Winning a conquest is a matter of skill and speed. The attacker needs to capture a series of points, before going on to kill the Overlord. The quicker you complete the assault, the higher your ranking. The higher your ranking, the better fortresses you can assault. Lose an assault, and that ranking goes down.
As pointed out in Eurogamer's video on the subject, Social Conquests provide a way for developer Monolith to allow its biggest and most interesting new feature - the addition of custom fortresses - to be an essentially endless feature for players.Shadow of War also brings back Shadow of Mordor's own online offering, Vendetta missions. If an orc kills a fellow player's version of hero Talion, you may be given the option to kill the murderer.
Vendettas are now more involved however - taking one on will now transport you into the other player's world and have you complete a generated mission, culminating in a duel. Complete this, and both you and the murderee are rewarded.
Got a loyal follower from the last game that you'd really like to make your Social Conquest overlord? There's an update for that. And it's not long until we get to try all of this out - Shadow of War is out on October 10. Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and as much as he hates the name, Social Conquests sound pretty great. Fight me, readers. Follow him on Twitter.