Age of Wonders 4 is one of my favorite strategy games, combining a rich lore with near-infinite customizability from the start of the game all the way through to the end. The rules are deep, but the user interface provides players with thousands of tooltips to help explain as you play.

The game has nearly a hundred achievements. While many are straightforward, some are difficult to understand, several are hidden, and some demand a careful series of choices to get to the reward. The goal of this guide is to assist you in getting all of the achievements while still managing to enjoy the game. I’ll also explicitly mention ways to get multiple achievements with each playthrough, so that you don’t need to do 100 games to get all the achievements.

Basically, I had great fun working my way through these little tasks, and wanted to share my journey with other (slightly obsessive) folks who just have the urge to try all the challenges!

Getting all the achievements is a monumental task! I got the last one (as of the Archon Prophesy update) at approximately the 600 hour mark. However, I suspect that if you only play solo you could probably “rush” the whole lot in 300 hours or less. Still, that’s a lot of time!

• Achievements don’t work in multiplayer, so make sure you’re set to single player only.
  
  
• In general you may choose any faction you like. However, a handful of the achievements require a specific species, sometimes along with a special Culture choice.
  
  
• Some of the achievements are hidden. I don’t particularly like hidden achievements as they are too hard to guess correctly; however, even Steam will show you what they are if you choose to “Show Spoiler” when looking at the global list. Here, I’ve created a separate section that you can avoid if you don’t want to know!
  
  
• Pay attention to the wording of the achievement…for example, some require a victory but others can be gotten in-game without winning.
  
  
• I’m writing this guide assuming you have all the downloadable content. As this can be an expensive proposition, I certainly understand if you don’t choose to buy all of Paradox’s software. If an achievement seems impossible, make sure you have the necessary DLC to actually win the achievement.
  
  
• I didn’t use any save-scumming (i.e. reloading saves after an achievement to get a different achievement), but I’ve got absolutely nothing against it...it’s your game, play it like you want. (Well, okay, there’s one exception…I felt bad about killing the vendor, so I reloaded after the achievement.)

If an achievement is confusing to you, please post about it and I'll add more description to the guide…sometimes what’s clear to one person may not be so clear to someone else.

Generally, I listed them descending order of the percentage of folks who have gotten them on Steam. This means that the more challenging ones are probably lower in the list, but I wanted to be sure I addressed them all.

Choose a Signature Skill for a hero.

As your heroes gain levels, you place points in the main skill tree. Every four levels, you can choose a signature skill on the right side of the screen. The first time you do this, you get an achievement.


Clear an Ancient Wonder.

The map features labeled structures scattered throughout. Take an army with a hero and enter the structure and complete the quest inside (you’ll see a green check mark beside it when you’re done)…any wonder will do.


Found your first city.

Okay, technically it’s your second city 😊 Send out a hero (or a scout if you’re the Barbarian culture) to a clear spot on the world map and found an outpost, then choose to “Found a City” of your species on that spot. If it won’t let you found the outpost, you may be too close to another structure; if you can found the outpost but not the city, then you probably chose Megacities as a world option, which only lets you have the one city.


Breach a city’s walls.

Go to war, then send an army to attack a city. Based on the fortification rating of the city, you’ll take a certain number of turns to break the walls and get the achievement.


Integrate a Free City into your empire.

This does not mean conquer a Free City! These cities are the stand-alone “neutral” cities you’ll encounter in the world as you explore. To integrate one, you’ll need to start to influence it with a Whispering Stone. Eventually, the city will become a Vassal, then a Bonded Vassal. Next is Flourishing Vassal, where you can now choose to “Integrate” the city. This makes it part of your empire and gets the achievement.


Sell the remains of a hero in your crypt.

Under the “Heroes” icon of your game (upper left, looks like a helmet), you’ll have some tabs to choose from…one is the Crypt, one is the Prison. The Crypt will generally contain the remains of heroes you’ve beaten in combat. Select one, and sell the remains to get the achievement. Possible point of confusion: You don’t need to build the crypt in your throne city to have access to this tab.


Complete a collection of Magic Materials.

Magic materials appear on the world map as unique objects, and each grants your empire (and your forge) a benefit individually. However, they also give an additional benefit if obtained in a matching group of three (i.e. a collection, such as Haste Berries, Silvertongue Fruit, and Rainbow Clover. You can obtain these in a lot of ways, but there are three typical methods.

• First, simply expand a city’s territory to claim the material.
  
• Second, befriend a free city…(nearly) all of them have a magic material in their domain, which they will share with you for a price. Once vassalized, they’ll give it to you for free.
  
• Third, build an outpost on the material, or next to it and then expand it via a Work Camp to claim the treat.

Not getting the material despite owning the province? Make sure you’ve cleared whatever monster is squatting on the resource.


From here on, less than half the players have gotten the achievements, so I’ll try to be very clear in my explanations.


Create an alliance with another Ruler.

When you meet an AI player for the first time, you establish diplomatic relations. Some are happy to meet you, others not so much. For the achievement, find a ruler who is amenable to your overtures, and greet them with a gift. Over time, click on the ruler’s picture in the upper right of the screen. Suggest progressively closer relations, beginning with a Wizard’s bond and progressing through Defensive Pact, and finally on to Alliance. You typically need a certain minimum of positive relations to make this work…a great way to do this is to give money, forgive grievances, and send unwanted items as gifts. Keep at it, and eventually you’ll get the Alliance and the achievement.

Note: Free City relations don’t apply to this achievement.


Win the game as a Champion.

A Champion is the first type of the leader you can select (the left-most on the screen). Play and win!
Note: It doesn’t matter what sub-type you choose…you can be a Champion Spellblade, or Warrior, or whatever you choose.


Complete all levels of the Wizard’s Tower in a Tier 4 Throne City.

Once your Throne City is upgraded to Tier 3, you can start building your Wizard’s Tower. At Tier 4, you can finish it by building successively until you complete the Apex, and thus the achievement.
Note: Only your Throne City can build the Wizard’s Tower, and only a Tier 4 City can finish it, so the wording is a little redundant…i.e. there’s only one requirement (build the Apex), not three, because those are prerequisites.


Cause at least 3 enemy units to rout during a single battle.

If playing a tactical (i.e. manual) battle between armies, you’ll need to wear down your opponent until three of the enemy units “break” and run (as shown by a little flashing boot icon over the unit). The best way to make units break is to kill them starting with the highest “Tier” units, especially heroes. Each of these kills will reduce enemy morale, and the low level units will eventually rout.
Note: This achievement may just ‘happen’ to you during an Autocombat, as three units often rout in the later game when there are up to 36 units on the field at once. Also, certain hero items, abilities, and spells affect how quickly enemy morale falls. And some units just don’t rout, such as most Tier V (five) monsters, mechanical units, and most heroes.


Have 20+ Recruitment Points available in the Rally of the Lieges.

The Rally of the Lieges occurs every 15 turns, and you get Recruitment Points to spend to recruit from the list of units displayed there. You get points from the same sources you get the units…mainly free cities and annexed Ancient Wonders. Get to 20, and you have the achievement.
Reference: The film “A League of Their Own,” about a World War 2-era American baseball league for women.


Have your race undergo 3 race transformations.

As you research new spells, you gain access to new Tomes. Some of these will have a one-time spell which once researched and cast will transform your entire race and add traits and improvements. Transformations come in “Minor” and “Major,” and both count toward the achievement. You can stack an unlimited number of minor transformations (e.g. you can [ironically] have both Steel Skin and Leaf Skin), but only one major transformation (such as Demonkin). If you cast a second major transformation, you’ll have to choose between the new and the old.

Excavate a province in the Underground.

One of the simplest achievements: Play an underground race (they start with the Excavation skill) and move any unit *directly next to the wall* of your starting cavern. Click the little shovel icon near the circular unit picture at the bottom of your screen. Then, on the map, click the shovel icon on the dirt wall. The following turn you’ll have excavated the wall and gotten the achievement.
Note: Not all walls can be excavated…you’ll see that some of the dirt (or ice) has a sparkly quality. If you’re not sure, click the shovel icon as described and it will highlight excavatable walls within your vision. Non-underground races can get the achievement nearly as easily, but you’ll need to spend the Imperium on the excavation perk and then find a passage into the underworld.


Win the game as a Wizard King.

A Wizard King is the second type of the leader you can choose. Play and win! It doesn’t matter what sub-type you choose…you can be a Wizard King Elementalist, or Defender, or whatever you choose.
Note: It took me a surprisingly long time to realize that I could be a Warrior Wizard King. Age of Wonders really lets you do your own thing.
Reference: The third book (or movie) in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Return of the King.


Own a dragon.

Any adult dragon will do, but not the young ones. Not surprisingly, the Tome of Dragons provides the most reliable way to get this achievement…build a young dragon in a city and bring it into combat until it reaches “Legendary” rank, at which time it will promote to a full Dragon. You can also build cities near certain landmarks to be able to build dragons directly.


Fulfill a Hero’s Major and Minor Ambitions.

You can’t exactly fulfill a minor ambition, as they are repeatable…you just need to do it at least once. Major ambitions vary *widely* in their difficulty. To get the achievement, you can pick one of the easier ones like Elitist, Delver, or Collector (with an underground race, I’ve completed Delver in four turns).


Fill all the equipment slots of a single hero.

Due to weapon choice, you can’t always fill all the circles on the hero’s equipment page. For example, “Mount” may be unavailable. Fortunately, the game is forgiving, and you just need to fill all the circles that you can for that hero (i.e. unavailable slots are counted as filled, just like for the Collector ambition). The hardest to fill (in my experience) are the three accessory slots (and probably why only 25% of players have this achievement); best to have a Forge and make the ones you need.


Acquire the Tome of Evolution and the Tome of Dragons

The Tome of Evolution is a Tier I choice, and the Tome of Dragons unlocks at Tier III. There’s not much complexity to this achievement except that it’s possible to miss it because Tier I tomes stop being available in the later game. Best to start with your first Tome being Evolution…it’s a good one to have anyway.


Have 50 Gold Income from the Dragon Hoard

The Dragon Hoard is a feature of the Dragon Lord leader origin. Items you own but aren’t using are placed in the Arsenal. Normally, they just sit there, but a Dragon Lord gets extra gold every turn for each item depending on rarity (1 to 9 gold per turn per item). Note that there won't be any area explicitly labeled "Dragon Hoard." This just means the Arsenal.

Getting a pile of items can take a while, but it’s easier for some societies. Also, realms with regenerating infestations will give you endless marauder nests to raid, and they all have at least an item or two.


Have a Dragon Lord with a Major Transformation

This one is semantically tricky, as a Major Transformation is *not* the same as a Major Race Transformation (which won’t affect the Dragon Lord). It’s actually a little easier…just make it level 8, and choose an affinity from the right side of the skill tree. These are “Major Transformations,” and will unlock the achievement.


Win a game as a Dragon Lord

Just like it says on the tin. 😊
Reference: The name of the achievement is from hic sunt dracones, a notation on the edge of at least one medieval map to indicate unknown lands. The Latin translates to “Here are dragons.”


Unlock all Empire Skills of an Affinity of your choice.

A surprisingly rare achievement (about 12% of Steam players have it). In the Empire Skills tree, simply acquire every skill along one branch. Most of the skill trees have some choices which aren’t the best use of Imperium, so you’ll need to make a conscious effort to get this achievement. I think the “natural” choice for this achievement is Nature, as all of the skills are at least somewhat useful, and many are excellent.

Note that you can’t get the achievement with the General skills branch (the grey one at the bottom of the tree).

Forge an item with a custom name

You need an Item Forge, which can be built in your Throne City (Giant Kings and some societies start with a Forge). Click on the anvil to access the Forge, then the anvil again, then pick an item from one of the categories. Finally, add some characteristics…the number doesn’t matter.
The item will have an auto-generated name. Change that to something else, like the “Starlight of Xoth,” (for those who are Lovecraftian inspired).

Now, forge the item…you need to complete the forging for the achievement. As a bonus, this item may show up in future playthroughs as a random drop, so choose the name carefully so you don’t annoy your future self 😊

Reference: The name of the achievement references the United States Marine Corps Rifleman’s Creed, which states “This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine,” emphasizing the bond between a Marine and his/her weapon. Appropriate, no?



Cover one of your city’s [sic] entire domain in mist.

This one is simple if you know exactly what to do.

• Acquire the Tier II Tome of the Fey Mists.
  
• This tome immediately allows you build a Feywater Pond as a province improvement.
  
• Build it, and your entire city Domain becomes misty, gaining the achievement.

Don’t be fooled by the Lingering Mists spell! I think you could technically get the achievement with it by storing up one, then casting it on the provinces in a very small city. Since it only lasts three turns, you can’t cover the domain on a larger one.


Build a Sanctuary Outpost in the Umbral Abyss.

You can send units into Umbral Abyss through the tentacular portals on the map. The difficulty in the achievement arises from the Abyss itself…the Outpost Locations are typically guarded by either an Umbral Nest or an Umbral City (rarely they can be empty). The monsters and terrain of the Abyss are highly hostile, so you’ll need to wait until you have some power in your army to try this.

I recommend finding an Outpost with a Nest; the battle will be easier, and they can be identified because they spread like an infestation from the Umbral portals onto the world map. Beat the squatters, and then click on the circular location with a hero present. You’ll be given the opportunity to build a Sanctuary Outpost and you’ll get the achievement when it completes.

(Note that playing the first Eldritch story Realm will walk you through this achievement.)


Win the game having unlocked at least 1 tome of each of the 6 Affinities.

Surprisingly rare, this achievement just needs you to pick a tome from all six columns. I got it incidentally, so I don’t know if dual tomes (such as Evolution’s Chaos & Nature) aren’t counted or if they count as two tomes.


Get a Gold Dragon or an Obsidian Dragon

Please refer to the Draconic Connoisseur achievement to see how this is done.


Reach Paragon level Devotion

This is purely an achievement to explore the Oathsworn culture, available in the Ways of War DLC.
Choose one of the three Oaths, and then follow the path to improve your Devotion until it reaches the Paragon (highest) level. For example, if you follow Harmony, basically you should be an adept diplomat with other races and empires…forgiving grievances, having a multiethnic empire, etc.
At Paragon, you’ll get the achievement.


Summon a Prosperity or Calamity Dragon

This is much simpler than some of the other Dragon achievements. Here, you just need to research the appropriate Tome (the Tome of Prosperity or Calamity…see, simple?). Calamity requires high affinity for Chaos and Dark; Prosperity needs high levels of Nature and Order.
Note: The Calamity Dragon is probably the better unit, but it also requires the destruction of a province to summon.

Gain the additional benefits from a Landmark

Landmarks randomly occur as unique labeled regions on the surface or underground. Any owned province adjacent to the landmark gains some sort of minor benefit. If you build a city nearby and annex three provinces adjacent to the landmark, you’ll get the major benefit, which can be quite powerful and will at least reward you with an achievement.


Win the game as an Eldritch Sovereign

Just as described. You’ll need the Eldritch Realms DLC to have access to the Sovereign leader.


Complete a quest for a Crystal Dwelling.

This achievement comes from the Giant Kings DLC. You need to enable the Crystal Dwelling in the Realm Traits before starting the game. You’ll encounter them relatively early (the actual Free City is in the Underground, but their armies are all around the map), and they will offer you a quest to improve relations. These are of two types: Kill a group of marauders, or forge an item (only offered after you have a Forge). Accept the quest and complete it for the achievement.


Obtain an Artifact
The best way to gain an artifact is simply to buy it from the Crystal Dwelling after reaching the first tier of cooperation with them. You can also get artifacts from quest areas on the world map if you've enabled Legends of Myrrida. Both routes need the Giant Kings DLC.


Recruit a unit of Tier 3 or higher by subduing them.

This requires you to play as the Reaver culture, and thus requires the Empires and Ashes DLC.
The Reavers have a Tier II unit called the Overseer, which has a special mechanic called “Subdue.” The unit can “subdue” any unit affected by Immobilized, Frozen, or Stunned.
There’s obviously some random mechanics at play here. You’ll need a unit or spell which inflict one of the debuffs listed above; a good starting pick is the Tome of Cryomancy, which gives you the spell Ice Coffin and a unit (the White Witch). Both of these can inflict Frozen.
Use your powers on Tier III units until one of them is Frozen (for example), then subdue the target with the Overseer. If you win the battle, you get the unit and the achievement.


Have an Ironclad use all types of Ammunition in a single battle.

This requires the Empires and Ashes DLC, and you’ll need to research the Tier III Tome of the Dreadnought (a hybrid Chaos and Materium Tome). That will in turn allow you to research the Ironclad, which is a steampunk-style tank unit.
Bring your new weapon into combat. The Ironclad uses ranged weaponry, so keep it in the back line. Every turn, use a free action to activate a different type of ammunition (there are three) and then fire at some enemy unit. At the end of the battle (I assume you need to win) you get the achievement.
Reference: The nod is to Dawn of the Dead, sequel to the classic zombie movie Night of the Living Dead.

Complete an Intrigue Happening.

Intrigue Happenings are the result of a Realm trait—you have to make sure the trait is active—which allows for unusual subterfuge to happen to fellow (AI) players in the game. Generally, they take the form of an opposing leader being replaced by a sinister interloper of some sort, whether a demon or a rebel. Your job is to investigate and then typically march on the capital city to liberate the poor deposed ruler.

The steps vary, but they are clearly spelled out in the quest tracker (the upper left of the main screen). These will take at least 80 turns on larger maps, and will require a concerted effort on your part, but they are nice additions to the game even if you weren’t going for the achievement.


Win a game as a Giant King.
Win however you want with any type of Giant King; you just need the Giant Kings expansion to do it.


Use intimidate 3 times on the same Free City.

This uses the Reaver Culture, and therefore needs the Empires and Ashes DLC.
Reavers gain a different currency than other Cultures. These “War Spoils” have several uses, but one is to intimidate free cities into advancing their loyalty to you. Make sure you have plenty of War Spoils, and then pick a Free City with one of your Whispering Stones to intimidate. This will advance the loyalty part of the way to the next level, and then you can Intimidate again. When the loyalty goes up again, repeat the intimidation, and you’ll have the achievement.

Note: If it’s already a Bonded Vassal or higher, you won’t be able to use the skill three times before it reaches the maximum loyalty, so pick a city you haven’t tried to influence before.


Reach an Eternal Pact with a Crystal Dwelling.

With the Giant Kings expansion, enable the Crystal dwelling in a Custom Realm. You’ll meet the Crystal Dwellers within the first ten or so turns, and they will begin to offer quests to improve loyalty. The most efficient ones involve defeating Marauder armies or (after you have a Forge) creating an item for them. However, there’s always something you can do, such as simply offer an item, or even yourself for them to study. Note that they always want your best item, and they won’t give it back.
These tasks all improve loyalty, and after you’ve completed enough of them, you’ll level up your relations with them. Eternal Pact is the final state of alliance with them, and will give you the award as soon as you reach it.


Forge a ring with 3 or more infusions, including Universal Camouflage.

Refer to “But This One is Mine” for details on the Forge. In this case, you need to specifically pick a ring and add three ‘infusions’ which are the properties in the small circles below the item. As long as one is Universal Camouflage, you get the achievement. The only twist is that you need access to Silvertongue Fruit to be able to add the infusion.
Reference: This is a nod to the One Ring (which granted invisibility), forged by Sauron and destroyed by Frodo in The Lord of the Rings.


Complete an Artifact collection and trigger a Collection Happening.

Maps can contain Artifacts, which are collected in groups of three like materials. Once you have a matching set, a special event will trigger the following turn. You can decline the event; don’t do that if you want the achievement.

To complete this achievement, you must have a Realm with either the Crystal Dwelling or Legends of Myrrida active. By far the easier is the Crystal Dwelling…as you do quests for the Dwellers, you gain the ability to trade mana for various items, including three artifacts. Buying all three triggers the event and the achievement. The hard route via Myrrida means having to locate and defeat three special map events (and I’m not sure all three are always present), each of which gives you an artifact. Just hope that the AI doesn’t beat you to the punch.


Fulfill a vision from a Prophecy Trait.

This is an achievement from the Archon Prophecy expansion. You’ll need to choose a race with a “Prophecy” society trait. You have a lot of choices here…you can pick any of the Vision traits (Destiny, Promise, and Ruin,) and then once the game starts you’ll pick again to narrow it by affinity. In general, the visions from the first of these (Vision of Destiny) are somewhat simpler to fulfill, but all are quite achievable.
For example, the Vision of Destiny (Nature) just asks you to claim a number of provinces and build your Nature Affinity to 8. This fulfills the quest and gives you the achievement!


Construct a Monument Apex of any affinity.

This is an achievement from the Archon Prophecy expansion, using the included Architect Culture. The Architects can gather Wonderstone from various sources, but largely from Surveying with scouts and from Magic Materials.

Start building the monument in a high-production city, because it will ultimately cost a *lot* of production. As your city advances in Tier, and your Affinity advances, you’ll be able to build the various stages (you need three affinity just to start the monument). Like the Wizard Tower, you’ll gradually build it up until you complete the Apex and the achievement!

Reference: Magnum Opus is Latin for “Great Work,” and refers to a person’s (or society’s) greatest creation.

Visit all types of Visit Site in the Umbral Abyss in a single playthrough.

This one is both simple and difficult. It’s simple because there are only three Visit Sites to visit, and they are visually distinct. Panophobia listed these quite succinctly on the Steam forums, so I’m using their information with some clarification:

• The Scrying Sanctum (a Masonic-like symbol…an eye within a triangle)
  
• Quicksilver Basin (a well filled with silvery liquid)
  
• Soothing Shrine (a hooded statue, with candles and a golden magic circle)

It can be hard to find all three, so play on at least a medium map and patiently scout Umbral portals until you find all of them. You may get lucky and find them in the first few turns you start looking, or you may be like me and take an entire 100 turn game to locate all of them 😊


Defeat a shop owner in battle.

I feel like such a cad attacking the shopkeepers, who only want to help. It’s easy, however; even a moderately powerful army can take out a shopkeeper. The only reward worth having is the achievement, though.


Consume 6 Flora Obstacles in a single battle.

The only surprise here is that only 1.4% of players have this one. To get the achievement you just need to choose any race and give them the characteristic “Herbivore.” This will allow any of the race’s units to consume one flora obstacle per battle in exchange for some healing. As a free action it’s not a bad choice of traits, and it pairs with nearly any other achievement.
Pick a manual battle where you have a lot of your own racial units and you’re fighting on a flora-rich province, like forest. Spend the first round snacking, and the achievement is yours.


Recruit all Wizards of Evermore to your Pantheon (Yaka, Nimue, Arachna, Fangir, Artica, and Karissa.)

These are the various Wizards you’ll encounter as you play through the baseline Godir campaign. It’s probably one of the longest to complete, but you have to do all the campaign scenarios anyway if you’re trying to get the achievements.

After every campaign victory, at least one of these will be automatically added to your Pantheon. For example, after you beat the first campaign, Yaka will join your Pantheon.
The only one that doesn’t appear automatically is Artica. You’ll need to pick her from the Library of rulers, win a game with her, and then ascend her to the Pantheon.

What if you’re like me and accidentally delete Yaka and Nimue to declutter your Pantheon? No problem, just more work. I played Yaka from the library and put him back in the Pantheon, and then I played the second scenario with Artica, and that added both her and Nimue into the Pantheon, completing the achievement.


Call a crusade on an enemy.

This achievement is clearly here to highlight a new mechanic in the Archon Prophecy expansion, and it requires you to have a Realm with Celestial Grounds enabled. This spawns Hosts of Crusader units. You can actually communicate with these guys, and as you become more Good, you’ll be able to interact more. At lower levels of Goodness, you can get them to leave without a fight.

However, at Pure Good, you can call a Crusade and send them to attack another leader.
If you play the first Archon Prophecy Story Realm, you’ll find the conditions are already there, but it conflicts with the other achievement (i.e. Finish as Pure Evil). I did it on a Custom Realm with Celestial Grounds enabled.


Complete a Lost Soul Quest.

I think this one requires the Thrones of Blood expansion. I got it by starting a game on Kovar Drozhka, the new realm included with the expansion. It has the Sunless Highlands feature, which I think is necessary to find the Lost Soul quests. Fortunately the lost soul was just north of my starting position.

The Lost Souls look like single-unit ghosts on the map. Interact with the sad spirit, and you'll get a quest...mine was to chase down a headless knight. Once I beat him, I was given a second quest to clear his graveyard. Completing that little task awarded the achievement...I didn't need to beat the map.

Note that this quest is timed, so don't start it (or at least save your game) before you have an army capable of beating the moderately challenging graveyard "infestation."

The base game has a series of five interconnected Story Realms which link to form a lore-rich story. Several expansions add more of these connected Story Realms, themed around the expansions’ new mechanics. Most of these Story Realms have two achievements…one for just finishing the Realm, and the other for doing it with some sort of twist (these tend toward darker endings).




Complete “Rise of the Godir: Valley of Wonders.”
AND
In “Rise of the Godir: Valley of Wonders,” wage war against Sundren.

The first story questline. Complete it any way you want for the achievement, but to get them both you need to declare war on Sundren at some point. She really wants to be your friend, so it will take some machinations to declare a justified war (to avoid penalties). Alternately, you can do it just before you win; a true betrayal!


Complete “Rise of the Godir: The Enchanted Archipelago.”

The second chapter in Rise of the Godir. A straightforward military victory, introducing the islands map.
Note: Don’t bother to set up a race with Seafaring traits, as you’ll get Advanced Seafaring early in the story.

Complete “Rise of the Godir: Crimson Caldera.”
AND
In “Rise of the Godir: Crimson Caldera,” defeat all the contesting Godir through regular conquest.

The third chapter in Rise of the Godir. To avoid playing twice, you’ll need to win a military victory. I used an Isolationist “Chosen Destroyers” trait for my race so that each destroyed city made my home city stronger. This makes the game a lot faster because it’s all conquest and very little city management. It’s also thematic for the locale, in my opinion 😊


Complete “Rise of the Godir: Eternal Court.”
AND
In “Rise of the Godir: Eternal Court,” defeat Meandor through regular conquest.

The fourth chapter in Rise of the Godir. To get both achievements you need to be in full war mode again. This is a big map with a lot of factions; avoid any peaceful resolution and fight Meandor to defeat (don’t worry…he’ll be back in later chapters). In my playthrough, I captured his throne but he escaped and I couldn’t find him…until I realized that he can be located by clicking on the quest marker in the upper left of your screen 😊


Complete “Rise of the Godir: Grexolis.”
AND
Complete "Rise of the Godir: Grexolis" without any of your allies getting defeated.

The fifth and ultimate chapter in Rise of the Godir. To avoid playing twice, you’ll need to win without an ally losing. I played on Easy because I felt that I had limited control over whether my many allies lived or died to the enemy team. It’s a big map and a challenge even on Easy, but sweep around and eventually you’ll knock out the other guys for the win.

Complete “Empires and Ashes: Freed Lands of Manuhari.”
AND
In “Freed Lands of Manuhari,” slay the Warden of Manuhari at least 5 times.

The first chapter of the Empires and Ashes story. To have both achievements, you’ll need to face the Warden five times. The Warden is a mechanical monster who shows up (for me) on about turn 25, attacks, and then comes back about every 15 turns after being destroyed. Beating him is a moderate challenge, but mostly it’s a matter of patience to get the achievement.

Note: The story behind the recurring attacks is that the Warden is an ancient guardian of the local tribes (Krazura) who sees you as a threat initially. If you complete the Trials of the Yukara during this mission, you’ll make friends with the locals, and you’ll get a feather which can stop the Warden from returning. Don’t use it if you want the achievement!
Reference: In Greek myth, Prometheus was a Titan who pitied mankind under Zeus’ reign, and stole fire to share with humans. For his transgression Zeus chained him to a mountain where an eagle would eat his liver every day, and it would then grow back overnight. I’m honestly not sure how this relates to the achievement.



Complete “Empires and Ashes: Sehiran Oasis.”
AND
In “Sehiran Oasis,” encounter the Chaos Endalion.

Well, not exactly. You have to encounter the Endalion *and* then accept the deal you’re offered, which will reduce your leader’s health to 1. The encounter will occur when you approach Edward’s territory, which may be many turns into the game. It may not be clear that you’re talking to the Chaos Endalion, but if you’re offered a deal to lose most of your health, take it to get the achievement.
This is the second and final story mission from Empires and Ashes.

Complete “Eldritch Realms: Tharru’Cath.”

AND

In “Tharru’Cath,” meet the Shadow Endalion.

The first of the Eldritch Realms campaign missions. This isn’t hard, but it’s a great introduction to the Umbral Abyss mechanics, which can otherwise be pretty confusing.
The Pure Shadow achievement is easily gotten here…you’ll have an encounter called Vision of Shadows, which is the avatar of the Endalion of Shadow. Make sure you “Accept its blessing,” and you’ll have the achievement.


Complete “Eldritch Realms: Arcalot.”
The second and last Eldritch Realms campaign mission. This one has a vicious timer on it. However, if you play on Easy, you can handily keep resetting it by killing umbral units and infestations. The timer starts at 20 turns, but by the end I had over 40 turns left from all the “extra credit” I got.
Note that there is no second achievement tied to this mission.

Complete “Archon Prophecy: Rings of Emnora.”

AND

Complete “Rings of Emnora” while at Pure Evil Alignment.

The first of the two Archon Prophecy scenarios. This makes for an interesting map which is essentially three linked scenarios, each more difficult than the last. After completing a quest in each mini-realm, you can teleport to the next area and start again.
I completed this scenario with my old friends the Chosen Destroyers, who beeline for Pure Evil by razing every city they encounter, and helping me get both achievements. The second one is notable for being the rarest achievement (until the next DLC, I’m sure), with only one in 500 players having it.

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Complete “Archon Prophecy: Cliffs of Sordunn.”

AND

In “Cliffs of Sordunn,” encounter all of the Endalion.

The second and final Archon Prophecy scenario. This is a long mission where you are taking on an old enemy, and you can choose to redeem him or kill him at the end. If you want the achievement, take the redemption path by visiting each of the six Endalion in their mini-realms.
The Materium Endalion is slightly north of all the others…not too hard to find, but just to save you any trouble in finding it….
Each has a unique encounter condition and powerful rewards…once you’re done, you can confront the final battle and use your new knowledge to counter the enemy’s spells and squeeze the evilness out of him. Good on you! You get two achievements!

Note: Save before the final confrontation! You’ll have to make correct dialogue choices to win, and even though these seemed quite obvious to me, a slip of the finger could be quite a setback.

(Note: I've included four of the six expansion achievements, because it's readily possible to get them all in a single playthrough. I put Exorcist in the General Achievements, and the last one is hidden, so check there if you want to be spoiled.)

Complete "Thrones of Blood: Blood and Courtship"

AND

Win a game as an Elder Vampire.

This is the Thrones of Blood expansion story mission. If you complete it, you'll automatically get both of these, because you have to play as an Elder Vampire in the scenario. The story is well done and a great introduction to the Sunless Realm and the considerable power of the newest Leader type.

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Build all Vampire Castle upgrades in a single playthrough.


AND

Perform a Blood Moon Ritual.

You can win the scenario long before you can complete these, but if you're looking to maximize your achievements you can easily get them at the same time as the first two. For Castle Mania, you need to build *all* the upgrades, not just the tower itself. These include the Abattoir, Deep Crypts, Ritual Chamber, etc. Once you've collected the whole set, you get the prize!

Once you've done that, you will have unlocked all the rituals, which are cast like spells. The most advanced of these is Crimson Eclipse, which makes the entire world vampire-friendly for ten turns. Casting this unlocks the achievement.

Note: The reference is to Castlevania, a 1986 Nintendo classic which pits Simon Belmont (a vampire hunter) against the legendary Count Dracula. The franchise is still going strong today!

You can easily pair these with any other kind of victory, but the game needs to be long enough to make sure you meet the requirements for the Tier V tome:

• Have an affinity of at least 8 in the chosen discipline.
  
  
• Research two Tier IV tomes in the same discipline.
  
  
• Do not have a Tier V tome in any other discipline.

To make these achievements slightly simpler, I recommend using “Unlocked Tomes” in the Realm Settings. If you do, you’ll be given a choice of all of the Tier V tomes when you’ve researched two Tier IVs…this makes it harder to paint yourself into a corner.
With Unlocked Tomes, you can even get all the Tome achievements by save-scumming and choosing different Tier V tomes (at least I think you can…I didn’t).

Unlock a Tier V Astral Affinity tome.

Unlock a Tier V Order Affinity tome.

Unlock a Tier V Shadow Affinity tome.

Unlock a Tier V Materium Affinity tome.

Unlock a Tier V Chaos Affinity tome.

Unlock a Tier V Nature Affinity tome.

The Military Victory is by far the most common achievement of this bunch. This is probably because it can be done relatively quickly, whereas the others require reaching a highly developed society in a very long game.
A Score Victory is possible if the game drags to turn 150 (bleh), but there’s no achievement for it.
Although I didn’t try it, I’m pretty sure you can save-scum these achievements. Once you’re at the endgame, you’ll be qualified to pursue all of the various victory conditions, so you can bind some wonders, research all the victory spells, accumulate some seal points, etc.
After winning with one condition, you can reload the game and win with a different path, preventing you from having to play through such a long game again. I happen to like long games, but these can take 20 hours, so it’s completely understandable if you don’t want to dedicate that much time to a tiny digital square on your computer 😊


Reach a Military Victory.

Probably the most straightforward victory, you win this way by having every opponent in an Alliance, or by defeating them.
Notes: Make sure to set Allied victories as a condition in the Realm setup, or you’ll have to beat everyone else in combat. If you play one-on-one against the computer, you’ll automatically be on separate “Teams,” which means you’re in a permanent state of war, and will need to capture their city and banish their leader. Finally, if you “negotiate” during a siege and the final opponent agrees to you being Overlord, you’ll win a military victory.

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Reach a Magic Victory.
Around the map you’ll see ancient wonders of three different “grades;” bronze, silver and gold. The Magic Victory requires a simple seven-step process 😉:

• Clear and annex two gold Wonders. You can annex with a either a city or an outpost.
  
  
• Research the Bind Gold Ancient Wonder Spell; this becomes available when you get your first Tier III tome.
  
  
• Acquire a Tier V tome in any discipline (see Tome Achievements for details).
  
  
• Once you have the Tier V tome, you can research an Age of Magic spell…the specific name will vary depending on the tome you chose.
  
  
• Now use the Bind spell on two ancient wonders (you can do it earlier, but it will put a crimp in your diplomacy.)
  
  
• Then, cast the Age of Magic spell.
  
  
• Now, a timer (15 turns with my settings) starts. Guard your Ancient Wonders, because they’ll be attacked, and the timer will reset if you lose a Wonder even briefly.
  
  
• Victory!

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Reach an Expansion Victory.
This is the victory for the patient empire builder, and is thus quite a rare achievement. You need to:
Control a certain percentage of the map (varies by game setting), including your own cities and any Free Cities which are at least Bonded Vassals. Allied players don’t count! This requirement isn’t prohibitively high, but it will take a while.

• When you reach the percentage requirement, you’ll get an announcement that you can build Beacons of Unity.
  
  
• Build/acquire at least three cities of your own.
  
  
• Build a Beacon of Unity in at least three cities. This is a province improvement, so you’ll need to defend the Beacons from attempts to raze it by Marauders and other players.
  
  
• Choose “Light the Beacons” by selecting the province improvement itself. This took me a while to figure out.
  
  
• Control all three for 15 turns, and you win!

Note: By definition, you can’t get this achievement with Megacities or Chosen Destroyers, because you can’t build three cities.

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Reach a Seals Victory.

Important! You can’t win this way unless you specifically enable seals victories in the Realm settings…you can choose how many Seal Points you need to win at the same time.
As you explore the map, you’ll quickly find Seals scattered about. They are guarded by a fairly powerful army, so you can’t occupy them immediately. Soon, however, you and your AI opponents will start to occupy them, and you’ll begin the long process of accumulating Seal Victory points. The current scores and requirements are displayed in the upper left corner of your screen.
You get one point per turn per seal occupied at the end of a turn. This can be a fairly fast victory if you can grab several seals. Some caveats:

• The seals are regularly challenged by marauders, so you either need to put strong defenders on the seals, or be prepared to recapture them periodically.
  
  
• Occupying a seal generates grievances, so this sort of victory tends to produce a more chaotic diplomatic game.
  
  
• You can’t annex Seal-containing territories, so Domain protection effects won’t help you.
  
  
• Allies can be your undoing! If you get kicked off a seal, an ally might move in to occupy it, effectively denying it to you. While you still win if they achieve victory, this can really slow down your victory.

These achievements are marked as "hidden" in Steam, but you can reveal them in the Global Achievements list. I'm not in favor of hidden achievements like these because you have essentially no way of knowing how to approach them, and you are incredibly unlikely to get them by simply playing the game.

However, if you want to be surprised, please don't read further!

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Lead a Naga transformed faction to victory as an Arch Mage.

This victory requires two tomes, but otherwise can be done any way you choose, and can be paired with other victories (most obviously Arch Mage). You need the Tier IV Tome of the Stormborne (from the Primal Fury expansion) and the Arch Mage tome.

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Lead an Umbral transformed Insectoid faction to victory.

This is *not* the minor race transformation “Umbral Flesh,” but rather the Gloom Strider major race transformation obtainable from the Tier III Tome of Corruption (requires some Astral and Dark affinity).
Note: This is one of the few times when your choice of race is more than just cosmetic.

Reference: This is from Warhammer 40K. One of the most terrifying enemies of the Empire of Mankind, the Tyranid are an extra-galactic race of adaptable locusts which devour entire planets down to the bedrock, then move to the next and repeat. As a group, they referred to as the All-Devourer.

Also, it references Age of Wonders 2 as pointed out in the comments!
"The All-Devourer achievement is a reference to the classic Shadow Demons form AoW2.
Although the tyranids also fit and they might have been an inspiration for the devs creating that faction."

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Lead a faction of Halflings to victory as a human Wizard King.

Nothing is required other than the choice of race and the Wizard King leader. This leader can be any class, by the way.
Reference: I probably don’t need to explain this to anyone who’s pursuing hidden achievements in Age of Wonders, but the Grey Wizard is Gandalf from Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit), who has a particular liking of Hobbits (which is trademarked for another few years, so you have to call them halflings).
I really leaned into this one and made a whole themed race. Achievements can be inspiring!

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Lead a faction of Dark Goblins to victory as a Lord of Chaos.

Make sure you notice all three of the requirements, since most of these achievements have only two…you need the:

• Goblin race
  
• Dark Culture
  
• Lord of Chaos Tier V tome.

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Lead a faction of Righteous Orcs to victory.

Again, any leader or victory is okay. You just need the Orc race and the Oathsworn Culture, specifically the Righteous choice.

Reference: I *think* this is an homage to a fan who vociferously wanted to see an Orc Samurai faction. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

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Lead a faction of Crystallized Dwarves to victory as a Giant King.

To be clear, you need :

• The Dwarf racial type
  
• Any Giant King leader,
  
• The Tier III Tome of Geomancy (hybrid Astral and Materium),
  
• To cast the Geomantic Crystallization major race transformation.

Don’t accidentally overwrite this with another major transformation!

Reference: It *could* be another Lord of the Rings reference when Treebeard is breaking up the “Rock and Stone” walls of Isengard. I choose to believe that it’s a reference to another fantastic game, Deep Rock Galactic, where “Rock and Stone!” is a constant shout-out between players.


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Defeat an Elder Vampire empire as a Champion with the Ranger class

Summary of requirements:

• A mortal Champion leader
  
• The leader must be a Ranger
  
• The opponent must be a Vampire Elder
  
• You do not need to win to get the achievement, only defeat the vampire's empire (i.e. banish/kill the ruler and take the Throne City).

My game:
To keep with the theme, I built a Van Helsing-themed Archon race. The Professor himself was a champion ranger (as needed for the achievement). My setup was a large world with two opponents, both subterranean to give me time to expand (I played on the hardest difficulty, but this is absolutely unnecessary!)

My Vampire Elder opponent was from the library, specifically Varnas Bathoris. The other opponent was a random from my list of Ascended Heroes. Once I was ready (around turn 110), I took my armies to his capital, besieged it, and got the achievement!

Note: I’m sure this can be done much more quickly with an easier difficulty and a smaller map. However, I love the whole Vampire/Hunter theme, and wanted to build up my faction with plenty of transformations, which takes a while.

Although some of you may have breezed through these achievements, I personally found all of them to be either difficult to understand or highly complicated, or finicky (and in some cases, all three).

The subsequent sections will be each dedicated to a single achievement, with detailed explanations for each. Please don't hesitate to comment with your own experiences.

Win a high risk battle using manual combat.

I like this achievement, as it feels like a real accomplishment the first time you pull it off. When you initiate a battle (or a battle comes to you!) the computer rates your odds from Impossible to Safe based on relative army strengths. You’ll need to win one labeled “High Risk,” and do it in the manual, tactical combat screen (i.e. moving units around on the battlefield).

I've decided to write about it separately because some of my multiplayer friends have really struggled with these tricky fights. (I have the "benefit" of wasting thousands of hours in strategy games, so it wasn't too difficult for me.)

In the early game, the computer’s predictions are quite accurate and you’re fairly likely to get stomped in a High Risk battle. Later, however, this simplified calculation doesn’t take full account of your clever human brain.

For example, a hero which can summon four or five other units is much more powerful than she appears statistically. Also, your units will develop more and more synergies which act as force multipliers. Eventually you can regularly win High Risk battles in manual combat, even if you’d lose them in Autocombat. By the end game you can even win the occasional “Impossible” battle manually, though they’re never easy and typically take a VERY long time.

So, to summarize my advice on this achievement:

• Wait until you've developed strong armies with several race transformations and synergies (e.g. Faithful).
  
  
• Use multiple high-level heroes in the combat.
  
  
• Make sure you have lots of combat casting points and mana to fuel your battle spells.
  
  
• Use summons! These will distract enemy forces.
  
  
• Target "one-shot killers" first in the enemy army, such as Reapers or Druids of the Cycle.

Have a city with at least 60 Fortification Health.”
Wow, this one was hard for me! Apparently the achievement changed with a major patch in the past to re-work the defense system; I understand it was “at least 150 Fortification Health,” but it was much easier to get. Why bother you with this history? Many of the online achievement guides are mixed up by the change, so I struggled to figure out exactly how to do it.
You can get to 40 fortification health fairly easily, but more than that is a challenge. Getting to 60 requires a very particular set of requirements.

• First, you have to play an “Industrious” Society. There is no hint of this in the Achievement description, so I struggled quite a while before figuring this out. As you level up your city, you’ll eventually be able to build a structure called “Bastion’s Barricade,” worth 10 fortification health.
  
  
• Second, you can only do this in your Throne City, which gains a free 10 fortification health.
  
  
• Third, build the Stone Walls Tier 3 city structure, which is worth 30 health. Note that this does *not* stack with the 20 health you get from the Palisade Walls (an early error on my part).
  
  
• Fourth, you can only build one Guild in the city, and it’s got to be the Worker’s Guild. This requires 4 quarries, and you won’t have the option if you accidentally built another Guild.
  
  
• With all of these items, you’ll be at 60 and immediately get the achievement.

Note: There’s two “false trails” you might have tried to follow…

• The Temple of the Pyre states in the description that it gives 10 fortification health, but it doesn’t.
  
• Conversely, the Silent Barracks *does* give 1 extra fortification health to underground cities per adjacent Dungeon Province…however, there’s no way to have 10 adjacent provinces, so you can get close but never make it. Frustrating!

• Throne City - 10
  
• Bastion's Barricade - 10
  
• Stone Walls - 30
  
• Worker's Guild - 10

Complete a Primal Quest and become a Primal Avatar.

This one is fun! Both the Culture and the quest itself make great additions to the game. Still, the chain of events is long, complex, and potentially confusing.

• You need to pick a Primal culture. Any spirit animal will do, but the Tunneling Spider will take you underground where space can be a little tighter and Shrines separated by walls and narrow passages. I know this because its how I got the achievement :)
  
  
• When you start, the quest will begin to track in the upper left of the screen.
  
  
• You’ll notice a unique province feature nearby, the Shrine, which looks like a spectral tree. This is often directly adjacent to your Throne City. Visit it with a unit.
  
  
• Expand your city to annex the Shrine, and then build a temple in your city.
  
  
• You’ll need to locate and annex a second and third Shrine (you can use outposts, although the stability bonus is wasted). They are indicated by a golden chalice quest marker, so they’re easy to find...unless you get the bug where the quest stops tracking (see below).
  
  
• The spirit will then want you to build several of a certain type of province improvement, not usually the basic ones (e.g for the Mire Crocodile, it's four shrines). Existing improvements of this type don't count.
  
  
• This will complete the quest and the achievement.

Note: You may bump into some difficulties on this quest chain:

• On small maps there may not be enough Shrines to make the quest go smoothly, particularly in the underground.
  
• There’s often a gap in the middle part of the quest. After building the temple, the quest tracker may disappear completely from the upper left, leaving it unclear that you need to acquire more dens. Fortunately, the tracker returns after you've annexed your third den.
  
• Also, remember that special province improvements count toward your total improvements in the final phase.

Start a moderately justified war using fabricated Grievances.

This is one of the most finicky achievements out there, and will frustrate you considerably. Well, unless you use this guide 😊

I had several failed attempts before I got this one. The description phrasing isn’t specific enough to be helpful, in my opinion…it probably should’ve read “Start a justified war at ONLY the moderate level using ONLY fabricated Grievances.” Anyway, here’s how to follow my example:

• Start an Easy game on a small map with two other AI players (if you just have one, you'll always be at war).
  
  
• Explore the map until you find an opponent.
  
  
• Go back a turn to just before you met them (i.e. reload) and save the game with a custom name.
  
  
• Greet them harshly by Declaring Rivalry (this doesn’t create grievances but multiplies other effects).
  
  
• Choose “Fabricate Grievance.”
  
  
• Wait five turns.
  
  
• Check and see if you now have a moderate justification to start a war (there appears to be a random factor at work).
  
  
• If you are at “moderate,” (between 26 and 50 war justification) declare war and take the achievement.
  
  
• If you are only at “minor,” reload and try again. I think I had to do this once.

Don’t:

• Try to do it on a campaign mission; I can confirm it doesn’t work on the first Godir mission, for example.
  
• Play a one-on-one realm. You’ll automatically be on teams, and thus be permanently at war.
  
• Try it late in a game. You’ll probably have multiple reasons for grievances, and I was unable to clear them enough to let the achievement work. It’s probably possible, but I couldn’t figure it out.

Bring an end to the mists in the Toll of Seasons.

The achievement requires you to fully complete the Toll of Seasons quest. This one is *really hard!* Like, Soulslike hard. (At least on difficult Realm settings, which are my favorite.)

About 40 turns into the game, you’ll be notified that the Fey are going to show up in the game and try to kill a player. This seems to disproportionately affect the human in the game, but maybe that’s just my impression. They appear in a wave near one of your cities, with only a one-turn warning (which can be extended slightly with mana.) They immediately start to siege the city, and you’ll lose a unit of population every turn until the city or the fey are dead.

Anyway, did I mention that these guys are tough? I’ve seen them kill two very hard AI opponents in a single game. You can beat them though…build your armies and city defenses from the very beginning of the game, and be nearby until you’ve faced them.

• The Toll of Seasons is a Realm Trait which you’ll need to enable in the Custom Realm options, and you’ll need the Primal Fury DLC.
  
  
• Step one is winning that first fight. After that, they’ll leave behind a fissure, which you can enter and then either close (gives you mana, but they’ll be back) or chase them into. To restate, entering the realm doesn’t commit you to a battle, so always do it.
  
  
• Step two is to beat the army on their own turf by entering the Realm. A full strategy guide isn’t appropriate here, but basically target those Druids of the Cycle! I find this to be the most difficult part of this quest; if you win, you’ll get their artifact, which gives a pile of bonuses.
  
  
• Step three occurs when they come back to demand their artifact. For the achievement, don’t end the quest here or any point until it’s completely done! Refuse to return it, and they’ll regroup and come back for one more fight on your territory with another powerful army. By this time, you can beat them fairly reliably, although you may have to do it manually.
  
  
• Finally, the hard-won achievement is yours!

• Keep enough mana on hand (300-400 or so) to delay the Fey army so that you can position your troops.
  
• More AI players reduces the odds that the Fey will target you, buying time to develop your empire.
  
• Don't try to rush the second step. You may have to defend your city three or four times before you're ready to enter the rift and fight them in their realm.
  
• When you're ready for the second step, bring multiple heroes, preferably with summoning abilities (e.g. level 12 Nature signature) and ways of destroying corpses.
  
• Because of the mists, your ranged attacks will be far less effective. Fight them with plenty of melee options available.
  
• If you choose the Tome of the Fey Mists, you can select several enchantments which will make the mists much more beneficial to you, helping remove one of the Fey's biggest advantages.

I’d recommend your heroes are around level 12 or so before you try following them into their realm.

Renegotiate your freedom after becoming a vassal.

I was completely unfamiliar with the process for this achievement as I had never considered allowing myself to become a vassal. Based on the percentages, I'd say this is true for most players of this game; this section will help you understand the steps.

The mechanic is this: If you’re at war with an enemy empire, you can end the war by agreeing to become their vassal. This is rarely used, but it isn’t too bad…basically just an alliance you can’t break.

You can even get out of the vassalage later, and this achievement (I think) is designed to show you this little-used diplomacy option.

It will work in most games, as long as “Teams” aren’t enabled (which mandates permanent war and eliminates the Vassalage option.) I did it on an Easy game on a small map with two opponents.

• Start a game with three or more total players (i.e. yourself plus two computer opponents).
  
  
• Meet an enemy empire, declare war, then surrender to Vassal status.
  
  
• To renegotiate your status, you have to reach a high level of reputation with the Overlord (the opponent you surrendered to). The most reliable way to do that is to give gifts of gold and items until the reputation allows the option (usually with another generous “donation.”)

And then, the achievement is yours!

Have a Dragon of Fire, Frost, Gold and Obsidian origin.

The wording isn’t entirely clear, so let me be: You have to have all of these Dragons in the same game (possibly at the same time; I did when I got the achievement).

Tricky, this one! You have two paths to this achievement:

The more reliable route is via the Tome of Dragons, which lets you summon young dragons of your choice. While these don’t count toward victory, they will grow into their respective adults and help toward the achievement (and award you the Duality achievement along the way.)

The other method is to find the landmark Ancient Dragon Hoard, which can randomly occur as a hand-crafted region on the surface or underground. If you build a city nearby and annex three provinces adjacent to the landmark, you can then build adult dragons in the city. Easy, right?

There’s a catch, of course.

• The Fire and Frost Dragons are always available.
  
• You can only recruit Gold Dragons if your alignment is “Very Good” or higher.
  
• Conversely, you can only recruit Obsidian Dragons if your alignment is “Very Evil” or lower.

This is a big swing to make in a single game, but it’s quite possible if you focus on it from the beginning.

• One strategy is to go “Good” first. Many early resource node marauders can be cleared by letting the creatures leave peacefully, which adds to your Good alignment. Similarly, when clearing Ancient Wonders there is often a victory choice which allows a swing towards the light.
  
  
• Once you’re at Very Good, recruit your Gold Dragon or young Gold dragon. For the young dragons, recruit several just to make sure some survive the promotion process, because you can’t replace them later.
  
  
• Now, turn to the dark side. Reliable ways to do this include declaring unjustified wars, razing cities, pillaging provinces, and appeasing Umbral Free Cities.
  
  
• Once you’re at Very Evil, recruit your Obsidian dragon, and get the badge!

I actually did the reverse journey from evil to good in my unlock, but in retrospect I think the other way would have been easier.

Have a Thorn Heart Landmark terraform its surroundings.

(The wording is a little unclear; it would probably better read "terraform a province.")

This one can certainly be done in the scenario, but it requires some careful positioning, and I wasn't quite able to pull it off. In the scenario, there's a Thorn Heart due east (right) of your starting position. Like with other landmarks, you need to build a city which controls three of the provinces adjacent to the landmark to activate its secondary effect, which is to terraform nearby provinces into Sunless terrain.

In the scenario, it's tricky to do this because of blocking unbuildable terrain. A big enough city can do it, if it's placed just right. I did it differently...

Thorn Hearts only appear in pre-generated Sunless Terrain, so you'll need to create a custom world with the Sunless feature (or use the provided preset map). The problem is that not all of these worlds will have a Thorn Heart. So what to do?

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Here's the trick: You can see the Thorn Hearts on an unexplored map! I started a game (three opponents) and then scrolled around the surface looking for the very distinct silhouette of the Thorn Heart. The first two maps I generated had plenty of Sunless land, but no Hearts. I increased the map size to large; it showed a single Thorn Heart far away from my starting point.

By the time I got to it, another empire had claimed the Heart and it had thoroughly terraformed the area around itself. Undaunted, I came back (much) later with a conquering army, razed the existing city, built a new city, and expanded it until it had two adjacent provinces. I then used the Restore the Land spell (in the Tier II Tome of Fertility) to restore the areas around the Heart. Finally, I captured the third adjacent territory, and waited. The next turn, the Heart turned one of the provinces into Sunless, and the achievement appeared!

I really don't know how many of these steps are necessary :) If you start near an unclaimed Heart, it would be much easier, obviously. And I restored a lot of provinces, but one is probably all you need. You do need to plan ahead, because you need to make sure you have a terraforming spell ready in case the surroundings are all Sunless already.