Arleon is most likely to be the first of the four factions you’ll try your hand at in Songs of Conquest. They’re the more familiar faction, made of knights, archers, and fantasy creatures called Feys. That said, their simple exterior hides a surprising amount of complexity and varied strategies. Let’s take a closer look at it with this Arleon Faction Guide for Songs of Conquest.
Arleon Faction Guide: the Units
Let’s talk about troops. If I were you, I would avoid the Militia like the plague. Sure, they’re cheap and can stack high, but every other stat is sub-par. They need to recharge between shots, but unlike Barya’s Musketeers, they don’t do much damage at all. That said, there’s no shame in using Militias to reinforce an early-game army. Just don’t expect to build your army on their back.
Much more interesting (while still not quite excellent) are the Rangers, and especially their enhanced form, the Archers. The latter gains the ability to Ambush, which activates their attack once an enemy moves into the range of their arrows. Of course, this requires you to wait for the enemy to come to you. Arleon, as it turns out, is extremely good at doing just that.
The easiest strategy to develop with Arleon is a defensive one based on Shield of Order, the second version of the Footmen. Those units get an excellent ranged resistance: a full 50%. The Shield of Order gets some stats improvements, mostly in damage and defense, but the star of the show is their new ability, Protect, which gives every friendly unit near them +25 Defense and +25% Spell Damage Resistance. They’re quite a bit expensive, but they die hard, and they make your frontline just as resistant.
Minstrels and Knights are some of the units that best work with this strategy, as do the Archers. The first can boost the army’s defense, as well as being capable fighters. They’re more than enough to protect your squishier units. The Knight is a charger with pretty good health and defense, which can spring from behind the frontline and is fully capable of fighting on its own until the rest of the army catches up.
The Faey Units of Arleon
Arleon has three other units (Horned Ones, Faey Spirits, and Faey Nobles), but they’re all situational units. The Horned Ones die very easily for such expensive units, and even if they deal so much damage, you might not care about it. Their enhanced form, the Queen’s Guards, is less vulnerable, but for that price, you should probably invest in First of Order, the enhanced Knights, who also produce way more magic.
The Faey Spirits are similar, as they do lots of damage but die super-fast. However, they are much cheaper than the Horned Ones, making their quick deaths much less of an issue. Their second form is immune to magic, making them incredibly good against spell-based builds. Faey Nobles are incredibly expensive, and Faey Queens are even worse. That said, they’re extremely strong ranged units, and they have good health and defense too, as well as producing a lot of magic.
Casing Spells with Arleon
What makes Arelon stand out, outside of their defensive capability, is their spellcasting. Chances are, you’ll be creating a lot of Order magic, followed by Creation, and finally, Chaos. That’s good news, since Order can boost your high defense even higher. But Order also has the spell Rally, an exceptional group boost, and Pacify, which heavily lowers enemy damage.
Creation is a more balanced style of magic, and the lowest spells aren’t particularly useful. The standout here is Mist, which makes a unit outright invincible until the next turn or until it attacks. Chaos is, as the name implies, chaotic. Chaos Step is an unpredictable version of teleport, though it does come cheap. Tempest is good for breaking Ranged Offence, but it requires buying into Chaos quite a bit.
Finally, there are combined magic school spells. The most important for Arleon is Clouded Vision. It costs Order and Creation, which you’ll probably have, and it reduces damage dealt by a unit by 50%. It works for both ranged and melee, too! It’s the ideal spell for when an enemy has few but powerful units.
That’s all for our Arelon faction guide for Songs of Conquest. For more content about the game, make sure to visit our SoC guide hub.
