
The Vanguard can use combat drones and turrets while excelling in ranged battles (making them especially deadly when sniping). Aesthetics are nice but each faction offers a different gameplay experience as well. The Assembly, on the other hand, are appropriately nightmarish with their cybernetic augmentations – the Inspector is three heads connected to a floating drone, for instance. The Vanguard is standard sci-fi military with options for capes and Big Boss-esque eye-patches while their units comprise of tanks, gunbird and assault units.

And so on and so forth with the Dvar, Kir’ko and Syndicate.Įach race and their units look incredibly distinct. Then you have the Amazon who gain bonus Morale when fighting in forests and can use genetically altered creatures to wreak havoc.

Alternatively, there’s The Assembly, a race of cyborgs who can repair themselves with the remains of their foes, reassemble fallen allies and specialize in Arc weapons. Players can take control of the Vanguard, a race of humanity that employs military technology like tanks, walkers and drones. Departing from the medieval fantasy worlds of its predecessors, Planetfall sees the Star Union collapsing and six factions emerging from the wreckage. The answer can be seen in Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

"Aesthetics are nice but each faction offers a different gameplay experience as well." But the question is: What would happen if Triumph shored up all the other elements and improved them dramatically? It’s quite heavily reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic – the heroes and their armies are the stars with proper use of their abilities (and resource management) winning out in the end. Age of Wonders 3 isn’t quite 4X but there’s a significant amount of exploration, expansion and exploitation with a strong emphasis on extermination. In the realm of 4X titles, whether it’s turn-based epics like Endless Space 2 or grand strategy exploits like Stellaris, Triumph Studios’ Age of Wonders franchise occupies an interesting spot.
