Hello, as there is no manual available for the game here I have two questions. The first is regarding cities.

How does production work? It affects how fast my buildings are built. That much is clear. So did I understand that correctly? When a building costs 150 gold and my production is 40. It would need 4 turns to complete. The amount of gold it costs has to be paid immediately though. Is that correct? The only way to increase my production is by building more population and specific buildings right? So how does population affect production exactly?

Does population increase income? So if you already have enough population that the city can not grow anymore, do I still get more because I have more people in it? Or does it even decrease because I have to feed all those people and have to build market places constantly to outweigh that.

And what about power? I did not get that at all. There are like power nodes of different spheres around the map. Say my wizard has fire magic. So a fire node gives me more power than any other node outside my sphere right? But how does power affect my spell casting? Like are damaging spells more powerful? Or does it contribute to my mana income somehow?

And one last question regarding unit progression. Do you even buy weaker units in the beginning apart from those needed to defend yourself against scouts and weak enemies? I weakly rememember in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 I just went to build Angels (the human's best units) as soon as possible, because just having a few you could deal with most enemies.

Do you have some city building strategies for beginners? Right now in the beginning I focus on building buildings to recruit armies only in my main city. And should I capture another city I usually first build stuff to increase magic income so I can summon more units. So most of my magic is used for my units upkeep. I did not find most of the other spells more useful that just summon creatures all the time.

Thanks guys. As HoMM fan I reall enjoy that one!

PS: Do you ever use pioneers to build new outposts? I usually build them when I have enough population in a city to rebuild structures like gold mines. But are there any advantages of having more outposts/towns even though you don't really build stuff in them?

http://aow2.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=1083

Here's the manual download

Production and gold income of a town is 10/20/30/40 depending on size, though you also get gold for crops and not idling the city on 'produce merchandise'. I forget the exact population threshholds.

Power is just mana income that can also be used as research IIRC

Higher-tier units are superior to lower-tier, pretty much cmparable to HoMM.

Generally the most important thing in building up a city is being able to train tier3 units, the rest is up to you, the Shrine of Order is very strong for production too


Building outposts is good for income but takes a while to pay off

The city generates X number of hammers each turn. The exact number depends on several factors, like city size, controlling wizard's traits, city's race, and spells active on the city. Each full hammer icon is worth 10 points, while a half hammer is worth 5 points.

To start production of a building or unit, you need to spend the entire gold cost of the thing upfront. After the gold cost has been paid, each turn the city's total production value will be applied to the thing being constructed. Once the entire construction cost has been paid, the thing is built. You can rush construction to complete the thing next turn, but rushing construction costs you 20 gold AND 20 population for each full coin that you need to rush to complete it (you aren't charged for the production the city would normally make an apply to the thing); half coins cost 10 gold and 10 population. Any production in excess of what is needed to finish the thing is lost (it isn't applied to the next thing in the queue).

If you cancel production on the same turn you start it, you are refunded the full gold cost. If you cancel production mid-way through the project, then you only get refunded the gold that hasn't already been applied to construction (ex. if you're building a barracks (80 gold) and you've already spent 20 production on it, then you only get 60 gold refunded if you cancel production).

The exact count of your city population is used to determine the city level. It also limits how much construction you can rush. Cities have 4 levels (outpost, village, town, city) and have a max cap of 2500 population max (this might be lower if the city has a lower max city size).

Higher city levels generate more base production. The production buildings (ex. Builder's Guild) each add flat production. The Shrine of Order, production racial bonus, and Constructor wizard trait each provide extra production where the amount depends on city level. The Technophobe wizard trait provides a production malus where the amount depends on the city level. I believe certain spells can also affect the final production amount, though I don't recall off-hand which ones.

An Orc level 4 city owned by a wizard with Constructor will produce things MUCH faster than a Halfling city level 1 city owned by a wizard with Technophobe.

A city being migrated to a different race produces nothing at all. No gold, no mana, no research. Nothing but attempted rebellion. Similar to Production, a higher level city produces more gold. The exact amount of people doesn't matter for gold income, only what level the city is and whether you have enough population to rush construction (or build a Pioneer, since they also cost 250(?) population when finished). There are three kinds of magic income: power, mana, and research.

Nodes produce power; normally a node generates 10 power per turn for its controller, but if your wizard has the same specialization as the node, then it generates 20 power instead. If you have 6 magic spheres of one type, then your wizard is that type (ex. 6 life spheres means you're a life wizard). Otherwise, you're a "cosmos" wizard. Life nodes generate 20 power for life wizards and 10 power for any other wizard, power nodes produce 20 power for Cosmos wizards and 10 power for any other wizard, etc.

Power income is distributed between mana income and research income as you see fit. There's a slider that adjusts the distribution.

Mana income is only mana income. Elves and Dark Elves generate mana as their city racial bonus. This income can't contribute to research.

Research income is applied toward learning new spells (I include wizard skills under the "spells" label here). Any excess research beyond what is needed to learn a new spell is used as mana income (it isn't lost). Draconians and Undead both generate research as their city racial bonus. If you aren't researching a spell, then all research income basically becomes mana income.

Your casting skill limits how much mana you can spend on casting spells each turn. The casting skill of your heroes can be used to cast spells in combat, but heroes can't cast spells overland. It depends on my needs, the units that are available, and my gold income and stockpile. I'll sometimes build more Glade Runners as fast scouts with concealment, but I'm not likely to ever build an Archon Militia unless I'm truly desperate or I just need the cheapest unit I can build to go claim something that isn't defended.

In general, higher tier units are going to crush lower tier units. However, there are some exceptions, and sometimes quantity is a quality of its own. In a fight between 30 dwarf berserkers and a single Greater Demon, I'm inclined to bet on the Berserkers (in auto-combat at least, though probably not in tactical). It depends heavily on the circumstances of the game. In a large, long map, then preference goes to the Production line of buildings first so everything else gets built faster. In a short slugfest, just build whatever units are available (maybe build the War Hall if you can support rapid construction of T2 units). Again, building pioneers depends on the map and situation. Each town can generate gold even if you never build anything after founding it. Because of the costs involved, I usually don't build new outposts, but I may rebuild a structure if the city has some spare time.

I just ran a quick test, and it seems I was somewhat wrong. Buildings that produce mana (ex. Temple, Shrine of Magic) still produce that mana, but every other type of income shuts down. The shipyard doesn't produce gold, the racial bonus doesn't generate income, no research from the Library or Shrine of Magic, and it looks like even the gold malus from the Shrine of War doesn't apply. Everything except building mana production is zeroed out.

Migration is basically you kicking all the current inhabitants out and bringing in new ones. No production happens during that process and the current residents will generally try to rebel unless you garrison the town with units, but everything resumes after migration is done. The racial bonus will be different, of course, since a the city is now inhabited by a new race.

Generally speaking, races of the same alignment like your wizard (ex. good and Halflings), while races one step away are okay with you (Ex. good and Archons or good and Humans). Races two steps away are cautious and prone to considering rebellion (good and Goblins), and any farther means they're very likely to try to rebel. If you're good aligned and you capture an Undead town, go ahead and migrate it to a race more friendly to you so you don't need to worry about rebellion (unless circumstances indicate otherwise, of course). The city will be fine post migration.

That said, keep an eye on your wizard's alignment and your race relations. Some maps mess with relations (I've played one where pretty much only Humans and Draconians would accept me), and certain wizard traits can make it easier or harder to have a diverse empire (Peace Keeper and Anarchist, respectively). If you can get a balance of good and evil populations, you can turn Neutral in alignment. If you can add Peace Keeper to that, then pretty much everyone will at least be content under your rule, even if they won't necessarily hire on with you.

Thank you, it's clear now to me :)