![]() ![]() Pretty, certainly, particularly in the tactical maps set on its underground sections, which any unit can wander into, and where some races even do well-founding cities. AoW4 is after the modern 4X fashion of being visually busy in general. Selecting a unit can be a little tricky amongst all the busy icons too. The UI is generally clear and covered in well-linked tooltips, but with three or four races and a dozen unit types in a fight, it's a lot to analyse in a system that's at its best when it's pacey and smooth. Nearby armies will back each other up, so by the time you're in a real war you'll regularly be fielding 18+ units, and things quickly get messy and frustrating. ![]() But army sizes are limited to six units, making losses expensive and slow to replace. Given equal power levels, you sorely need to know what every unit can do, necessitating a lot of memorisation or plain trial and error. The principles are straightforward, but the sheer breadth of powers and spells and status effects can become sort of alienating. Facing and positioning are critical, as is working out which order everyone should move in. Naturally, battles swap you over to a tactical, hex-based map where your minions take turns to bash each other (excellently, you can manually retry a fight if you didn't like the auto-resolve results). ![]() Most of your time will be spent exploring and emptying the map of monsters, in a Heroes of Might and/or Magic fashion, to gather gold and level up heroes and armies, and the variety is really impressive. The petitioner was brave, I'll give him that. This might turn your farmers towards money worship or see your necromantic raider goblins stacked to the hilt with swarm-friendly magic ask to become a faction of pacifists. Random events occasionally prompt you to accept or reject a change in a race's fundamental values. They, too, are not fixed certain spells permanently transform entire races to suit your whims (provided you govern enough of their world population, occasionally adding a wrinkle to diplomatic relations). Independent cities assimilated through diplomacy or conquest will produce units and hero characters with race-specific powers. Focusing on one school gives access to expensive high-level spells, but even a late dip into a new school gives you a mid-level tome and broader options.Ĭoupled with the variety of races and rivals, the faction design is very freeform and responsive. Although you start out with a fixed set, you may find a hybrid approach useful. With every handful of spells researched, you pick a new tome from any school, adding five new spells with a common theme to your researchable pool. Shadow magic is curses, backstabbing, and harvesting souls to reform into undead monsters. ![]() Materium is industry, siege engines, and money for bigger armies. Nature increases healing and food yields (ie: population) while also summoning beasts and forest spirits to poison and ensnare foes. Like Master of Magic (or its surprisingly faithful remake), AoW's magic replaces research in the traditional 4X structure, divided into flavoured schools that align with a key resource, and encourage certain playstyles or unit types. Each comes with a starting hero and traits for their cities units, plus a set of spellbooks that determine what research you'll have access to upfront. Some of its playable races are the usual elves and goblins, but most have a twist, like the cannibalistic dwarves, gold-obsessed necromancers, or the "cursed toadlings" I picked almost reflexively: a people transformed along with their warrior Queen Charming. As it stands though, its generally high quality and interesting systems just haven't captured my imagination. Played less intensely over a longer period, I imagine more of its intricacies becoming clear, and more custom playstyles emerging to encourage more replays and challenges. I've enjoyed most of my time with it, and the parts I didn't were probably down to caning it too hard in too short a time. I don't feel very strongly about Age Of Wonders 4. An accomplished fantasy 4X with RPG leanings and cleverly interlocking systems that plain hasn’t grabbed me personally, despite some colourful ideas. ![]()
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