The latest in the Age Of Wonders series from Dutch developer Triumph Studios is Age Of Wonders 4. Like the previous entries in the series, this is a 4X strategy game akin to Sid Meier's Civilization, but with a fantasy twist. Rather than commanding the armies of our Earth's cultures through human history, players will take control of the Ruler of a Faction of their own creation. Set within a fantasy realm that is totally customizable, players lead their Faction to prosperity or ruin through their choices within their own culture and by dealing with other Factions through diplomacy or conquest.
Part of creating a Faction in Age Of Wonders 4 is deciding on a culture to align with. Cultures come with their own sets of unique units, structures, and bonuses to specific attributes that will help guide players in choosing how to focus their playthrough. There are six cultures in total, and while learning their intricacies is some of the fun when players are first starting out, there is still some benefit to knowing the basics of each before diving into the meat of the game with a brand-new Faction.
6 Feudal
A Feudal Faction grows out of the ashes of warring kingdoms, and as such is a culture focused on growth, expansion, and group prosperity. The majority of a Feudal Factions' culture-specific structures will be centered around Food production, increasing the Food income of their respective cities. The more food a city generates, the faster its population grows, which will in turn hasten both that city's expansion and the necessity to found more cities in the area. As such, the primary role of a Feudal culture should be to expand its empire far and wide.
Feudal Faction units all receive an enhancement called Stand Together, which increases their damage by 20% when fighting in proximity to other friendly units. This encourages players to place their units into tight formations when in combat. Heroes of a Feudal Faction can also take the title of a Feudal Lord. There are five titles to give, and each will grant a city a bonus to either Food, Knowledge, Mana, or Production if that Lord is installed as the city's governor. The final title, the Lord of War, will restore health and increase movement range for all units who are victorious in battle with that Lord appointed as their army's leader.
5 High
High cultures are made up of the Lords and Ladies of a great and powerful civilization. Their reach has grown beyond the bounds of expansion, and their power now comes from their mighty and extensive knowledge. As such, culture-specific structures for a High Faction primarily focus on generating Knowledge, which hastens the rate at which players can research Tomes to learn new skills and spells, as well as increasing a city's overall Stability to prevent unrest and uprisings from their people.
High Faction units receive a bonus from the Awakened enhancement which grants +4 Spirit damage to all their base attacks and also unlocks any Dormant Traits. These Traits are present in all units when they enter combat and, once awakened, will increase their stats in a way that matches their roles on the battlefield. Dusk Huinters will have better accuracy, Dawn Defenders better defense, and so on. High Factions also follow an Alignment chart. Depending on how players treat their citizens, and the resulting Stability of their cities, their Faction will receive different bonuses as a result.
4 Barbarian
A Barbarian Faction is going to have some similarities to a Feudal Faction with regard to their focus on expansion. However, where Feudal cultures arise from growing their kingdoms, Barbarians place an equal focus on building and maintaining a massive army. Their culture-specific structures generate both Food and Production income for their cities, which promotes both population growth and the recruiting of many, many units.
The first attack in any combat encounter by a Barbarian Faction's melee units will deal 8 Blight damage on top of its base damage, immediately putting the enemy at a disadvantage. Barbarian Factions also gain access to the Ritual of Alacrity. This Ritual can be activated on any city or outpost controlled by the Barbarian Faction, and any units stationed in that location will immediately regain 50% of their health and all of their movement upon the Ritual's activation. Also, those units will no longer become exhausted when forced to march. All of these are meant to encourage constant assaults and combat, achieving expansion as much through conquering as through building.
3 Industrious
As their name suggests, Industrious Factions are centered around building and prospecting. Their culture-specific structures primarily generate Production income which can then be used to build more structures, generating more Production income, and so on. That Production can also be used to enhance the Faction's units, making them stronger and heartier.
Industrious Factions also have the ability to Bolster their combat units in either defense or resistance. Defense protects against Physical damage and resistance protects against Magic damage. Bolster has a bit more depth to it than that, however. Any time a unit is hit with the type of damage they are Bolstered against, their defense against it increases, up to 5 times. This compounding effect makes battles with this culture very satisfying, with its units becoming increasingly hard to kill as the fight goes on. Finally, Industrious Scouts are able to Prospect any cliff, mountain, and other rock formation they discover, granting Gold and Production for doing so.
2 Dark
A dictatorial, vampiric culture, Dark Factions care not for the well-being and comfort of their citizens, focusing more on the pursuit of Knowledge and conquest. They are able to negate the penalties that come from having negative Stability in their cities, which allows them to focus less on Food production and more on recruiting units and expanding their Knowledge without fear of facing civil unrest.
Units in a Dark Faction have the ability to inflict Weakness on their enemies, which behaves exactly how it sounds: it weakens them. However, when a Dark unit then attacks a weakened enemy unit, it will immediately restore some of the Dark unit's health. The more attacks they land, the more health they'll restore. They also gain extra Knowledge income in addition to what is generated from their culture-specific structures by making use of Crypts to resurrect Faction Heroes, and Prisons to imprison enemy Heroes.
1 Mystic
Mystic Factions are the pure spellcasters of the bunch. Their culture-specific structures generate Mana income, which is used to both cast spells and research new spells. The city structure Altar of the All-Seers is particularly good at this. During exploration, players can collect Astral Echoes, which grant either Knowledge or Mana. The more Astral Echoes collected, the more bonus income is granted by the Altar of the All-Seers.
Mystic units possess the ability Attunement: Star Blades. When a spell is cast while in combat, all units with this ability will gain either Fire, Lightning, or Frost damage applied to their base attacks. This can stack up to three times, so it's possible for a Mystic Faction to apply all three damage types to all of their units during the course of combat. This is further enhanced by the Mana generation of Mystic cities, as more Mana reserves will allow for a greater number of spells cast in combat.
Age Of Wonders 4 was released on May 2nd, 2023, and is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.