Age Of Wonders 3: Compare and Contrast

[airboy]

I've started my 4th game of Age of Wonders 3.

Couple of observations:
Sorcerers seem far more powerful than every other class.

Extra Large worlds are gigantic.  So big that you may never finish a game.
Large worlds are huge.  You can finish a game only after a hundred hours of play.
Medium worlds are probably the biggest world that you could reasonably finish in 40 hours of play. 

Game is really good.  A big improvement over Age of Wonders 2.  Your leader can cast spells in any battle - at double the mana cost.  The range limitation in Shadow Magic slowed down play considerably.  To expand against a strong opponent you had to build a town & a wizard tower - then leapfrog again.  Sort of like an island-hopping campaign in the Pacific if I'm remembering right.  Now you can expand with an army group leader that is not a strong spell caster if you have concentrated your Sorcerer leader in obtaining personal mana.

The sounds in Age of Wonders 3 are a light year ahead of the sounds in Shadow Magic.  Battle sounds are a critical part of the game to me, and AoW3 did a great job.  I have not even turned off the background music yet - it has lasted longer than most every game I've ever played where I did not load my own soundtrack.

If you like Fantasy 4x games - this is a good one.

[MetalDog]

I assure you it wasn't near as good on release.  Subsequent releases have added to the base game to bring it where it is now.  Which is a really good game, as you have already noted.  Wanna mp? ;)

[Rayfer]

+1 Great game indeed.

[airboy]

I assure you it wasn't near as good on release.  Subsequent releases have added to the base game to bring it where it is now.  Which is a really good game, as you have already noted.  Wanna mp? ;)

I bought the core game plus all expansion packs on the Steam sale about 10 days ago.  Game has been stable and fun.

No time.  Between my job and getting a teenager - my time is obligated.

[MetalDog]

Buy him a copy, too.  You can use it as a 'teaching exercise.'  :)