AoW3 is looking pretty good. I'm not overly fond of the Civilization V meets World of Warcraft art direction though.

Simply wonderful!

The only thing I am waiting for is the GoG pre-order.
Though if they suddenly announce a Season Pass for race packs and/or a day 1 Frostling DLC, I will be dissappointed in a way of the business model ;)

Same. I want to get the full game. I don't mind waiting a month or two to get a full version.

I wouldn't mind one or possibly two proper expansion packs, but if they plan on doing the same DLC s*** like other companies where they release little bits and pieces cut from the main game they can kiss my entire purchase goodbye, including the main game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDKVGMgmae4

Lennart Sas playing AoW3

Yes, the game looks very good so far... yet some ... ehm, "borrowed" elements of GUI and gameplay really strike my eyes. Plus to it - all of these pestering commercial tricks like DLCs and other s**t...
I still plan to purchase it but maybe only when the game would be COMPLETELY finished and full-packed.

I agree. Not the way I would have gone at all.

I actually hope for expansion packs. Since they wont be able to add all the races right away and Age of Wonders 3 would be so much better if all races made a comeback, an expansion or two would be perfect. Or adding the shadow realm could make for an interesting expansion. But the DLC mania of other companies is disgusting.

(Slight bump.)

I for one, am fairly dissapointed with the limited races, what I really like about Shadow Magic is all of the races, so everyone can find a favorite.

In AoW III we have Goblins, Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Draconians and Orcs AFAIK. Sure you can mix it up with the new leader classes (Dreadnaught, Theif, Archdruid, Warlord, Sorceress, Theocrat.) but it doesn't make up for the lack of an undead race.

I'm sure DLC will add more races, but I was honestly expecting more diversity.

Also, six units per stack as opposed to 8? The gameplay videos look great, but I can't help but think how much better it would be with 8 per stack. :(

According to Steam, release day will be the 31th of March.

I am concerned about the combat mechanics in Age of Wonders III, particularly this from the latest Developer's Journal:

"Retaliation, Flanking and Guarding

When one unit attacks another with a melee attack, the defending unit will retaliate and strike back. Each time the defender does this, they use up an action point, so once they’ve retaliated 3 times, they won’t be able to retaliate any more. Even worse for the defender, a unit gets it’s action points refilled at the end of its turn. So, after retaliating 3 times, the defender won’t be able to use the unit themselves next turn!"

I feel that action points should be refilled at the start of a unit's turn, not at the end of its turn. Unless that mechanic is changed, I simply will not purchase the game.

It's the same mechanism as AoW:SM. This allows you to use up a strong enemies retaliations/moves/action points with some of your cannon fodder before moving in for the kill with your more valued units. ;)

It's a strategy that only works when you're fighting tactical battles against the AI. It doesn't work against other humans since those are always autobattles in PBEM. We'll have to see how it plays out in the new online battle system.

The loyal AoW players would have raised high hell if this battle mechanic was not in AoW:3...

As best I could tell (I just fired up AoWSM to refresh my memory), the combat mechanism in Shadow Magic was as I described in the last sentence of my previous post and action points were refilled at the start of a unit's turn, not at the end of its turn.

And I played against the AI, and not against other players.