That means getting a boxed copy is a waste of money.

The game is playable, and the class system approach is interesting, but the current implementation needs help.Īlso, if you don't get it from GOG.com, it's going to shove Steam down your throat. I'm wondering how much can be fixed by patches and mods. At the same time, with settlers making new cities, the most successful strategy is the old Infinite City Sprawl, which the AI does, ensuring that if you spend too much time building up, the AI will spam Tier 4 doomstacks every turn unless you ICS right back.

Explorer specialization only buffs irregular-type units making it a solid pick for Rogues and a crap pick for other classes (also Rogue is the weakest class right now). Homogenization seems to be the new balance. So now the only doomstack is the Tier 4 doomstack. Overland map unit enchantments were nixed because too many betatesters cried about superbuffed Tier 1 doomstacks. Ground units can melee air units no problem.

At the same time, all units can now cross mountains and with a Seafaring upgrade researched all units can enter the water like Civ 5 does. So there is an overreliance on class units right now. The game upgrades and devolves into Tier 4 doomstacks far too easily and there are no Tier 4 racial or specialization units. Also, the number of races has been reduced to more generic fare. Race is just a set of modifiers for the most part (elves get +1 ranged attack, +1 resistance, forestry, and 20% blight weakness orcs get +5 hitpoints, +1 melee attack, and -1 ranged attack and probably other stuff too etc.). Race variety has been quashed since it's class, not race, that matters the most. It needs more scenarios, the balance is weak, the plot is meh, and the soundtrack doesn't have the same charm even though it's the same composer (still decent, but that's damning by faint praise). I wouldn't recommend Age of Wonders 3 over its predecessors in its current state.

Dreadnought age of wonders 3