Age of Wonders : Shadow Magic

[Jamski]

Ok... I just got this today, and guess what? No manual. Oh well, at that price I can't be picky.

First impression is that they've basically tried to clone MoM, as I'm seeing a lot of the same units, spells, domains etc. However... I'm trying to play it like MoM, but the way the game is more "scenario" based than the old classic means this is going down the pan.

So now I'm trying to play it like WC3, using a hero to "creep" (Its really creeping in TBS) and I seem to be having more luck.

Anyway, does anyone else play this game? So far it seems not bad at all, but the large numbers of units, buildings, items, spells and skills are pretty confusing.

What would any pros suggest I try? Halflings and Life magic

-Jam

[Spaced Cowboy]

I been playing it for the last few weeks, but have had little time due to RL popping up its ugly head.

This game is a huge time hole, many hours pass quickly when playing. Unfortunately, since I got my X-box, I've been playing those games instead. I'm still on the 2nd scenario, so I haven't gotten very far yet, but it does have a little of that MoM feel to it.

Wow, I just realized that I have not turned on my home PC in over a week. Wow!

[Jamski]

Bad boy! Sell your X-Box on Ebay

Yeah, its eaten most of my day already. Each "mission" takes about as long and is as involving as a whole game of MoM.

-Jam

[General Ludd]

I don't like how the unit hierarchy is constructed. There is too much of power curve on the unit teirs, with the top units being godly compaired to the basics. It ends up so that amries are made up entirely of orcish warlords or dwarven runemaster, or whatever is the best and the units like wariors spearmen, ect... aren't seen. In the same line, I also feel that it's too much of an investment to be able to build the high-end units.

[Jamski]

Really? It seems very easy to get the high ends, much easier than MoM. Barracks, War thingie, and Champion's whatever, and you're there.

I just completely overestimated how good my hero with a couple of levels and a couple of found items was and got him killed. Dammit

Question : What do I need to make items ingame? A spell? A building?

-Jam

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Jamski
Really? It seems very easy to get the high ends, much easier than MoM. Barracks, War thingie, and Champion's whatever, and you're there.

There's less things to build, but I feel that it takes more time - not as many turns as in MoM, but MoM progressed much slower. The cost of building those units in gold is also a big investment, especially since they can eat up so much upkeep.

Of course, it makes sense when they are so powerful... but I would like to see the field be a bit more level without bouncing from extreme cheapness/weakness to extreme cost/power.

Question : What do I need to make items ingame? A spell? A building?

-Jam

There a building that allows you to do that... it branches off from a wizard tower upgrade (level 3?) I think. I've never actually done that in a game, though. I feel that this is too big an investment aswell. even moreso than than the high end units.

[Jamski]

Hmmm... isn't the whole fun in building up mighty heros and fitting them out with crazy items?

-Jam

[General Ludd]

Maybe that's why I don't enjoy it. I would rather have grand epic battles with legions of infantry ect. than a couple demi-gods duking it out and swating down regular troops like the mosquitos they are.

[Urban Ranger]

The human Air Galley is easily the most powerful unit in Age of Wonders. IIRC, it was even more powerful in the first game.

[DrSpike]

Re: Age of Wonders : Shadow Magic

Originally posted by Jamski
Ok... I just got this today, and guess what? No manual. Oh well, at that price I can't be picky.

Translation: I downloaded this game, so I need people that paid for it to tell me how it works.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
The human Air Galley is easily the most powerful unit in Age of Wonders. IIRC, it was even more powerful in the first game.

It was not quite more powerful itself, but most other units in the game couldn't hit it, making it simply überpowerful against ground units with no ranged attack. Also, since the AI in AoW1 was not very good compared to SM's AI, it created a lot of orc warlords etc in 1 stack, making it easy for the galley to decimate them. In SM that does not happen as often as in AoW1, but it still is a nice unit. In AoW2 (and SM) there were far more units that could hit it (flyers, and especially magic bolts seems pretty effective). However note that in SM, the galley has the 'ram' ability, making it even more powerful now against flyers (though it won't be of particularly much use when fighting multiple flyers).


A more cost-effective unit is easily the Orc Warlord. It's hellishly expensive for a level 3 unit, but it has more power, hit points and attack than some level 4 units. Also it takes less turns to build them than the lvl4 units due to the lower cost. They are incredibly powerful in numbers, but can easily be defeated when using the right strategy. That is, using poison attacks. A group of goblin darters (that are together a lot cheaper than that 1 Orc Warlord) has a decent chance of killing the Warlord in open terrain, and has 100% chance of killing him when defending from stone walls.

That's where I don't agree with Ludd . Every unit can be defeated, you simply need to have the right troops. Also the game would not be as strategic if it weren't for the bigger units with special abilities. Okay goblin spearmen have a few abilities such as polearm, first strike, night vision etc but 2 armies composed of just those units would not involve much strategy, only luck and sheer numbers.

[Theben]

Re: Re: Age of Wonders : Shadow Magic

Originally posted by DrSpike
Translation: I downloaded this game, so I need people that paid for it to tell me how it works.

Oh, Doctor... have ye so little faith in our fellow Jamski?

[DrSpike]

Yup.

[Jamski]

Such accusations!

Ok, I just lost the second map by getting my wizard killed.

But wait... Yay! I'm still alive!

Gotta love that.

Ok... why are my Elf Longbowmen (apparently the best archers in the game) utterly pants even against stuff with no armour?

-Jam

[Traianvs]

Btw it's good you have Shadow Magic Jamski! It's a 100 times better than Age of Wonders 2. In fact, SM is what AoW2 should have been. A much better campaign, more units with more diverse abilities, better balance, better tweaking (many units have their abilities reviewed; For example nearly all lvl1 militia troops (that's the first unit you can build without having a barracks in your city) now have polearm, which is very effective when fighting mounted and flying troops. They still have poor health and defense, but at least it doesn't make them cannon fodder, especially since many of them also have first strike. And, they're incredibly cheap units).
Another mighty good change is the 2 gates/wall (AoW2 only had 1 gate for every wall) and the AI.
When playing at the highest difficulty level you need to kill zillions of enemy units, and you can only do that by using the right units and spells