Age of Wonders 4: The Ultimate Master Strategy Guide

Welcome to the Fourth Age: Your Age of Wonders 4 Saga Begins

A new age has dawned. The magical barriers between worlds have fallen, and the Astral Sea flows freely, suffused with arcane power. From this cosmic ocean return the Godir—mighty Wizard Kings of old, beings of immense power who now see the realms of mortals as clay to be molded. They are not alone. From the ranks of the people, great Champions rise to defend their homes and forge new destinies. This is the world of Age of Wonders 4.

The Story So Far (Spoiler-Free)

You are one of these returned rulers. Whether a benevolent Champion of your people or a powerful Wizard King seeking dominion, you have stepped through a portal into a new realm, ripe for the shaping. The central theme of Age of Wonders 4 is creation. You will not just conquer lands; you will craft a people, guide their evolution, and write a legacy into the very fabric of reality. Each game is not a self-contained match but a single chapter in your ever-growing saga. Rulers you lead to victory—or even those you lead to defeat—can ascend to an in-game Pantheon, returning in future games as potential allies or rivals. The story of Age of Wonders 4 is the one you write yourself, turn by turn, realm by realm.

What is Age of Wonders 4? A 4X Like No Other

At its heart, Age of Wonders 4 is a 4X turn-based strategy game set in a high-fantasy universe. The “4X” stands for the four pillars of the genre: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. You will explore a vast, randomized map, expand your empire by founding new cities, exploit the land’s resources, and exterminate your rivals through warfare and magic.

Think of it as a masterful blend of Civilization‘s empire management and Heroes of Might and Magic‘s tactical, army-focused combat. You will manage cities, research new powers, and engage in diplomacy on a strategic world map. But when armies clash, the game zooms into a hex-based tactical battlefield where positioning, unit abilities, and clever spellcasting determine the victor. What truly sets Age of Wonders 4 apart is its unparalleled level of customization. You are given the tools to create any fantasy faction you can imagine and evolve them in countless ways, making every single playthrough a unique experience.

How to Use This Guide

This master guide is your comprehensive companion for that journey. It is designed for rulers of all skill levels, from those taking their first steps into a 4X game to seasoned strategists looking to master the highest difficulties.

For Beginners: We recommend reading the guide in order. We will walk you through creating your first faction, managing your empire, mastering combat, and understanding the intricate Tomes of Magic.
For Veterans: Feel free to use the table of contents to jump to specific sections. Whether you need a detailed breakdown of the latest DLC, advanced economic strategies, or a tier list of the most powerful tomes, you will find it here.

Your saga awaits. Let us begin.

Forging Your Legend: The Ultimate Guide to Faction Creation

Your first and most important act as a returning Godir is to give form to your people and philosophy. The faction creation system in Age of Wonders 4 is a deep and rewarding sandbox that allows you to break free from fantasy tropes. Forget “all elves are good archers” or “all orcs are evil brutes.” Here, you can create cannibalistic Halfling barbarians, mystic moon elves, or industrious toad-people who are masters of engineering. Every choice matters, and the synergies you create here will define your entire game.

Your People’s Form: More Than Just a Pretty Face

The Physical Form you choose determines your people’s appearance, from the stout Dwarfkin to the graceful Feline. While this choice is primarily cosmetic, each form comes with a default package of Form Traits—powerful passive bonuses that establish an initial playstyle.

However, you are not bound by these defaults. Age of Wonders 4 uses a point-buy system, allowing you to mix and match any Form Traits with any physical appearance. You can take the hardy, defensive traits of a Dwarfkin and apply them to an Elfkin form, creating a uniquely resilient elven race. This is your first taste of the game’s incredible freedom.

Table: All Form Traits

Trait	Effects	Cost
Adaptable	+20% Non-hero unit experience gain.	1
Hardy	+8 Hit Points.	1
Elusive	+5 Defense and Resistance against Retaliation and Opportunity Attacks.	1
Cold Blooded	-50% Morale loss.	1
Cheerful	+50% Morale gain.	1
Sharp Eyes	+1 Vision Range and +1 Sensing Range on the world map.	1
Bulwark	+2 Defense and Resistance when in Defense Mode.	2
Ferocious	+40% damage from Retaliation and Opportunity Attacks.	2
Keen-Sighted	+20% Accuracy with physical ranged attacks.	2
Light Footed	Friendly units do not block this unit’s movement in combat.	2
Overwhelm Tactics	+20% Critical Hit chance when adjacent to another friendly unit.	2
Quick Reflexes	Ranged attacks against this unit are 25% less accurate.	2
Strong	+2 Physical damage on Melee and Physical Ranged attacks (+4 on non-repeating attacks).	2
Tenacious	-50% damage penalty from casualties.	2
Underground Adaptation	Can build Farms underground and starts with Excavation.	2

The Soul of Your Society: Choosing a Culture

Your Culture is the single most defining choice for your empire. It determines your military roster, your city architecture, your economic strengths, and your unique gameplay mechanics. Each culture feels distinct and encourages a different path to victory.

High: A versatile culture focused on diplomacy, buffs, and alignment. Their units gain “Awakened” status, unlocking powerful bonuses in battle. They are flexible and can lean towards any victory condition.
Barbarian: An aggressive, fast-moving culture that thrives on early combat. Their units are cheaper, move quickly on the world map, and excel at overwhelming opponents with numbers and speed.
Feudal: A classic medieval culture focused on strong defenses and synergies between units. Their “Stand Together” mechanic grants significant damage bonuses to units adjacent to each other, rewarding tight formations.
Industrious: Masters of defense and production. Their units are slow but incredibly tough, gaining stacks of “Bolstered Defense” or “Bolstered Resistance” each time they are hit. Their scouts can also prospect for extra resources on the world map.
Dark: A sinister culture that thrives on debuffs and exploiting enemy weaknesses. They ignore the penalties for low city stability, allowing for rapid, reckless expansion. Their units can heal by attacking “Weakened” enemies.
Mystic: The quintessential magic-focused culture. Their units gain bonus elemental damage whenever a spell is cast in combat. They excel at generating Mana and Knowledge, pushing them naturally towards a Magic Victory.
Reaver (Empires & Ashes DLC): A militaristic, industrial culture that fuses magic with technology. They wield Magelock firearms and can claim provinces through conquest, fueling their war machine with “War Spoils.”
Primal (Primal Fury DLC): A nature-worshipping culture that channels the spirit of a chosen primal animal (wolf, mammoth, crow, etc.). Each animal provides unique bonuses to their units and cities, from extra food to enhanced combat abilities.

Defining Your Philosophy: The Power of Societal Traits

If Culture is your empire’s foundation, Societal Traits are the architectural style. You choose two traits that provide powerful, game-defining bonuses from the very first turn. They are the key to fine-tuning your grand strategy.

For the Expansive Empire: Adept Settlers is a top-tier choice, increasing your city cap by one and giving new cities a head start with an extra population.
For the Economic Powerhouse: Great Builders gives your capital a free Workshop and Stone Walls, boosts gold from quarries, and speeds up the construction of special province improvements.
For the Magical Mastermind: Powerful Evokers grants you an extra Battle Mage or Support unit at the start and increases your Combat Casting Points for every such unit in a battle, letting you sling more spells.
For the Aggressive Warlord: Ruthless Raiders grants your nearest city bonus Gold and Draft for every unit killed in battle, fueling a relentless war machine.
For the Ultimate Challenge: Some traits, unlocked through the Pantheon, offer extreme playstyles. Chosen Destroyers prevents you from ever founding or capturing a second city, but grants massive permanent income bonuses for every city you raze. Conversely, Perfectionist Artisans also limits you to a single city (without Adept Settlers) but massively boosts its Gold income and Stability from every building, creating the ultimate “tall” empire.

Choosing Your Leader: Champion, King, or Dragon?

Finally, you must choose the nature of your ruler. This choice affects your starting skills, equipment options, and passive empire bonuses.

Champion: A mortal leader risen from the ranks of their people. Champions are locked to their faction’s race and transformations. They excel at leading armies, reducing unit costs, and improving relations with Free Cities. They are a strong, straightforward choice for any playstyle.
Wizard King: A powerful mage seeking dominion over a new realm. Wizard Kings can be a different race from their followers and can choose whether to accept racial transformations. They boost Mana income and spellcasting, making them the ideal choice for a magic-focused empire.
Dragon Lord (Dragon Dawn DLC): You are a literal dragon. This ruler is a formidable combatant from turn one, able to fly and unleash a devastating breath attack. They provide bonuses to Gold income and can evolve through powerful new signature skills.
Eldritch Sovereign (Eldritch Realms DLC): An otherworldly being with powers beyond mortal comprehension. They excel at manipulating enemy units and armies through unique rituals and start with a powerful relic weapon.
Giant King (Giant Kings DLC): A towering ruler of immense strength. Giant Kings are massive units on the battlefield who can wield colossal weapons and terraform the land with their spells. They start with an Item Forge in their capital, allowing for early equipment crafting.

Putting It All Together: The Synergy Triangle

The true genius of Age of Wonders 4 lies not in any single choice, but in how they combine. The most powerful factions are built on a foundation of synergy between their Culture, Societal Traits, and starting Tome of Magic. Think of these three elements as a triangle, where each point supports the others.

A choice in one area directly enhances the value of choices in the others. For example, a player wanting to build an unbreakable defensive line might start with this combination:

Culture: Industrious. This provides the core mechanic of Bolstering Defense and a roster of tough-as-nails Shield units like the Anvil Guard.
Societal Traits: Great Builders. This trait’s focus on Production and Fortifications directly supports the Industrious playstyle of building up and defending.
Starting Tome: Tome of Rock. This Materium tome provides the Rock Skin transformation for even more defense and the Summon Lesser Stone Spirit spell, adding another durable body to the frontline.

This combination creates a faction that is, from turn one, laser-focused on a single, powerful strategy. As you create your own factions, always ask: “How does this choice support my other choices?”

Table: Faction Creation Cheat Sheet

Culture	Core Affinities	Unit Roster Focus	Economic Focus	Best For…
High	Order / Astral	Ranged, Support, Battle Mage	Balanced (Alignment-based)	Versatile, Diplomatic, Magic Victory
Barbarian	Chaos / Nature	Melee, Shock, Skirmisher	Food, Draft	Aggressive Rushing, Military Victory
Feudal	Order / Nature	Shield, Polearm, Shock	Food, Draft	Balanced Armies, Defensive Play
Industrious	Materium	Shield, Polearm	Production, Gold	Defensive Turtling, Economic Victory
Dark	Shadow	Ranged, Battle Mage	Knowledge, Gold	Debuffing, Aggressive Expansion
Mystic	Astral	Battle Mage, Summoned Units	Mana, Knowledge	Spellcasting, Magic Victory
Reaver	Chaos / Materium	Ranged (Firearms)	Gold, War Spoils	Aggressive Rushing, Military Victory
Primal	Nature	Varies (Animal Spirit)	Varies (Animal Spirit)	Adaptable, Unit-focused builds

The Art of Rule: Mastering Your Age of Wonders 4 Empire

Once your faction is forged, your journey begins on the strategic world map. Here, you will grow your cities, manage your economy, and interact with a world teeming with rivals, potential allies, and ancient secrets. Mastering this strategic layer is the key to fueling your military and magical ambitions.

The Heart of the Empire: City Management and Growth

Your cities are the engines of your empire. Their growth and development are paramount. The core loop is simple but powerful:

A city generates Food, which increases its Population.
Each new Population point allows the city to annex an adjacent province.
Annexed provinces provide resources (Food, Production, Gold, etc.) and can be used to meet Boost requirements for city structures, making them cheaper and faster to build.

Your first major goal in any game should be to establish a strong core of cities. A common and effective benchmark for beginners is to aim for three cities by turn 20. To do this, you will build an Outpost with a hero unit, which can then be upgraded into a full city for 200 Imperium.

City placement is a critical skill. Look for locations with a rich cluster of resource nodes (like Gold Veins or Mana Nodes) and, most importantly, nearby Ancient Wonders. These special locations provide immense bonuses when annexed into a city’s domain.

A key feature of city management is the dual-queue system. Your cities have separate production lines for structures (using Production) and units (using Draft). This means you can build a new Granary and train a new Swordsman at the same time, a massive quality-of-life improvement that prevents your economic development from stalling while you reinforce your armies.

The Engine of Power: Economy and Resources Explained

A successful ruler must master their economy. There are seven key resources to manage:

Gold: The universal currency. Gold is required for the upfront cost of most buildings and units, and it pays for their per-turn upkeep. A strong gold income is the backbone of any powerful empire.
Mana: The fuel of magic. Mana is spent to cast powerful combat spells, world map enchantments, and to summon magical creatures. It also pays the upkeep for summoned and magical units.
Knowledge: Your research points. Knowledge is spent to unlock new skills from your Tomes of Magic, which is how you access new units, spells, and transformations.
Imperium: The currency of empire-level actions. Imperium is spent to found new cities, increase your city cap, and unlock powerful, permanent bonuses from the Empire Development tree. You gain it primarily from your Throne City’s Wizard Tower and by annexing Ancient Wonders.
Food: A city-specific resource used exclusively to grow a city’s population.
Production: A city-specific resource used to construct buildings and improvements.
Draft: A city-specific resource used to recruit non-magical units.

The most important strategic decision you will make each turn is how to balance the acquisition and spending of these resources to advance your goals.

Whispers and Wars: Diplomacy and Vassalage

You are not alone in the realm. You will share the world with other rulers like yourself and with independent Free Cities.

Interacting with other major rulers is a delicate dance of Relations, Treaties, and Grievances. Having good relations allows you to sign treaties like Open Borders or Defensive Pacts. Hostile actions, like settling too close to their borders or breaking a treaty, will generate Grievances, which can be used to justify declaring a war without diplomatic penalty.

Free Cities are neutral city-states that can be swayed to your cause. By assigning a Whispering Stone to a Free City, you will slowly increase its Allegiance to you. As Allegiance grows, the city will grant you benefits, eventually becoming your loyal Vassal. Vassals provide you with a percentage of their income and, crucially, allow you to recruit their unique units through the Rally of the Lieges. This is a fantastic way to supplement your armies with powerful monsters or units from cultures you don’t have access to. Vassals also make excellent border guards, as they will defend their territory fiercely against any enemy who tries to march through to reach your core cities.

Lost Glories: Exploring and Clearing Ancient Wonders

Scattered across every realm are Ancient Wonders—monuments from a bygone age, now guarded by powerful monsters. Clearing these locations should be one of your highest priorities. They are far more valuable than standard resource nodes.

Each Wonder is a mini-adventure. When your army enters, you will face:

An introductory event that sets the scene.
A unique combat encounter with special battlefield rules.
A resolution event where you choose your reward.

Successfully clearing and annexing an Ancient Wonder provides a massive boost. In addition to a large, one-time reward of resources, the annexed province provides a powerful, permanent bonus to its city and adds unique, high-tier wildlife units (like Bone Dragons or Phoenixes) to that city’s Rally of the Lieges pool. Annexing these wonders is also a primary source of bonus Imperium, which fuels your early expansion. This creates a powerful feedback loop: clearing wonders gives you the Imperium to expand, which gives you the economic power to build stronger armies, which lets you clear even more powerful wonders.

Clash of Titans: A Commander’s Guide to Tactical Combat

When armies meet on the world map, the conflict is resolved in tactical, turn-based combat on a hex grid. While the “auto-resolve” button is tempting, mastering manual combat is the mark of a true Godir. A skilled commander can defeat a superior force with minimal losses through clever tactics, turning the tide of a war in a single, decisive battle. Combat in Age of Wonders 4 is a puzzle to be solved, not a brawl to be won.

The Rules of Engagement: Core Combat Mechanics

Every unit on the battlefield has three Action Points per turn, represented by three white orbs. These are your most precious resource. They can be spent to move, attack, or use special abilities. Most abilities cost one action point, but powerful ones can cost all three.

Zone of Control: Most melee units project a Zone of Control in the three hexes directly in front of them. Ranged and magic units cannot use their primary attacks while inside an enemy’s Zone of Control.
Flanking: Attacking a unit from outside its Zone of Control (from the side or rear) is a flank attack. Flanked units cannot retaliate, and the attack deals a massive +25% bonus damage. Positioning your units to create flanks is one of the most important tactical skills to learn.
Retaliation and Opportunity Attacks: When you attack a unit in melee, it will usually strike back with a retaliation attack if it hasn’t already retaliated that turn. Furthermore, if you try to move away from an adjacent enemy, they will get a free opportunity attack against you.
Damage and Defense: Every unit has a Defense stat (for physical damage) and a Resistance stat (for magical damage). These stats reduce incoming damage by a percentage. Many attacks also inflict special damage types, like Fire, Frost, or Blight, which are reduced by specific resistances.
Unit Strength: Units composed of multiple figures (like a squad of spearmen) deal less damage as they take casualties and lose figures. In contrast, single-figure units (like a hero or a giant monster) fight at full strength until they are killed. This makes focusing your fire to eliminate multi-figure units one by one extremely effective.

The Ebb and Flow of Battle: Mastering the Morale System

Morale is the psychological health of an army. Every unit has a morale bar, which goes up when they kill an enemy and goes down when nearby allies are killed or they are flanked. If a unit’s morale drops too low, it will rout and attempt to flee the battlefield.

Breaking an enemy’s morale can be just as effective as destroying them outright. By focusing down a single, high-value target, you can trigger a cascade of morale failures throughout the enemy line, causing their army to crumble even if they still have many units left. Conversely, protecting your own units and avoiding unnecessary losses is key to keeping your own army’s morale high.

Know Your Army: Unit Roles and Synergies

Understanding unit roles is fundamental to building a balanced and effective army. Each unit type has a specific job on the battlefield.

Shield: Your frontline tanks. They have high defense and abilities like Shield Wall to protect adjacent allies. Their job is to engage the enemy and absorb damage.
Polearm: Defensive specialists. They have First Strike, allowing them to attack before they are retaliated against, and deal bonus damage to Cavalry and Large units.
Shock: The offensive melee powerhouse. They have charge attacks that can break enemy defensive formations and deal bonus damage based on the distance they moved before attacking.
Ranged: Your archers and crossbowmen. They provide damage from a safe distance but are vulnerable in melee. Protect them with your frontline.
Skirmisher: Fast and mobile hybrid units. They are excellent flankers and can often move after attacking, allowing them to harass the enemy and retreat to safety.
Battle Mage: Magical damage dealers. They attack with elemental magic that targets the enemy’s Resistance stat instead of their Defense.
Support: The backbone of your army. They provide healing, buffs to allies, and debuffs to enemies. A good support unit can dramatically increase your army’s survivability.

A balanced early-game army often consists of two Shield units, one Polearm, two Ranged, and one Support unit. This composition gives you a solid frontline, protection against cavalry, ranged damage, and healing.

Bringing Down the Walls: The Art of the Siege

To capture an enemy city, you must first lay siege to it. A city’s Fortifications determine how many turns you must spend besieging it before you can launch an assault. During the siege, the attacker can spend Gold and Mana to build siege projects, such as trebuchets to damage walls or rams to break down gates. These projects can give the attacker a significant advantage in the final battle. Defenders, meanwhile, can use their walls for protection, rain fire from towers, and leverage their garrisoned troops to hold the line.

The Arcane Path: Unlocking the Tomes of Magic

Magic is the lifeblood of Age of Wonders 4. Your empire’s evolution is driven by the Tomes of Magic you choose to research. This system is your path to new units, devastating spells, powerful unit enchantments, and even the ability to transform your entire race into angels, demons, or undead.

The Six Affinities: Your Magical DNA

All magic in the game is categorized into six Affinities, each representing a cosmic force with a distinct philosophy and playstyle.

Astral: The affinity of pure magic, knowledge, and summoning. Focuses on lightning damage, illusions, and buffing your spellcasting power.
Chaos: The affinity of aggression, destruction, and freedom. Focuses on fire damage, swarming with low-tier units, and inflicting random negative effects.
Materium: The affinity of earth, industry, and artifice. Focuses on physical damage, incredible defenses, economic boosts, and creating magical constructs.
Nature: The affinity of life, growth, and the wild. Focuses on blight (poison) damage, healing, animal summons, and rapid city expansion.
Order: The affinity of faith, justice, and cooperation. Focuses on spirit damage, healing and buffing allies, controlling vassals, and smiting the wicked.
Shadow: The affinity of death, cold, and deception. Focuses on frost damage, necromancy, stealth, and weakening enemies with powerful debuffs.

Your total points in each Affinity, gained from your culture, traits, and chosen tomes, unlock powerful passive Empire Skills and are required to research the most powerful, high-tier Tomes.

Tomes are Toolkits, Not Rigid Paths

A new player might think they should pick one Affinity and stick to it exclusively. This is a mistake. The true power of the tome system lies in its flexibility. Think of the tomes not as rigid class paths, but as a vast library of toolkits. You are encouraged to mix and match to create unique and powerful combinations.

Your Nature-focused empire might be struggling against heavily armored Industrious units. Instead of continuing down the Nature path, you can strategically “dip” into the Shadow affinity to pick up the Tome of Cryomancy. This gives you access to Frost Blades, a unit enchantment that adds frost damage to your attacks, bypassing the enemy’s high physical defense and exploiting their likely weakness to cold. This single, strategic choice can solve a major problem for your empire without derailing your long-term plan. The game’s progression system encourages this, as unlocking higher-tier tomes depends on the total number of tomes you’ve researched, not just those of a specific affinity.

First Steps into Magic: Choosing Your Tier I Tomes

Your first tome choice is made during faction creation and sets the tone for your early game. It should either complement your culture’s strengths or cover its weaknesses.

Table: Tier I Tomes At-a-Glance

Tome Name	Affinity	Key Unit/Spell	Strategic Focus
Tome of the Horde	Chaos	Houndmaster, Spawnkin	Early Aggression, Unit Swarms
Tome of Pyromancy	Chaos	Pyromancer, Searing Blades	Fire Damage, Offensive Spells
Tome of Faith	Order	Chaplain, Army Heal	Healing, Unit Support
Tome of Zeal	Order	Zealot, Legion of Zeal	Spirit Damage, Morale Boosts
Tome of Enchantment	Materium	Copper Golem, Seeker Arrows	Unit Buffing, Ranged Focus
Tome of Rock	Materium	Rock Spirit, Rock Skin	Defense, Fortifications
Tome of Beasts	Nature	Hunter Spider, Animal Kinship	Animal Summons, Flanking
Tome of Roots	Nature	Entwined Thrall, Vine Prison	Healing, Crowd Control
Tome of Evocation	Astral	Evoker, Lightning Blades	Magic Damage, Battle Mages
Tome of Warding	Astral	Phantasm Warrior, Static Shield	Magical Defense, Protection
Tome of Souls	Shadow	Soulbinder, Wightborn	Necromancy, Soul Economy
Tome of Cryomancy	Shadow	White Witch, Frost Blades	Frost Damage, Debuffing

Ascending to Power: A Journey Through the Tiers

As you research skills, you will unlock access to higher tiers of tomes (Tier II through V). These offer increasingly powerful abilities. The most dramatic of these are Major Race Transformations. Spells like Angelize (Order), Demonkin (Chaos), and Wightborn (Shadow) will permanently change your people, granting them new abilities, new resistances and weaknesses, and even the ability to fly. These transformations are a core part of your faction’s story, visually and mechanically representing their evolution under your rule.

As you collect more tomes, look for powerful synergies. A classic combination is the Tome of Mayhem (Chaos) and any tome with a ranged unit enchantment. The spell Mark of Misfortune gives enemy units a chance to fumble their attacks. When combined with an enchantment that gives your archers multiple shots, you can quickly stack this debuff on the entire enemy army, rendering their attacks useless. Experimentation is key to discovering these potent combinations.

Beyond Victory: Advanced Strategies and the Pantheon

You have forged a people, built an empire, and mastered the arts of war and magic. Now, it is time to achieve victory and ascend.

Paths to Glory: Understanding the Victory Conditions

There are several ways to win a game of Age of Wonders 4, each catering to a different playstyle.

Military Victory: The most direct path. Defeat every other ruler in the realm by capturing their Throne City while their leader is banished to the Astral Void. This path is favored by Chaos and Materium affinities.
Expansion Victory: A more peaceful, economic victory. You must control a certain percentage of the map’s provinces (including those of your vassals). Once you do, you must build and defend three Beacons of Unity for 15 turns against waves of marauding armies. This path is favored by Nature and Order affinities.
Magic Victory: The path of the archmage. You must research a Tier V tome, then build three special affinity-based improvements (a Seed, a Root, and a Heart) in your domain. Like the Expansion Victory, you must then defend these locations for 15 turns as your victory spell channels. This path is favored by Astral and Shadow affinities.
Seals Victory (Empires & Ashes DLC): A “king of the hill” style victory. You must capture and hold a number of special Seal provinces on the map. The more Seals you hold, the faster you accumulate victory points.
Score Victory: If no other victory condition is met by the turn limit (usually 150), the player with the highest overall score wins.

Ascending to Godhood: The Pantheon System Explained

Your story does not end when the victory screen appears. Age of Wonders 4 features a deep meta-progression system called the Pantheon.

At the end of every game, win or lose, you earn Pantheon XP for your achievements—defeating rulers, vassalizing cities, clearing wonders, and more. As your Pantheon levels up, you unlock a vast tree of rewards, including new cosmetic options for your rulers, unique starting weapons, and powerful, game-changing Societal Traits that can be used in all future games.

Most importantly, you can choose to ascend your ruler to the Pantheon. An ascended ruler is saved, complete with their name, appearance, and all the racial transformations they acquired. You can then set them to appear in future games. They might show up as a powerful hero offering to join your cause, or as a rival ruler leading their own empire, attempting to re-forge the legendary civilization you once led. This system transforms the game from a series of disconnected matches into a continuous, evolving saga where your own creations become the heroes and villains of your future adventures.

Expanding Realms: Your Guide to All Age of Wonders 4 DLCs

Age of Wonders 4 is a living game, constantly growing with new content packs and major expansions. This guide will be updated to cover all new additions, ensuring you always have the most comprehensive resource available. Here is a breakdown of all currently released and announced major DLCs.

Table: DLC Feature Overview

DLC Name	Type	Key Additions
Dragon Dawn	Content Pack	Dragon Lord Ruler, Lizardfolk Form, Tome of Evolution, Tome of Dragons
Empires & Ashes	Expansion	Reaver Culture, Avian Form, Seals of Power Victory, New Tomes
Primal Fury	Content Pack	Primal Culture, Lupine & Goatkin Forms, New Tomes
Eldritch Realms	Expansion	Eldritch Sovereign Ruler, Umbral Abyss Map Layer, Insectoid & Syron Forms, New Tomes
Ways of War	Content Pack	Oathsworn Culture, Simian & Ogrekin Forms, New Tomes
Giant Kings	Expansion	Giant King Ruler, New Dwelling, New Regions
Archon Prophecy	Expansion	Archon Culture, New Forms, New Tomes, Prophecy Events

Expansion Pass 1

Dragon Dawn: Embrace the power of dragons. This content pack introduces the Dragon Lord ruler type, allowing you to lead your empire as a mighty dragon. It also adds the reptilian Lizardfolk form and two new Tomes of Magic: the Tome of Evolution and the Tome of Dragons, allowing you to imbue your people with draconic power and eventually summon dragons to your side.
Empires & Ashes: Fuse magic and steel to unleash devastating war machines. This full expansion adds the industrial, firearm-wielding Reaver culture and the feathered Avian form. It also introduces the Seals of Power victory condition and four new Tomes of Magic focused on constructs and battlefield control.
Primal Fury: Channel the spirits of nature. This content pack adds the Primal culture, which lets you align your people with an animal to gain unique bonuses. It also includes the wolf-like Lupine and goat-like Goatkin forms, four new Tomes of Magic, and new wildlife creatures.
Eldritch Realms: Open portals to realms of arcane marvels and unspeakable horrors. This expansion introduces the Eldritch Sovereign ruler, a new map layer called the Umbral Abyss, and new racial forms like the Insectoids. It also includes new story content, strange monsters, and three new Tomes of Magic focused on tentacles, corruption, and cleansing flame.

Expansion Pass 2

Ways of War: Perfect the art of battle. This content pack introduces the honor-bound Oathsworn culture, which utilizes warrior codes and intrigue. It adds two new forms, the Simians and Ogrekin, and four new Tomes of Magic: Discipline, Shades, Calamity, and Prosperity.
Giant Kings (Upcoming): Restore the Elder Giants to their rightful place. This expansion will add a new Giant ruler type, a new dwelling, and hand-crafted regions to explore the ruins of a fallen empire.
Archon Prophecy (Upcoming): Command the forces of light. This expansion will feature the celestial Archons, who strike back against corrupting forces. It will include new forms, a new culture, four new Tomes of Magic, and a new “Prophecy” event system.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Age of Wonders 4 belong to the developer Triumph Studios.

Find the game here! Age of Wonders 4 – Paradox Interactive