Age of Wonders thread.

[Gamerlord]

This the thread of the great series of TBS, Age of Wonders. Google it if you don't know anything.

So, let me start out the thread by asking which of the races is your favorite.

I personally like elves, found them very simple to play, and great at scouting.

[Cogwheel]

Ah yes, one of my favourites. I only play hotseat lately, so having only played a round or two, Shadow Magic still throws me off in many regards. And I was never a good player in the first place.

That said, I generally play frostlings for neatness value, orcs if I'm feeling practical, halflings if I hate myself.

[Domochevsky]

Hm, there's only one thing i can say about Shadow Magic: Gold Dragons. Lots and lots of Gold Dragons. :smallamused:

[Cogwheel]

Hm, there's only one thing i can say about Shadow Magic: Gold Dragons. Lots and lots of Gold Dragons. :smallamused:

Oh god mana cost. PAIN.


Also, red dragons are pretty good. I used my biggest city, once, plus a massive gold reserve to churn out 12 in as many turns.

This is how I learned, after the "not enough population" messages started coming up and my city was reduced to a village, that hurrying production costs population.

[Domochevsky]

Heh, mana cost is a lot better than gold cost for troops. And totally worth the 3 turns it takes to make one gold dragon. Leaves more funds to buy stuff. (And for some reason the game likes to start you with little gold and negative income due to having a stack of dudes.)

What i find odd in these games though is that you can pretty much research everything in the first level. The following levels only add like 2 new things once which are quickly researched as well.

Not sure what's up with that.

[warty goblin]

I played a truly disgusting amount of the first Age of Wonders four or six years ago. I mean I beat the campaign once, almost did it again, played most of the non-terrible scenarios, even screwed around with the level editor disgusting amount.

Race wise orcs are very, very hard to beat. Their archers lose out to the elven units obviously, but their basic swordsmen are so good that once they earn their gold medals they remain relatively useful against even some high level units. And the only reason to use any T2 cavalry except Orc Heavy Cavalry is if you're playing one of the good races, because they just make things die better. Orc Warlords may actually be a strong contender for best unit in the game; reasonably cheap, virtually indestructible, and capable of turning any enemy ground units into so much hamburger. They need support obviously, but make a very effective tank-like core to any stack.

Never really warmed to the elves too much. Too many tricks, not enough wall to wall slaughter potential, although Ladies of Pain are probably the best soft counter to lizardmen in the game.

I love the theme, feel and artwork of the Frostlings, but they suffered from a real lack of hitting power. Same goes for halflings, except most of the time Parry is a stronger ability for a basic unit than Cold Resistance. Of the small races Goblins really I think are the best, their pikemen can actually be somewhat useful, suicide bombers are very powerful if used correctly, and unlike the Frostlings (and particularly the Halflings) their higher level units aren't bad jokes. Hell, their unpronounceable T4 unit is pure murder on feet, like a sort of cave-running one monster blitzkrieg.

[Cogwheel]

Huh. Goblins? Wouldn't have guessed. Maybe they got nerfed by the later games? They don't seem that good now.

As for frostlings, yes, not terribly useful but thematically very neat. Never liked elves much, myself, or any of the good races except dwarves (archons are effective, I'm just not a fan).


Also, is it just me, or is death magic (at least in Wizard's Throne) rather weak?

[warty goblin]

Huh. Goblins? Wouldn't have guessed. Maybe they got nerfed by the later games? They don't seem that good now.

Their T1 units are only any good if you can afford a lot of them, which you can any time after the very early game. Don't get me wrong, the darters suck hard, but you shouldn't really have to use them as soon as you nab your first city belonging to another neutral or evil race. T2 goblins are very weak, the wolfriders are nothing special - they may be statistically identical to the Frostling wolf riders, I can't remember for sure, and the priests are fairly lame as well.

T3 looks a bit better. The Wyvern rider isn't a spectacular flyer, but it's got wings and that's always a good thing. The Troll is a decent bruiser, but not worth it if you've got access to T3 orc or dark elf stuff - both the Warlord and Executioner are vastly better. The Big Bug, besides being funny as hell, is actually a very useful thing to have around. Tunneling is kind of situational, but used creatively it can make your life much easier, it's a unit with wall crushing that doesn't move at the pace of dirt, and is reasonably durable and hard hitting into the bargain.

The Karagh, the Goblin T4 unit is pure slaughter though. It's absurdly fast, way faster than most race's cavalry or fliers, and hits like a ton of bricks so odds are most units won't survive a full turn of combat with one of the things. Like I said, it's a one unit blitzkrieg; get two or three of them in a stack and you've got the (second to last*) word in leader assassination.

Don't get me wrong, Goblins are hardly the end-all race or anything, and unlike the orcs they need some significant support from other races to be effective. But they are a damn sight better than the clinically useless undead.


*The last word is of course the Human Airship, quite possibly the most broken unit in a game full of absurdly broken units**. Once you can start repeatedly building these, the AI has about as much chance as a shrew in a jet engine.

** Indecently why I love the game so much. It weirdly sort of balances out, since even the most brokenly powerful unit generally has a counter, which is usually disgustingly powerful in some other way. It's the fantasy equivalent of nuclear rock paper scissors.

[Cogwheel]

clinically useless undead.


Oh good, it's not just me.

Halflings are useless too, mind. Right up until the computer plays them and zergrushes everyone with numbers that shouldn't actually be possible.

[warty goblin]

Oh good, it's not just me.

Halflings are useless too, mind. Right up until the computer plays them and zergrushes everyone with numbers that shouldn't actually be possible.

The computer, on any reasonably high difficulty, flagrantly cheats.

This is why it's vitally important to develop armies capable of reaping massive stacks repeatedly without taking major damage. Thus my love of running hitsquads of orc warlords and karaghs around in human airships. Played right a couple of T3, T4 and hero units can devastate just about anything with very little damage sustained. The trick is to get a killer stack or two before the AI's economic advantage allows it to crush you through attrition.

Thus the task of size one and two cities isn't to produce units, it's to produce money to fund the three and four hexers' war production, and it's often worth skipping installing T2 units to rush T3 if you can afford the next upgrade level quickly.

[Cogwheel]

The computer, on any reasonably high difficulty, flagrantly cheats.

This is why it's vitally important to develop armies capable of reaping massive stacks repeatedly without taking major damage. Thus my love of running hitsquads of orc warlords and karaghs around in human airships. Played right a couple of T3, T4 and hero units can devastate just about anything with very little damage sustained. The trick is to get a killer stack or two before the AI's economic advantage allows it to crush you through attrition.

Thus the task of size one and two cities isn't to produce units, it's to produce money to fund the three and four hexers' war production, and it's often worth skipping installing T2 units to rush T3 if you can afford the next upgrade level quickly.

This is why I play hotseat multiplayer instead. Don't like the computer or having to rush :smalltongue:

[Leecros]

oh my goodness! I haven't played Age of Wonders in years!


now i'm going to have to find it and reinstall it...:smallbiggrin:

[Tengu_temp]

My favorites are probably Draconians in AoW 2. What can I say, I really like flying units.

[the humanity]

I liked the Elves and Dark Elves, but I really just loved the Highmen. they were very fun.