Let's Play Age of Wonders III: User Input Required

Bribe them, they'll pay for their transgressions by serving on the front lines for a few seasons.

That sort of tenacity would well serve the ideals of progress, hire Tianne this time.

(And don't rush the hospital).

Our council is divided on divided on every issue; we are wracked with indecision.

Also, we can't afford both. Either the bribe or hiring the hero would cost most of our remaining money.

Do the bribe! That lady is obviously still not a real monster slayer.

Bribe away, if she doesn't come back a third time she obviously doesn't possess the sort of tenacity we're looking for.

The bribe is accepted. The outpost formerly known as Arberg is now ours. We can now give it a more suitable name, if we desire.

The only building in the outpost at the moment is a laboratory, which improves our research. We now have a choice as to what we want this outpost to focus on -

1) We can build a range of different structures, taking advantage of the short build times and low costs to the Tier 1 structures to improve its production, population growth, and mana generation. This would involve building first a Builder's Hall, then a Store House, etc.
2) We can upgrade exclusively the structures that aid research and mana production.
3) We can build the Dreadnought's Foundry. By the time that building is completed, we will have finished our research in muskets, and we can have our outpost train Dwarven Musketeers and Engineers (our supporting units, which reload our advanced machinery). This last option would probably be aided by building a few production buildings at some point as well.


Meanwhile, the capture of neighboring mines and magma forges has allowed our heroes to level up once again! Each hero has 5 points to spend.

For our Archdruid, it is probably worth selecting Healing (an ability which allows her to heal friendly units in combat at no mana cost) or Warm at Night (which grants cold resistance to units under her command).


Warbob Sexlizard has several viable options. Lightning Rod Banner gives all units under Warbob Sexlizard's command lightning resistance, Forge Aprons gives them all fire resistance, Wizard Hunters grants them all a little magic resistance and bonus damage to summoned units, and finally True Sight allows Warbob Sexlizard to see stealthed units (an ability which would combine well with the vision range upgrade also available to Warbob Sexlizard). The Tunneling upgrade allows Warbob Sexlizard to command tunneling operations, which go through walls underground and earn additional gold.

(Speaking of underground, there are actually two maps - a surface map and a subterranean map. Our Spy Drone has found an entrance to the underground several days to the north of our army)


The Reload and Repair abilities can be useful once we have machinery out, but even then it will probably be better to let Engineers do that rather than our commander.

With the area around our outpost clear, we may now either return east and north to Stackelburg, or continue following the western road to unexplored territory to the north or south of our new settlement.

Also, it is possible (if we so desire) to kick out all of the Dwarves in our new settlement and replace them with Draconians. This is an act of evil, but will take only one turn to complete thanks to our Expansionism.

Breaking news! Our Spy Drone has found another hostile settlement of evil-bent independents. This group appears to be a town of Draconians (slightly smaller, poorer, and weaker than Stackelburg), and they are a mere turn and a half's travel to the north of our new settlement!

Here is a map of the little corner of the world that we have explored.

Arberg should be renamed Liarsberg in order to publicly shame them all for going back on their promise. Let's not kick the dwarves out yet though, having a good variety of unit types is probably a smart idea.

Warbob Sexlizard should take True Sight and Tunneling, because those two options both add up to five.

Imane should take Healing and Night Vision.

Liarsberg should just build all the small cheap buildings first, which should hopefully give us enough of a production boost to help cut down on future build times.

Let's head north to the Draconian outpost first. Stackleburg isn't close enough to be a real threat atm, and the Draconian town is practically right along the way anyway.

Warbob Sexlizard should take True Sight and Tunneling, because those two options both add up to five.

Imane should take Healing and Night Vision.

Any extra points can either be saved or spent on stat increases, so it's not necessary to spend all 5 on abilities.

We must bring our poor misguided brethren into the fold! By crushing them, since they seem unable to understand the glory of Progress any other way. They can then immediately aid us in the somewhat larger hurdle of convincing Stackelburg.

I suggest we do not shame the dwarves for their transgressions, for Progress instructs us to look to the future, not dwell on the past! Rename it instead in honor of our mighty leader. Hail the outpost of Warbob!

Our Archdruid should grab Healing (useful against all enemy types, not only those that do cold damage) and sure Night Vision too why not.

If I may be so bold, I would recommend Warbob Sexlizard invest in being able to see stealthed units and upgrade Warbob Sexlizard's vision range so that Warbob Sexlizard's army won't encounter any progress-hindering surprises out in the field.

Build a range of different structures in our new outpost, for a wide base is a strong one.

Hmm, actually it looks like the underground is a good ways off anyway, so let's have Warbob Sexlizard just take True Sight and the Vision Upgrade instead.

We have a consensus on True Sight and Healing, then.

Speaking of wide bases - the way that Age of Wonders handles the 'infinite city spam' strategy that exists in 4x games is that population grows based on existing population rather than number of settlements, barring infrastructure and sites. As a result, additional settlements are worth making when one can't spend gold quickly enough or when there are sites to take advantage of. We will want to build settlers at some point to take advantage of the two gold mines and magma forge between Lizardheim and Liarsberg.


The battle to capture the Draconian town is hard fought. Stacked behind their walls, we have no choice but to allow them to get the first shots off on our units. A bold charge through their barricade allows us to close on one of their fireball flinging Flamers, and a Flashbang from Warbob Sexlizard disables the other temporarily, allowing us to avoid serious area of effect damage. Nevertheless, a group of Chargers, enchanted by their Elders, scores a lucky blow on our own Draconian chargers, and the first unit is lost to us on our campaign. Once in melee range, however, our numerical superiority allows us to flank the defendants and slaughter them with minimal damage received in return.

The town is ours, and will be absorbed into our empire. It, too, may now be named.

To its north, our Spy Drone sees two roving bands of rogues. There must be a camp nearby, and an active one at that. We cannot leave our newly captured city undefended until they are dealt with, lest our town be snatched away from under our noses.


One of the two groups dares to enter the borders of our newly acquired town. In the narrow confines of the mountain pass, we can only fight them with a single stack a time. This proves to be no problem, and they are quickly eliminated. The second group is still somewhere to the north of our town, but we cannot see them at this time.

Our Spy Drone has met a friendly dwelling of Fae. Dwellings are similar to settlements in that they can produce units and expand our zone of control. Unlike settlements, however, dwellings can build only the upgrades unique to their race. Units produced at dwellings tend to be stronger than the basic units able to be built in ordinary settlements, but weaker than the units available with technological advancement. At the moment, we are too far to capture this settlement if we choose to enlist them with warfare, and we ask for 500 gold for the honor of joining our empire, a price which we cannot afford.

To the west of our settlement is a Boneyard, a site which spawns undead menaces known as Archons. Like the eldritch pit and the bandit camps, it is worth dealing with this threat swiftly. Unlike the other two camps, it is both well defended and can spawn some truly dangerous groups that even our whole army would have trouble facing. It is best to deal with it before it does so.


This battlefield has a very worrying effect - any living units that die will be reanimated as Archons and join the battle as enemies. We will need to be very careful to protect the lives of our troops during this fight, as things can quickly swing against us if we lose a stack of troops.

The battle starts with the undead spellcasters cursing several of our soldiers. This severely reduces their movement speed and gives them a chance to fumble their attacks. These spellcasters are especially dangerous to our Draconians, because they fire bolts of frost.

They march their infantry forward, while their archers focus on Imane. We manage to destroy one group of infantry and our rocket launching jesters have suppressed one of their mages. They strike back by destroying an unlucky group of Draconian Crushers, which will join the fight as undead on the following turn. Luckily, their casters had to approach in order to kill the Crushers, which allows us to remove all three of them, leaving them with only their archers, and now two units of infantry. On the following turn we are able to finish them, losing no additional units but taking heavy damage on our Hatchlings.

Our victory is rewarded with two magic items, which grant Warbob Sexlizard additional damage on melee attacks, magic resistance, and bonus damage to any other undead we may encounter.

We have finished research down the Dreadnought unit path up to Musketeers. We can continue down this path by researching the ability to produce Golems, or diversify.


Lizardheim has finished the Warbob Sexlizard Hospital at Lizardheim. We may now build either the Siege Workshop to further our production, or a Laboratory to improve our research.

Finally, our newly captured (unnamed) town needs to set its production as well. It already has a Builder's Hall completed, so we can use it to construct a group of settlers to found a new settlement in between our three existing ones to take advantage of the magma forge and gold mines located there or we can construct local improvements.

There is an independent controlled Inn to the west of our army. This will allow us to hire additional units (albeit at an increased gold cost to what they would ordinarily cost to build) to supplement our army which has now been reduced to eight units, but we would need to first defeat its denizens, a group of Halflings which should pose no problem.

Our Spy Drone has found the source of the bandits - a camp to the west of the fae dwelling. Without the ability to board ships, however, it is quite far away.


So options -
1) Where should our army go?
2) What should we research?
3) What should we build in Lizardheim?
4) What should we build in our new city?
5) What should we name our new city?

Updated local map -

Edit: Added label to underground entrance

Very well, this new town can bear the name of Warboburg! Our borders should be joined, so have it produce a unit of settlers to occupy the ground between our three great settlements.

1) Head up and around to eliminate that bandit camp. While the loss of time is regrettable, we cannot allow it to threaten the safety of Warboburg.
2) And with the impending research of Basic Seafaring, we should be able to considerably shorten the return trip!
3) Lizardheim's production should be increased, a Siege Workshop first will allow us to eventually construct that Laboratory faster.
4) As aforementioned, a unit of settlers.
5) Warboburg! Warboburg!

While en route north from Warboburg, Lizardheim has grown to a city. Warbob Sexlizard has levelled up as a result of Warbob Sexlizard's people's accomplishments.

While en route, we find the second (hopefully of two) of the roving scoundrels, as well as a shrine to the Wizard King. After clearing out some very lucky defenders (10% chance to miss and Warbob Sexlizard Warbob Sexlizard's self missed twice in a row), earned the blessing of the shrine.

As we passed through the fae settlement, as fortune would have it, dragons attacked! These are not the graceful creatures that were our mighty race's ancestors, however. They are a bone dragon and its undead wyvern minion. The fae beg our aid, and we provide it. We lose one of our units of Hatchlings, which is always a sad thing to see, but its death ensured that Warbob Sexlizard was not mildly inconvenienced so it was all worthwhile.

The Fae have joined us, bolstering our army with a pair of toadstool fairies. These are very hard hitting ranged units, but die very easily if an enemy closes in on them. The bandit camp's location would ordinarily only allow one stack to attack it at a time, but with the fairies flying over the water, we are able to bring more than enough forces to crush the bandit camp with no losses. Therein, we liberate a completely useless halfling infantry unit.

Within the realm of the fairies is an inn. This would let us recruit additional units, though the units here can be somewhat expensive. The most interesting one is the Gryphon Rider. This unit is the most powerful unit available to the High Elves by default (class units, of course, being much stronger given research) but it would cost almost all of our remaining gold.


The dwelling itself, now, needs a name. Sexberg is still available. At the moment, the dwelling is almost completely useless save for its income. If we choose to invest in some buildings, we can start recruiting fairy units (which deal a mix of elemental damage), but the dwelling will never be able to produce modern machinery or those that wield it. Alternatively, we can simply have the dwelling focus on generating revenue for us.

Jealous of the fact that we now have four (soon to be five) settlements, the warlord Wazuhl the Jagged has declared war on us! With our capital undefended, we will need to rush back to ensure that we can recapture it if the goblins launch a sneak attack.


While all of this was going on, we have completed research in Seafaring, researched the Fireball spell (invaluable in helping us kill the Bone Dragon), and Mana Batteries, a spell which boosts the production of a target city with an easily affordable ongoing mana cost. We may now research Invention, to increase the amount of mana Warbob Sexlizard can spend on spells every turn, continue down the path towards stronger units to produce, or something else entirely.


So for choices -

1) What shall we name our new fairy dwelling?
2) What shall we name our new draconian settlement?
3) What shall we research?
4) Who, if anyone, shall we hire at the inn?

1) Sexberg it shall be!
2) Eidechstadt
3) The GREAT BLACKSMITH
4) This seems too great an expenditure for too little gain. Our gold should move us ever forward towards Progress, not fill the pockets of high elf mercenaries!

Also, we may have been wrong about where Wazuhl's throne city is. While his army was encountered in the northeast, it's certainly possible that they are to our southeast instead, as that area is largely unexplored.

Quickly, back to Lizardheim! Also I'll second all of Mirdini's suggestions.

Question: Does the underground have any bandits/enemy troops that might try to enter the surface to attack us? Because the entrance looks pretty close to two very undefended cities.

Question: Does the underground have any bandits/enemy troops that might try to enter the surface to attack us? Because the entrance looks pretty close to two very undefended cities.

Neutrals no, enemy troops yes. In fact, because Goblins are well suited to the underground, Wazuhl could move through there or... crap, that's probably where he lives. It's to our northeast, we haven't actually seen any settlements under their control, and goblins have bonuses to movement and vision underground.

We have thus far elected not to upgrade any of the buildings at Sexberg, meaning that we cannot produce any units there yet. To ensure that it does not fall when our armies move away, we clear out a second bandit camp (there were two after all!) located on the east coast of the northern peninsula.

While on our way home, we received an offer of service from a human dreadnought.

Look at this smug mug. He even has a monocle! We, of course, hire him right away.

From here, the fastest route home is by water, but we are also a mere turn's travel from Stackelburg. Given that we have all of our forces here, that it would be only a minor detour, and that it would allow us to clear out the Eldritch Pit on our way back, we launch our assault on Stackelburg from the sea. As a human, Per Notchson has the Mariner special, allowing him to embark and disembark without losing all of his move. This allows him to catch up with our army and join it in time to assist with the siege.

Anatomy of a Fight
I've skimmed over most of our battles, but since this was the largest one thus far, I thought I'd give it some attention.



Our army at this time consists of 11 units.

Warbob Sexlizard is both the leader of our forces and our most capable combat unit. Warbob Sexlizard's power comes from Warbob Sexlizard's "prototype rifle," the range weapon of choice of Dreadnoughts. This weapon is almost exactly like that of the musketeers that we can build - it deals heavy damage, but may only be fired once every other round, whereas most weapons allow up to three attacks per round (depending on movement). The advantage to this weapon is that it allows its full damage after movement, allowing Warbob Sexlizard to move into the best position to fire before taking Warbob Sexlizard's killshot. Warbob Sexlizard is also capable of casting Fireball, which does what it says on the tin, and Flashbang, which deals minor damage and can prevent ranged units from firing.

Next, we have our archdruid cohort, Imane. Imane wields an elven bow which has no range penalty. This means that any time that Imane can hit a target, she can deal full damage. Ideal use of Imane, like most archer units, involves having her move as little as possible so that she can hit enemies multiple times from max range.

Per Notchson wields the same rifle as Warbob Sexlizard, but while Per cannot cast Fireball, he can cast Forcefield, giving a lot of elemental damage reduction to a friendly unit.

The strongest non-hero unit in our army is a Draconian Flyer. This is a fast flying unit, which can ignore terrain and easily get into position to flank enemies. They have very high hit points (more than our heroes, at the moment), resistance to ranged attacks, bonus damage against most melee units, and charge, which allows them to deal bonus damage when they move before attacking.

Next we have Draconian Raptors. This is the draconian cavalry unit, which is fairly fast moving and has charge. The special ability of our raptors is the ability to scorch enemies, dealing fire damage over time.

Next up in order of power is our Toadstool Fairies. These are currently our best ranged unit other than the heroes, as they deal a significant amount of damage of all three elemental types. They need to be relatively close to enemies and have an unobstructed view to deal their full damage, but are capable of killing irregulars and most archer units in three shots. Situationally, this means that one of our units of fairies can kill an enemy archer by itself in a single round.

Next we have our Jester. Their weapon functions similar to a musket in that it can only fire once rather than up to three times, but unlike the musket doesn't deal immense damage to make up for it. Instead, it can dazzle the attacked target and units in an area around it, which prevents them from counterattacking or making attacks of opportunity. This makes them work well in conjunction with melee units.

Next in order of usefulness is our last remaining unit of Draconian Hatchlings. These units, as mentioned earlier in the LP, have a ranged attack which enables them to deal only slightly less damage than the Jester, but all of it is fire damage, which is useful against armored targets. Mostly they are used to force the enemies to face a certain direction to allow other units to flank them, but their damage is not negligible.

Next are our Dwarven Deepguard. They receive less damage from cavalry, deal more damage to cavalry, and counterattack before being hit when attacked in melee range. They are also very resilient overall, but so slow that they often never engage at all in combat.

Finally, we have our Halfling Nightwatch. This is a melee unit with physical vulnerability, which is a massive detriment. They are not particularly fast, they deal low damage, and their overall defense is roughly comparable to that of a fairy. They would use them as cannon fodder, except we don't have cannons yet.

The enemy army consists of three units of archers, two units of swordsmen, one unit of halberdiers, one unit of cavalry, and one unit of knights - the human elite unit.

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Spoiler

The fight starts with the guardians of Stackelburg behind a wooden wall. They have most of their units on the eastern flank. The position of the archers allows them to fire on approaching enemies while remaining behind walls which would restrict the line of sight of our own ranged units, and with gaps that their infantry and knights can easily fill.



Since their western flank has only a single cavalry unit defending it, we swing our army around and march it outside of their range until our units are gathered at the west. They begin to redeploy as well, but our (mostly) faster force lets us get a favorable position. We are able to kill their cavalry before the rest of their army gets into position, and more importantly are past the barricades. Our flyers, filling the gap in the front of our army, absorb the brunt of the enemy damage, at which point they fly back and are healed by Imane. We are able to dazzle the infantry as they advance and hold them in place with our fodder units while our flyers and cavalry move past them to kill the archers. With three heroes and a fairy to provide targeted damage, we are able to focus down two units every turn and win with no losses.


Our Hatchlings feast well on the human corpses and grow into a unit of Draconian Chargers, a unit similar to the Dwarven Deepguard. They have lower defensive stats, but move more quickly and have the 'charge' bonus of cavalry. The loss of their ranged attack makes this only a slight improvement.

Now all that remains is to decide the fate of Stackelburg.

Given the size of the city, it would take seven turns to incorporate the populace into our empire. We can 'migrate' the town to Draconians in only two turns, but doing so would be an evil act. Given the mercy that we have chosen to show on neutral units that we grossly overpower, the fact that we have thus far absorbed every friendly settlement peacefully, that we have slain undead while defending fairies, and that Warbob Sexlizard is definitionally righteous, we are currently very far on the 'Good' scale. If we achieve 'Pure Good' before any other faction, we will achieve the 'Prime Good' Empire Quest, giving us a free stack of good units.

Warbob Sexlizard has also levelled up. Twice, actually, but that's not important. What is important is that we have some fine upgrades available.

We have 9 points to spend after using 3 on improving Warbob Sexlizard's defensive stats a bit. Throw Net completely prevents a target from doing anything if it fails a magic resistance check, Pest Control Squad gives all units under Warbob Sexlizard's command bonus damage to animals, fey, and monstrous units, and I think I went over the others already.

So, questions -
1) What shall be the fate of Stackelburg?
2) What shall Stackelburg's new name be?
3) What should Warbob Sexlizard learn?
4) Should we upgrade the fairy dwelling to produce units?

The Eldritch Pit in between Stackelburg and Lizardheim has emitted a small roaming squad of animals, which has moved towards our capital cluster. To answer this, we have summoned an extra Spy Drone, with which we hope to distract them so that they do not take over any of our cities before our army can get to them. We will, of course, burn their home to the ground and slaughter their families en route.

1)We should absorb Stackelburg, as Warbob Sexlizard is quite the benevolent ruler indeed.
2)And they should have cooler name, something smooth like Jazztown.
3)Pest Control Squad
4)Uh... Yeah. Yes.

Well it looks like we'll probably be fighting animals and underground goblins very soon, so let's have Warbob take Pest Control, Tunneling, and the Vision Upgrade.

Even filthy humans deserve to see the light of progress. Jazztown shall be absorbed into the empire.

Sexburg is kinda out of the way, and it'll probably be fine if we just let them specialize in non-fightey type stuff. No military units needed from them, but take any gold/research boosting buildings for the fairy dwelling.

Why would you burn an eldritch pit to the ground? Won't that, like, ruin the fabric of the universe somehow?

Dwellings can be upgraded only to build units or give local bonuses. In the case of fairy dwellings, the upgrades give magic resistance to friendly units in the dwelling's domain (3 hexes around) and penalize the magic resistance of enemies in the same area. The dwelling can be upgraded to build 3 tiers of fairies (the units that we have supporting us now are tier 2), unicorns (cavalry unit that can teleport a moderate distance once per battle), and nymphs (garbage-tier melee fighter, but can convert low magic resistance enemies - temporarily for humanoids, permanently for animals)

Why would you burn an eldritch pit to the ground? Won't that, like, ruin the fabric of the universe somehow?

As a dreadnought, Warbob Sexlizard doesn't believe in such superstitious nonsense. The locals just call it an eldritch pit because it's a pit that magical creatures crawl out of from time to time.