I have never felt anything like this before, its brilliant and awesome. Just a thought.

1 and 2 has graphics and UI to die for.

I wish I could say the same about the AI...

Alas, the third installment took the wrong "modern" way. But we still have brilliant AoW 1-2, and Upatch 1.5 for AoWSM!

Flying units that don't really fly, rng/traditional chance to hit removed so that at times you have to do exact arithmeticto distribute attacks efficiently, horrifically generic cartoony artstyle copied off civ5 which was also worse than its predecessor civ4, no permanent unit enchantments becausethey were too dumb to figure out how to balance them (make each active enchantment increase the upkeep cost in mana, if necessary make every enchantment come with a downside like reduced resistance [like how 'Liquid Form' inflicts fire weakness]), few races in the base game, inferior campaign....... did I miss anything? AoW3 was such a disappointment

But I shouldn’t just whine, Shadow Magic is not dead at all, people still make new patches and scenarios and PBEM is still here

As for me, I could forgive and forget all the shortcomings and dubious design/mechanics decisions but one - this terrible "to-keep-up-with-modern-trends" visual style, bad, no, BAD implemented and untested 3D engine and awkward camera. I just can't play it, almost physically. All the rest you mentioned is also bad, of course, but I'd skip it and try to force me to love this game... but everything I look at makes my eyes bleed.

True for me too, last time I tried to play I gave up when I realised I couldn't tell which enemies on the enemy city walls were pikemen/swordsmen/crossbows without playing pixel hunt to select them

I'd disagree.For me, the third game takes the best qualities from the first two games and combines them with a better UI and graphics, better AI, and a bunch of new features to make by far my favourite game in the series.

The tactical combat especially is brilliant in the 3rd game. The flanking mechanics, action point mechanic, competent (if still fallible) AI and the sheer variety of units and abilities make the battles endlessly interesting and entertaining, and often very challenging. Meanwhile, the classes add even more variety in playstyles and tactics than the old races did, and with the mystic city upgrades empire building is more fun than it was in the older games.

Also, best random map generator by far.

I definitely get why people who really loved Shadow Magic might still prefer that game, and I do agree that the first two games each were very stylish. And yes, the camera in 3 is sluggish, (I just never move it and pretend it's a fixed isometric perspective.) and I wish they hadn't cut all the really awesome overland map spells.

For me, tough, AoW2/Shadow Magic were in many ways a step back from AoW1. Or, perhaps more fair to say, a step in a direction I didn't like. I didn't care for the wizard tower and domain mechanic, the archery mechanics, having leaders who had to be protected instead of joining the fight, and I never quite enjoyed the tactical combat as much as I did in AoW1. Meanwhile, AoW1 remains one of my favourite games, but the UI and graphics have aged.

AoW3 brings back the magic and then some. This was never an issue with me for the normal units. I can easily tell Orc Pikemen from Orc Swordsmen, etc.

It was, however, an issue with the class units. In the default game it's way too hard to tell an Orc Assassin apart from an Elf Assassin. Fortunately there's a mod that fixes that and makes the class units look like members of their race, but without that mod this'd be a big problem for me. (Especially the Warbreed unit, which just felt wrong in most armies. But with the mod it looks great even if you're a Dwarf or a Tigran.)

Mods are another thing that's pretty fun in this game. The old ones had a few. I played plenty of Warlock's in AoW1, and the Unofficial Patch in AoW2 also added some good stuff. But modern mod compatibility does offer a lot more flexibility to change what you want to change. (Although it's annoying to have to get them from the steam workshop, to say the least...)

For all my raging I really wanted to like the third game, can you point me towards which mods I should choose? Are there any good fanmade scenarios with a strong setting/storyline like we have in aow2? And what sort of camera setting I should choose to make it most similar to an isometric game? I had similar camera issues with Neverwinter Nights, I literally couldn't play it because of the camera. Time to check out that steam workshop

I will always hate the artstyle and the move to 3D, but I've bought it andI love the franchise.

I agree with what you say about aow1,in several ways that game was superior to its successor. Altars, walls requiring rams to conquer, superb soundtrack rather than aow2's merely good soundtrack. Excellent campaign. aow1's more mechanically simplistic take on archery was in truth the more tactically demanding version and should have stayed.

The only truly crucial mod for my enjoyment of the game is this one: Tibbles' Class Units Reskin As I mentioned above, it makes the class units look much better and much more distinctive. Can't imagine playing without it.

Beyond that I use a number of small utility mods:

* No clouds when zooming out This gives much better map oversight
* Move orders first Tiny change, but saves a lot of frustration. This mod makes it so in your turn you get reminders to move your armies FIRST, and only then get the prompts to research and build stuff. This is much better, because you only know how much gold and bonus research you have at the end of your turn.
* Impeding Mountains This makes mountains (nearly) impassable again, like they were in old AoW games. I don't always use it, since it's not necessarily balanced, but it does add a dimension to the game. (Pun intended.)
* More colours for leaders. Making custom leaders is one of the most fun part of the game, but by default there are only a few colours available. This then leads to leaders being swapped to random colours if their colour has been claimed already. This mod largely solves that issue. Plus, it lets you make better looking leaders.
* AoW1 soundtrack for AoW3 Because I quite agree with you on the music. Again, I don't always use it, but it makes for a fun (and nostalgic) change.

There are also mods that add more racial units or further expand the hero system, but I don't use them since I'm pretty much satisfied with the base game.

(Though I should stress that I've only come to love this game after the expansions came out. Base AoW3 was... decent, but a bit sparse, and didn't have quite enough depth. The expansions not only brought races up to a respectable nine and added the necromancers, but also added the crucial mystic city upgrades, racial governance and alternate victory conditions that really add to the game's appeal.) There are a bunch of story based maps on the workshop, but honestly I've never really tried them out. I'm always playing random maps.

I will say that the (short) expansion campaigns and in particular the Eternal Lords one are great. The ones in the base game are... lacklustre at best, but the first Eternal Lords map is extremely challenging and fun, and the third is a truly epic one full of twists and alternate paths to victory and huge battles against the odds, as well as a good story. If you haven't played it yet, you should. I thought the camera was fine in NWN1, but in NWN2 it was a sluggish brute that nearly made the game unplayable.

As for AoW3: I just never move the camera from its default angle. I occasionally zoom in or out, but mostly don't bother either. This gives me plenty of oversight and lets me see what's happening. Edit: Make sure "Tactical Combat High Camera" is enabled, and "Action Camera" disabled.

The only exception is the Necromancer towns that were added in the second expansion... for some reason they have huge lighting issues that make it hard to see what's happening. Haven't found a solution for that, yet.

Whilst we're on the topic of what the game does right, though: I love the tactical combat tooltips, that explain exactly what is happening. You never have to wonder, like you did in AoW1, "is my dragonslayer bonus working on my wand of lightning bolts?" (No, it's not.) Here, it explains exactly what is happening and why.

And music. :)

If keeping talking of graphics, recently I installed Fallen Enchantress Ultimate Edition I bought on sale some time ago. I know this franchise back from first Elemental game release when it was empty and dull. But even in those times I was fascinated with graphics and visual style.

It is gloomy, blurred and rather schematicized, I don't know how to say it better in English... :) But it's awesome and full of charm and distinctive style. It doesn't burn my eyes like acid as it does in most modern games of similar genre (AoW3, Warlock, Endless Something and such). I get a real aesthetic and almost physiological pleasure when playing FELH :)

And it is also really very good game, by the way. A bit surprisingly for me :)

Hell yeah!