I’m kinda shocked for a 4X channel how many of you haven’t played HOMM3, it’s right up there with the original Master of Magic as the cornerstones from which the entire genre grew.

Songs of Silence most closely resembles the old strategy game Warlords 3: Darklords Rising, or Conquest of Elysium for a more contemporary example. Less a fantasy “Civilization” clone and more a straight up map control game.

The thing you’re all missing about the combat, and part of the blame goes to the devs for not making this clearer in tutorials, is that formations and preparation make all the difference in the world. A heavy monster with “charge” can blow through your light infantry and wreak havok on your archers, OR you can have a heavy infantry unit on the front space to bait its charge early and then have your archers with “monster slayer” off to the side where they won’t get trampled and pepper the monster to death while it recovers from its wasted charge. And read the powers of your units, there’s a reason a lone “guardian” unit is much weaker than a group of four.

Also it’s not a card game, the devs just wanted lavish pretty buttons and rendering them as cards did the job. But saying using them is just Guitar Hero is silly, there is a huge difference in when and where you activate them. A bull charge straight at an artillery unit is okay, but a charge can hit an unlimited number of units on the way and aiming it through the thickest part of the enemy army before ending behind the artillery is even better.

It’s a shame video games are clumped into such generic genres these days, when they don’t align to genre conventions modern gamerz are lost.