Those of you who are interested in trying out play by email, take note!

This version is a LOT easier to set up, it just needs your email address and login password. It also supports 10 languages. English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Polish, Finnish, Romanian, Greek and Russian. There are also various UI and usability improvements.

If you are upgrading from the previous version, please uninstall the old version before installing this new one. So exit the Wrapper if it's running, Control Panel / Add Remove Programs - Uninstall the Wrapper from there. It will keep your old config for the new version to use!

Download here;
http://aow.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=1122

Tutorial videos here;
http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=173302036046975

Cheers!

At first, most will think - oh my god that sounds so tedious! In my humble opinion though it's actually a really satisfying way to play these games. Consider the reasons why you might send someone a text message instead of phoning them. A phone call can be intrusive, a text can be replied to at their convenience. It's quite nice to get home from work each day and find 3 or 4 email games waiting for your turn. You could spend five to ten minutes playing each one and that's you done for the day. Maybe the same again in the morning before leaving for work.

In my experience play by email games often reach the advanced stages with players fighting with high level units. To reach a similar stage with an online game could take many hours of continuous play. Most of us, especially those with families, can't afford that kind of time commitment. But 20 minutes here and there once a day is probably a lot more achievable. Reliable people are essential for this as each player has the responsibility of emailing the game turn file to the next person.

An email game can last from a few days to over a year. Smaller games with fewer players move quicker where as large 12 player games can take a week or so to come around to your turn. So when we join an email game we should commit ourselves to see it through. This will ensure the game runs to completion with clear winners and losers.

The Age of Wonders play by email internet community is still very strong to this day. The general convention is to have a turn log thread for every game played. Each player posts a comment which goes something like: 'Elves, Day 10. We captured an Orc city and are migrating it' after each turn they play. Some people write more, some just write 'Turn sent'. This allows everyone in the game to see who's turn it is and monitor the progress of the game. The Steam Age of Wonders forum can be used for this purpose.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=991

Typically there is a sign up thread first, this outlines the map, what races are available and any house rules that apply. Players wishing to join the game then just post which race they want to take along with their email address and when all the slots are taken the game begins. You then just keep an eye on your inbox and off you go.

My aim is to get try to get the Steam Age of Wonders community into playing by email. It can be very rewarding in the long run and, in my experience, doesn't get boring as you can take part in many email games at the same time. Message me via Steam if you want to ask any questions. I am keen to encourage people to try out maps they have made by playing them in this way. Anyway keep an eye on the Steam Age of Wonders forum for sign up posts!

Davespice

Dear all
If you want to do direct play Uncle Phil is your man, if you want to do play by email speak to Davespice. If you are new to playing multiplayer in Age of Wonders please have a read of the 'How to play multiplayer' link above.

Cheers!