It's the best game I have played. It was really hard to struggle and often it was so close. With nailbiting attacks where you squeeze your eyes shut and pressing the mouse button praying to RNG gods. Slowly taking a little bit before a stalemate again. Then it's a matter of intel, bluff and deception.

There are triggers though. Expand too fast in the wrong direction and you might trigger a devastating counterattack before you're ready.
Wut? What's impossible?

Phew! Map3 completed.
It took me forever and felt like a end level.. maybe I'm doing something wrong. O_o

Is it unnecessary to convert all captured cities?
They seem to revolt easily otherwise, without many units guarding them.

I didn't know about altars, so I was quite shocked when the enemy hit my hero with a Death-like spell!
Also, it razed mine immediately (but I didn't reload). Luckly I did the same to him eventually :P

Questions:
1- the screen flickers with a black frame every now and then.. a glitch?
2- can flying units conquer\raze all buildings\cities? I was surprised when they did so to some towers.
3- who can activate altars? Only heroes, any unit, the owner whenever they want?
4- I don't see any way to offer peace in the relations panel. Just a campaign thing?
5- archers don't seem to hurt flying units much, unless I choose the automatic battle. Wtf?
6- only battering rams can destroy walls\doors?

---

About next map, should I choose Dwarves or Lizards?
Who is the most useful \ stronger?

Suggestions about the next 2 spheres?

.
Impossible not to reload between 2 levels lol.
I hope that such bug doesn't still exists.

You should migrate unhappy/rebellious cities, yes. But whether they rebel depends on alignment and racial relations.

Basically, if you're good, cities of other good races will like you, (their neutral cities and units will voluntary join you for gold, instead of fighting you) neutral races will be ambivalent (won't join you but won't rebel either) , evil races will be displeased. (Their cities will rebel, their units will desert unless you put them in big armies of loyal units/use units with bard skills)

If you're neutral, you can make friends with anyone. If you're pure good or pure evil (Undead or High Men) you'll have a lot of trouble since even neutrals are rebellious.

But it's not fixed: you can boost racial relations by building walls or upgrades for cities of that race, or by migrating cities to that race. You can lose relation points by migrating or razing their cities, or by declaring war on players of that race. This can be a nasty surprise: I've had games where my Good aligned Elves build a lot of human units, declare war on a human player, and then the humans in my armies start deserting. Oops...

These shifts to the relations will slowly revert to their base level. But if you do enough nice things for a race, you can certainly be on friendly terms even though you didn't start out that way.

Yes.

But razing cities takes time and they may rebel/be liberated first. And razing strong sites will require several units to raze them. Also, razing buildings will often spawn "avengers" that will try to kill your scouts. Once captured, (i.e. your flag is hanging over them) altars can be used just by clicking on them.

They require a long time to recharge OR a lot of mana. (500 at zero charge, I think.) Since the AI gets ridiculous bonuses to mana and income at high AI levels, they can and will spam altar spells. This can lose you games.

Let's just say that taking out altars is something of a priority for me when facing such AIs, and that I really like the underground. (No altars there.) You need to select the leader, not the race. (i.e. the top-row pictures.) Then there should be an option to offer peace. But they're unlikely to accept in the campaign. Are you positioning them right? Cover will reduce the archer's chance to hit.

In general, auto-battle has some quirks and abstractions and will always allow defending archers to shoot at least once, even if in tactical battle you can position fast units to charge before the archers can shoot. And catapults. And Goblin Bombers. And units with "wall crushing," like Goblin Beetles, Dwarf Moles, Frostling Yeti. And spells like Fireball and Great Hail. And boulder-hurling giants.

You can also set wooden walls on fire with flame throwers or the "ignition" ability/spell. However, oddly enough, having units with fire attacks won't let you attack walled cities/towers unless you also have a unit that can damage walls directly.

Likewise, the game lets you capture a dozen towers/walled cities in a row with 1 bomber, even though you'd need 2 or 3 bombers to destroy a single wall. Up to you. Dwarves are a bit stronger, but lizards can swim. They even get swimming artillery, which is pretty awesome.

The story is different for each faction choice you make also, and choosing lizards will give you different options further down the road than choosing Dwarfs.

As for spheres: I'd pick 2 water. High level water spells are very cool, whereas low level air and life spells are better. Specifically, 3 water spheres get you spells like Liquid Form, (great to cast on your leader, halves the physical damage he takes) Great Hail (Massive damage in an area, and crushes walls. Also looks cool) and Healing Showers. (Area-effect healing.) Also Frost Beam (AoE disabling/damage) and Geyser (heavy single target damage.)

I went for the classic endangerd Dwarfs.
Ok for water, even if I won't get Gold Dragons then :\
Thanks for all the info.

Btw, I brought a demon to the next level XD

It's possible but oh boy have it given me rage attacks during the years. :P
I might test this this weekend. Depends on if I get into a strategy mood or not. Sounds like I've been covering for something I don't need to anymore.

You, good sir, are evil. :D
And you reminded me - I onced lost quick battle... althought I was end-game and I hade advantage... Odd thing, but they focused my leader. :(
Also - I'm really scared of you right now. Hope I don't have to fight you in AoW. :(

But I was the azracs. They're neutral :D I'm very nice :)

If you want to hear my epic story telling throughout on the forum reporting every turn log:

https://www.gog.com/forum/age_of_wonders_series/pbem_game_kayland_catermune_senteria_spice_vitek_greyhuntr_wennejoekel/

Another game. I died by ultra RNG. Ah found an old quote It was so sour. I was VERY salty afterwards. :P My first PBEM game was with davespice and greyhuntr. I was halflings and he played the elves. But the funny thing was that he replaced two previous incompetent players. I remember getting an In-game message: "Uhm, the previous player didn't do shit and is wasting all his money."

Ah I got many good memories.

Don't worry - I understand. A few days ago I tried to see AoWSM again. "Oh look, I won this battle... but my hero almost leveled up... hmm, let him get the last hit/kill." 4 turns of exchaning blow with that one, single, almost-dead unit - the unit <Dwarven Engi> landed a strike on my Hero. And kill him. While Hero was almost at full health.
I cursed his entire family for 10 generation back and 2 past, if he manged to do so before the battle.

In fact - I still do.

And thanks for the link - I have feeling it will be fun to read. In a ways. xD

If like anyone would be once again willing to give a shot PBEM game in any of them (either 1 or SM), I think I wouldn't be opposed to dusting off my strategy maps and get demolished once again.
Or you, phaolo, doesn't have to be old-time member.
MP is infuriating fun.

I still have an ancient turn to play from a PBEM game. But I swear it feels like the guy is cheating. =x
Which makes me seem like a sore loser, but I have lost games with dignity before.

Ok, map4 was easier but super long, due to the tunnels maze.
Also, I took many extra turns to explore various ruins placed far across the mountains.

The demon wasn't a great transfer choice, as I had to keep it under control with 2 heroes in the same party.
Eventually he snapped anyway, so I sent him away to a suicide mission lol.

Btw, are the map transfer points fixed or vary due to some "score"?
So far they have been:
1->2 150pt
2->3 300pt
3->4 525pt
4->5 575pt
I had to drop many items this time, because the points are few and the hero costs more :\


Thanks, but I've just started and I'm already struggling in the first missions. XD
Also, how long does a PBEM game last usually? O_o

Heh. Yes, demons make for uncomfortable allies, unless you're really evil.

It's fixed. Goes up every mission.

But yes, the transfer point cost for heroes that level up fast can outgrow the amount of points you get for a scenario. If you have a high level hero or many magic items you want to take, you might get in trouble.

Which is why, as I mentioned earlier, I prefer not to transfer heroes or items and instead transfer some good, fast, hard-hitting tier 3 units, preferably with gold medal. Units have a fixed transfer cost and will always be useful. Dwarf Giants are a good choice because of their long range siege potential. A balloon can really speed up your initial exploration.

The exception is cheap-yet-very-useful items like that spear thingie that gives first strike.

I always take my 2nd hero with me throughout the game. :)

My leader being a spellcaster and the 2nd hero a fighting hero.