The tactical end was a different story all together. You could either do the quick battle mode or manually move your troops on the battle field. If you did the quick battle mode, then expect your troops to be wiped out, or severely decimated at the minimum. If you went to manually direct them, then the battles became long drawn out affairs. The system was clumsy, confusing, and became a drawback to what could have been a truly great game. The developers, realizing they had missed the mark at the tactical end of their game, incorporated better features in the second game that came out called, Age of Wonders II: The Wizards Throne.

This one was a vast improvement over its predecessor. The tactical portion improved features on game play time. You could now destroy the walls of a fortified town instead of being restricted to the gates. Troop movement was faster. Your wizard did not have to be with the army to aid them with spells. You now had heroes that became your generals, which controlled a given sphere of influence. This allowed you to cast spells without endangering your main character. The AI was smarter as well and even more aggressive then previously, too aggressive actually. When you played the campaign in normal mode, your wizard began the game relatively weak. Financially and mana wise, he was a beggar. This gave the opposing wizard a huge advantage, as his resources were larger. I must have replayed the first scenario of that campaign at least eight times. I gave up playing as I was always financially broke. Troops would desert as the towns never could feed the needs of the armies.

Now along comes the third entry called, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. The campaign story line has you, a young wizard, trying to reunite a devastated world caused by a war of jealous wizards. Sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it? In this case we now have three areas involved. The surface, the underground, and the shadow lands. This makes for some interesting strategies plus enhances the game play. This brings in a new unknown enemy to terrorize the land, and adds new characters that follow their own agenda. You can begin the default campaign which brings up a land mass with one tutorial, and two normal areas. The first tutorial, once finished, continues on by unlocking another part. For new players or if you need a refresher course, I’d recommend starting there first. Its fast and gives you an idea on how to use the interface. After I got back into the swing of things, I began with the northern scenario.

Once again you are left with a bit of gold, some mana, and no army or town to begin your campaign of reunification. The first thing you come upon is a hero in an inn who wants to join you for 125 gold. That nearly drains your reserves by 40%. Heros don’t come cheap now-a-days I guess. Then off to the north you spy a small campfire, where upon you recruit a yeti and a archer for zero gold. They do expect a paycheck for their services of course. Now that you have a budding army of four, you rush further north to claim two windmills. This stops your gold reserves from hemorrhaging and begins to add to the coffers temporarily. Why, you ask? Bandits come along randomly razing them to the ground. By that time you’ll have a village that can keep the gold flowing.

Speaking of the village, there’s one to the southwest manned by some neutral elves and a fairy. You have a wee problem though, your first battle begins with trying to cross a bridge that leads to this village. You’ll get a cut scene with your opponent making arrogant statements, then having you making a decision for diplomacy or war. Since you have nothing to offer diplomatically, it’s off to war you go. At this point I would manually play your troops even though you out number them by one. The quick battle has you either losing, or winning but losing 50% of the army. By playing smart you can actually save all of your troops and be in a better position when you finally reach the town. Once you’ve taken control of the village, it’s now a play style matter.

I prefer to build and improve, then control and expand. Other players prefer to build cheap troops then rush the opponent, but with the fog of war in effect this will be difficult. Whatever grabs your style I guess. The most important thing to keep in mind is having solid information. This means using that fairy as a scout! It has flying capabilities and a movement range of 32 units. It can evade ground units by flying over impassable terrain. Move it over hilly terrain and waterways to quickly get to points of interest, or to capture undefended places. Supplement your scouts with flyers and the enemy will have a harder time hiding from your prying eyes.

Of all the siege weapons the one I like best is the catapult. This weapon of destruction is capable of throwing fireballs or boulders. The fireballs have a zone of control that can hurt enemy troops within that zone. The boulders easily rip apart the walls of fortified towns, and who likes getting hit in the face with one? Keep in mind that they will need protection, since it doesn’t take much to destroy them. Certain spells such as wood rot will make them kindling very fast.

Another unit that is expensive to create but is versatile, is your pioneer unit. This baby can rebuild destroyed towns and towers, build roads, and create new outposts that can grow into cities. They play a key part such as placing an outpost in an area that can restrict movement. Construct a road that connects two towns so you can speed movement for troops. Rebuild destroyed towns and make the local population happy. The list goes on with fantasy units, global spells, and enhancements for your units. Your villages can grow into vast and powerful cities.

One strong point of the game is the ability to move underground or into the shadow lands. This creates unpredictability, since you have no idea where the enemy can pop out. This can make for some interesting situations in locating that enemy city! The game has multiplayer capabilities for up to eight, either by LAN or official game companies that sponsor online play. The computer can even play seven opponents if you don’t have the time or capabilities for online play. Here you can give them different personalities and goals. Land terrain can be small maps to extra large, giving you a challenge. You even have the ability to create your own campaigns by tying your own scenarios to each other.

By now you're probably wondering if there are any negatives to this game? Yes, unfortunately, there are. One is the economic system. You’re always starved for gold, which is needed for building, troops, and expansions. Mana is required for research, maintaining spells that require upkeep, plus combat as well. The only way to keep yourself in the black is to control resources and towns. This requires a standing army that can respond to situations where these assets my be in danger. If you’re on the edge where a mine is captured or a town is destroyed, then you end up facing disaster. Troops can desert if you run out of gold. Buildings may have to be sold to keep the costs down. A domino effect starts if things don’t change for the better. The same goes for mana as well. Research will stop if there isn’t a sufficient supply. Upkeep spells will end and you may face combat without the aid of spells to help win the battle.

The other part has to do with delays while things are being built. You need structures that improve city life and to upgrade your military forces. For basic units this isn’t bad, for more advanced ones it does make a difference whether you build that temple for an extra mana boost, or the war hall to get veteran units. A basic unit may require a day to build, but a wizard’s tower can take fifteen days. You could speed up construction, though there is a cost involved that exhaust the gold supply. Remember each town will only let you build one thing at a time, even though you can queue up to five activities. If you have only one city, you’ll be sitting pushing the end button quite a bit while waiting for the next piece to be built.

Objectively, AoW: Shadow Magic has a balance that I can enjoy. Its turn base structure affords me the leisure of concentrating on overall strategy. It doesn't suffer from RTS decisions where units go running off on their own, yet provides some decent depth so you don’t have a run of the mill game. If you like messing around and having a good time, then you won’t go wrong purchasing this, or its predecessors.