Age of Wonders 4 - One Year Later...

Age of Wonders 4 released in May 2023, now over one year later - how did AOW4 hold up? What's changed, updated & expanded? Is Age of Wonders 4 a good turn-based strategy game? In this video I'll reflect on the first year of AOW4, and its future potential including Eldritch Realms and what year 2 might hold. Thanks for watching Age of Wonders 4!

CONTENTS
0:00 - Age of Wonders 4... One Year Later
3:07 - A Strong Year
5:55 - The Weak Spots
9:53 - Eldritch Realms & The Future of AOW4
11:17 - In Review

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[revolrz]

I know you don't play multiplayer, but it would have benefitted the video to add: This is a Paradox game, and its DLC rules apply. If you are going to play with friends, everyone has access to the DLC content of the host.

[ddenozor]

I want better city management and planning. I really want it to matter when I put a quarry or forester by being able to further specialize or upgrade it like I could in Planetfall.

[GamerPhysics]

JUMBO! I got the full pass at launch but I haven't played in a bit, thanks for the reminder to give it another go. It's tough to find the time strategy is having a bit of a moment right now.

[NeroTheAngel]

I bought the game like 2 weeks ago and I have a lot of fun with it. Especially because of the Faction Creation and because you have tons to unlock. The most annoying about strategy games even though its my favorite genre is that you mostly dont have anything to unlock and I need something to work on wo stay interested. So I am very happy about Age of Wonders 4. At the moment for me one of the best strategy games out there.

[louisjabb]

Overall, great game, tons of fun. The expansions are ok, none is mandatory, though. I was a little disappointed in the primal one, I thought you would interact more with your god after the first few quests. The tome mechanic is very good and really helps make each game different. However, the units are a little bit meh. You don't have a identity for each factions the way different races or leaders have in other 4x games. Looking forward to the next expansion. My wishlist: more events, more elaborate quests (like the grail quest in planetfall), races and leaders that play more differently than just some stats (the dragon leader is a good start).

[Rashagar]

The game really scratches my itch for a tactical game, tbh. Plus I love how much you can really make a nation your own through trait and tome choices.

[deetsitmeisterjd]

"season 2" of the DLC being announced is very promising because Triumph never had that with Planetfall and previous games.

Such is the way of Paradox games that 4, 8, 12 DLC later the game is completely different and improved.

[Dank_Engine]

Sometimes too much freedom is paralyzing. Whenever I sit down to play this I agonize about what traits to pick, or whether I should stick to a meta and wind up playing something else

[nicolaaffatati]

Yhea, finally this is the Jumbo we love!! ❤
Can't wait to see you playng a new serie Sir!

Age of Jumbo has come upon us all!!!

[MrJoses]

I absolutely love this game. I have over 1.000 hours played and I really appreciate the details that have been improved over the year. I hope people would give it the love it deserves

[johnhobbes]

I like the game and every dlc was good, too. However I'm one of those who are saying that every playtrough feels the same. There are many options how you can stack your numbers bit in the end it always boils down to either get your economy to skyrock or to get an invincible army asap. This gets boring after a while. I've played 400 hours so it was absolutely worth it's money but I've hoped for more.
They should make terrain massively more important to a point where terraforming the world is real win Option. (A major race transformation which makes you rule one environment but loose an all others) or they should really double down on affinities. So that your top 2 affinities force you into a specific playstyle.

[Salchooq]

Age of wonders 4 was a hype game for me. Played a few days and forgot about it

[NorthernDruid]

On the subject of how important DLC is to the game...

I feel like at launch AoW4 was a ~100 hour game. After all the free updates it's graduated to a ~200 hour game. Asuming you enjoy the game but don't get forever-hooked on it.

The DLCs would turn it into a ~400-500-800 hour game (or more). If you're interested in playing the game that long they're absolutely worth, but until you get there the you won't be lacking for things to play with. Though even earlier than that you might enjoy adding in the new options.

So far one of the things they've done really well is to not have the Expansion exclusive systems (like the new win-condition, the new culture-exclusive mechanics or the upcoming new map layer) bloat the base game experience, while still layering nicely on top.

[quangnguyenduc]

Really a game worthing every cent. I can not feel the deep mechanics at first but after play some maps, totally glued to the game. Highly recommend to everyone .

[micasa]

I think it's missing what AoW2 had. Like your domain slowly turning into your prefered terrain. Maybe add unique building art for different cultures (If im going full undead why am I still needing farms with windmills?) add more unique recourses based on your Tomes or cultures(Like souls for Necromancy). Just to make it feel different from one another.
In other aspects they need to nerf summons in combat, a spider summon that flanks my lvl 16 hero, should't deal 25% of it's hp in damage.
Don't lock units behind cultures. Maybe I want a barbarian race that has warlocks or cavalary, let me choose a unique unit at the custom screen.
Signature skills for Heroes should be different based on culture and tomes. like 90% of the time choices are the 6 same skills.
If i'm making a Shadow and Evil based race don't let me research tomes that are complete opposites.
Add different Imperium options based on Race/Culture/Tome combos. (If i take wind tome how about instead of giving me march stance just give me flat +5move points on all units) (If i take Primal culture how about instead of summoning Balor at the of a Imperium line I summon a more thematic unit.) (If i combo a tome - unlock a unique line at the Imperium screen)

[sweskey]

I picked up the habit of keeping at least one of the initial traits that come with a race/form so they would keep some degree of identity whenever I create a new faction.

[apresmidi]

I haven't played any of the DLCs or all that much recently but, for me, the customization IS the identity of this game. It was what made me pre-order this almost without a second thought. I also love the way it's worked into the lore. I play to reinstall this later and really put some time into it but I really hope it keeps going for a long while.

[snobgoblinDK]

It quickly became sameish and easy for me. I enjoyed the story bits. The way that the faction races are mostly cosmetic is a miss for me, and where it fails to keep me coming back like CIV do.

[WildFungus]

as someone who just started playing 2 weeks ago maybe the change in challenge is why it's so frustratingly hard to learn how to play it... even the tutorial realms ultra easy difficulty punishes unfamiliarity with the system mechanics so harshly as to make it hard to get over it.

[hanscarlsson]

Nice game, I played it a lot around release, and some day I am pretty sure I will come back to it.