>mine is the song of lifeHow did we go from old AOW kino to what we have now
>>2438480I have not played AoW4, but AoW3 was ok. Didn't have the soul of AoW1, but to be fair, AoW2 was not quite the same either. They all differ.Kino music in these games.
Mostly because of zoomtards who use terms such as kino and soul
Paradox is to blame
>>2438480>t. zoomer who wasn't even born when AoW2 droppedI have no idea what you are even talking about. Played 3 for a single Saturday, ininstalled and never returned. That was what? 10 years ago? 11?Supposedly there is 4, but why bother, really? 2 has a half-decent map generator with SM, if it delivered with it in base game, it could easily rival HoMM3 in replayability.
>>2438674Cope and seethe >>2438833AOW 3 was so lame specially emeith classes and late tier spam, plus no more terraforming like the previous entry. >>2438917The second game campaing was cooler sepcially when merlin goes edgy with dark magic
>>2438480Playing again for the first time since I was 13 or so. Beat the first two fire maps on hard. Not too difficult, just need to move fast. I was too cautious as a kid. Half the play time is just building up sufficient forces to take out the enemy wizard, long after having reached a winning position. A boring but common strategy game flaw.On Fire 3 now, heroes still absurdly powerful after a couple of maps, just like AoW 1. Belendor has sky high stats, hurl boulder, wall crushing and haste. Could probably solo the map with him. Instead I'll restrict him to scouting. It's too easy otherwise.All female wizard designs extremely horny, just as I remembered.
>>2439288as a kid I remember just turtling too much until eventually the fire guy showed up with full stacks and fucked up my cities
>>2439310Yes, in early game you need to rush, in AoW1 I would also raze some towns that I couldn't hold at the start, at least, to deny the enemy.Strong leader and heroes help and maybe sticking them into an air galley.Also, I remember beating first Highmen mission on AoW1 in 1-3 turns, by simply casting a random teleport spell, teleporting the very top corner of the map where Undead leader was sitting in a small town, and killing him the next turn.
>>2439105>campaignThanks, but I prefer random maps and just dukingit out. Also, this game is insanely good with MP, but it had the misfortune of coming out without random map generator and having pretty steep (for 2002) requirements, so it never really caught on and now all am I facing are zoomers who gave it curiosity check, only to roll over them easier than over AI.Shame. But when I've got a chance to play a friendly with my gaming buddies, it's always great way to spend Saturday evening
New AoW games put too much emphasis on leader class. When it's all about powerful wizards anyway. Not enough emphasis on races.AoW1 redpilled me on races back when I was a kid.
>>2441025You weren't even sperm back when AoW1 came out.Go back to watching your German Jew talking about strategy games
>>2443210I was born in 1996.
for me, it's march of the halflingshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FfmNQJ_Xko
>>2447560For me? Title song, battle macabre and love/death. But there are other good tracks, both on AoW1 and sequels.
>>2444458exactly, zoomer scum
>>2438480What game should I start with?
>>24482131, 2/sm is gay and retarded
>>2448218spoken like a true retard
>>2438480A lot of people were surprised AoW3 turned out not horribly which sadly gave devs wings for AoW4
>>2448201AoW came out in 1999 tho.>>2448383Well, some of the ideas they added are nice. I like class units and so on. But they lost the focus on races.
Reminder, Karissa fucks orcs. And also, it's weird that she, and some other wizard lords, like Nimue, Yaka, Mab, are human like compared to the races they lead, or at least more humanlike.
bros why are life wizards so OP?I sent my Joseph to battle with one and he came back crying.
>>2448213They're all quite different from each other. With the notable exception of 2 and SM, who are on the same engine.
>>2453829>he came back cryingIt could've been much worse.
>>2438480I liked the third one
>>2459922Still haven't completed the Commonwealth campaign, but I think I'll ditch it and start the Golden Realms one.
>>2438668>Kino music in these games. Funny thing is, AoW2/SM's music is not composed by Michiel van den Bos (who composed for all the other games in the series), but it's still very good. It has a different 'sound' compared to the others, but it's definitely equal in quality.
>>2464511Is that so? I did notice that it sounded different.
>>2466363Yep, Mobygames lists Mason B. Fisher as the composer.
>>2455357Early form of sissy hypno feminization.
>>2438480>HowPDX bought the studio
>>2438480It is impossible to go back, we just ride the tiger.
You know, it was always weird to me that in in AoW2 and SM wizards were often humans (or human looking) but leading non human factions. In AoW1 that was not the case.Apparently, Karissa and Artica are not humans, but some sort of elementals, according to AoW4?I wonder if that's the same (or similar) for some others, like Tempest, Mab.
>>2487966Talk to women in real life and contribute to your nation’s birthrate
I won't forgive them for removing the Lizardmen.
I played Shadow Magic back in the day, which I guess is like a 2.5?Think the main issue with aow3 and 4 is the lack of unit variety, all the shield/spear/bow/horse units are pretty much the same across races with just minor stat changes and one passive. I actually liked Planetfall the most out of this new wave of games, it's alright.
>>2493361In 3 they just put more work into classes and class units. Not that I don't like them, but AoW games were about races to me, so they should not have cut the amount of units for races.But I guess maybe Triumph didn't have a big enough budget back then.
>>2493573I felt the races were all the same and only classes and later tiers mattered, whilst removing the charm (terraforming) by making it look like civ. AoW IV is the final conclusion to this.
>>2494082In AoW 3, humans have a bit of an advantage on water maps, due to Mariner. It's not a big difference, but it adds up over time in distance covered.
>>2494082>I felt the races were all the sameThat's exactly why they added racial governance bonuses in the Eternal Lords DLC. IT doesn't make a massive difference, but it does add more differences between races.
>>2438480only think i hate about AOW was that some peeps fooled me into thinking it's MOM's sequel.never played AOW3+++
>>2494887>only THING i hate about AOW
>>2494887>some peeps fooled me into thinking it's MOM's sequel. That was more like some tentative hopium from reviewers back when 1 was first released. At the time, Heroes was the biggest name in town, and it was very different from MoM. The others (Warlords, Fantasy General, Disciples etc.) were similarly different, thus the spiritual successor seat was still empty. Admittedly, AoW1 didn't turn out too close either, especially given the minuscule amount of city management (and the complete lack of settlers). I'd say the games have gotten closer to MoM with each new installment (by 3 you have extensive city management and a fully-fledged sandbox mode, which was basically the only mode MoM had).
Been replaying AoW1 again, with some mods. Nostalgia...
>>2438480Age of Wonders 4 is fun. It's just so different from the rest of the series with what it does, I can see why people are turned off to it. Homogenizes junk for the sake of customization. Playing a rerun of AoW1 after I took a break from 4, fuck I still love the sound and art.All I have left to try is the two campaign roads where I'd go Lizardmen and then later completely switch sides>>2478345Secrets of the Archmages DLC was full of nostalgia bait for 1 2 and Shadow Magic like thatMost of it's fine and it's at least a great mechanical feature to integrate the shrouded isles into city tiles, but some lore bits they reveal are hit or miss to me
>>2498224Well, I might get to AoW4 eventually, now I am on modded 1 nostalgia run.
Man, the halfling campaign in Golden Realms is quite a step up in difficulty compared to the two in the base game. Not helped by the fact that your main leader has a meme race-class combo.
Simultaneous turns system in Age of Wonders 1 is kind of interesting, don't know other games that do it.You can be sometimes at disadvantage at the turns start when facing AI, because you might not be able to move all units in time, but on the other hand, you can make most of your moves after AI does theirs and they can't answer that.
Finished the first mission of the halfling campaign, the second one has a sorceress as leader (Allie Thistlewood). Much simpler playstyle (all the big units are summons), but takes a lot longer to get off the ground, and is limited by casting points. Trying to keep those tiny snakes alive, while gaining enough XP to evolve them, is quite tedious. I'm aware the final result is worth it (especially the King Shock Serpent), but it's a bit of a slog.
>>2503446I think later Age of Wonders games, in the campaigns that is, invective early aggressive, but skilled pushing. AoW1 does so too, and I have most experience with that one, but I think it's true for 2 and 3 as well.
>>2504458Speaking of AoW 3 versus 1 and 2, I've noticed that it disincentivizes hero stacks, compared to the previous two titles. Each hero has some quite useful skills which apply bonuses to the entire stack (ex. Armor Piercing, Monster Slayer, Fire Resistance etc.), but only if s/he's the leader. It's more efficient to spread out heroes than create a single doomstack.
>>2506740Yeah, in game 1 you could just stick hero and leader into air galley and other tier 4 units. Have them all use magic. Ai couldn't handle that.
I love lizardmen. My favorite faction.
