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[PTTG??]

Your starting character diversity does seem to be a step down from before. A fire-associated Dreadnaught Dwarf would feel rather unlike a water-associated Dreadnaught human, whereas now it feels like you're mainly your race, with small flavorings from your secret tech.

But on the other hand, that's just what I got out of my few minutes of trying it out this morning. Hopefully there's choices during the game to diversify a little bit more.

The map system seems very good! I like the way worlds look and territory seems to make sense.

[Biowraith]

I've now played through a random map and while the starting diversity does seem a little less than before, you end up with far more units, mods, etc, than you can realistically use in one game, so there's some degree of replayability and variety from that. 

For example, I focused on unlocking all of the units from both racial and secret tech (just to see them in action, first game and all), but barely touched the weapons research.  So I'll possibly play that combo again but next time focus on a few core units and go nuts with the weapons research instead.

I'm a little concerned at how easily I won my game - the 3 remaining AIs barely tried to stop me getting my doomsday victory - but I was only on normal difficulty and my previous AoW experience undoubtedly made it easier for me (I've seen people losing units every battle they fought, where I was rarely losing any at all).

[E. Albright]

If anyone hasn't played this in a while, the last major update which added persistent ad hoc campaigns in the form of your own personal galactic empire IMO gave the game new legs. New and interesting game conditions, and a sense of progress from random game to random game...

[EuchreJack]

Hm, was wondering if the game lived up to the hype.  Sounds like a cool feature, hopefully it goes on sale or something.

[Biowraith]

It's on sale just now, base version is £10.50, 'premium' edition with all the DLC is £17.50 (steam or paradox store).

Personally I really enjoy the game, but I've always been a fan of the AoW series.  I'm about 8 planets into the galactic empire mode E. Albright mentioned and the higher 'level' planets get quite punishing with some of the traits they can have, but that's ok cos I can bring giant electric worms with me.

[Dostoevsky]

I think it may be my favorite Age of Wonders game, though I always felt the series kind of paled in comparison to the original Master of Magic and so am probably not the best person to ask.

The greater focus on ranged combat works much better with the combat system compared to Age of Wonders 3, and the distribution of units/abilities between race and tech is more interestingly distributed than AoW3 (in my opinion).

The campaigns that I've tried are relatively bland, though the latest DLC one is a tad more engaging. That said, like most folks I don't really play it for the campaigns.

[IronyOwl]

Man I still need to get past the first planet in a campaign sometime. Or just build up my space empire.

[Dostoevsky]

Finishing the new DLC's campaign gives you something in Empire mode, which was my only real motivation for giving it a whirl.

[EuchreJack]

The game's name is a bit of a misnomer, as it feels to me more like Endless Legend than Age of Wonders.  Not that I'm complaining, since Endless Legend is a great game, but I felt just slightly disappointed.

Ironically, the game's is TOO good at integrating the player's race and secret knowledge.  It's not like how in Age of Wonders and Master of Magic where a mage comes along and basically takes over a race that often isn't their own.  You're not researching spells: You're researching your race's tech with some of your secret tech weaved into it.

It really does feel like a secret with my current leader, a Oathbound Psynumbra.

[EuchreJack]

So I'm fiddling around, don't really know what I'd doing but I figure I'd doing ok.  I even managed to make a friend with one of the AI leaders.  I haven't unlocked the score graphs yet, but hey I seem to be doing pretty well.

...Then I learn a new trait about my friend.  They're "Compassionate", which means they're friends with leaders that suck.  Sigh, I'm sure there are much worse traits out there.

[Biowraith]

It's probably going to work out better for you than the trait that makes them hostile to leaders that suck.

Even after 450+ hours of play I'm usually weaker than the AIs for the first 30-50% of any given game, at least going by the score graphs/rankings.

[E. Albright]

Hah, given how fluffy Planetfall is compared to Shadow Empire, I'd not have thought I'd have overlapping complaints, but both fail to remove water-based tech from the tech tree on lava planets (and other sea/river-less ones)... Yes, Shadow Empire removes a few of the atmospheric water techs, but that only makes leaving in water purification/wind traps/volcano tapping more obvious. With Planetfall I've been breaking down and researching the useless sea techs on lava and void rift planets simply to center the tech tree once I have enough research to snag them quickly...

[E. Albright]

This has got to be the most vile, overwrought city I've managed to build. I'm maybe 6-10 turns from being done, so I feel like I should immortalize it somewhere... I just wish I'd've realized I could transfer my HQ here 20 turns ago so all those factional units and imperial renown units I've bought had been getting all this nonsense instead of my capital's at-best-1/3-this-nonsense bonuses. +15 HP/+3 armor/+3 shield/+10% damage/+200 morale Paragon Soldiers for 13 influence? +10/+6/+5/+10% Network Controllers, Techno Prophets, and Eaters of the Dead? Ah, well, that's a lesson for next time. I'll console myself by mass-producing +15/+4/+4/+20%/+200 Echo Walkers for the rest of the game, I guess...

Spoiler: Behold, ye Mighty, and despair (click to show/hide)

[EuchreJack]

Nice.  I could use a city like that in my RPG killer planet that I took with Kero Xenophagues.  Sure, I knew it was going to be tough, so I picked Syndicate bonded for units and Arc Discharge for tactical, but I've still got my work cut out for me.  I'm thinking of making Emersives with whatever its called that turns the bio attacks to arc attacks.  An army of those should be decent.  I've looking forward to getting the RPGs for myself in future games, especially their tier 2 unit, that snake thing with the crippling attacks.  Its the real killer in the RPG lineup.

[E. Albright]

My next planet after that is a RPR planet as well. The prior one took my Psynumbra level from 3 to 15 - and so when I jumped onto this planet as a Psynumbra Oathbound (as per your example)... I started with Looming Oblivion as one of my techs.  I think that's the first time I've gotten anywhere near so lucky with all the free techs lining up to deliver something advanced as a tier X tech. I suppose it helps that particular tech only has two pre-reqs; it seems like most other secret techs have more complicated trees than Psynumbra. Still, I feel like I'm gonna need it. I do not like RPR.