Fortunately, you needn't achieve any of these alone, and enlisting fellow leaders - either in single-player or multiplayer - into joining your quest for world domination will be a key part of Age Of Wonders 4's end-game tactics.Įach realm is procedurally generated, leading to all sorts of different combinations of terrain types, inhabitants and other quirks. Finally, you can also achieve the ultimate arcane power for a magic victory. You can also dominate the world map to get an expansion victory. There's the classic military victory, which involves biffing all your rival leaders. The three victory conditions in Age Of Wonders 4 will feel instantly familiar to anyone who's played Civilization, or indeed any Paradox game from the last ten years. At the end of that battle, the resource or titular Wonder that the enemy was sitting on becomes yours to claim - or at least frees it up to be annexed once the tendrils of your empire become large enough to circle your borders around it. First there's the 4X-style overworld map where you're pushing into the surrounding fog of war to lay claim to the world around you, and then there's the turn-based tactical battles where you're ordering individual troop units around hexagonal battlefields. Heck, I'd even go as far as saying it could be one of this year's biggest and most exciting fantasy games outside of Baldur's Gate 3.īuilt from the same enchanted bone pile as previous Age Of Wonders games, AOW 4 is a game of two halves.

There's a heck of a lot to get through, but rest assured: this is Age Of Wonders through and through - and thanks to the addition of those new, customizable factions, it's also the most RPG-like entry yet, which is good news for budding D&D-ers looking for a grand, 4X strategy game to sink their teeth into.

I've spent the better part of a week and half playing an early build of AOW 4, getting to grips with its enormous array of customizable factions and hero types in its generous crop of single-player realm maps. Despite dipping their toes into the sci-fi realm with Age Of Wonders: Planetfall three-odd years ago, developers Triumph are now returning to their fantastical 4X strategy roots with Age Of Wonders 4, due out on PC in just a couple of months on May 2nd - and what a homecoming it's shaping up to be.

Somehow, it's been almost a decade since the last numbered Age Of Wonders game.

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