still, as a long, long time player of HoMM series and especially HoMM3, there are many things that are missing or aren't implemented which makes that choice completely baffling to me. You cannot mix units from different races. Luck and morale are gone. So is learning magic as I said - each hero, I mean [u]wielder[/u] has all the spells present at all times, from level 1, but is limited by the type of mana, I mean [u]essence[/u] available. There is no tavern type of building, which does not allow you to see how you stand compared to other players. There are no wonder type of buildings and with it no grails to be found. For some reason you need to unlock unit slots per wielder/hero, they start with only 3 or so. You cannot have unlimited number of units in a unit slot, there is a hard cap which can be raised by research, but still exists. No ballistas, healing tents, ammo carts, etc. No siege equipment or siege of some kind - when you attack a city defenders get a few special wall tiles that provide strong defense bonuses, but you can easily knock the unit of that tile with magic (remember, you ALWAYS have ALL spells available to you, depending if you have ammo/essence/one of the 5 types of mana to use it) to defeat the purpose. There are only 5 schools of magic, and each has like 4 spells total, which really does not help make any of them feel special. There are 20 "dual-school" spells, that make the whole system more confusing than it needs to be. There are no global spells that can help map movement. There are no boats either, so water is just a decoration. All heroes/wielders are always at disposal from the start so you can choose which one you want, not random like in HoMM, but how many you can have is limited by the level of development of your main city. Number of spells is limited, and most of them are pretty standard (shield, ranged attack, mele attack movement speed effects, different ways to hurt units, etc.) There are only a few 'creative' spells that can change the battle like changing unit position, creating barriers etc. Maybe three total? Four? Artifacts are plenty, but they are bland. Since many of the creative things are missing in this game, the artifacts are then pretty dull. They add damage or protection etc., but no artifacts that make you fly, give you extra spells, etc. There are artifact sets that can be created, but there are so many of them, that they lose that special edge like those introduced by The Shadow of Death expansion of HoMM3 had. The artifacts are so similar that you are basically choosing between axes and swords that might give 1 point more to attack than the one before, it's more like Borderlands than HoMM games. Finally, there are things that are maddening for how easy it was to implement but for some reason developers decided against it, heavily affecting gameplay and making the experience worse in my opinion. For example, during battle you cannot pick 'wait' or 'defend' for a unit, these are actually SKILLS on CERTAIN units which makes them special. Why you cannot tell a unit to hold a position is beyond me, since you are forced to do something, anything with a unit, which often puts it in a worse position. You cannot flee a battle or surrender if things go south, you are forced to endure until the last turn, losing everything. You cannot increase the movement speed of units during battle or on the main map. You are forced to watch the slow walking animations unless you double click on the end point which teleports the hero/wielder to the destination. Once the hero/wielder starts walking, there is no stopping them either, so make sure to pick the correct spot and correct hero carefully, otherwise that turn is gone. There is no healing whatsoever for some reason, so no way to restore unit numbers. Wow. So, in short. [b]DO NOT[/b] expect pretty HoMM3, regardless of comments and even developer comments where they tried but still could not hide open comparisons to HoMM3 ("The time of heroes returns" they promise in the trailer). It's been two years from full release and they did work on the game and released DLC that offers new races, spells, maps, campaign modes etc. but still the key things are missing and by this point I can't really expect them to change. If in two years they could not add an option to change map movement speed, I wouldn't hold my breath and expect stuff like boats, healing, mixing units from different factions etc. to be added to the game. Buy it, try it, refund it, test it. This is more like baby's first HoMM3 than a spiritual successor to an incredible game. You can get a full HoMM3 version on GOG and play something much better for a fraction of the cost. Still, Songs of Conquest offers quite a lot, but know what you are getting into.

The map is so cluttered with needless detail that it is difficult to see what is going on. Play HoMM3. That is just better.

До сих пор не понимаю как пиксельный графон может жрать так много ресурсов, что комп начинает подлагивать. Теперь когда вышли новые герои эта игра вообще не нужна, не тратьте деньги.

Songs of Conquest isn’t a bad game. I just don’t have the willpower to learn the way it wants to be played. When I get stomped, I don’t come away with a clear sense of what I should have done differently, so the losses feel uninformative instead of motivating. For that reason, I’m out.

Songs of Conquest is my favorite Heroes of Might and Magic inspired game that isn't HoMM. - Beautiful pixel artstyle that is gorgeous with it's day night cycles, unit animations, and Wielder design. Wonderful music that makes great use of percussion like HoMM3 and ties into the lore of the various factions. - Refreshing fantasy setting, where many tropes play out, but many others are subverted (I'm looking at you Baron Aldus, my hero!). - In the base game, four campaigns with bards singing the songs of your exploits throughout the campaigns, contributing to the stellar soundtrack and feeling of the world! -Amazing tactical brilliance between your Wielders (Heroes/Commanders of your armies), your units, their enhanced forms, faction wide upgrades and the Essence system of magic, where soldiers in your army (and even your enemy's army if you play your cards right) generate your ability to cast magic and manipulate the battlefield to your advantage. - DLCs that add new factions to the game, all with their own unique quirks, units, wielders, tales and or campaigns. A must play game for anyone who enjoys tactical rpgs, some level of town management and map exploration, and interesting factions with consistent support and updates from Lava Potion and community workshop and mod support.

Game is good, has a HoMM 3 vibe and the pixel art is outstanding. Yet, I won't recommend it due to the releases of one DLC after another. Those are small chunks containing 'new biome', 'new faction' etc. I really miss the times when games were released and then a proper expansions was made. If you don't mind that kind of modus operandi - go for it.