In my most recent Age of Wonders 4 campaign, what started out as a peaceful era of expansion and harmony turned quickly into a bloodbath when Dafal Dea, the snide toad ruler from across the sea, insulted my attempts to be friends with the numerous city-states around us. You see, I’d been eyeing up his land for some time now, as it would secure me a foothold on the other continent. It’s shocking how easily the bloodlust takes you in a game like this.

I began the campaign by making a race of orcs who embraced Chaos and Nature, two of the magical affinities afforded to you. There are five altogether, and they heavily influence your playstyle. The customisation options available to you are ridiculously expansive - you can fine-tune everything from the tenets of their cultures to how long their arms are.

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These decisions range greatly in terms of gameplay impact, and there’s something exciting about experimenting with all sorts of culture, affinity, and race combinations at the start of each campaign. I wanted my empire to be a sprawling one, so Nature was the right focus to pick, but I took Chaos as a backup so I could defend myself. Of course, that meant that when I was tempted by war, my overwhelming might made it too tasty to turn down.

And so it was that the Field Orcs, led by Estoth Swarmblood, established their first city. The first few turns of an Age of Wonders 4 game feel much like any other 4X - you build the basic buildings to get your economy going, explore with a scouting unit, and use your starting army to crush any nearby villains who would upset your plans for expansion. As much as Age of Wonders can sometimes feel like a Civilization game, it does more interesting things with its city development mechanics. Province annexation is merged with improvement buildings, roads and new cities are built by your armies, and you can even settle underground, on a whole separate layer of the world that can be used for commercial or strategic gain.

Magic plays a huge part in the game. Tomes of Magic, which all fall under a particular affinity, replace the typical technology tree, and you’ll be prompted to pick from a selection as you progress. This essentially lets you fine-tune your magical developments, granting new units and upgrades. I enjoyed the race-wide alterations the most. With just one spell, I was able to arm my Orc army with poison weapons and turn my spellcasters into unstoppable forces of destruction, no enemy would be able to withstand them - huh, maybe my descent into warmongery wasn’t too hard to predict. These enchantments take a while to unlock and cast, but they provide significant bonuses that feel impactful and satisfying, and the flavourful way you unlock and cast them is sweet.

The combat system is a robust turn-based affair, with up to three full armies on either side being able to clash on hex-based battlefields. With classic mechanics like hero units being one-person powerhouses and standard units getting weaker as their health is whittled down, Age of Wonders 4 feels like a blend of Total War and Civilization more than ever in battle. However, on Easy and Normal at least, the enemy AI doesn’t always make the best decisions. Its use of per-turn spells doesn’t feel as impactful as when I use them, and it relies on swarming individual, weak units when taking out my powerhouses should be the main goal. Perhaps Hard mode is where things get rough.

After defeating Dafal Dea (and a few other rulers besides), Estoth claimed victory over the land, and the campaign ended. After the usual, satisfying stats screen and interactive timeline, I was booted back to the main menu, where I levelled up a few times with points accrued for playing the game. A hefty sum for winning, but a ton more for claiming victories in battles and settling cities, among other things. These points are spent on unlocking customisation options and new traits in your ‘Pantheon’ - the rate of progression is quite slow when campaigns take multiple hours each, and it feels frustrating to have to unlock options that you dislike just to get further into a tree. That said, the Pantheon also allows you to save your successful rulers and have them appear in future games, which is something I adored in Wildermyth and here.

The implementation of the morality system is a little bit clunky. Rulers are perceived by the game and your rival rulers on a sliding scale of good to evil. Starting a war or executing enemy heroes is, fairly, seen as an evil act - but becoming evil doesn’t just impact your international relations - it makes you more likely to suffer negative events. This is needlessly punishing to one of the four X’s of 4X. It may be an attempt to balance playstyles, incentivising the typically more difficult routes to victory, but it also discourages engagement with the game’s most enjoyable aspect, the combat.

Age of Wonders 4 is a very strong entry in the overwhelming miasma that is the turn-based 4X market. It implements fantasy elements naturally rather than giving traditional mechanics a mystical lick of paint, and the sheer depth of customisation options, even without unlocking anything, is to be applauded. With the Pantheon system for unlocking things, it’s an ever-growing and changing experience with a heavy emphasis on player agency.

Score: 4/5. A review code was provided by the publisher.

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