Welcome to the all-new Age of Wonders 3, as today we release the massive free V1.5 update to accompany the Eternal Lords expansion. V1.5 is the biggest free update since release and allows you to develop new play styles. First we list the major new features, followed by a list of 500+ smaller additions and balance fixes. Before we go on, we’d like to thank the community for all the help in improving the game further!

Major New Features Include



Vassals: As your relations with Independents improve through better race relations and completing quests, you can convince independent towns to serve you as Vassals. Though they retain independence, Vassals have many benefits: they provide you with trade income, grow in population and maintain their own defenders. If they like you enough, Vassals will occasionally give you units for free, and you can demand tribute in the form of resources or units in cases of emergency.

Race Happiness: Relations are now tracked per race, making decisions about who you make war with much more important. Declaring war on an Elven city might give you a quick conquest, but don’t expect your Elven citizens to be happy about it afterwards. Something to take into account, as you can now expand your realm without warfare. In Eternal Lords, Race happiness will be further expanded with the Race Governance system and new victory condition.

Added diversity for Core Races: The Dwarves have doubled down on their defensive character, as well as the defensive strike ability that allows them to attack and guard in the same turn. Dwarven support units, such as Shamans and Apprentices, are now all armored. The keen senses of the High Elves, on the other hand, allows them to respond to attacks that would catch other races off-guard, all their support units now have the Total Awareness ability, meaning they cannot be flanked by attacks from behind. The Draconians have a host of new tricks, with the Charger being able to fly in tactical combat and the Raptor doing melee fire damage. These changes should make your choice of race more important than ever!

Diplomacy AI Improvements: The AI now uses personalities, with them adopting diplomatic, neutral or aggressive playstyles with accompanying alignment and specialization choices. The AI has learned more actions and feels less like a black box. For example there’s a set of new messages giving reasons for declined proposals. Settling near an AI’s domain, trespassing its domain or demanding a tribute are sure ways to provoke a response. Computer opponents now request alliances to take out a very powerful player and also learned new negotiating tricks like counter offering, demands and gifting.

Added notify event when other player change their diplomatic state with each other.

Improved Diplomacy AI open border requests.

Improvements to AI trade analyzing code.

Improvements to AI trade offering code.

Added various relation modifiers and modified existing.

Various improvements to diplomacy interface.

Added support for viewing an accepted/declined proposal.

Random Map Generator Overhaul: Features include overall more geography variation, carefully crafted starting areas that fit your race, better structure distribution with higher level pickups now having defenders. For sessions with fixed Teams, maps now have more balanced starting positions. Of course the RMG has been prepared for the many structures Eternal Lords will bring to the table on release.

New Hero Join Interface: You can now turn down heroes you don’t like, and when available, a new hero of another class and race will spawn in the next turn.

Selling Hero Items: Strapped for some quick cash? It is now possible to sell excess items from the hero inventory in return for gold and mana.

Improved Overview Maps: New Map Glyphs and Labels for cities make the Overview map a lot more readable.

PBEM: Last but not least; the new “asynchronous” Multiplayer Mode. In PBEM games, a player takes their turn in their own time and then uploads it to Triumph’s servers. Once it is uploaded, an email is sent to the next player in the game, who may then take their turn. This allows players to play when they like, without needing to set aside a large amount of time with other people to play a game. We expect the PBEM service to stay free, but this is pending bandwidth usage.

Balance – The Classes

Most of these changes were designed to either elevate skills that were considered too weak to be useful, or to reduce the strength of those skills that were considered to be so strong that they were imbalanced.

Also, changes to the game’s economy were putting non-summoing classes at a distinct disadvantage. The cost of maintaining summons has been raised across the board to help counter this.

Archdruid

Animistic Knowledge now gives 3 knowledge per structure (was 5), now affects all Treasure Sites (before it only affected a limited subset of them)

Animistic Knowledge is now Tier 4, 350 knowledge (was Tier 3, 200 knowledge)

Shamans now have Awaken Spirit ability, grants one animal +500 morale and +3 melee damage until the end of combat

The three Favored X empire upgrades from the Archdruid are merged into one Favored Enemy (was Favored Giant, Favored Monster and Favored Dragon)

Call Ancestral Spirit is now Tier 3, 220 Knowlegde (was Tier 5, 700 knowledge). Casting cost is now 20 (was 25)

Call Beast Horde now summons 2-3 animals per turn instead of 1. For the Horde!

Insect Plague now reduces city production by 65% (was 25%), maintain cost is now 15 per turn (was 20) Disjunct cost is now 50 (was 70)

Poison Domain no longer affects Undead, Machines or Elementals

Vengeful Vines now damages city happiness and the casters relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges, as well as reducing the city’s population by 5%

Sun Burst now reduces target city population by 1500, causes a minor city happiness penalty and a major happiness penalty with the race that owns the city.

Hunter’s Finesse now gives Razor projectiles instead of Inflict Bleeding Wounds

Summon Wild Animal now costs 9 mana per turn (was 6)

Summon Eldritch Animal now costs 12 mana per turn (was 9)

Summon Gargantuan Animal now costs 28 mana per turn (was 24)

Arch Druid Henge now gives +100 population, no longer +100 mana capacity.

Arch Druid Megalith now gives +100 mana capacity and +20 mana, no longer +100 population.

Thorn Hedge Walls now has a maintain cost of 15 per turn (was 30)

Feral Mount now lasts 3 turns when applied by Revive Instinct or Control Animal

Archdruid hero upgrade Inflict Bleeding Wounds is now unlocked at level 3 (was level 9)

Archdruid heroes can now learn Call Lightning at level 11, for 7 points.

Archdruid heroes can now learn Regrowth at level 11, for 10 points.

Dreadnaught

The Dreadnaught has had major changes to its unit lineup to discourage all Musketeer armies and encourage more of a combined arms approach.

We had to demote one of the T3s to T2. We chose the Golem because we felt that gameplay wise it was the best choice, since it can be used as a melee screen for the now weaker musketeers. We understand that in terms of flavour and lore it makes no sense, but in this case the design of how the class played was considered more important.

Cannon now costs 130 gold, 20 mana (was 150 gold, 30 mana).

Musketeers and Cannons must now reload between shots. Reloading takes one action point, and ends the unit’s turn. Engineer’s rapid reload will also reload a unit.

Musketeers now have base defense 11 (was 10)

Musketeers now have a base melee attack of 10 (was 9)

Fire Musket now does 25 damage (was 30), has a chance to reduce target’s current movepoints (not max movepoints) by 50%. This chance is affected by long range and line of sight penalties.

Fire Cannon now does 30 damage (was 25). More Dakka, Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Produce Golem is now Tier 3, 240 knowledge (was Tier 4, 400 knowledge)

Golem is now Tier 2, stats and price have been adjusted to match

Engineer now has the Maintenance ability, it will heal all Machines in the same stack as it for 3 hitpoints per turn on the world map.

Engineers can now throw flash bang grenades, a weaker version of the grenades used in the spell

Engineers are now credit to team

Flame Tank now has Ram (strength 16) and reinforced

Summon Siege Engine now has a chance to summon a Cannon or Flame Tank, as well as a small chance of summoning a Juggernaut. The spell will no longer summon a battering ram.

Summon Siege Engine casting cost is 30 (was 32)

Choking Fumes now damages city happiness and the caster’s relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges

Destabilized Mana Core now severely damages city happiness and the casters relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges, as well as reducing the city’s population by 15%. This is aborted if the spell is disjuncted before it detonates (but not if the battle ends with the spell in play).

Summon Spy Drone now costs 9 mana per turn (was 6)

Forge Blast now reduces target city population by 500, causes a minor city happiness penalty and a major happiness penalty with the race that owns the city

Forge Blast can now only be cast on cities

Dragon Oil now has a maintain cost of 15 per turn (was 30)

The Great Mobilization now correctly grants all machines +2 damage, rather than just +2 melee damage.

The Great Mobilization now grants +8 move points to Musketeers and Engineers. This bonus will not stack with Trail Running on Engineers.

Dampening Field is now tier 5, 700 knowledge (was tier 6, 1200 knowledge). Casting cost is now 15 mana (was 20 mana)

Reduced the chance of Overload stunning the target by 5%

Rogue

Rogues now have a new skill called “Dark Pact” which is unlocked by researching Produce Shadow Stalker. Researching this skill buffs all Bards, Succubi, Assassins and Shadow Stalkers to help the Rogue in the late game.

Lesser Shadow Stalkers will now only evolve once Produce Shadow Stalker has been researched

Age Of Deception now only applies its Empire Happiness penalty to players the caster is at war with.

Urban Cover is now Tier 4 (was tier 3), research cost has not been changed

Summon Crow now costs 9 mana per turn (was 6)

Assassins now have Undead Slayer

Rogue Heroes can now learn Undead Slayer at level 1 for 2 skill points

Corrupted Killers is now Tier 3, 200 knowledge (was Tier 2, 120 knowledge)

Courtesan Ambassadors now give +150 bonus to independent city relations (was 300)

Rogue Heroes can now get Free Movement as an upgrade at level 5

Human Assassin now costs 100 gold, 20 mana (was 90 gold, 20 mana)

The Shrouded Altar (max tier rogue class upgrade) now gives +1 medal to irregulars as well as elementals

Rogue heroes can now learn Total Awareness at level 11, for 10 points.

Sorceror

Magical Structures now gives 3 mana per structure (was 5), now affects all Treasure Sites (before it only affected a limited subset of them)

Orc and Goblin Apprentice now have Bane Fire instead of Fairy Fire.

Base cost of Apprentices now 95 gold and 20 mana (was 90 gold, 25 mana)

Sorceror Master Illusionist upgrade now requires a hero to be at level 11 (was level 7)

Chaos Rift now damages city happiness and the caster’s relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges

Summon Wisp now costs 9 mana per turn (was 6)

Summon Node Serpent now costs 22 mana per turn (was 18)

Summon Fantastic Creature now costs 16 mana per turn (was 12)

Summon Phantasm Warrior now costs 12 mana per turn (was 12)

Sorcerer Mana Vault now gives +200 mana capacity (was +100).

Sorcerer Wizard’s Academy now also gives summoned creatures in the domain a medal.

Lightning Storm now reduces target city population by 1500, causes a minor city happiness penalty and a major happiness penalty with the race that owns the city

Dome of Protection now protects stacks stood in the city as well as the city itself from magic.

Player can now enchant their own cities through the Dome Of Protection.

Chaos Rift now expires after running for 4 rounds

Enchanted Walls now has a maintain cost of 15 per turn (was 30)

Apprentices now have Floating on gold (was Invisibility)

The Dragon Slayer Party hero upgrade now also gives Draconian Slayer, costs 3 points instead of 4

Theocrat

Sanctified Sites now gives 40 happiness per structure (was 30) and costs 15 mana per turn to maintain (was 20), now affects all Treasure Sites (before it only affected a limited subset of them)

Paid Absolution now has a maintain cost of 10 mana (was 20)

Exalted Martyrs is now tier 3, 200 knowledge (was tier 4, 400 knowledge).

Exalted that have evolved from Martyrs now have the Absorb Pain ability.

Martyrs now have 40hp (was 32)

Shrine Of Smiting now has Holy Relic ability, and heals 2HP per turn on the world map for each devout unit in the same stack as it is.

Exalted base hit points now 55 (was 50).

Produce Exalted now costs 600 knowledge (was 750 knowledge)

Hallowed Domain can no longer be a starting skill

Armageddon now only affects the players the caster is at war with

Summon Cherub now costs 9 mana per turn (was 6)

Absorb Pain now causes the unit to Guard after use

If anyone can read this, please send help!

Wrath Of God now reduces target city population by 1000 if the city is living, or 2000 if the city is dead, causes a minor city happiness penalty and a major happiness penalty with the race that owns the city

Evangelists start with Healing

Order Of Knights and Order Of Sacred Support now apply their benefits retroactively, rather than only on units produced from cities (except the +1 medal for support units)

Absorb Pain can no longer target machines or other units with Absorb Pain.

Touch of Faith is now Once Per Battle

Warlord

Warlords have a new Scout unit, which can be built from any city and is always researched when the game starts. It is a melee only irregular with swimming.

Draconian Manticore Rider now does 20 physical 4 fire damage (was 23 physical), has Inflict Immolation, costs 270g 70m (was 260g, 60m)

Dwarven Manticore Rider now has Shield and Defensive Strike, base cost is 280g 70m (was 260g, 60m)

Goblin Manticore Rider now does 21 physical 4 blight damage (was 23 physical), has Inflict Severely Poisoned, base cost is 270g 70m (was 260g, 60m)

Human Manticore Rider now has Devastating Charge

Orc Manticore Rider now has Guard Breaking and War Cry, costs 270g 70m (was 260g, 60m)

Halfing Manticore Rider now has Wing Beat, costs 270g 60m (was 260g, 60m)

High Elf Manticore Rider now does 18 physical damage, 3 shock damage, (was 23 physical), has Inflict Stun, costs 270g 80m (was 260g, 60m),/li>

Warlord heroes can now learn War Cry at level 3 for 2 points

Balance – The Races

A lot of these changes were made to make the races more distinct from each other, rather than because units were too weak/strong. Obviously these changes could be imbalanced, but we’d like to keep the spirit of the changes around to make the races more interesting to play.

Draconians

Draconian Crusher, Draconian Berserker and Draconian Assassin now have Improved Wallclimbing (no attack/defense penalty when stood on walls)

Draconian Charger now has Lesser Flying, and can fly during tactical combat (but not on the world map)

Draconian Charger now has 30 move points (was 28) and costs 55 gold (was 50)

Draconian Raptor attack is now 6 physical, 6 fire (was 12 physical)

Draconian Succubi now has 10 physical, 3 fire attack (was 11 physical) and 60% Frost Weakness (was 20% frost weakness)

Draconian Apprentice now 100 gold, 25 mana (was 100 gold, 35 mana)

Draconian Apprentice now has Fire Bolts instead of Fairy Fire

Draconian Mounted Archers now have 6 physical, 6 fire melee strength (was 10 physical)

Draconian Engineer now has Inflict Immolation, cost is 80 gold, 10 mana (was 70 gold, 10 mana)

Draconian Crusader now has Improved Wall Climbing, cost is 75 gold, 10 mana (was 70 gold, 10 mana)

Dwarves

Dwarf Axemen, Dwarf Crusaders and Dwarf Phalanxes now have Defensive Strike (Once per battle strike that allows a unit to both attack and guard in the same turn)

Dwarf Firstborn and Dwarven Miner now have Shatter Strike (+5 damage versus Frozen, Petrified and Stone Skin units)

Dwarf Crusader now costs 82g (was 77)

All Dwarfs are now called Urist Mc by the Dev team.

Dwarf Phalanx now costs 159g (was 154g)

Dwarf Evangelist and Apprentice now have Armored and defense 11 (was 10)

Dwarf Shaman now has Armored and defense 13 (was 12)

Dwarf Axemen now have Demolisher (+4 damage versus machines and obstacles)

Dwarf Miner now has Demolisher on Bronze and Wall Crushing on Gold Medal.

Dwarf Monster Hunter gets a Heavy Crossbow, cost is 88 gold, 22 mana (was 77 gold, 22 mana)

Dwarf Bard now has Shoot Heavy Crossbow, cost is 99 gold, 11mana (was 88 gold, 11 mana)

Goblins

Goblin Big Beetle attack is now 11 physical 6 blight (was 14 physical 3 blight)

Goblin Skewer is no more, replaced by the Goblin Butcher (tier 2 pikemen with life stealing)

Goblin Shaman now costs 126g, 36m (was 117g, 27m). Has +2 blight damage and inflict noxious vulnerability.

Goblin Succubus now has 10 physical, 3 blight attack (was 11 physical), has no fire resistance

Goblin Marauders and Big Beetles now have Demolisher (+4 damage versus machines and obstacles)

Goblin Mounted Archers now have forestry

Goblin Untouchable now has Blight Ranged upgrade on Bronze and Gold (was Melee) and Blight Melee upgrade instead of Physical Melee on Silver.

Goblin Untouchable now has Blight Protection on Bronze and Swamp Concealment on Gold Medal.

Goblin Engineer now has Inflict Noxious Vulnerability, -2 physical ranged damage, -2 fire ranged damage, +5 blight ranged damage. Cost is 72 gold, 13 (was 63 gold, 9 mana)

Goblin Phalanx now has Life Stealing. Cost is 135 gold, 27 mana(was 126 gold, 27 mana)

Goblin Warbreed now has Disgusting Stench, cost is 153 gold, 36 mana (was 144 gold, 36 mana)

Goblin Crusader now has Demolisher

Halflings

Halfling Pony Riders inadvertently received twice the intended amount of melee physical attack upgrades on medal upgrades. This has been corrected.

Halfling Pony Rider now has 12 resistance (was 10)

Brew Brother melee attack is now 11 (was 7)

Halfling Jesters now get Inflict Scorching Heat on their ranged attacks on Gold, because the Explosive Death doesn’t actually do anything if you keep the unit alive.

Halfling Bard now has a Slingshot instead of a Light Crossbow.

Halfling Monster Hunter now has fireworks instead of a Light Crossbow, costs 80 gold, 25 mana (was 70 gold, 20 mana)

Halfling Exalted now have (base) 55 hitpoints (was 60) like the Exalted of other races.

Halfling Monster Hunters now have (base) 10 defense (was 11) like the Monster Hunters of other races.

They’ve had me trapped down here for weeks, forcing me to write patch notes for them.

Halfing manticore rider now gets Fast Healing on Veteran (was a duplicate of inflict crippling wounds)

Nourishing Meal can now heal non-incorporeal undead units, but not boost their morale.

Halfling Mounted Archer now has resistance 11 (was 9), cost is 100 gold, 30 mana (was 100 gold, 20 mana)

Halfling Crusader now gets Backstab on Gold

Halfling Assassin now gets Very Lucky on Gold, instead of Inflict Crippling Wounds.

High Elves

High Elf cities now have -10% population growth

High Elf Storm Sisters now have Total Awareness (Cannot be flanked from behind and can do attacks of opportunity on hexes behind themselves)

High Elf Apprentice now has Total Awareness, 40% Blight Weakness (was 20%), costs 100 gold, 20 mana (was 90g, 25m)

High Elf Evangelist now has Total Awareness, 40% Blight Weakness (was 20%), costs 155 gold, 30 mana (was 150g, 30m)

High Elf Shaman now has Total Awareness, no Blight Protection (was 40%) costs 135 gold, 30 mana (was 130g, 30m)

High Elf Succubus now has Total Awareness, no Blight Protection (was 60%)

High Elf Union Guard now does 9 physical 2 shock damage (was 11 physical). Costs 60g (was 50g)

High Elf Musketeteers now have Forest Concealment, cost is 85 gold, 10 mana (was 80 gold, 10 mana)

Humans

Human Knight now has Devastating Charge (extra +4 damage when charging)

Human Evangelist now has Spirit Ray, costs 160gold 40mana (was 150g, 30m)

Human Mounted Archer have Blessed Arrow, costs 110g (was 100g)

Added +5 to the human city production bonus (+10 in total now)

Humans no longer dislike Arctic

Humans no longer like Water.

Human Civic Guard now has First Strike on Gold Medal.

Human Warbreed now has Swimming, cost is 170 gold, 40 mana (was 160 gold, 40 mana)

Human Exalted now has 8 spirit, 10 physical melee attack (was 3 spirit, 14 physical), cost is 165 gold, 30 mana (was 160 gold, 30 mana)

Orcs

Orc Spearman now has Armor Piercing on Gold

Orc Spearman, Orc Greatsword, Orc Black Knight, Orc Berserker, Orc Exalted and Orc Impaler now have War Cry (once per battle, self buff that increases melee damage)

Orc Shock Trooper now has Guard Breaking (Melee attacks from this unit stop target units from guarding)

Orc Exalted now costs 165g (was 160)

Orc Berserker now costs 80g (was 75g)

Orc Hunter now has melee attack 11 (was 8), Shield, Throw Javelin (strength 15), loses Shoot Bow. Costs 80g (was 75g)

Orc Razerbows now have Razor Projectiles instead of Inflict Bleeding Wounds

Orc Priest now has Black Bolts (was Poison Bolts)

Orc Mounted Archers now have Razor Projectiles

Shock Trooper now costs 160 gold 20 mana (was 150 gold 20 mana)

Orc Razorbow now has 42hp (was 37) and 9 melee strength (was 8)

Orc Engineer now has Razor Projectiles, cost is 75 gold, 10 mana (was 70 gold, 10 mana)

Orc Succubus now has war cry, cost is 175 gold, 30 mana (was 170 gold, 30 mana)

Orc Shaman now has black bolts instead of poison bolts.

Balance – The Specializations

Air Magic

Summon Zephyr Bird is now tier 2, 120 knowledge (was tier 3, 220 knowledge)

Zephyr birds now have melee attack 9 (was 7) and Wing Beat.

Summon Zephyr Bird now costs 12 mana per turn (was 9)

Domain of Winter spells now also influences all friendly units stationed within targeted cities domain.

Creation Magic

Condemn Killing is now effective on everybody, not only Devout units. Casting the spell now costs 5 mana.

Bane Of The Unnatural now grants +5 Fire damage as well as +5 Spirit

Domain of Life spells now also influences all friendly units stationed within targeted cities domain.

Cleanse The Lands now properly marks the hexes it will affect as you prepare to cast them

Cleanse The Lands can now no longer be cast on locations where it would have no effect

Destruction Magic

Storm Magic now Tier 6, 1200 knowledge, gives 50% damage bonus (was Tier 5, 800 knowledge, 20% bonus)

Domain of Corruption spells now also influences all friendly units stationed within targeted cities domain.

Hasty Plunder is now tier 3, 200 knowledge (was tier 1, 80 knowledge)

Killer Instinct is now tier 1, 80 knowlegde (was tier 2, 120 knowledge)

Earth Magic

Earthquake now severely damages city happiness and the casters relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges, as well as reducing the city’s population by 15%

Domain of Earth spells now also influences all friendly units stationed within targeted cities domain.

Fire Magic

Hellfire now severely damages city happiness and the casters relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges, as well as reducing the city’s population by 15%

Summon Hell Hound now costs 12 mana per turn (was 9)

Domain of the Sun spells now also influences all friendly units stationed within targeted cities domain.

Water Magic

Rot spell now affects undead units as well as machines, but doesn’t affect incorporeal units

Drench The Lands can now convert hexes under roads

Drench The Lands now properly marks the hexes it will affect as you prepare to cast them

Drench The Lands can now no longer be cast on locations where it would have no effect

Wild Magic

Summon Lesser Elemental is now Tier 4, 350 Knowledge (was Tier 3, 220 knowledge)

Degenerate now lasts for 3 turns (was until end of battle)

I’ve been surviving on a diet of cheese and tulip bulbs

Warp Equipment no longer affects support units, but does affect armored units (so armored support units, like the Dwarf Forge Priest, will still be affected)

Swap Location no longer affects heroes

Warp Equipment now applies a random debuff to attack, or defense or both (was -2 defense, -2 attack)

Pandemonium now damages city happiness and the caster’s relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges

Summon Lesser Elemental now costs 15 mana per turn (was 12)

Balance – Items

Halflings’ Party Kit: removed +1 ranged physical damage bonus

Skilled Adventurer’s Slingshot: removed +1 ranged physical damage bonus, added Control Animal ability

Jug of Eternal Joy: item type changed from use to jewel

Creeping Jungle Venom: item type changed from use to jewel

Horseshoe of Golden Fortune: item type changed from use to jewel

Blessed Totem of Health: item type changed from use to jewel

Elixir of Ghostly Being: item type changed from use to jewel

Elixer of Ghostly Being now gives 40% Physical Resistance (was 60%) and no longer incorrectly says it makes the unit Incorporeal (Pass Wall is still on it).

Melody of Oblivious Harmony: item type changed from use to jewel

Various other items from the main game and Golden Realms have been rebalanced by altering their effects, values and categorizing them into different tiers. (We forgot to keep notes >_>)

Balance – Everything Else

Base movement cost for moving through underground terrain is now 4 (was 6). Cave crawling reduces this to 3 (was 4)

Updates to Alignment, Happiness, Relation and Moral modifiers to address community feedback.

Casting Point pickup reward increased.

Unit upkeep can now be reduced by 75% using volunteer and related abilities (before the limit was 50%)

Cities now automatically produce merchandise when in the process of selling upgrades

Greater Stoning can now be disjuncted

Weakening Breath now properly affects units that have “Weakened”.

Repair Machine can now heal builders

Added terrain preferences to living dwelling races: Naga’s Hate Arctic, Dislike Volcanic and Like Water and Wetlands. Dragons Dislike Blight and Like Barren. Fairies Hate Blighted, Dislike Volcanic and Like Dense Vegetation. Giants Dislike Blight and Like (Coastal) Mountains. (Undead Archon Revenants still like/dislike nothing.)

All spiders now use Improved Wall Climbing instead of Wall Climbing (no penalty when on the wall)

Watcher now has defense 12, resistance 11 (was 13/12) and Total Awareness

Cause Fear is now strength 11 (was strength 9)

Plundering a city now gives 50% more gold and mana.

Lesser Earth Elemental now has resistance 8 (was 9). Earth Elemental now was resistance 9 (was 11).

All specializations now have a starting skill

Units will no longer get XP from using Sprint, Phase, Shadow Step and War Cry

Greater Disjunction now adds a flat 25% bonus to the chance of disjunction succeeding (previously it increased the success chance by half it’s current value)

Units in Transports now have 21 move points (was 30), Advanced Seafaring have 27 (was 36), Iron Clad transports have 33 (was 40)

Frigates, Galleons and Ironclads now have +1 vision range

Night Vision no longer stacks with itself.

Stone Giants can now hurl boulders with only one action point remaining (previously they needed 3, like trebuchets)

Ogres now have 21 melee strength (was 18)

Great Immolation now damages city happiness and the casters relation to the city’s race when cast during city sieges, as well as reducing the city’s population by 5%

Adding a ranged physical damage bonus to a shield will now activate the physical damage channel on all ranged attacks

Blood Boon no longer buffs/heals machine units

Phase, Sprint and Slip Away can no longer be used by units in transports

No spell or unit ability that destroys dead units or resurrects dead units can be used in water maps

Holy Champion now gives bonuses versus Undead, Monster and Dedicated to Evil (was Undead and Devout)

Unholy Champion now gives bonuses versus Devout, Fey, Animal and Dedicated to Good (was Devout, Fey, Animal)

Chant of Unlife and the Shrine Of Animation now bring back the unit that died as a a ghoul rather than as an Archon.

Trolls now have Fearsome on Gold (was Overwhelm), have Killing Momentum on Bronze (was Inflict Bleeding Wounds). Trolls now have Guard Breaker and Demolisher.

Ancient Ruins now has Mass Curse battlefield spell instead of Chant of Unlife.

Tomb now has Chant of Unlife battlefield spell instead of Mass Curse.

Wizards Tower Ruin now has Prismatic Spire battlefield spell.

Monoculture now requires 8 cities and gives 3 units

Multiculture now requires 5 races and gives 5 units

Pentatopia (empire quest) is renamed to Heptatopia and now required seven cities instead of five cities to achieve

Inns that have not had their unit lists customized in the level editor will now start off with only tier 1 units and unlock a new tier every 10 rounds. When a new tier is unlocked, the inn’s unit list will be completely refreshed.

City defensive upgrades will no longer target enemy units that have managed to get behind the city’s walls/barricades

Taunted units will now only attack their enemies, rather than their allies. Taunt is now medium range (was long range), lasts 2 turns (was 3), is strength 11 (was 10)

Regrowth is longer available in the item forge

Iron Clads are now Tier 4 units, and cost twice as much to maintain. No other stats have been changed.

Floaters now spend 6mp per hex moving over mountains (was 4), fliers spend 5mp (was 3)

Kraken now has Swallow Whole. Om nom nom nom

Archon Titan now has Guard Breaker

All Nagas now have Wetlands Walking

Seduce is now strength 12 (was 11), is now once per battle (was 3 turn cooldown), lasts until the end of battle (did last 3 turns)

Control Animal is now strength 12 (was 11), is now once per battle (was 2 turn cooldown)

Control Undead is now once per battle

The system now keeps track of how many times a unit has been affected by tactical combat abilities. Once a unit has been affected a certain number of times, it will no longer reward XP when you use abilities on it. It will still give kill XP, however.

If a unit flees a battle, it will now lose all the XP it earned during that battle. Sorry Jom.

Guerrilla Tactics now only allows a unit to retreat while keeping it’s move points and experience once per world map turn.

Killing or retreating a Hero will now automatically cancel any global tactical combat spells they had cast

Leader’s now respawn with full movepoints once they return from the void

Fixed an issue where you wouldn’t have full casting points at the start of a turn when you researched a new casting point skill

Hunter Spider Queen now has 60hp (was 52hp)

Stone Giants and Frost Giants now have Demolisher

Mermaid now has Dispel Magic ability on Gold Medal.

Units with Mariner now have +3mp while embarked.

Fairy Fire, Bane Fire, and Rime Fire are now arcing shots (was straight shot)

Ships now Inflict Immolation with their ranged attacks when they reach Gold medal.

Dread Spider Queen now has Fear Strike on Gold medal (was inflict noxious vulnerability)

Lesser Frost Elemental now has Projectile Avoidance, and gains Inflict Chilling on Trooper

Frost Elemental now has Projectile Avoidance and Inflict Chilling, and gains Defensive Strike on Veteran

Projectile Resistance now protects units against flanking attacks as well as nonflanking ones

Mend Magical Being now works on all summoned units, not just those with the Magical Origin tag

Miscellaneous Improvements

Unwanted Items can now be sold from the unit panel.

Casting Catalyst, Treasure Chest, Production Resource, Knowledge Scroll, Columns of Champions and Sage Tent pickups now have defenders when placed by the random map generator

When using a ranged ability, hexes which have a ranged penalty when targeted are now marked with a dotted circle instead of a solid one.

Now possible to read the descriptions of player skills in the tome of wonders in the leader editor

Many improvements to the leader editor to make it easier to see details on the races and specializations that are on offer

If there’s more than 1 hero in an army, then the hero with the most army boosting abilities will go first. Leaders will always lead their own stacks, however.

Added code to prevent the AI from placing cities in locations with no resources.

Added code to prevent the AI from building cities once it has a certain number more than the human player(s). I.e. AI city spam fix.

Trespass modifiers are now applied per unit instead of per stack

Added system to the skillbook to prevent low tier skills appearing too late

Reduced the skillbook’s random poolsize to make skill picking more predictable

Added unit event ‘OnDetected’ which fires when a player sees a concealed unit

Added in game option to disable the camera sweep before tactical combat

Players can now always migrate/purge cities to the race of their leader, even if they do not have own any cities of that race.

Tome of Wonders now includes information on The Void.

Removed some weaker spells from the reward lists of Forbidden Sanctums, Sunken Cities and Wizard’s Towers. Added some new skills to same.

Fixed issues that were preventing high power spells from appearing as rewards for clearing treasure sites.

Improved ranged ability tooltips to indicate what Straight Shot and Arcing Shot actually mean, and to indicate when an ability has no long range or line of sight penalties.

Changed the way fleeing guards system works (fixes exploit with splitting and merging stacks)

Improvements the information displayed in various tooltips to make them more informative and complete

Clicking research not set todo event now opens reasearch book without showing research completed event

Added defeated reason when razing your throne while in the void… wow smart!

Unavailable unit properties in item forge are now colored red and disabled

Changed sorting of all modifiers (sort on value -> name -> duration)

All modal windows now have an vignette behind them to make it more clear the map is not clickable while the window is open

In campaign battle replays can now be queued when storymessage are already queued. This would mean you would not be able to view the replay of the final battle in a campaign scenario in some cases.

Walls of Brigand Camps are no longer immune to frost damage

Shrines have been adjusted to be more powerful.

Added script to enable/disable city founding on a player by player basis

Added support for the tactical AI to use teleportation abilities

Tactical AI now treats non-combat units as much lower priority for attacking

Added a new game option to render gravestones on the hexes with dead units in tactical combat. Hmmm, wonder what that is for.

Added a new popup in tactical combat, mousing over a hex will list the names of all the dead units on the hexes as well as how many turns until undying units come back

Greater Animate Dead has been renamed to Chant of Unlife

Summon spells can now target forts as well as cities and heroes

Damage Protection and Weakness are now merged in the unit panel

It’s now possible to select an enemy stack on the world map, and see how far it can move given it’s current move point totals. Trust me, you want to know.

Rewards for clearing treasure sites and seals are now determined when the map starts, so you can’t reload and repeat the fight to try for different rewards.

Gold from Corpse Looting now shown in the post battle results screen. Show me the money!

Strategic AI tweaked to produce fewer cities and produce more varied armies

Action Point display in tactical combat tweaked to make it easier to read

Random Map Generator now tries to place cities in regions, so cities of similar races are moer grouped up

Added Summon Bone Dragon and Summon Obsidian Dragon spells, available as random drops from structures that offer secret spells

Added a popup to the sustained spell overview, the popup lists the description of the spell as well as the name of the city the spell is cast on (if appropriate)

Bug Fixes