hello!

so since GOG is having a promo on these games i decided to maybe give them a shot. just got thru watching some gameplay on youtube for shadow magic and it looks fun. but i still got some questions as to should i buy and then which one?

now i do have some strategy game experience. i have played and/or own Kings Bounty: the legend and age of empires 2 and 3. i loved the gameplay of KB:TL, battle heavy and fun to me, but lacking any kind of resource management/building which can be fun too. i mean hey who doesnt like building castles and such? Been awhile since ive played AoE but i think i had fun with it. Also forgot to mention i own Civ 3 as well, and for some reason i can't get into it. it just really bores me, and it can be confusing to where i walk away from playing with a "huh?" kinda feeling. no surprise i forgot i even own it!

so, which one do you think would be the best for me? i also like good storylines, but not sure how deep a strategy game will get with story. if any of these has one that would be great too. and also, which one do YOU love most and why. would like to see your comments as that could help me decide if i wanna get it or not...since steam has a sale too lol. mahalo nui!!

The best story IMHO is in original AoW (branching campaign and four different endings story-wise). Second best is in AoW:SM.

However gameplay-wise I'd pick AoW:SM. Most polished one. And don't forget many (MANY) great mods for SM, some of which change the game drastically for the better (my favorite is Brave New World). Original AoW also has mods, but not that great IMHO.

I got both AoW1 and AowSM "original" releases, I'm still playing SM ! Both are good and frankly, with a 3 games pack at 13$ you can"t get wrong getting them all this weekend!

As a very huge fan of both Age of Wonders and Civ 3 I can tell you that they are very different games. The main focus the Age of Wonder games is exploration, battle and troop movement not world building.
There are many other important parts of the AoW series too like racial relations, spell research, diplomacy, control of the resources, hero improvement and more.
The economic part of the game offers interesting choices but takes up almost nothing of the game time. The mana can be used for spell research, spell casting or spell upkeep. Money can be used for many things including upkeep for armies.

Racial relations is important and is determined by you starting relations, your actions towards that race during the game and diplomacy. A good rule of thumb is that ethnic cleansing is not appreciated.

The largest part of the games, battle and troop movement is also where it shines the most. (Apart perhaps from mood and setting.) The units move individually on the hexagonal strategic map and the hexagonal tactical map. On the strategic map up to eight units can stack on top of each other. They then move with the speed of the lowest common denominator. This also applies to movement bonuses and abilities.
If you have some flying units and some mountain climbing units that you move over a mountain they will all move with the lowest speed of the group which most likely will be from the mountain climbers.
Up to seven stacks of up to eight units each (56) can be involved in one battle.

The units have a many different abilities that are active or passive and can be used in or outside battle.

Here are some examples from AoW 1:

Lizardman Archer (a basic archer)
Abilities: Archery (active), Swimming (active), Walking (active)

Turtle Catapult: (the lizardmen's catapult)
Abilities: Hurl Boulder (active), Swimming (active), Walking (active)

Titan:
Fire Immunity (passive), First Strike (passive), Holy Protection (passive), Round Attack (active), Strike (active), Walking (active)

Incarnate:
Cold Immunity (passive), Death Immunity (passive), Fire Immunity (passive), Floating (active) , Lightning Immunity (passive), Magic Strike (passive), Physical Immunity (passive), Poison Immunity (passive), Posses (active) , Strike (active)

Undead Doom Priest:
Black Bolts (active) , Cold Protection (passive), Death Immunity (passive), Death Strike (passive), Dispel Magic I (active) , Dominate (active) , Fearless (passive), Fire Protection (passive), Lightning Protection (passive), Poison Immunity (passive), Regeneration (passive), Strike (active), Walking (active)

Halfling Rogue:
Concealment (passive), Hurl Stones (active), Marksmanship I (passive), Parry (passive), Strike (active), Walking (active), Wall Climbing (passive)

Valkyrie:
Charge (passive), Fearless (passive), Flying (active) , Holy Immunity (passive), Holy Strike (passive), Strike (active) , Vision II (passive)

thanks for the insight on the games folks. i think i may try to find a demo somewhere and test it out first. if it even feels like Civ i don't think i'll like it so we'll see.