Strategy games can be incredibly difficult to balance, with numerous factors such as leaders, resources, units, battlefields, buildings, and magic all influencing a player’s plans. Finding the right balance of units is imperative in order to create a successful army.
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The factions ofSongs of Conquestcome prepared with dozens of unique, upgradable units. Whether one is using the undead hordes of the Barony of Loth or the virtuous knights of Arleon, there’s no shortage of ways to crush one’s foes and expand one’s kingdoms. It’s natural that some units are better than others. Here are some of the best in the game.
8Fists Of Order
Thanks to the Charger ability,the Fists of Order gain +10 Melee Offense for every step traveled before reaching their target,allowing this heavy cavalry unit to smash through enemy lines. An improvement upon Arleon’s already powerful Knight units, the Fists of Order buff the Melee Offense, Ranged Offense, and Damage of nearby units, helping the rest of the army clean up after a successful charge.
With their +50% bonus to Ranged Resistance, the enemy will have a hard time killing the Fists of Order from afar, and given their lethal charge, few will want to come close enough to try either,a useful tip for Arleon.
7Legionnaires
Having the right build order is essential for victory inSongs of Conquest,and a huge consideration when deciding what to build when is how difficult a given unit is to recruit. The Oathbound are versatile units that require only a small Crypt to recruit, giving the Barony of Loth an exceptional infantry unit right away.
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The Oathbound become even better when upgraded to Legionnaires. Their Defend ability gives them +30 Defense, and Shielded gives them +30% Ranged Resistance,making these already strong frontline units even more difficult to kill.Having a full stack of Legionnaires makes it easy for the Barony to hold key positions, letting the army dig in and wait for reinforcements to arrive or specialist units to reach the positions from which they can be most helpful.
6Dire Dreaths
The merchant nation of Barya doesn’t have many ways of generating Chaos Essence, limiting variety in their spell selection. Neglecting spells isa common mistake,but Dreaths are one of two units that solves this problem, and if the only useful thing about Dreaths was Chaos Essence, they might still be worth considering for certain Wielders.
Fortunately, that’s not all that Dreaths bring to the table. Though individually weak, Dreaths can be useful in packs thanks to their talent for retaliation. Dire Dreaths, the unit’s upgraded form, boastincreased strength, limitless retaliations, and the ability to delay their action,letting the player coordinate their attacks around the actions of their other units to strike when the enemy is most vulnerable.
5Riders Of The Swamp
Riders of the Swamp, the upgraded form of the Ravager unit, perform far better in combat than a bird-riding unit has any right to. Like Arleon’s Fists of Order, Riders of the Swamp benefit from long charges that allow them to crush their foes from a distance. Yet this Rana unit has another perk that the Arleon army can only dream of.
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The Wait ability plays a huge role in Rana’s strategy, and Riders of the Swamp are some of the best users of it. Wait allows the Riders to delay their action until the end of the turn, butwhat makes this ability so powerful in this unit’s hands is the high Initiative it’s paired with,allowing Riders of the Swamp to act back to back. Even without the Onslaught spell granting the unit extra strikes, Riders of the Swamp can decimate enemies with this flurry of blows.
4Shadows
With gunpowder, machines, and mercenaries, the Baryan merchants have no shortage of ways to eliminate the competition, even if they can’twork towards getting Dragonslike the Rana faction. Sassanids excel on offense thanks to their immunity to retaliation, keeping them safe even against troops that could normally counter their blows.
This unit’s upgraded form, Shadows, is even better, thanks to their greater offensive capabilities. In addition to their immunity to retaliation,Shadows wield the powerful Wait ability and ignore enemy zones of control.With the right combination of movement magic and buffs, Shadows can stroll past powerful blockers to decimate ranged and support units that would otherwise be safe.
3Archers
Sappers can do more damage in a volley than Archers can, due to the limited numbers of the latter unit, but Archers–the upgraded form of Rangers–have several advantages over Arleon’s other ranged units. In addition to being more difficult to kill than the faction’s other ranged units, Archers don’t need to spend a turn reloading, unlike Sappers.
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The best thing about Archers, however, is their Ambush ability.Ambush allows Archers to hold their fire until the enemy moves close enough for the Archers to strike.Better yet, Ambush isn’t canceled just because Archers are in melee combat; units that move closer, believing the Archers to be too preoccupied to strike, will find themselves riddled with arrows for their mistake.
2High Legions
The Barony of Loth has plenty of lethal units at its disposal, which is no surprise considering this necromantic faction raises even its slain enemies to fight on its behalf. The High Legion is a ghostly menace, the pride of Loth, and an absolute terror on the battlefield, andit’s important to plan for them early.
The High Legion reduces the defense of adjacent units simply by being near them, andtheir melee attacks hit not only their primary target but also enemy units that are adjacent to that target.The High Legion’s Protect ability buffs the Defense of nearby allies, and whenever the High Legion isn’t in combat it benefits from 50% damage reduction against ranged attacks, making the Legion incredibly difficult to stop.
1Elder Dragons
Elder Dragons are without question the most devastating unit in the game, and any Rana player who is able to acquire these elite beasts will force every enemy to drop everything they’re doing and focus on putting a stop to these units before it’s too late.Elder Dragons have the highest stats in the game,debuff the Defense of nearby enemies, and buff the Offense of their own units, turning any random cluster of units into a potential killing machine.
Using the Wait ability lets these mighty beasts bide their time for the perfect moment. Elder Dragons are expensive and difficult to unlock, but any Rana player who manages to do so will be able to unleash the Elder Dragon’s flame breath on targets up to two spaces away, as well as any unit behind their target.Songs of Conquesthas plenty of awe-inspiring units, but nothing matches the deadly force of Elder Dragons.
Songs of Conquestis available to play in early access on Windows and macOS.
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