Age of Wonders 3

lol now I'm imagining Goblin dressed as Mother Teresa.

So basically a green Mother Theresa.

Link to video.

Overall it looks great for a pre-alpha gameplay video. The hero portraits need some work because those are some ugly elf heroes.

Yeah 3D portraits are a very poor choice. They age poorly and are never as good looking as 2D portraits. The rest of the game looks good though, I like that the weaker units have more men in them too

For the uninitiated, is this more like a fantasy Total War game, more like Heroes of Might and Magic, or Warcraft, or some other title?

Definitely more like Heroes of Might and Magic.

Rub'Rum said:

Definitely more like Heroes of Might and Magic.

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Except better

A lot better.

Ubihole killed HOMM

So it has already been revealed that AoW3 will have 6 races and 6 classes when it is released, with more to be added later. A few days ago an interview with lead designer Lennart Sas revealed what those 6 races will be:

AoW3 will ship with six player races, six player classes and at least six specialization “spheres”, which include magic. The initial races will be High Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Draconians Goblins and Orcs. It doesn’t mean the other races have all gone extinct and we hope to release them at some later stage!

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I don't believe it has been officially revealed what the 6 leader classes will be but the following have been mentioned: Sorcerer, Theocrat, Warlord, Rogue, Druid, Necromancer.

The devs said the # of units at release will be similar to AoW2: TWT. For those unfamiliar with AoW, the past games reached 15 races in AoW2: SM, but there was no concept of leader classes (all leaders were wizards/sorcerers). With the new class concept even though there are initially less races there are more possibilities i.e. 6 races * 6 classes = 36 "different" styles

6 races? This is Age of Wonders! No, up your game guys and don't release the game until you have at least 10 ready.

Red Key said:

I don't believe it has been officially revealed what the 6 leader classes will be but the following have been mentioned: Sorcerer, Theocrat, Warlord, Rogue, Druid, Necromancer.

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I forgot about the Dreadnought/Engineer class mentioned in the announcement trailer. In fact the announcement trailer did reveal 6 leader classes. Necromancer was not mentioned in the announcement trailer, so it will probably be added later.

Just thought I would share an update of some of the latest on AoW3... The devs started doing weekly dev journals a few weeks ago. These journals have revealed some awesome details about the game...

You can acquire special mounts for your heroes.


Some stuff about the game's story/campaign. Be sure to also read the comments on that journal because Raymond Bingham answered some questions.

The latest journal talks about how the battlefields for tactical combat are procedurally generated and aim for an immersive experience.

Age of wonders original, 2 and shadow magic are all on sale on gog. Which one should I get? Which is the best?

Why does every turn-based strategy game have to become full 3d?

Actually i do not see the point (it is borderline fine with EUIII, which is not even typically turn-based, but the rest just look a lot worse in 3d).

Same with the AoW series. 1 and 2 were very good (some say that 1 still was the best of the series), but AoW3 looks like another Total-War-like engine game. Still better to just make a Total-War mod of fantasy races (and i am sure many popular ones exist already).

civvver said:

Age of wonders original, 2 and shadow magic are all on sale on gog. Which one should I get? Which is the best?

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I can't answer that. I know I haven't bothered with Age of Wonders 2 without Shadow Magic. I basically only played Age of Wonders 1 and Age of Wonders Shadow Magic. I have an attachment to Age of Wonders 1 because I played it long ago. I played it again recently (Play-by-mail) and it still held up. Shadow Magic is probably objectively better, but the first game is still a classic. Really, they're pretty much equal to me. The soundtrack to the first game is one of my favorite OSTs ever too. I couldn't decide, but if you really can't afford both despite the low price, I'd go for Shadow Magic.

That being said, the GOG sale is like Steam, every day they have deep discounts beyond 50% on certain games. Right now almost all their games are 50%, and every day you see a few games at 75% or more (like Might and Magic today). I wouldn't be surprised if Age of Wonders was a daily deal before the end of the summer sale. There is going to be new deep discounts every day until July 5th, so unless you REALLY need AoW today, I'd wait.

yeah I wishlisted them all so I can check back, then buy them on july 5th if they don't discount sooner

I agree with Rub - its hard to choose between AoW1 and Shadow Magic but you can skip AoW2. Here are some of the major differences that stood out to me between:


AoW1 may not have random maps but both games have a map editor to create maps, so there are plenty of user-made maps you can download. There are also some combat mechanics that I feel are better in SM, but I can't think of a quick way to summarize them. Overall I think SM has better game mechanics but AoW1 is more flavorful.

Here's a summary of the past month of AoW3 dev journals:

There was a journal about creating music for the game. Michiel van den Bos is composing the music. He did the music for the original AoW, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, and probably more but those were the ones he mentioned in the journal. Some music samples are available in the journal.



Creation of a Giant talks about the process of creating 3D models for the game. The same day they also released a dev journal revealing new game lore on giants. Giants helped create the world... and the first war in world was between giants and dragons... Ogres, trolls, and yetis are also discussed because according to the new lore they are descended from giants. My favorite part of this journal was this revelation:

Giants and Giantkin live in the Giant’s Keep; a new structure type, which is somewhat similar to normal cities, but is inhabited by monstrous creatures. The Giant’s Keep is home to true Giants and the Giantkin: Ogres, Trolls, and occasionally the Yeti. You can gain control of the settlement by doing quests and improving relations with it. Of course you can also conquer the settlement, but you will need quite a force to do this.

Acquiring the Giants Keep is a real achievement. Now you can start producing Giants that will give you not only very cool units, but also a great advantage, especially in city sieges. Several Boulder hurling and wall crushing Giants bring down the best city defenses.

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The most recent dev journal revealed more on this concept of Monster Dwellings and Independent Settlements. I highly recommend reading this dev journal! This game is going to be amazing if they pull off all this stuff well. In the journal they reveal four types of monster dwellings: Sylvan Court, Giants Keep, Necropolis, and Dragon's Peak. Dwellings are similar to cities in that they can produce units, provide resources, and be upgraded but they do not have population management. You interact with both dwellings and independent cities using a new parley system. Through this parley system you can receive quests and add the dwelling/city to your realm once you have good enough relations. You could also take them over by force if you want.



There was also a dev journal revealing more of the story of AoW3. It tells how the elves and dark elves reunited to form the high elves. It also talks about the Commonwealth which began as a government that treated all races equally but over time humans took control of most of the highest positions. The major conflict in AoW3's campaign seems to be between the High Elves and the Commonwealth.

They have also added an FAQ section to the site.

drooling with anticipation