Age of Wonders is a turn-based strategy game set in a fantasy scenario. The campaign can be played on two sides and tells a tale how the humans come to a new land and destabilized the peace between the races, throwing the land into war. The game also features several stand-alone scenarios. There is an extensive diplomatic matrix which structures the relationships between the 12 races and their respective leaders. There are global-spells which can be cast on the strategic map, outside of tactical combat.

Creatures can move around without being led by a hero, so the map eventually crawls with all sorts of strange beings. Neutral forces are not always static, most of them move around and sometimes attack the 12 races. The automatic tactical-combat mode shows a somewhat detailed overview of the combat simulation: it is a worthwhile substitute for impatient gamers, especially in multiplayer encounters.

As in Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia and Master of Magic, heroes are very important. They reach new levels of skill and power with experience and can be equipped with artifacts. But they do have limitations that usually do not allow a solitary hero to overrun a city-garrison all by himself.

Pre-game customization allows the following choices: 5 levels of AI skill (with the 1.2 patch), 5 AI personalities (from very violent to defensive), "classic" turn-based moves or simultaneous turns, incarnation of the player as the main hero (if he dies, it's game over for that side), selection of the main hero's name, face, and bonus sword-and-sorcery attributes, etc.

The map editor allows the gamer to create new maps, which can have up to 3 geological levels (one or two can be placed underground, with a cramped and dark tunnel-design).

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Screenshots

Age of Wonders Windows There are several types of battlegrounds

Age of Wonders Windows Frostlings prefer colder climate. Note customizable interface - info windows are closed.

Age of Wonders Windows A dense forest equals time consuming movement.

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Promo Images

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Trailer

Alternate Titles

"奇迹时代" -- Simplified Chinese spelling
"World of Wonders" -- Working title
"AoW" -- Common abbreviation

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Part of the Following Groups

User Reviews

Age of Wonders is a good concept for a game, but aside from some good elements, it is a bad implementation of those ideas.	Droog (522)
Warlords 3.9 meets Master of Magic - what could be better?	Jean-Paul Cardinal (19)
Heroes of Might & Magic meets Master of Magic - and doesn't quite live up to the names.	Tomer Gabel (4634)
Not only does it match HoMM and MoM, it surpasses them.	atrahasis (138)
AoW sets the standard for future fantasy TBS-games.	Grov (667)
This game reminds me of Master of Magic without the replay value.	Jeff Watts (21)

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Critic Reviews

Just RPG	2000	A-	91
IGN	Dec 06, 1999	8.8 out of 10	88
PC Action (Germany)	Dec, 1999	84 out of 100	84
Withingames	May 20, 2001	4 out of 5	80
PC Games (Germany)	Dec, 2000	80 out of 100	80
Power Play	Dec, 1999	79 out of 100	79
Imperium Gier	Oct 10, 2001	7.8 out of 10	78
GamePro (US)	Nov 24, 2000	3.5 out of 5	70
Jeuxvideo.com	Feb 04, 2000	14 out of 20	70
PC Zone	Aug 13, 2001	5.5 out of 10	55

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Forums

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Trivia

Extras

The UK edition of the game is said to include a novel by David Eddings 'worth 6.99£'. Either most people didn't like it and threw it away or it never was there; anyway it's definitely pretty hard to find.

Getting off a boat

Most people playing the game for the first time faces the same problem: How do you get units out off a boat? This is not covered in the manual, and the words "How do I get off the boat?" is probably the most posted and joked about in the AoW-forums.

Highmen Theme

The song "Highmen Theme" seems to be remix of Journey.umx which is played during the Nagomi Passage level ('day' version) in the Unreal mission pack Return to Na Pali.

Information also contributed by Grov, MDMaster and toothbrush

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Related Web Sites

Age of Wonders (official website)
Age of Wonders - Epic MegaGames, Inc. (official game page from the Epic Games website from 1996, archived by the Wayback Machine)
Age of Wonders Heaven (A prominent AoW-site. It contains maps, concept art, lost pictures, lost units, etc. The developers also visit the forum frequently.)
Welcome to the Age of Wonders (Official site for the turn-based fantasy-strategy game "Age of Wonders" (released in November 1999).)

Jean-Paul Cardinal (19) added Age of Wonders (Windows) on Dec 30, 1999