List of structures

Racial Bonuses[]

Each race gets different bonuses that apply to their units. Below is a table with all of the bonuses that apply only to units. For other bonuses for cities and terrain see each of the race pages.

These bonuses are already included in the racial units, but they are not included for class units. So to determine the final stats of a base class unit, just add the following abilities to units of the corresponding race.

*Only applies if there are a respective or damage channels present.

Changelog[]

The Age of Kings

• Wonders are always revealed on the map, regardless of victory condition.
• Britons: The Wonder is the Aachen Cathedral.

The Conquerors

• Wonders are only revealed on the map on Standard Victory conditions.
• Wonders are indicated on the minimap as a white spot.

The Forgotten

• Incas and Italians: The Wonder is partially edited from other buildings in the game.
• Indians: The Wonder is the Gol Gumbaz.
• Magyars: The Wonder is a modified, smaller version of the Hunyad Castle.

Definitive Edition

• Britons: The Wonder is the Chichester Cathedral. The Aachen Cathedral remains available in the Scenario Editor.
• Incas and Italians: The Wonder has a unique model made from scratch, but it is still based on the same real-life buildings.
• Magyars: The Wonder is a full version of the Hunyad Castle.

Strategy[]

Strategies which are specific to classes, races, or units are listed with those classes, races or units. This section is here for general Strategies.

Flying and Floating

Floating units are able to cross all obstacles, however, they cannot move directly through units, and they will take Attacks of Opportunity.

Flying units are able to cross all obstacles with the exception of certain impassable walls, fly over units, and will only take Attacks of Opportunity on the location they leave.
Advanced logistic (empire upgrade) provide a tremendous boost to flying units (not to floating units) in tactical combat against unit that doesn’t have attack of opportunity (e.g: machines, like most dreadnought units).

With Advanced logistic, flying units can flank and still be able to do 3x attacks against such unit, if the flying units also has charge, then it can flank and charge and still able to do 3x attacks. Without Advanced logistic, they can only do 2x attack if they flank/charge.

Floating units don’t get this bonus.

As mentioned above, floating units can’t pass other units, thus flying units will be able to use their AoE ability more efficiently/optimally than floating units, especially in a battle that has many units participating in it.

Autocombat

If a stack has mostly melee units or all units in the stack are melee.

Melee units in that stack with different movement point will result in the faster unit often get killed.

E.g: A stack composed of 1 flyer, 1 cavalry, 3 infantry, 1 pikemen will often result in the flyer getting killed, even if it’s a T3 flyer.

So make sure to put fast unit with other fast unit in the same stack to mitigate the loses.

Flanking with Numbers

This is an insight about how to safely take down T4 with T1 unit without a specific setup.

When a guarding units lose all action points, in the next turn he won’t be able to attack at all and lose the guard/defense mode.

Early game against a guarding T4, three T1 units can attack the T4, one strike per T1 unit. If those T1 units can attack more than once, just allow that unit to wander a bit until he lose some movement points so that he can only attack the guarding T4 unit once. The purpose of this is to reduce the retaliation damage from said T4 to those T1 units, and to disable the guard/defense mode of said T4 at the next turn after all three T1 units attack it, allowing those T1 to deliver massive damage at next turn.

Hero Upgrades[]

Halflings[]

Note that only Halfling units and cities are affected

Empire Upgrades[]

Arcane Study

Produce Apprentice

School of Teleportation

Magical Structures

School of Enchantment

Sorcery

Racial Governance[]

Racial Governance is part of the expansion.Note that only Orc units are affected

Dwarves[]

Note that only Dwarf units and cities are affected

Dwarves[]

«Dwarves are hardy mountain kin which live in the earth or rugged places of the land. They value strength and hard work. Their minds are slow to the ways of diplomacy, preferring to strike their enemies with the force of their blows over spending inordinate amounts of energy in lengthy, sleep-inducing talk. They love to create things and find great satisfaction in creating vast structures adorned with the treasures discovered deep within the earth. Dwarves are strong fighters, some preferring to forego armor and shields to wield two axes and pure rage. Their sure-footed strides carry them over the high slopes they revere.»

Dwarves are a straightforward race, eschewing fancy maneuvers in favour of a good, honest fight. As a result, their higher-end units have less mobility than those of other races, but are capable of inflicting and receiving considerable punishment, while some of their melee-based class units have developed greater resistance to enemy projectiles to assist in surviving a headlong charge towards enemy lines. Their archers represent an exception to this rule, often acting more as irregulars with their heavy crossbows than conventional archers. Forge Priests can provide them with healing and the blessing of fire, and share an with the most powerful dwarven units, the Firstborn. While dwarves generally lack flyers, their mountaineering and caving skills allow them to quickly traverse terrain that can pose problems for other races. Dwarves are at home in arctic terrain as well as underground, although their cities are most productive nestled among mountain peaks on the surface than beneath the ground.

Class Synergies[]

Strategic Spells[]

Poison Mastery

Summon Grimbeak Crows

Iron Grip

Treasure Raiding

Corpse Looting

Incite Revolt

Guild of Shadow Thieves

Plague of Brigands

Network of Scrying Eyes

Night Wish

Age of Deception

Hero Upgrades[]

Note: Some upgrades cannot be accessed for a Leader, i.e. Divine Channeling and Spells.

Dreadnought[]

«Dreadnoughts work in a world of pulleys, boilers, engines and gears. They are inventors and engineers. The Commonwealth esteems their machines because they can automate everyday chores. Their tanks and battleships allow the common man to safely slay monstrous creatures. However, the power of steam doesn’t come without its price, so Dreadnought lords have pioneered new ways of stripping resources from the earth. I once heard one proclaim that when they ran out of fertile lands, they’d invent an alternative fuel. From what I’ve observed, he is probably right.» — «Gifted Lords of the Third Age» by Ralinstone Pedant, Chronicler

Dreadnoughts are the most resilient class in the game with good defensive options and upgrades focused on becoming even more resilient. Outside of the leader or hero themselves, dreadnought units are mostly machines and firearms so it’s important to learn the various strengths and weaknesses of your armies because the reload time of your units can leave your army vulnerable at inopportune times.

The various abilities and spells of a dreadnought are mostly area of effect abilities focused on disabling or damaging your foes with the strongest being the destabilized mana core, a massive explosion that affects the entire battlefield dealing high fire damage to all units both enemy and friend alike. This focus on area of effect fire damage and physical damage spells means that dreadnoughts do benefit from high fire resistance units and summons as they can then use their most powerful abilities without worrying about friendly fire.

The end-game units that the dreadnought can roll out like the ironclad warship and juggernaut are some of the most unstoppable units in the game with a variety of abilities and immunities. The mechanised nature of the troops does mean that they require active maintenance during combat in order to regain hitpoints but the reassemble ability makes them functionally immortal as long as a dreadnought is on the field.

Hero Upgrades[]

• Note: Some upgrades cannot be accessed for a Leader, i.e. Cloak and Dagger and Spells.
• Note: The costs for the Cloak and Dagger upgrades seem to be bugged, with numbers III to VI all costing 2 upgrade points more than any other class equivalent.
• Note:This will be fixed in the next . It has already been incorporated in this table.

Morale[]

Troops also have a morale level similar to City happiness with higher morale leading to increased critical strike chance while lower morale leads to a higher chance of fumbling and very unhappy units may even desert and leave altogether. Note that racial terrain preferences do impact the morale of the units very steeply so bear that in mind when you select where to attack an opposing army.

The following table has the percent chance for a unit to suffer a fumble or make a critical hit as well as the ranges for morale (the same values as happiness for cities). The lower morale percentages are for fumbles, and the higher morale percentages are for critical hits. In the case of the worst morale, there is also a 20% chance of desertion for the unit (applied individually, unit by unit).

Critical strikes cause the attack or ability being used to inflict the maximum damage that is possible with an additional 35%, while a fumble causes the attack or ability being used to inflict the least amount of damage possible, with an additional 35% malus. An army going up against another can find its effectiveness severely blunted and will find even much lesser enemies harder to deal with if it has poor morale. Handling your terrain and troop condition is as important as is countering your opponent’s attempts to lower your army’s morale or increase their own, be it by spells or tactics.

The following modifiers apply to units’ morale:

Note:

1. the morale malus related to unpaid wage do not stack: your units will receive only one of the different malus level;

2. several abilities such as Bard Skills modify units’ morale.

Strategic Map[]

A battle will occur when any army attacks another army. Since an army can exist of at most 6 units, this limits the size of the battle, but not as much as it might seem.

Adjacent Hex Rule

This is because of what is known as the Adjacent Hex Rule. This rule means that all armies adjacent to the defending hex get pulled in the battle, provided that they are allied with one of the sides, but not with both. This allows battles to start with up to units. You can thus enter combat with higher numbers than your enemies, or for example to attack your opponent from multiple sides, forcing him to spread his resources thin.

Siege Combat

With Siege Combat, this works slightly differently. While the Adjacent Hex Rule applies as to which armies are in combat, all defending armies will be placed inside the walls, and all attackers will be placed outside them, side by side. Therefore, it is impossible to attack a city from multiple sides.

Units on water tiles will participate in the battle, under the condition that they can also move on land. This will also apply to all embarked units.

The other way around, attacking ships in harbor will cause all the units in the city that can traverse water to aid the ships in defense; this will draw them out of the city walls, and can thus be used to weaken an enemy’s garrison without having to face the walls straight away. Note that this will not draw units in the battle who can embark, only those who can inherently traverse water.

Terrain

Also, planning for battle, be it offensive or defensive, it is important to note on which terrain the battle will take place. First of all, all racial units have terrain preferences. They will receive a +200 boost to when fighting on terrain they like, a -150 Morale penalty on terrain they dislike, and a -300 Morale penalty on terrain they hate. Morale is one of the less visible factors of combat — it has a large influence, but can be hard to see.

Aside from morale reasons, some types of units function better in certain terrains. For example, forests have (hexwise) large obstacles, but these give no ranged damage penalties to units standing next to them. This will give an advantage to archers, since they can all attack, while there are only a few routes a melee unit can take to contest their position, sometimes taking up to three turns of movement.

The terrain types vary slightly in combat. Any special sites, like gold mines or mana nodes, usually have relatively many obstacles between the area of the center hex and the location of the surrounding hexes, while open ground of the types Barrens, Fertile Plains and Wetlands are quite alike in their openness. Inside a city’s domain, the Fertile Plains will have fences, which can force one to funnel their troops to small openings — however, these fences are easily destroyed.

Attacking Treasure Sites

Aside from a few sites like the Gold Mine, Flowrock Quarry, Great Farm and Trading post, many sites also have a Combat Enchantment in addition to troops guarding it. These range from spells like Chant of Unlife, to Mass Curse, to Static Electricity. It is generally a good plan to see what sort of enchantment you’ll be facing. This page gives an overview of the treasure sites, and will incorporate the enchantments shortly.