Songs of Conquest is, simply speaking, a Heroes of Might and Magic clone. If that’s what you’re looking for it should scratch the itch, but I was hoping for something leaning a bit more toward RPG instead of turn-based strategy.
Which brings me to King’s Bounty II, which is both quite a bit like previous installments in the franchise and notably different in that it leans harder on the RPG aspect. Character building is the same except that higher level skills are now gated by alignment choices, army recruitment is the same except now each unit has a maximum number regardless of Leadership score, exploration is the same although now it’s done in a ground-level over-the-shoulder view while featuring far fewer enemy encounters, and finally questing has been greatly expanded (albeit still with the same bizarrely disjointed English dialog).
For the most part I had a lot of fun going through it as a Paladin, but there are some notable oddities like Celestial Warrior recruitment being hidden (the recruiter pops up after a specific quest in an old out of the way part of the Mage Tower) and the legendary armor rewards apparently being randomized (so make sure to save before completing the Julian and Rosaline quest and various Cult of Unity subquests). For army composition I went with:
Spirits of Light -> Disciples -> Bear Riders -> Celestial Warriors
Swordsman -> Cavalrymen
Crossbowman -> Royal Mages
Raiders -> Mercenaries -> Red Dragon
Free Archers -> Dark Adepts
Wasn’t really fond of the Cavalrymen to be honest since they died weirdly often, but you can’t really complain about the Morale boost they give. Had a naked 5,590 Leadership at Paladin level 30 with I assume all totems collected (also 90 Knowledge, 15 Magic Power, and 5 Warfare), meaning at least one rank in the Glory skill is necessary (assuming no relevant equipment) to recruit the maximum number of Celestial Warriors and/or a Red Dragon. Chimera oddly require 2,500 per unit and so need an insane 7,500 to max them out which I’m not sure is actually possible to achieve even if it were worth it.
Recruitment Unlock Quests
Rank 3/4 Order Troops: Enemies Among Men
Celestial Warriors: Cult of Unity, Haven of the Enlightened Ones
Red Dragon: Lyssa’s Dungeon
Chimeras: Beauty and the Beasts
Bone Dragon: Fatal Voyage
Finally we come to skills. At level 30, and having done all quests, you’ll have 128 Skill points and 43/41 Alignment points. So you’ll have enough to both max out one tree and unlock the second tier of the opposing tree, assuming you do the latter first to avoid getting locked out of those choices. I’d suggest getting at least 8 Order points on any character in order to grab Glory and at least the first rank of Training (you can always respec after hitting max level). After that it’s a choice between maxing out either Power or Finesse; the third and fourth tiers of Order/Anarchy are garbage in comparison. I’d also strongly suggest avoiding all the money-increasing skills since you’ll have no shortage of that as long as you explore a decent amount and make use of the post-battle heal function.
Now it’s time to play through as a Mage to see how effective trying to win primarily through spellcasting is. For Paladin I ended up going Fire/Life for the Inspire, Burning Touch, and Inner Flame spells, and so for Mage I plan to go Death/Ice to focus on debuffs and Air for Chain Lightning, Portal, and Summon Chimera.
