1) Steam or GOG? well, AoW3 is a very new game that will get a lot of patches, fixes and updates in the upcoming years. That would point to Steam, because everything regarding updates works automatically there. There seem to be activation problems in both versions. And of course you will need to have two servers up and running (Steam AND Triumph) before you can play, if you buy at Steam. So neither of these two options sounds really convincing.

2) As far as I can find out a Triumph account is mandatory because else (= playing as guest) you can't save your progress. Hello? Someone crazy over there? Triumph is not a really big company like Ubi or EA. I guess they CAN be kicked out of business. And then? How can I play AoW then?

3) Questions of data safety not even considered the decision doesn't seem to be between Steam or GOG but rather: Buying or not buying. So far not buying seems to be the best option. Never thought I'd ever say that of an AoW game ...

You can play, save and access anything in Soloplayer as guest. The creating of a Triumph-Account is only needed for playing over the internet.

So you should be able to play AoW 1+2+2SM+3 in ten years.

Ah, okay. But you still need a Triumph server running to play solo? As guest? Or not? Is playing solo the same as playing as guest?

I'll buy box when the price drops if it's available as a box. From GOG if the price drops a lot and more races are patched in.

I've always suspicious of good old strategy game series that suddenly go 3D. I might change my opinion of AoW3 if there are a lot of good and positive reviews though but it's too early to tell yet.

Yes solo = "guest". You don't have to login to play offline/solo.

Okay, this is important now: So you can play the complete game solo without ever being in contact with the Triumph server? Is that confirmed and official?

Yes it is :)

That is entirely correct.

Ooookay ...
If this is true (I can hardly believe it after all the uproar about needing to connect to Triumph) then it changes my opinion completely and I will certainly buy it after the worst glitches are ironed out. But I've to say, too, that in this case Triumph has done a very poor piece of PR work ...

total biscuit just released his wtf is age of wonders 3 video today and gave it a heavy endorsement, so yeah it is well worth the price and your time!

triumph studios also made a news article about it on their front page, so you should fairly easily find it ;).

Edit: and yes you can play the game without creating a triumph account. you only have to check "guest" on the launcher!

Or maybe because that seems to currently be the case for the Steam version, ie no dlc while using a guest account.

Actually, you need the account for
1. DLC
2. Saving settings (claimed to be a bug that will be fixed)
3. Playing on local lan (NOT the internet)

However, you CAN play single player offline.

No, you don't. I've only been using the guest account, and had no problem playing the DLC scenarios.

One thing I didn't realise is that the DLC is a completely separate folder from AOW3 so I thought you needed a Triumph account but it wasn't actually installed.

The not saving settings is annoying both in the main menu and in game.