@ Thereunto

....are you sure that isn't how it should be?

It'd be cool if the first campaign scenario were to be released as a preview, like a demo. I have fond memories of playing First Conflict over and over again on a school laptop as a kid lol.

edit: Also, would be cool if if had In the Company of Elves as the first track, just an idea :P

I'm having a problem with this mod; it only works if I turn off sound from AoWSetup. If not it crashes on the title page.
I have googled, and it's obviously not a common problem.
My OS is Windows 7 Professional 64 bit.

EDIT: I was able to fix it using the method described here, by adding an exception for AoW+.exe in Data Execution Prevention: https://www.gog.com/forum/age_of_wonders_series/aow_1_crashes_on_startup_win7x64_desktop

What is a HSS mod? And which one is recommended for single player?
When I replayed the campaigns 6-12 months ago I used the MolzyMod which I thought improved things a bit at least. Would it be possible to combine it with AoW+?

So far I have mixed feelings about AoW+, but then so have I even more with the vanilla game.

The new leveling up/XP system means that it can take a long while for heroes to get crucial skills if they start at an advanced level, since they can increase several levels without getting any skill points.

Was skeptical to the new system for missile units, but in practice I found I rather like it.

When I replayed the campaigns I blitzed most of the maps and very rarely built any lvl 4 units (especially the Evil campaign where I just looted most conquered cities), so reducing Install time should help a bit.

HSS mod means a file called "Release.hss" has been modified for a ruleset. To make one, simply use DevEd
( http://aow.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=1222 ) to open your Release.hss file (found in the Release folder of your AoW install directory). From that point on, it's pretty intuitive to poke around and see what changes can be made.

Currently, I'd recommend either Sword & Sorcery mod (by Southern aka Ziggurat Mason on AoWHG), or my own LAN-MP ruleset. Both are made with multiplayer in mind, but work well with AoW+ 1.45. Not sure if you strictly play campaign, or also custom scenarios in single-player? You may enjoy my map "An Uneasy Silence", which is basically the geography of the entire campaign map combined into one scenario. Also highly recommend you check out Southern aka Ziggurat Mason's maps; the ones I've played are excellent (and I generally dislike alot of the user made maps that are available).

Otherwise, keep an eye out for when And G releases the new campaign he's working on.

Thank you. I have some experience with modding AoW2:SM, so I will indeed poke around. I'm strictly playing single player user made maps (and campaigns), having already played the vanilla campaigns twice.
I'm also playing them chronologically.

Instead of using a second mod, I will probably just do some modding myself. I like some of the changes MalzyMod did to help the AI, by giving all lvl 4 units some ability against walled cities, for example. It's so heart breaking to see the AI come with a large army, lose its single Battering Ram, and then retreat. So more ways to breach the walls are one of the most important things to help the AI, IMO. AoW2 was a huge improvement in that particular area, IMO.

When I modded Shadow Magic I used UOP 1.4 as the base and added some of the AI enhancing changes from the Wizards&Heroes mod. So I guess I will be doing something similar with AoW1.

Been thinking more about this mod and the AI.
When I replayed the campaigns some months ago (using the rather light weight MalzyMod), the two biggest problems for the AI were units with Physical Immunity and Dragons.

In the last map of the Undead campaign I had one Reaper who defeated most of the humans single handed, so I felt the game was more or less broken at that point.
Since it's relatively easy to edit without being a programmer, it's probably not an issue for this mod (I don't think I've seen it mentioned, though), so I'm probably going to edit the Reaper and the Wraith so that they only get Physical Protection.

The issue with Dragons is more relevant for this mod, though. I'm worried that nerfing archery will make it even harder for the AI to cope with them.
Ideally Dragons should have limited use of the Breath attack, to not make them totally invincible against most enemies, but I guess that's impossible to implement. IIRC it was implemented in AoW2.

In my opinion the campaign is probably best played with a self-imposed limit of not building heroes into melee machines, but mostly making them spellcasters. Also, maybe a self-imposed limit of not using many high tier units?
Reapers don't have either phyiscal protection or physical immunity, it's probably fair to say the AI struggles against all t4 units.

Heh, it turns out the MolzyMod introduced the PI for (Silver Medal, I think) Reapers. :-(
Molzy really made a mistake with that one. Or wait...I see the file was uploaded by Thereunto. Does that mean there is no Molzy?

I actually did intentionally make my leaders not melee machines, focusing on things like spell casting and Vision instead, at least at first. Feels more like a Strategy game that way.

Ja, it's different names on different sites. I don't think Physical protection/imunity on Reapers is a mistake, it's just not purely with AI performance in mind. You sure you don't want to play PBEM? It's a very relaxed mode, and balance issues are less serious when theoretically every player can use them.

Any kind of multi-player is not good for my blood pressure.

I used to be heavily into PB(E)M, but I have a tendency of overdoing things. SP is more relaxing and just suits me better.
The only kind of gaming I do today that resembles MP is playing Wordfeud with my mother, and even then it sometimes takes two days before I come up with the perfect move...

The charm of AoW1 was the way snowballing power progressed to a faster (less drawn out) finish for the game. The philosophy of Molzy mod (developed by my local PBEM group) was to create a minimalist edit to AoW136 that would allow the AI to play more effectively while retaining the snowballing superhero aspect. Basically: more power (spread out) is the answer, not less. We wanted the user to feel like maybe they shouldn't throw their 10/10/10/10 hero against a group of level 4 units. We noticed that AIs would sometimes prioritise making level 4 units when a level 3 unit was a better fit for army composition (e.g. wraiths vs reapers). We changed the level 4 units in many cases to essentially just be pumped up versions of level 3 units (sometimes with delayed perks). Wraiths-to-reapers, shadows-to-incarnates, giants-to-firstborns. We were pleased to see that sometimes the AI would choose to make different units in some cases due to some of the changes (adding an attack to drills made the AI prioritise them over the lacklustre flamethrowers, and this meant that AIs would finally tunnel by themselves)

If you to see a mod with a more AoW2 type experience I recommend checking out AoW-Enhanced.

Random thought, but female heroes use male SFX right? Hopefully And G fixes that

While I won't pretend like the CBD mod isn't what's first on my mind, I really hope we get some previews of the campaign. Replaying the vanilla campaign with different rulesets usually gets boring to me before I complete it, so looking forward to some new life in that aspect of the game.

Also wondering if it would be possible to have multiple sets of "victory conditions" in a single campaign scenario, and whichever is fulfilled is what determines the next campaign scenario, instead of making a choice on the campaign world map. This could make certain desirable choices much harder to achieve, and could reward/punish players for playing certain ways. Just a thought.