Still getting my feet wet with this game, but loving it so far. As a longstanding TBS and Fantasy vet, this game has a wonderful complexity that is very engaging.

My only gripe is that my heroes seem underpowered. I heard this could be overcome via the item forge. However, I don't have a manual and don't yet know how to access this feature.

Is it an enhancement for the wizard tower, or something that needs to be reserached? Is it some easily accessible feature that is in an odd menu somewhwere?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

It's a building that you can build. An upgrade to wizards tower. And after you have it you can start a construction of a magic item in this town (if you have multiple cities with forges you can make multiple items at once).

Thank you very much. It sounds like this cango a long way in allowing my heroes to stay alive a little longer in the end game battles.
Hopefully, more epxerience wil help me grasp the tactics of this game better as well.