I thought Shadow Magic was the best of the series, but it wasn't a big improvement over the earlier games in the series. So does AOW3 add anything to gamplay mechanics, or is this one of those "sequels" that is really the same game with new graphics?

Well... first of all it adds clases to the game, which determin how are you going to play. Of course you still can go however you wish, but playing as, for example, Sorcerer would mean that you have better spells, no? :)
With clases goes changes in researching - before your mainly researched spells that went with your elemental affinity. Now - you mostly research tech trees of your class, including empire upgrades, new units and spells. The elemental affinity picks are still there but it's... around 5 things to research at level (you can go to levels, for example you can me Fire Adept or Fire Mastr). There are also non-elemental 'specializations', like Expander or Explorer, which will give you their own bonuses and upgrades to discover.

In empire building mechanics... we are between AoW1 and SM... and Civilization 5. First and foremost - your leader don't have to stand in the capitol whole game. He's back to being the Hero-Avatar figure, like in first game in the series. He can be killed, which will send him to the Void (AoW2/SM), resulting in halting research, no spellcasting and, of course, penalties in moral of empire. The current city 'radius' determins just which objects on the map will give you benefits (as long as they are not occupied by enemies and/or are explored, back to it in a sec). But you can cast spells with your leader in a battle as long there is at least one your unit there, but with double the cost. Other than that... city building is the same as in AoW SM to most of it's part - cities generate population, which expands them, building stuctures in them is the same as in SM.
There are also independent cities/dwellings now, that work like independed cities in Civ 5 - you can warm them up to you buy paying them, doing quest for 'em and so on... Some of the dwellings can contain special, 'smaller' races that are not playable per se - for example Fey, Sirens, Naga, Giants. OF course you can just go an conquer them, if you don't want to wait for quests or just want them faster. :)

Combat - also few changes here. Two come to mind instantly - there is no longer 'dodgeball' - unless it's a special case attacks always connects, but high armor prevents the damage. Second thing - you can only cast one spell per turn in battle, either be it your avatar or a hero. One spell per turn. Other than that... flanking in crowd control skills became more important than ever. AI use it ofter and getting stunned means you are constantly flanked, which gives bonus to damage, so placement is crucial.
Of course - the stats for races and units were rebalanced, but this is just a side note.


I think I cover most of the changes... Maybe someone will add to this, if I skipped something. :)

That was a very helpful answer, Bethezer. Thank you.

One of my favorite aspects of SM was crafting items for my heroes to wield. How is that in #3?

It is present. I don't remember how it worked in SM, but here you have 5 'units' in item - different properties need diffrent amounts of them (the most powerful taking all 5). And to be honest - you craft quite nice things. With addition to your Leader skills and stats (gain via leveling) you can creat a monster who can fight alone Tier 4 units, like fully grown Dragons.
And you reminded me - you can have mounts here (they are treated as equipement), which also bring you special abilities and/or stats.

Bethezer has summed it up very nicely.

I'll stress a few more points.

The tactical combat is better than ever in this iteration. Not only do the flanking mechanics add a lot, but the combat AI knows how to use these tricks to good effect. It's still not on human level, but it's better than in any of the previous titles. Also, units have lots of interesting abilities and attacks. So did Shadow Magic, but the variety is greater still this time around.

Also changed is the random map generator. It's very good, and most people play random maps nowadays. The random maps look great, are quite balanced, and you have lots of options to customise the kind of game you want.

One downside, according to some shadow magic players, is that there are fewer units per race now. There are more units overall, mind you. But you get about half your units, especially the higher tier ones, from your class rather than your race. (Depending on which class you play. An archdruid only gets a couple of buildable units and summons the rest, but a warlord will get a lot of units.) Now, I like this. But some players miss having powerful racial units.

Race is still important, both because the class units differ depending on race (A Tigran berserker has different stats and skills than a Human Berserker. The latter is better at sea, the former can pounce on the enemy.) and because the last expansion added a "racial governance" system that lets you upgrade racial units or cities if you have a lot of cities of that race and keep them happy for a long time.

Oh, and another new feature I really like is the mystical city upgrades, added by the first expansion. It lets you build special buildings if you have certain (cleared) treasure sites within your domain. For example, ancient ruins let you build a building that upgrades pikemen produced in that city to inflict spirit damage. Another site might let you recruit Yeti in your city.

All in all, I consider AoW3 to be by far the best incarnation of the series. For me it combines the best of AoW1 and AoW2 with a host of good new features.

Except for the Halflings. I really preferred the ones from the earlier games.

I will add more:

Relations between races are no longer pre-determined (with Elves being always Good, etc). Instead racial relations are determined by in-game actions and little bit of randomness.

When starting a game, each independent town will get an alignment, which will affect their relations toward you (Good alignment cities will be more friendly while Evil cities are more suspicious to other, even to evil players). This "basic" relation will be modified by how you treat that particular race. You have more happy Frostling cities will make independenr Frostling cities like you more. You razed many Dwarven cities will make independent Dwarves cities hate you.

Essentially, you will have a diplomatic slider with every race and this diplomatic slider determined the said race's attitude toward you.

If your diplomatic relations with a race is low enough, even your own cities of that particular race will start having revolt. They will invite other player who have high diplomatic relations with your race to "liberate" the city. When the said player attack the city, a band of rebels will spawn to help the player's army.
Of course, the opposite also works. If an enemy player has low racial relations with a particular race and you have high relations, the city will give you a quest to "liberate" it. This presents new strategy when playing, especially as Rogue.

Yeah, that's a lot of fun. When you besiege the city, rebel units will spawn inside the walls to attack the defenders from behind. It really sucks to be a garrison when the populace is revolting.

A spoon of salt in this barrel of honey: TBH, the visual presentation is really bad. It's not normal when a game looks way better and plays way more comfortably being on "Very Low" graphics settings than on "Highest" (though being still unplayable for me anyway).
Camera is awkward, epsecially in battles, main map is shining and flashing and pullulating with effects in a bad manner (like in HoMM5 comparing to HoMM3). In whole, this idiotic today-standard 3D (and the badly implemented 3D, you know) makes this game much worse than it could be.

You may not believe it, but almost everything on Earth is a matter of taste :P

I don't like 3D in strategy games, especially in big ones, 4Xs, TBSs. It adds nothing to gameplay. What kind of "realism" or "visual bells and whistles" do I need when the main gameplay actions are GUI menu/submenu navigating/clicking, skills/abilities numbers comparing and tactical/strategic planning? I do NOT need water shining, day/night lighting effects or something like that. Imagine the Chess board where every piece is waving its hands, taking poses, and every square is full of shinihg water, sparkling trees and other sh*t... It's Hell on Earth - not a strategy game.
And moreover, even if all of these visual superfluities are made - they can be made good or bad. In games like HoMM3 there are plenty of visual trifles but they are sprites in 2D, without annoying lighting effects, shaders or whatever all this crap is called. In AoW3 3D graphics is BAD and eye-irritating.