Long time Warlords fans will find that SSG has almost completely scrapped the abstract combat system from previous games and have instead implemented a much faster moving tactical system. The system is very reminiscent of a Magic: The Gathering affair where a player's troops go after each other one at a time and inflict damage until they die - then the next trooper steps up to the plate. Of course there will be wrinkles in this systems as a player will be able to use magical abilities to affect combat and certain units get things like first strike capabilities or splash damage where they can hurt all the units in a stack. Stacks of units will be able to be created without heroes to guide them, though heroes, as always will play an important role in the game - especially when it comes to capturing towns.