Age of Wonders 3

Fun TBS for sure, solid 8.5-to-9 out of 10. The game gets a little tedious sometimes when cleaning up maps/scenarios after you've "clearly" won, but have to play out the win condition. Still, solid game and good installmet for the series.

It's a solid entry into the series. Admittedly, Age of Wonders 4 beats it for sheer style, but it's hard to compare the two. Not having a limit on how many towns you can have *is* nice, though.

This game has multiplayer DRM, this should be made clear on this site, it does contain DRM regardless of single or multiplayer it is still DRM. I was going to play this with my young nephew a while back ( reason i had purchased it ) he visits during school breaks. But was stumped by the presence of multiplayer DRM so could not play multiplayer. I cant afford to double up on games just to play once in a blue moon. GOG needs to come clean and be transparent stating "Multiplayer DRM is present" this is my issue ! DRM is DRM in whatever shape or from and stating no DRM is misleading unless qualified by stating clearly "NO SINGLE PLAYER DRM, YES MULTIPLAYER DRM" there are other games on this site suffering the same misleading information. Get your act together GOG The game sits unplayed in storage .

I've been playing this game on and off since its release along with many other 4X titles, including Civ V + 6 and HoMM 3 + 5 but it's always THIS game that I keep returning to. It's got empire building, some diplomacy, great tactical battles, a story campaign and leader customisation. It takes many elements from other strategy titles but bundles them as a single high fantasy but moody fantasy. Then you also have many non-human races to pick from, classes and lots of spells. In a way this game is "fantasy Civ". The music is also incredibly soothing, memorable and I still listen to it this day. The game has a few problems however, mainly the janky feel and presentation, along with the animations and lack of high production values. Whilst the game looks gorgeous with its landscapes and art style, the unit models look fine at best and they all use canned animations. But what I really like about AoW III is its map setup options, there are TONS of map generation settings and a few victory conditions beyond friendship and domination. I really like the seals victory condition, for example, because it encourages exploration and army variety. It's a victory condition where you must play "king of the hill" at multiple different single hex sites and hold them whilst facing waves of hostiles. Speaking of hostiles, there are neutral stacks and spawners that pose a threat to every player, so they make the game a little more fun. Additionally, there's an underground map layer you can toggle and I always love it when there's underground exploration parallel to the overland map. Great fantasy 4X with lots of customisation... don't forget to check out the many mods!

I prefer this to AoW4 because I don't like zones. Game play is smooth and straightforward. I do wish there was an auto explore, but that is no huge deal.