Ruined the game by forcing classes. They changed it to the point it is now essentially a wholly different game than the one I bought. May as well be Age of Wonders 5 with how different it is. It's utterly ruined my desire and ability to play because I don't want my heroes to be forcibly assigned classes and more. This wasn't an early access game. I should get a refund for them making this into a game I didn't buy, if this were a normal game experience they would've had to release a whole new game to make such drastic changes as this and I wouldn't have bought that game. I want my money back or my game back yet, instead, I'm stuck with this thing I do not want and have wasted money on it when I could've used that for an actually decent game.

I'VE PUT HOW MANY HOURS INTO THE GAME?!!!!!!!

Okay, well... I'd better explain myself. Age of Wonders 4 is to put it simply, a fantasy version of Sid Meier's Civilisation with a ton of customisation options.

You create an entire fantasy race and their leader, a powerful being known as a Godir. Then send them into one of many possible randomly generated (or story focused) worlds to build, explore and even conquer.

You can choose to either befriend or strike down your rivals. Some of which might be people and their rulers you created and how you grow is defined by the choices you make and the powers you indulge in.

Want to play a traditional Dwarven clan, building and mining? How about a Sauronesque Dark Lord? Or get creative and make a tribe of Steampunk Cats or Holy Goblins. Oh! How about some Corpse eating Moles!

The possibilities give this game a ton of replay value, mods or no mods.

Throw in DLC which adds more and more options, raise an army of Eastern Wolfmen, Tribal Bugs, or even Magical Monkeys led by a Dragon. (Yes, there's DLC where you can play as a Dragon!) The possibilities are endless.

Right, on to the actual gameplay.

Each game kicks off with your Capital City and your first armies already prepared for you so you can quickly begin scrambling for resources. Said resources are guarded by weak hostiles so you can get your first taste for combat and how to play your faction. From there, you plan out how you're going to grow, unlocking new soldiers, City improvements, spells, even transformations for your people.

This is your warning, this game requires a TON of patience. You can spend resources to hurry things up, (highly recommended in the early game) but everything needs a certain number of turns to prepare depending on what and how much of each resource you have. Then there's random events that can force you to switch up your approach. A famine?! Better get some food or your cities are going to shrink! All the multitasking can wear you down, but it's utterly satisfying when see it pay off be it through destroying enemy cities, or using materials to create the ultimate weapon.

There's a lot to see and do in this game to the point where you can completely lose track of time. No joke, I've lost many hours of sleep getting invested in this game. So I highly recommend you keep an eye on the clock as you play. It's so easy to get lost in the stories you create in each game.

Definitely recommended, IF you like HoMM style games.

Only the late game on a map could be better, as 3 vs 3 armies battles are convoluted and (at least for me) not much fun to play manually. A nice trick is to start on manual for the first 2-3 turns, prepare the battlefield and cast spells, then switch to auto, which almost always results in way better results than full auto battles. Unfortunately they also take longer.

Other than that - perfect, love the game.