Age of Wonders 4 - "Golem" Update Notes

[aerothgow]

Because they were too suicidal even by phasing unit and battle mage standards.

The nerf on battlemages is really without explanation. They were awful compared to ranged units and now they will be even more awful. Mystics that were a average culture are now the weakest.
The best mages were the awakerners from High. Mystic is now awful.

I was really hoping for a buff on mages but seeing a nerf is really unbelivable. I have no idee on what is this based on.

 

[Mr_Dias]

Devs just edited the OP for clarity, the phase abilities are "Full Action - Leave One"

Oh, good one! Phase Beast is saved

 

[FerrokenFibrous]

Then use banshies more like traditional mages rather than combat initiators. The are not in any way weaker than other t3 battlemages in their base attacks. Only use the scream when opponents come into melee range. It weakens them and the banshee can attack when engaged.

Now it has become a tanky, versatile "3 stacks of banshees" unit (against frost resistance foes ofc).

Tell that to the auto-resolve bot.

 

[Astronlmo]

Then use banshies more like traditional mages rather than combat initiators. The are not in any way weaker than other t3 battlemages in their base attacks. Only use the scream when opponents come into melee range. It weakens them and the banshee can attack when engaged.

Now it has become a tanky, versatile "3 stacks of banshees" unit (against frost resistance foes ofc).

While true, I'd rather not use them at all. And use culture t3 mages or even build differently

 

[MasterErgios]

As much as I like the patch notes, I really would have liked them allowing us to write our own ruler & faction lore with the golem update - as in replace the generic one.
All vanilla chars have their own pieces of lore, why not let players write their own to enrich their gameplay?
Hope that gets added in the future.

Still looking forward to play the update in a few.

 

[Arcantos_the_Storyteller]

What does the Full Action - Leave One actually mean?

 

[Kitschy]

I need to play to properly see all the changes for myself, but from the first glance naval combat changes are a head-scratcher.

Why give Embarked debuff at all if ships are removed from the game now. Embarked needed a rework to give naval units (ships) a niche, but now there is no units to begin with. Is it solely 'cause squids/turtles exist?

 

[Astronlmo]

What does the Full Action - Leave One actually mean?

Fire bomb, for example, uses 3points and ends the turn. Uses full action and leave one means that you can use teleport and then attack or use defense mode.

 

[Ferrus Animus]

So Phasing now requires a full action....so Phase Beast can't attack after phasing?

It seems it still leaves 1 AP to attack.

Functionally it changes phase from "move, then teleport" to "just teleport", for those phase abilities that worked on less than 3 AP until now.

 

[Arcantos_the_Storyteller]

Ah I see, so that's how it works. Thank you for explaining.

 

[Cainist]

Anybody know what time this and E&A goes live?

 

[Lord Sheogorath]

Absolutely gutted the Watcher unit.

I now compared it to some of the other t3 ranged units: Glade runner, Zephyr Archer and Magma spirit.

1. All of those have 10 hp more. The magma spirit has 1 defense more.

2. Glade runner and Zephyr archer have 2 damage more in their base attacks. While magma spirit has 1 damage less for some reason.

3. Magma spirit and Zephyr have AOE attacks, while glade runner has a ranged sundered defense/marked that helps it's all physical base dmg, similar to the watcher (which applies damage, marked and stun instead). But the glade runner can cast it while engaged.

4. The magma spirit has it's own phase that is better than the enchantment and from now on is a large target similar to the watcher.

It seems to me that the watcher is now the worst of all of these. Especially the magma spirit which will now occupy it's niche as a powerful summoned ranged unit. All archers still have their aoe from amplified arrows and meteor arrows.

I suggest letting the watcher use its psychic gaze while engaged and reversing the battle mage resistance nerf.

 

[Jasons073]

Can someone explain more about what this naval combat rework means? Are actual ship units gone, and army units just "morph" into ships upon entering the water? Do they have the same stats (apart from the embark debuff) and attacks?

 

[guiskj]

Can someone explain more about what this naval combat rework means? Are actual ship units gone, and army units just "morph" into ships upon entering the water? Do they have the same stats (apart from the embark debuff) and attacks?

In a nutshell, cities no longer produce naval units. There are only water units like the Kraken or embarked units. Embarked units are a lot more nuanced, however, and have more dedicated models based on their unit role.
Embarked units still suffer penalties from being embarked, making fighting in the water against flying or water units just as hard as before.

We effectively have normalized gameplay between land and water, which IS GREAT IF A BIT BORING. 4X AI struggles really bad managing navies and coordinating them with their armies. Making armies simply become your navy is the correct approach here, imo.

Being able to summon/draft water or flying units will be a big part of how you control the ocean, as they do not suffer any penalties for fighting in the water and can shift the tide of battle.

Edit: I forgot to add that costal provinces are now great economically, specially with the Seafarers' Guild.

 

[aerothgow]

After some testing. Phasing is completly dead.
It went from an strong ability to useless.

 

[Carighan]

This is fantastic. I especially love the new spellbook!

 

[Kirasir]

Auto Combat, the Combat Engagement and Combat Result Screen no longer block other Players from taking Actions if no other Rulers are involved, during Simultaneous Turns.

What does it actually mean? Maybe I understood it wrong. But it seems that nothing change from the previous version. When the other Player fight in his battle with bots I still blocked to do any action.

 

[Carighan]

What does it actually mean? Maybe I understood it wrong. But it seems that nothing change from the previous version. When the other Player fight in his battle with bots I still blocked to do any action.

Yeah but previously you'd be momentarily blocked even if they opted for auto-combat. Not only for manual-combat.

 

[Slane The Winter Dragon]

I really want an option to choose where you spawn on the map. it's so tiresome restarting the game over and over until me and my brother are next to each other or on the same side on divide maps.

 

[DragonZee]

After browsing through changes I think some units might've had some a bit too strong nerf hammers and some features/skills might've turned to less useful. Ofc I need testing to see these many changes in action.

One thing in particular caught my attention and I see this as a good change:

• Spelljammer no longer blocks all spells from being cast in TC. Instead spells cast by enemies in TC in the domain cost +100% Combat Casting Points.

It was so irritating for this building to completly block you from using spells. AI was totally overusing this province improvement rendering your spells useless which took a lot from magic oriented builds making conquering AI that much harder. I actually was hoping this will be adressed at some point and here we are. Doubling the combat cost of spells seems fair. I assume there weren't any changes to AM spells though and those are still blocked?