Thank you for a good content!

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

Right back at you!

To the people looking at this and still on the fence, the devs are actually aware of and interact with the community. I am still yelling at them for Order/Shadow content. The game is absolutely great, but also currently a bit flawed. Fortunately, the devs are actively listening to the playerbase and hard at work fixing said flaws. Necromancy wasn't fun, so they completely reworked Necromancy from the ground up for free. Unit tiers were too decisive, so they're currently in the process of reworking unit tiers. Mystic was a bit boring of a culture mechanically, so they're massively expanding it. For free. Hero stacking was the meta, so they did changes to fix this. These changes weren't all winners, so next patch, the devs took note of that, kept in the changes people liked, and completely removed the ones the community wasn't happy with. The devs listen and the changes they make are aimed at making the game more fun and diverse, not removing fun. Hell, even the DLC content follows this ethos. Reavers and Primal, the two DLC cultures at time of writing aren't the strongest in the game. But they're designed with fun and unique interactions in mind over everything. You aren't paying to complete the game, or getting an overpowered thing that invalidates the base game content. It's simply fun additions that add more variety and options. Not overpowered, not underpowered, just unique and fun.

@RealBootman

18 күн бұрын

Order / Shadow content would be great. Yeah you're right I should have gone into more details about the necromancy update. Glad you feel as positive on it as I do!

The best addition of this game, is, that is has workshop support on steam. Many developers sleep on that. It makes EVERY game better, because you will always find someone who mods something that annoys you in the base game.

these kinds of strategy games aren't really my thing but it's pretty clear to even me how much of a standout in the genre this game must be

@allknighter5791

8 күн бұрын

Hey I thought so too at first, age of wonders isn’t really my game but I would recommend giving it a shot. If nothing else at least on steam the platform will refund within the first 2 hours of purchase no questions asked.

Straight to the point and a very good introduction to AoW4. Hope this helps a lot of people get into the game!

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed!

Random bit. Frostling combined with angelic has one of the goofiest color schemes that makes your units look like photo negatives

Cheers, will watch later tonight. - Ody Was llooking for a video like this, played the game on launch but havn't played in quite a while. Got the expansion pass and looking to get back into the game.

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. The game is much better now then it was on launch. For instance, now domains from underground can claim surface provinces and vice versa. Have a great day!

Honestly, this is the best Age of Wonders game I've played since the first game; 2 is good, 3 was... eh ok. But this, this is hands down better than the original and that is saying something. If I like a game enough to play it all day that it fixes my messed up sleep... it's good.

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

Yeah I'm a big fan of 3 but 4 blows it out of the water.

It’s been a long time since I played this game, but the builds in this honestly sound like it’s worth dusting it off, especially Magelock Reaver focus.

@RealBootman

21 күн бұрын

Yeah Reaver units are all are barrel of fun. Magelocks are about to get another buff.

@Nayenezgani

20 күн бұрын

You're better off waiting for the next patch if you want to play with Magelocks. They're currently quite bad because they can't move and shoot on the same turn, and they're worthless in autoresolve combat because the AI will often move them forward (so they can't shoot) and then they'll get engaged in melee (so they still can't shoot). This review massively oversells how good the Reaver culture is.

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

I've had a lot of success with Magelocks and Reavers in general. I've done four full games with them doing different builds and focusing on different units. Sure, you can't just run in with a stack of six Magelocks and win but I don't think that makes them bad. What part do you feel I oversold?

@Nayenezgani

20 күн бұрын

@@RealBootman Reavers have multiple issues. The main thing is that they have no reliable melee unit and while Mercs aren't a bad T1 they're too expensive for what they do and still don't hold the line that well compared to other factions which get a decent shield unit early on (especially when compared to Industrial or Barbarian, which both get a really good shield unit). Subdue is potentially strong but it causes you to miss out on XP every time you use it, which means your heroes will be weaker than they should be at any stage in the game. Magelocks are currently just plain bad units that are too easy to shut down even compared to other ranged units (because they can't move and shoot unlike other ranged units) and cannot be relied on in autoresolve at all. Dragoons are actually pretty good but they're still not frontline material, which means that overall Reavers are an overly fragile faction that doesn't have a native frontline and which performs worse than any other faction in autoresolve. None of this needs to be a gamebreaker if you only play singleplayer and you fight most of your battles manually, especially on low difficulty settings, since you can make literally anything work in singleplayer. However it does mean that compared to stuff like Industrial or High it's just a weak faction.

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

It's pretty easy to get a good melee unit from tomes though, isn't it? Or just take things like Aspect of the Root or something for your mercs. And their mana gen will help with summoning if you want to go that route for your front line. One of the builds you'll see in the video is necromancy reavers which also covers the front line pretty well. I hadn't considered the XP thing but I think it's a fair tradeoff. Good point nonetheless. I do agree that Magelocks are easily shut down by other players. Typically I just play extra safe with them and it works out. I guess it's worth noting that most of my experience is singleplayer or playing with my friends. I think this is how most people will play the game but it does leave me with a possible blindspot to the top ends of the competitive meta.

This is a huge work! Thanks and good luck with the channel

@RealBootman

16 күн бұрын

Thank you for your support! I appreciate it!

Thank you so much! Im new to the game and most beginners guides are not up to date with the updates and new content, this is really helpful!

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

I hope you enjoy!

Great content with really good instructions and tips there!

Very good info here. Good luck on the channel, keep making videos as good as this one and you'll do well.

@RealBootman

17 күн бұрын

It means a lot to get this kind of praise! Thank you very much.

You did an excellent job at being focused in the video. Impressive considering its 50 minutes long.

@RealBootman

16 күн бұрын

Yeah. It might sound silly to some people, but I genuinely consider this video 'concise'. Relative to the information it covers it's really focused and fast. Thank you very much for appreciating it!

Holy crap how do you only have 100 subs? I was guessing something in the 100ks from the quality!

@RealBootman

2 күн бұрын

Thank you very much! I really tried my best on it. I want to produce high quality content

@meateater1002

2 күн бұрын

@@RealBootmanyou might want to take a look at the new eldritch stuff dlc. Idk if it’s that great but there is definitely a lot to analyze

@RealBootman

2 күн бұрын

I'm a big fan of the DLC so far! But other content creators have done a great job catching people up. The purpose of this video was to help people understand and appreciate how good Age of Wonders 4 is, and I'm happy I achieved that, so there probably won't be an Eldritch Realms video.

@meateater1002

2 күн бұрын

@@RealBootman fair enough. Have a good day :)

Thanks for the guide. I played this on release and liked it, but am overwhelmed by all the expansion stuff which was stopping me from getting back into it.

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

No problem! Hope it helps!

Ya, this is our #1 4x game of all time for us.

@RealBootman

17 күн бұрын

Mad respect to you then.

FYI, critical chance is tied to morale, so you can also buff the Barbarian units with moral boosters, like Tome of Revelry.

@RealBootman

11 күн бұрын

Very true! I am honestly not sure how I forgot to mention that in the review.

Good video. I played this game on release, it was a little raw, but I want to return to it later few month and check updates developers added. so good to refresh memories

@RealBootman

16 күн бұрын

The last of the first set up DLC is coming out in a few days. So now would be a great time to start!

Thanks! I nice tutorial play through series after the next DLC gets released would be great. Most of the videos on KZread for AOW4 are from the base game and the DLCs have changed a lot of things.

@RealBootman

18 күн бұрын

Yeah this video accounts for everything up to now! I probably won't do a full one on the next DLC but plenty of content creators cover that stuff, or you can check out the dev diaries.

Good video! I've been enjoying the game on and off since launch, and still finding things I love in it, so it's very much "preaching to the choir" for me, but the only bit that took me by surprise was when you said Barbarian was the weakest culture haha! I had possibly my quickest win ever with a Barbarian faction with Elephant mounts, so it just took me by surprise since I mostly associate them with that time.

@RealBootman

15 күн бұрын

I'm glad you enjoyed it! And yeah the general reaction to that claim has been powerful. I stand by what I said but I think people hear 'weakest culture' and get a different idea of what I'm saying. If you pick random builds with them or more off-beat builds they'll be less viable than others. But if you focus on their strengths in specific ways they're very strong. Personally I don't like that in order for them to be strong you have to play them in more limited ways compared to others. But I'm glad to meet another based elephant mount enjoyer. Grab Elephant Mounts with Tome of Vigor. It will turn all of your squads into one man squads

What a great guide! Excellent work brother

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

Thanks brother! Keep on keeping on!

Great video, longing to see more AOW4 content :)

@RealBootman

17 күн бұрын

I've got a video on every Tome in the works! Stay tuned

This was an excellent guide / review!

@RealBootman

18 күн бұрын

Thank you! Yeah I only meant to review it but as I went along I kept explaining things so it ended up being a guide as well hahaha.

This is a REALLY good video. The kind I wish would be available for every complex game out there!

@RealBootman

19 күн бұрын

Thank you very much! I tried my best with it and I'm glad you appreciated it.

Awesome vid man! You honestly sold me on this game and I'm not just saying that for likes!

@RealBootman

19 күн бұрын

Well you're getting one anyway!

What a great review. So complete. Perfect. Thank you

@RealBootman

16 күн бұрын

Thank you for watching! I'm really glad you enjoyed it.

Turn-based fantasy 4x is a pretty niche genre, but I agree that AoW 4 is easily the best game within this niche. It just has so much variety and replayability that it never really gets boring, especially with the ability to make your own races and factions. I often find myself coming back to it whenever I out of the blue suddenly think up some weird combination of stuff that I can make a faction out.

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

Yeah the faction creation is the heart of the game and what really draws me to it. It does a fantastic job of making all your choices matter.

I love this game so much! Nice vid

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

Thanks! I worked really hard on it!

Funny! AoW4:Eldritch Realms just crashed 4x times in a row on me, so I came over to YT to kill time and am suggested this video. The irony! /Edit: Crashes aren't common. I just seem to've stumbled on a weird bug (Toll of Seasons? Mage ___ (ugly critter - forgot it's name)?)

@RealBootman

3 күн бұрын

Well I hope you enjoyed it! Yeah while there has been periods of instability in Age of Wonders 4, Eldritch Realms seems to be solid. Sorry you're having issues!

Arrows, pikes, swords, all weapons makes the same SFX when they hits an enemy. AOW4 is a great game, but needs a little more cure in small details that otherwise can compromise the player immersion.

@RealBootman

17 күн бұрын

Speaking as somebody who exclusively plays video games with the sound off while listening to music and podcasts, I can genuinely say I never noticed.

Fantastic review!

@RealBootman

17 күн бұрын

Thank you! I worked hard on it.

Thanks for it :) 🎉 Barbarian are my favourite faction!

Very good. Thanks for the video.

@RealBootman

17 күн бұрын

Thank YOU for watching! Have a great day.

Ya, this is my #1 4x game of all time ... and also many of my friends

@RealBootman

13 күн бұрын

Glad to meet another fan!

I think you would like the dominions series if you can pass the graphics

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

I'll have to look it up!

Amazing comment. But may need to revisit some parts (ranks, Mystics culture) after the latest update

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

Yeah for sure. I'm not planning on updating it but that's the said truth of anything that covers stuff currently in development.

I am gonna ramble. I tried AOW4 at the launch. I thought it was an improvement over AOW:P, I think AOW4's tactical combat is simpler than planetfalls which is a good thing in my opinion. I was never able to learn Planetfall's tactical side. The older UI was a big barrier to entry. Tactical combat has also turned into hell in larger battles. so I always played it on small maps with small amounts of players however, after a while I stopped and just played games with just the tactical combat or the empire building. I am used to complex games with bad UE design like Dominions, but I was never able to play Planetfall effectively because it became really tiring to keep track of the armies, their composition, their upgrades etc; especially in MP. Which is weird because that's something that I can do in other games. I think the reason for that was the style, Planetfall is vibrant with details, everything has different models and such. That tired me for some reason. I experienced the same thing with TotalWar Warhammer 3 as well. Large map, vibrant colors, lots of factions, lots of detail in visuals etc... Which is something I have never experienced in other TotalWar titles before. AOW4 at launch was far better than Planetfall, especially at its simplicity and basic gameplay loop. However, I still had my gripes especially with the army movement in strategic map and the pacing of the game. I think everything moves so fast on the strategic map compared to other 4X titles, I feel in a game like Endless Legend where empire development is the focus, everything seems more inline with that aspect of the game. One year has passed so I gave a look at AOW4 again at its current state and I am quite impressed. I would say at launch this game was a 7 out of 10 (without the bugs) right now it is probably around 8 out of 10 at least. Which is an unexpected but welcome improvement. I think the pacing of the game has changed for the better but I don't know what changed, or anything changed at all. I feel like infestations are rarer and marauder guards are overall easier to fight and recover from, they feel like roadblocks rather than tackied on challenges to make the world seem less empty. So there is less unit swapping to heal and replenish. Though maybe it is untouched and I am imagining things. Also, diplomatic side of the AI seems to be performing a lot better. Which makes fights with empires more interesting and common. I still do not like the bigger army movement and the sprawling cities. I feel like the tactical aspect of the game is its identity. I think cities and improvements should create the stage for these tactical battles, in my opinion the sprawl does not help with that. Tactical battles are the culmination of all the effort put into the session. I feel like they should be the highlight though that's me. An addition I would like to see (maybe it is there and I missed it) is to re-play or setup battles. Like the one in the Airships: Conquer the Skies. Also, I don't know why I am writing all of this here.

@RealBootman

18 күн бұрын

I think I agree with pretty much everything you've outlined, except I would probably score AoW4 higher than you. I think as time goes on it will keep getting better as well. While I do like the sprawling cities, I agree it would be neat if your domain had more of an effect on the fight. There are some effects like that but it'd be cool to see it implemented on a broader scale.

Fantastic video! It's just a pity that you didn't include the new expansion 🙃

@RealBootman

4 күн бұрын

The video was in the works for a few months before the expansion and my main goal with it was to try to help the expansion sell more! So I had to get it out before the expansion. Thankfully, based on the comments, it seems to have worked. Plenty of other youtubers have made videos about the new expansion though. So you could watch this and follow it up with some of theirs!

@TheRealMrWolf

4 күн бұрын

@@RealBootman Yeah, I figured you put in some time, because it's extremely detailed and even I saw a few new combos despite having hundreds of hours in this game. It's amazing and I wish they continue to support it :D Yeah, I've already played dozens of hours of the new expansion and Eldritch Sovereigns, I just wanted to hear you talk about it, as this video was extremely good :P Congrats on your 2nd video being that polished mate.

@TheRealMrWolf

4 күн бұрын

@@RealBootman Can't wait to hear you talk about tomes btw :)

I love this game

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

Always glad to meet a fan!

Anyone know of a good guide, that explains the thinking behind moves? Never played 4x games, I can't tell if there are build orders or is more sandbox type play.

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

I think your best resource there would be watching streams.

for best 4x, I zstill rate amplitude games endless legend

@RealBootman

4 күн бұрын

I quite like Endless Legend as well!

only problem is the optimization

does the game have a campaign ?

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

It does! Overall the campaign missions are shorter than playing a regular game which is nice, but you need to account for that with your build. I find them quite fun. About as good as this sort of thing can be in a 4x.

AOW 4 is pure class

@RealBootman

20 күн бұрын

Hard agree. The best development cycle of any game I've been actively a part of.

I really like AoW4. I just wish the multiplayer worked. Why no Peer-to-peer? Seriously...

@RealBootman

19 күн бұрын

Yeah would be nice. I'm sure we'll get there eventually...

@EveloGrave

19 күн бұрын

@@RealBootman idk, been over a year. Losing hope :(

@timecrystal5thapostleof125

16 күн бұрын

Peer-to-peer? As in hot-seat? If that's the case, then you can already do that

@EveloGrave

15 күн бұрын

@@timecrystal5thapostleof125 peer-to-peer is a connection rype. AoW4 hosts saves and games on a server by the company. Peer-to-peer is instead hosting the game on the hosts computer where others connect to the game. It has its own flaws but they are typically really good at preventing sync issues.

I still prefer AOW3. I realise there is a lot to like about 4; but there's something about 3...

@RealBootman

18 күн бұрын

Yup! We all have our preferences. Absolutely nothing wrong about it. I love AoW3 as well.

I would absolutely get pedantic right now. Age of Wonders series was always like a 4X with combat at its heart and all other aspects, particularly city management and diplomacy, downplayed. AoW4 is definitely a 4X with the best combat around, but it steps back from even what Planetfall has to offer in terms of diplomacy and economy. Games like Dune: Spice Wars have better diplomacy, while almost every other 4X post-Endless Legend has better city management and development. Again, AoW 4 has undeniable top-of-the-line strenghts, but it's not the best 4X overall.

@RealBootman

19 күн бұрын

I completely understand that point of view. My opinion on video game design is that I much prefer focused mechanics over broad mechanics. Imagine a pyramid, where all the mechanics stack up and focus on a single end point, the combat. I really value that in my games and that informs my evaluation of it being 'best'.

@qasderfful

19 күн бұрын

@@RealBootman That must mean you also value combat over the other aspects. I can personally understand a desire for focused design, but in my opinion the focus then must be on economy, infrastructure development and city management with other aspects bouncing off of it. Otherwise you just get a wargame. You might love Fantasy General II by the way.

@gstellar96

19 күн бұрын

​@qasderfful problem is literally no other 4x game has as good combat as AoW so then the question becomes why focus on the aspect that everyone else is doing instead of what your game is able to do better. I would honestly prefer that most strategy games diverged their focus like this more because then the market becomes flooded with samey games. Why should I buy millennium when Old World, Humankind and civ exist when the changes are fairly miniscule while on the fantasy side of things I can go endless legend for diplomacy and fun strategical map based gameplay, spellforce conquest of eo has the best exploration of most 4x games because you're constantly moving your wizards tower around the map. Dominions has insane army management and strategic spells and age of wonders has the best combat. Feels like the 4x community is keeping themselves in a bubble of their own design which imo will only lead to stagnation and continued decline of the genre as a whole.

@qasderfful

19 күн бұрын

@@gstellar96 not sure I get your point? The only game with conwlling city management is Civ6 and you know how the rest of it is. We definitely need more of *that*.

@RealBootman

19 күн бұрын

I value a core mechanic. For instance, if everything was focused on diplomacy and your army was merely a way to strongarm people diplomatically, and all the enchantments and exploitation fed into that as well I'd be happy. Once again, as long as those things are meaningful. I think there's some meaningful economic aspects to AoW4 but I can see how it would not hold up in that regard compared to others. Personally I like the choice of tile exploitation and domain expansion, and how that feeds into diplomacy, economics and military. But it isn't super complex or in depth, which might be something you value a lot!

the Best 4X you need to play more games.. this game is OK the original was WAY better!!! and there are far better x4 games than this.. tis just happens to be the newest using stuff other have not yet ot round to.. it makes you sound like a child when you claim this is the best x4 lol I was shocked by your voice

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

I've been playing 4Xs for years and I do consider it to be the best. Surely if it comes down to it just using new stuff that other games haven't gotten around to yet, we could agree that it wears some sort of badge of distinction until they do catch up, right? Like if Ford makes a new car tomorrow with new tech that's faster than every other car we'll talk about it and praise it even if other companies will catch up fast.

bought base game for $15 on a cd key website and used cream api to unlock all dlc free ;) have been doing it for years and not once have i had an issue on steam muhaha fuck paying for bitch dlcs.. used to be expansion packs that added more than 2 things..

@RealBootman

7 күн бұрын

I'd say the overall development of Age of Wonders 4 has been worth the price of DLC. Gotta remember that you're not just paying for the content of the DLC itself, it's a way of supporting the creators while they do free updates. For instance, Mystics getting subcultures in the most recent update! We got that for free and it's very cool.