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Yeah, I will make a thread about [Age of Wonders 4] and it's awesome DLC
Dibbit
Registered User, Transition Team regular
Registered User, Transition Team regular
What's all this then?
What's AoW4? Age of Wonders is Master of Magic, but not 2 decades old.
What's MoM then? Master of Magic is like Civilization combined with Heroes of Might and Magic
What's HoMM then? Heroes of Might and Magic is Fantasy X-com with cool towns and heroes.
So, you are a Wizard-King, ruling over a wide range of possible people, from Hobbits, to Molemen and Toads.
You build towns and compete with other wizard kings, all the while you're also destroying dragon lairs, ancient tombs, and awakinging the kings of old.
The townbuilding is turn-based on a big map, like Civ and other 4X grand strategy games.
The combat is also turn based, but zooms in on your armies and you control them in a X-com'esque fashion.
In tactical battles, you control up to 3 armies with 6 units, and it's all the way from angry Pengiuns to Bone Dragons, and everything in between
And, how is it?
Pretty fun! There's a lot of options and things to do, and the tactical battles are varied but not too overwhelming.
This time they put "customization" as thier biggest goal, and yeah, you can make anything from Holy Blue Toads with Angel wings led by an Elder God, to the Woodiest of wood elves that hide in the Fey Mists.
If there is a downside, it's that everything is so custom, that it doesn't really matter if you're a lion race, because you can have all races be expert Desert dwellers if you want.
And unlike MoM, you're not restricted to what magic books you learn; So if you want to pivot from being a dark ice lord to fire magic and summon a chaos Balor (Balrog).. well, you can just pick up the tome on the way.
This means that sometimes units, despite all their uniqueness, get boiled down to "This is a Tier 3 Archer, it has fast movement" And that's all you look at, and not the fact that they're half-elfs riding unicorns.
Monkey men?
The newest DLC added an Asian inspired culture with 3 cool subcultures: Harmony, Rightousness, and strife.
And they're fun to use, quite powerfull but also limited, as for instance, the Harmony subculture doesn't allow you to declare war as it will cause you to become an oathbreaker, and that's bad.
But it also has monkeys!
Links?
Official site
Discord
You can buy it wherever fine strategy games are sold. (GoG & Steam, both versions are up to date, I would recommend steam)
So... I made a thread, now someone talk to me and agree that the game is fun.
+1
Posts
Maybe I could just grab base game and season 1 next sale and forget season 2 exists for a bit.
Season 1 with the DLCs is already a lot of fun. And you get the hero skill rework regardless (with the skills in a tree) I don’t know if that was included in the free weekend.
For season 1 I would say:
Dragon dlc: you mostly get dragons, being a dragon, raising dragons, fighting dragons. It shouldn’t be as fun as it is, but it will never get old to say “I’d be careful with what you say, little gnome” when they threaten you, and it has a chance to cower them into peace.
Reavers (ashes and empires): it’s a whole culture of warlike steampunkers, and while it executes it well, I would say this is my “least” played play style.
Primal fury: adds a great “primal” culture, the fey spells are fun, engulfing your cities in mist is fun. Having to hunt the map for a specific primal totem is sometimes painful, but then having those totem engulf the world in your favoured terrain, for instance making the world completely covered with snow for your mammoths, is a lot of fun
Eldritch horrors: it’s just great to have a pure caster leader who’s also a horror from the great beyond.
The umbral planes are a whole new map that’s there to explore, and umbral demons are a fun type, highly recommend.
It’ll be a while before the rest of season 2 drops, and you’re already getting a complete feeling game if you get season 1, it adds a lot of variety.
Still, I do enjoy how you can just put together your own Fantasy Culture in whichever way you like. Which, for me, is mostly Barbarian Orcs, Primal Elves, or Primal Lupines. I like the Nature aspect.
I haven't tried the Oathsworn culture yet, though. I'll probably make one with a Dragon ruler when I do.
With some practice you'll get there.
If I can offer some advice its:
Always be fighting: The game is not about being a gentle hobbit and building your little shire in peace, your army should always be out there doing something, clearing nodes, defeating raiders, Conquering Vassels, attacking the AI.
To have an indication of your minimum expected strength: You should always have your hero cap filled out, and each hero should lead a full army.
For the beginning:
- Immediatly send out your starting scouts, and start strengthening your starting army. You should strive for a full army (without a scout in it) led by your leader and three'ish scouts as an immediate thing.
- Find promising spots for cities pronto and place outposts on them, have those cities up and running! having 2 at turn 15 should really be a goal
- Your starting army should be able to take out beginning nodes and raider camps. Avoid anything that says "Silver" or "gold" such as "Ancient Golden Wonder: The Tombs of Horror"
- There's always a free city nearby that's neutral and of the same race as yours, while there are multiple things you can do to them, since you're struggling, just do the following: "Plop a whispering stone on their throne room and start whispering sweet nothings until they become your Vassel"
Now, about tactical combat:
- Archers don't like to be charged or attacked, and can't do anything if melee is besides them. The same goes for battle mages. Put them behind your front-lines.
- Shield dudes are very good at soaking damage, they like standing in front of things, but generally, don't bring the pain
- Chargers (fist icon) love smashing into archers and mages, but hate pikemen. They're neutral on shield peeps. They gain damage when they're allowed to move before attacking (charge)
- Pikemen are alright front liners, but excell against chargers (and some "giant type creature" although they're usually outclassed)
- If you are a dragon leader, then know you're the biggest bad-ass around, Use that, BUT don't get seperated, you're also a big target, and you can't take on a whole army by yourself.
About cities:
- You'll need to balance:
- Food
- Making armies
- Researching
- Making gold
- Making mana
- Defensive structures
While food is important, "just making food" won't cut it, get some production in there
Also, you should always be making doods unless every hero is decked out with the best troops you can make. Floating gold isn't a sin, but in theory that's power that you're not using
With mana: Enchanting units makes them a lot stronger, especially low tier. Also, summons are a great way to get more army if you're low on gold, They range from okay to great.
Since you mentioned you like playing primal:
Your Spirit animal is in almost a class of its own (unless they nerfed it last patch)
Summon it!
Heck, have your healers heal themselves at the beginning of the turn, just so they already have 3 fury banked to summon that sweet, sweet tiger/elephant/crocodile spirit. If you do turn 1 heal, turn 2 attack, you'll have it by turn 3, just when you can use it most.
Hope this helps a little bit.