Songs of Conquest is a turn-based strategy and tactics game inspired by older titles like Heroes of Might & Magic. It’s a nice blend of city management and tactical battles, without giving too much attention to either of them.

Gameplay

SoC is all about using large strategic choices to influence small tactical battles. You will manage a handful of cities and need to strike a balance between growing your economy and your military. It’s pretty straightforward, with only 10-15 buildings per faction. Some buildings produce soldiers while others produce resources. Many of them have synergies, such as a castle requiring a peasant hut in order to upgrade the units it produces, but that’s as complex as it gets.

Then you have the tactical side, where you use the units you’ve trained in a turn-based battle. This is where your army composition matters and you start mixing together magic spells, unit abilities, terrain advantages, and a handful of other variables. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but even early on, I found it enjoyable. Your wielders (basically a general for your army) have various skills to unlock that allow them to specialize in certain combat styles. This allows the same faction to have wildly different playstyles depending on the army composition and the wielder in charge. Sometimes you can make major mistakes that cause you to lose the fight, but you can also pull off great comebacks thanks to the sheer volume of tactical decisions available.

SoC also features two distinct modes: campaign and skirmish. In campaign mode, you play as a specific faction for a handful of levels, while skirmish mode has you playing a standalone match with support for both singleplayer and multiplayer. The developers are mostly focusing on the singleplayer aspects during early access, so I’ll start with the campaigns.

Currently, there are only two campaigns with four levels each, but they are much longer than I expected. You can easily spend an hour or two on a single mission, especially the later ones. The campaigns have their own stories and seem to serve as introductions to the factions. Each mission introduces something new about the faction, and it seems to be leading you towards skirmish mode as the main focus, at least when it comes to replayability.

Skirmish mode has the same core gameplay, the main difference being the lack of plot and optional multiplayer. At present, multiplayer is a bit of an afterthought, although the devs are now adding simultaneous turns to try and improve this aspect. In singleplayer, it’s fun to be able to play as any faction without the restrictions the campaigns tend to place on you. Ultimately, I prefer the story mode, but thanks to modding tools, SoC has the potential to build a strong community that helps extend the game’s content.

Story

Even though only the campaign mode features a central storyline, the developers clearly put a lot of thought into it. It isn’t the most well-written story and it wears its influences on its sleeve, but I still enjoyed it. The world-building is top-notch with plenty of lore and backstory breathing life into what would otherwise be a by-the-numbers fantasy world. The factions are all interestingly designed and their gameplay is thematically consistent with their individual lore. Ultimately, the story elements are a net positive, even though in a vacuum, they’re underwhelming.

Presentation

I was pleasantly surprised by how excellent the audio and visuals were. Many strategy titles tend to slack on these because the gameplay is the major focus, but SoC manages to excel at both.

Graphically, it’s gorgeous. The art style uses modernized pixel graphics to give off a retro feel while meeting the high visual standards of today. When coupled with the silky smooth animations, you have a recipe for success. The world map obviously looks great, but the visuals really shine once you get into a battle. This is where you get to see the animations in action and they add a lot of weight to a combat system that already feels brutal, especially when the last unit dies and you get to watch a slow-motion closeup of it.

Thankfully, the sound design is no slouch either. The soundtrack fits the game perfectly, both as background music while you concentrate on strategy, and when you hear the bard songs after completing a campaign mission. The bard songs can be goofy, but because they are played straight without a hint of irony, the silliness becomes endearing, kind of like a Rennaissance fair.

Verdict

Songs of Conquest isn’t a great game yet, but it’s built on such a solid framework that I would be surprised if it doesn’t significantly improve in the next year or so. Even now, it would be good if it was a full release, the only negative being the lack of content. I expect two new campaigns to be added on at some point, hopefully along with some new factions. If this happens, it could wind up being one of my favorite strategy titles ever. As it stands, it’s a terrific game that simply needs more time in the oven.

8/10

• Lavapotion, Coffee Stain Publishing
• Steam, GOG
• $30