Age of Wonders III: Golden Realms

[Martok]

Announcement/Info

[tgb]

Just what I've been waiting for.  In.

[Shelldrake]

Nice. Fingers crossed that there will be a specially priced package containing the base game and expansion!

[undercovergeek]

Considering how much I paid for it and how much I looked forward to it I've played this a shamefully low amount of time

[W8taminute]

I have to admit when I first picked up AoWIII I was put off by their trickery in roping you into their network in order to play online against other players however this is a really good game and well worth it.  I'll probably be getting this expansion as well.   O0 O0

[Nefaro]

Goblin RPG teams, Vomit monsters, Shit-tossing Monkeys, Topless Mermaids, and Hutt Toads.

Let the DLC begin!   :D

[Gusington]

^Hahaha!!

[Nefaro]

Ooops!

I meant, "Halfing RPG Teams". 

For some reason I just assumed those were Goblins with the B-40 rockets.

[Martok]

SpaceSector's review is up.  Sounds like this first expansion is definitely a hit (which seems to align with most folks' opinions).  8.0/10

Better Than it Was Before. Better, Stronger, Faster.

If you enjoyed Age of Wonders 3 at all, I highly recommend you add the Golden Realms to your game. In my eyes, it is a solid must have addition to a base game that has already been steadily improved by the developer. Golden Realms attempts, for the most part successfully, to resolve several of the issues I had in regards to victory conditions and building layouts. While the expansion adds a lot to the variety on offer, it is the new victory conditions and special locations that truly make it worth the asking price for me. The endgame isn't as drawn out, the choices are more interesting, and the game is more fun to play. The expansion removes some of my biggest frustrations with the base game and was able to reinvigorate my interest in the game series as a whole. Not too shabby an accomplishment for a relatively inexpensive expansion.

For those still on the fence about the series as a whole, it is best to still proceed with caution. I can say that fully patched and expanded, it is a much better game than it was on launch. Unit differentiation has been worked on, unit advancement is more interesting, and numerous other tweaks have been made. I'd like to see a little more in the way of leader class options and race differentiation, and recent dev logs indicate this is coming. Not all of my AI related concerns are completely solved, but it has come a long way.

Age of Wonders 3, now with its expansion Golden Realms, is at its core still a tactics oriented game that offers a lighter experience than a 4X game, and you have to be looking for something like that to really enjoy this game. If you are, you can't do much better than this game. If you're still unsure either way, keep an eye out in 2015 for my updated thoughts. By then, I fully expect the game to have added at least one more Golden Realms size expansion as well as numerous patches. The Frostling race and Necromancy are also both on their way, and I'm excited to see how they turn out.

[Gusington]

I've been holding off on this...why, I'm not sure. From the above it sounds like it updates a lot of things across the entire game.Is that the case?

[Tuna]

Do you have to create an account with them in order to get DLC?

[Nefaro]

The Frostling race and Necromancy are also both on their way, and I'm excited to see how they turn out.

Hells yes.  More races YAY!  And much more interesting ones than halflings, even.  Looking forward to it.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I've been holding off on this...why, I'm not sure. From the above it sounds like it updates a lot of things across the entire game.Is that the case?

I bought it about a week after I started playing AOW III.  I like it.  It adds a bunch of cool stuff such as new quests that give you empire-wide bonuses (be the first to become totally good/totally evil, be the first to build a megalopolis, etc).  It adds a new way to win by controlling these magic portal/node thinges.  I'm not exactly sure how these work.  I think you get points each turn that you have an army occupy a node.  If I remember you have to occupy 5 nodes for 35 turns or something like that.  The AI gets very aggressive if you occupy one.  Other empires are less likely to remain peaceful and random non-aligned armies will attack the node like crazy. 

[Gusington]

It sounds pretty game-changing and almost must-have. I'll probably get it before I start another campaign. Necromancers are the next DLC race due out IIRC.

[bobarossa]

Do you have to create an account with them in order to get DLC?

GOG is offering it for $11.99 so I don't think so.