Anyone here play Age of Wonders?

[rwprice]

With the release of AoW2, I've gotten interested in AoW1, and picked it up cheap in the bargain bin. Do any of you play it? How do you like it? Any recommendations for someone just getting started? Thanks.

[Pythagoras]

Awesome game! start with the tutorial I guess. Definetly worth the price tag. I got it at 19.99, very much a bargain.

[Imperial-Markus]

Hey it's really a good game. I nearly got addicted to it . How about an online game afterwards you looked deeply into this matter.

[SnowFire]

AOW is an excellent game- not as good as Heroes II, but good in its own way.

Some notes:
-High level units are often times not worth it to build up to them- the process of upgrading takes just too long and too much money. However, you will often have towns pre-upgraded to level 3 or 4 for you in some scenarios, and then it's worth it to install one high-level unit and produce it like mad there.
-While on that note, generally be wary of ranged-attack high level units. Archers are often times almost as good, and they're far cheaper at level 1. In fact, I'd say the general rule is to get hordes of archers for your level 1 units and tough bruisers for your high-level units (like Executioners or Giants). There are exceptions of course (The Orc Swordsman is too good to pass up, and Halfling Pony Riders rule- level 2 cavalry units at level 1). For level 2 units, if you don't have Healing Spells, then you should probably grab Priests. Although Ballistas are quite good if you're on the defensive (They're far too slow to attack with).
-Magic is a bit under-powered for your heroes. Probably the most reliable thing to do is make a fighting hero whose defense has been pumped up to 10. However, if you have Life or Water as Spheres, be sure to get the Healing spells and have your fighting heroes ready to cast 'em (Healing Water & Remedy). Healing Water in particular absolutely rules for Fighting Heroes, it's like an extra life.
-Good other spells to note are Chain Lightning, Great Hail, and Terror. Fire is far and away the worst sphere, and Earth isn't that great either.
-The combat can unfortunately be a bit random at times- if you get unlucky fighting a Troll (damage 7), your Hero can be splat on the ground extremely fast. Then again. your Heroes level up just like any other unit, by killing things, so you'll have to take the risks anyway. Save if you're scared. Speaking of which, far and away the best way to take down a strong fighting hero is with about 8 archers. 8 swordsman will walk up, take one swing, and be splatted on the return strike. The 8 archers get 2 attacks each with no counter. And the hero can only kill one of them at a time, unlike the swordsman who he'll kill all in one round via counters. Even if your defense is high enough that they only have 10% chance to hit, you will die if you don't heal (yes, happened to me before).
-Unless you're absolutely in love with summoning monsters and having every enchantment in the book on your units, you can probably crank your research level almost to the max and run your spells off mana crystals you find on the map. They tend to be quite generous.

Have fun!

[moomin]

I think AoW was a great game, even if it didn't last all that long. Be sure to download the community rebalancing fix though - it made the game much more enjoyable.

[Grumbold]

Yes it needs all the patches at least. I always found after a couple of level increases it was easier for your hero to leap over the wall and kill the enemy leader than indulge in clever manoeuvering of your forces though.

[SnowFire]

Yeah, that is an issue against the AI- they just leave their leader in their main town and don't move him around, when he can be at the front with all his troops and killing things. And high level fighter heroes are excellent assassins against those types.

One reason why playing without leaders can be nice sometimes.

[Sarxis]

I just downloaded the AoW2 demo, and it looked fairly interesting (reminds me of Lords of Magic).

But now that I found out you can't build watch towers, I am not sure...

[Urban Ranger]

Oh yeah. Fighting heroes is the first priority. Then make the second one a spellcasting hero. Then alternate. You can't bring along more than 3 heroes with you IIRC, so you should concentrate on these.

Some of the high level units are awesome, in particular the human air galley.

One more thing. I tend to upgrade my cities, because that allows more defenders.

[Triped]

It's a fun game..I was playing it just before I checked 'poly

Sure, combat is the way to go, but trust me, the game's more fun when you're summoning fire elementals, floods, poison woods, etc. The global spell system and using mana as a resource is nicely done, and hopefully they'll improve combat magic in II.

[SnowFire]

Oh, it's improved, but more importantly, with the domain system, you don't actually need to be at the combat to cast your spells. You can just cast a spell every round from afar to smite your enemies 'till your out of juice (best perk far and away: CASTING SPECIALIST, +10 mana for your pool). In your domain. Outside your domain, tough luck. Although heroes will extend your domain, and some heroes can cast spells themselves (in which it will work just like AOW1).

[Grumbold]

My main hero usually mixed combat with casting. Self-buffing with combat spells more than made up for the lower base combat stats and I enjoyed casting spells.

[Sarxis]

My wife just picked me up AoW2 at Best Buy for $30.

[Urban Ranger]

You don't have to be in combat to cast some of the spells in AoW either.

[Traianvs]

At first i loved AoW, but then i quit if for a while to play age of kings (and the conquerers!!) and when i installed aow again, it felt so slow and sluggish didn't enjoy it anymore...


what i always do is get my hero up to 10 def, round attack (good against archers ), first strike, climb walls and maybe some other things... take your best units and start attacking with yer main hero, along the way you can build some new units or so, but the easiest way to win is take your main character (if he has 10 def and some skills) and take over every city himself...

in a single mission you should try to do as much as you can with your hero, so he earns XP quickly (the enemy heroes gain +5 XP every round ), i mean... in the end i beat up 8 kharags with my main hero (okay level 30 ) alone! so as you can see it's your best unit, and don't spend all the time on upgrading, cos the enemy always upgrades faster and you won't be ready for him then

builders can be very handy to build watchtowers and such... i use em often, and build lots of cavalry (if yer halfling you're lucky) so they can capture all the mines, farms etc quickly

and ballistae suck , too slow for combat.. dwarven cannon is great though...