So I had played and finished AoW1 few years ago and really enjoyed it; way much better than HoM&M series for me.

I had tried Wizards for a few minutes and wasn't very satisfied with game changes, so I left it.

Of course I know "minutes" aren't sufficient time for closer examination, so I thought I should give a game second chance, although I will really miss Highmen side. But as far as I now, it's very similar to newer Shadow Magic, which could be probably better.

So, I would like to ask if it's OK to skip this middle chapter; I don't care of storyline (I mean, who cares - it's another tolkien-cheap-clone-with-elves-and-other-stuff-bullshit, no offense :-) ), I just need to know, how different is gameplay in Magic and if I will miss some basics from previous game.

Thank you.

You won't miss a very great deal. Shadow Magic has pretty much the same interface and gameplay as AoW2 but with 3 addintional races and an extra map layer, the Shadow realm.