Geekscape Games Previews ‘Age of Wonders III’

Age of Wonders III somehow takes a fantasy turn-based strategy game, mixes in some role-playing game elements and lets players engaged in battles that feels more like a challenging game of chess. All while making it easy for first-timers to the series and comfortable to the those more familiar with it all.

Being one of these first-timers, I was happy to see that in the different modes offered in Age of Wonders III, one of them was a tutorial disguised as one of the two campaigns available. Taking control of the High Elf princess Sundren, I began the tutorial campaign on a rampage to exact revenge on that dastardly orc, Gamblag. Even though this campaign is an introduction to those new to the series, going in with the notion that Age of Wonders III will take it easy on you will have you hitting restart, a lot. Pacing and planning carefully will be the difference from getting revenge or utter defeat.

If jumping straight into the action without any story is more your thing, you can go right ahead and test your luck with the random map mode. The amount of settings that you can set for the random map mode is staggering. Just clicking on the advanced tab brings up a plethora of choices. Difficulty, map size, map type, player count and whether or not everything takes place above ground or in the deepest of caverns is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you look over to the right and see that you can access settings for the actual game flow, you’ll finally realize just how much control you have. From what starting towns types everyone gets to treasure structures is modifiable in Age of Wonders III. If you thought getting lost in time when engaging the role-playing game elements of the campaign mode was daunting, the random map mode puts all that to shame.

Sometimes, you just want to play a quick skirmish without the story or spending endless hours trying to create the perfect map. Thankfully, Triumph Studios put in a pre-made scenario mode saving the tinkerers from themselves. A multitude of scenarios will be laid out for players to choose from. Yes, they have a little story for each scenario, but nothing too deep if you just want to show your prowess on the battlefield. If human players are what you desire to battle against, an online mode is present as well to suit those needs to show a stranger how well your strategic mind is at Age of Wonders III.

Age of Wonders III provides players with a ton of options to lead your army to victory. The role-playing game elements comes into play with your main character. Stats, skills and spells are just some of the things you will have to manage with your hero. I sat for what seemed an eternity just trying to figure our what abilities to research or what spells to master. Deciding on if I want to acquire the ability to summon crows to fight by my side or to start my domination on the rough seas by building a dock for my warships had me at odds with myself. Also trying to settle on if health points were more important than skills for Sundren to use in battle set me back some time just staring, trying to commit to one or the other.

Equipment is also something that you’ll have to deal with as you make your way throughout the world. These items can be found from battles or exploring a cave or building scattered across the map. Nothing like getting a new pair of boots for all the walking ahead or a shiny new ring of fire protection just in case. There are slots to equip pretty much everything to your hero so exploring and looting everything you can would be a be a huge benefit if you want to have all slots equipped with items. To say that Age of Wonders III is a deep game would be selling it short. With so many things to ponder over, one could spend hours and make only a handful of moves. The great thing about this is that you never feel like you’re wasting time since every action makes a difference in your success.

Speaking of success, you can’t have a successful army without a flourishing empire. Similar to games like Civilization, building cities to become powerhouses that scare any challenging army to run in the other direction is a big part of Age of Wonders III. You could just pump out warriors endlessly to overwhelm your advisories into submission but where’s the fun in that? Taking a small town and creating a vast city that envelopes everything in sight is much more frighting in my mind. Alternating between growing the town with new housing, shrines and store houses with constructing a war hall, shooting gallery and watch towers will help you maintain your illustrious city from anyone who dares walk up to the gates.

Once you’re ready to march your massive army towards the enemies main town, you might want to figure out how each unit fits best with each other. In Age of Wonders III, you can combine up to six units into one bad ass battalion comprised of whatever unit you want cobbled with one another. Having an all archer battalion is possible or having a mix of unicorns, pikemen, mages and battering rams if you want more diversity. Flanking is also a strategy you will learn to love as you play Age of Wonders III. Since the maps are essentially separated hexagons, placing other units in an adjacent hexagon behind the enemy army while you throw the majority of your army straight at the enemy will ensure that there is no place for the enemy to hide.

Once the battles take place, you can play out the battles automatically. In doing this, what could have been an epic battle is over in mere seconds with a confirmation unveiling if success or failure is the fate of your warriors. Taking control of how the battles play out is also an option with manual combat. Zooming into the battlefield, Age of Wonders III lets players command their armies in turn-based combat. Having my archers pelting the enemy’s front lines with arrows while my swordsmen provide cover all while my assassins sneak into a flanking position has a more satisfying emotion than letting the A.I. roll the dice. Having the option for auto combat or having complete control gratifying to see.

Whatever way you decide to play Age of Wonders III when it releases on March 31, 2014, Triumph Studios has made sure that you have the options to fulfill those decisions and then some.