Age of Wonders III - Golden Realms Expansion DLC

I didn't get too far in the Halfling campaign and I didn't touch the new scenarios but... - The Halfling Race are amazing. Easily my most favorite race to play. Lucky Mechanic is either really overpowered or really unreliable though. - New Naga Dwelling. Always great to have more unique dwellings, pretty powerful as well. - New items. Always great to have more variety of items that heroes can use. - New Units! Can't imagine playing AoW3 without seeing the Poop-throwing Monkey! (Always great to have a variety of enemies/allies to encounter) - Wild Magic Specialization! Despite it's randomness, I quite enjoyed its playstyle and gimmicks. - Partisan Specialization... it's pretty useless - Empire Quests! Can't imagine playing without them, they offer rewards to those who rush to certain goals before other players (Can be turned off) - Mystical City Upgrades! Can't imagine playing without them as well! Offering more city upgrades to those who have them in its domain applying unique buffs and the like to units produced in those cities. - Racial Defensive City Upgrades. It's so-so. Just a nice AoE attack that varies from race to race that attacks enemies invading cities beyond the walls. Definitely get this DLC if you haven't already!

Golden Realms not only adds a significant amount of content to the base game, but it also solves a number of issues that AoW III had, massively improving the game. As far as new content goes, the game adds a new race (Halflings), a new independent dwelling (Nagas), two new spheres of magic, a new campaign, a new victory condition (seals), and new buildings (special buildings and turrets). The Halflings are the most unique race in AoW III, as they get their own mechanic, lucky, which allows them to dodge incoming attacks based on their morale. The already-existing morale mechanic therefore becomes even more important than it was before, and the race really fits very well into the rest of the game instead of feeling tacked-on. The Nagas pull the focus a little bit towards naval combat. Always a bit underwhelming in strategy games, the Nagas let you increase your naval power without losing your land power. The spheres of magic are interesting. The partisan sphere lets you use hit-and-run tactics, while the wild magic sphere does random things and is funny to use. The new campaign is short. To be honest, I disliked the voice actor who did the big wall-of-text stories that I already dislike about AoW, but that's the main concern. The campaign makes sure you get to play with all the new toys of the expansion and the final mission was one of the most challenging scenarios of AoW III that I've played. The new victory condition, the seals of power, is a fantastic addition to AoW III. Like many turn-based strategy games, AoW III has the tendency to put you in the position where you've practically won the game, but have to slog over half the map in order to get rid of the last enemies. The Seals prevent that. Every turn in which you have an army on top of a seal, you gain one charge, and after you get a specific number of charges, you win the game. But you have to keep the army there, and it better be large enough to defend itself against the random enemies the seal spawns now and then. The seals massively speed up the game, especially on huge maps. The new buildings are equally important. As you capture independent treasure sites around your cities, you can unlock new buildings to build in those cities. This really lets you specialize your cities, which is great, because in the base game, every city was pretty much the same and it didn't matter where you produced your units. The turrets are the best addition to AoW III, however. During a city siege, they will automatically attack one random besieging unit every turn. In the base game, you could comfortably bombard the city's walls and defenders from far away and just wait for them to come outside. This is no longer possible, because the turrets will hurt you quite badly if you do. This makes besieging cities a lot more fun and challenging than it was before. All in all, the Golden Realms solves a few of the biggest issues that AoW III had, while also adding extra content. It is a definite recommendation and I wouldn't want to play the game without it anymore.

Well worth it especially if you ♥ Halflings. Includes a fully fleshed out Halfling faction. New Monsters, Dwellings, and Units. New School of Magic w/ Spells. New Specializations, and Customization Items. New Victory Conditions. New maps. 3 Part Halfling Campaign. And more...

I bought this DLC primarily for the Halfling race and the new spells that come with it. It's not a bad DLC, and worth picking up so you can mess around with the Halflings, but I'd wait for a sale before buying. Nonetheless, I like what it adds to the game (Wild Magic is a very fun magic school, and the Halflings are fun to use if not as good as the other races), so I must recommend it.

It's a really good expansion and unlocks a lot of game features. Unfortunately, they made some campaign design decisions which really hurts the overall replayability of the game, such as not allowing a custom leader for your campaign, and changing the leader with each map. The focus on AOW3 seems to be somewhere else? Maybe competitive play? Co-Op? I'm really not sure, because the campaign's in the 3rd version of this game aren't that great. The Haflings are a joy to play, especially once you get Eagle Riders, the campaign designers seemed to want you to focus on rushing thru the campaign maps for some reason tho. The last map is basically a King of the Hill scenario where you have to build a large enough army to be able to take and hold a center place of power for a certain amount of time. It's an interesting game mechanic and it is a fun map, it feels anti-climactic tho, like there should have been at least one more map. AOW3, including this expansion, isn't so much a story or a campaign as it is just a mechanic to get you used to the changes they made with the game. It's as if they expected all of the players to be more interested in doing something else, like custom maps perhaps? I'm really not sure. The Map designs lack the build up, flavor, and overall character and immersion of AOW1 and 2, The Golden Realms Expansion is visually more beautiful and green and the characters and units are more diverse and interesting bringing a lot of the fantasy back to the game. TLDR: AOW3 suffers from a lack of leader customization, lack of central leader to take with you thru the campaign story, and a lack of a forge which would allow you to craft interesting items that would add flavor to your band of merry men. Overall, AOW3 is the weakest AOW release to date, AOW1, 2, and Planetfall are lightyears ahead of AOW3 in campaign design, playability, customizability, replayability, and every other area that matters. Buying Decision: Buy AOW3 on a steam sale as a complete set if you like the AOW universe. Compared to AOW1, 2, and Planetfall, you can skip it and you won't be missing much.

Unless you are a hard-core multiplayer, in which case I believe the magic items and new races will make this worth it for you, I wouldn't fret this X-pac until it is on a super-sale. It was well done. Humorous halflings and their chicken chasing, but there wasn't a lot of material to play. The scenarios ended far too quickly, and there were only a few of those. So if it's on sale, it's worth a shot.

The Golden Realms is the first expansion for Age of Wonders 3, adding the Halfling race, a new campaign and a plethora of new features which after you play your first few Random Map Games with, you'll wonder how you lived without. As you might've guessed, this will be a positive review. Firstly, the feature list added by this expansion: - The Halfling Race, a fully fledged race with a line up of interesting and unique race units and a few special abilities on their class units, and all benefiting from the new 'Luck' mechanic, which allows them a percentage chance to dodge attacks depending on their morale (Something that is needed due to them being physically weaker than their larger counterparts) - The Naga Dwelling, a new Dwelling of independent units, from the foot soldiers of the Slither and Guardian, to their lightning slinging Matriarchs and troop-devouring Gluttons. - New Treasure Sites - The Mystical City Upgrades, which means that certain treasure sites, when inside a city's domain, can be used to produce new, unique structures that confer benefits to the troops produced there, or unlock the production of new units such as Mermaids or flying serpents. - New Specialisations, the Wild Magic spec focuses on summoning lesser elementals of a random elemental type, and bringing chaos to bear on the battlefield, buffing troops randomly or debuffing enemies in various ways, and the Partizan specialisation gives new ways to be stealthy on the strategic map (and generally make a pain of yourself to your enemies) - Empire Quests, competitive quests that can be completed by a player and then by no other, that confer various benefits such as a stack of new troops, random artifacts, or unlocking whole new spheres of magic (randomly). - The Seals of Power, a King of the Hill style objective to provide a new way to win maps. - Defensive City Structures, upon building a Siege Workshop each race unlocks a defensive structure that contributes random strikes upon the enemy for each turn of siege combat, making a well defended city an even tougher prospect to fight at. And a succinct review of those features: The Halflings: Well, they fit right into the game as if they had been there from the start, their physical weakness counterbalanced by a small buff to ranged damage and their "Lucky" mechanic, which gives them a small percentage chance to dodge damage that increases the higher their morale. Their units have a sense of humour, something that has always been present in the Halfling lore in the AoW-verse - They are pranksters, jokers and generally embrace a joie de vivre in the face of all the dark and grim things on Athla. Some might feel them a little too unique when compared to the races as they were in base AoW3, but each race was diversified by the patch that accompanied the release of the Golden Realms, and a patch touted to come alongside the next expansion seeks to continue that work. The Naga Dwelling: A dwelling filled with interesting units, the primary aspect of which is their amphibious nature, affording them great mobility and a handful of interesting abilities on their higher tier units. Not too much to say about these guys, except that they are a great addition to the RMG, as always. New Treasure Sites: As above, there isn't too much to say about these - New dungeons and monster spawners, with new and old creatures defending them/being spawned from them, and a slew of new items to be earned from them. But they also tie heavily into the next feature which is.. The Mystical City Upgrades: This is, probably, my favourite feature of the expansion. Certain treasure sites, when cleared of enemies and within a city's domain, allow a new structure to be built in that city. This structure either confers a bonus to a certain unit class or units with a certain trait (Say... +1 armour to all armoured units, or giving Pike Units a Spirit Damage Channel and other abilities), or allows the production of new units in that city. What this results in is that each city can become, with a little forethought, a powerhouse for producing certain types of unit, to get the absolute best from them, and adds much needed importance to individual cities, and, if you really want to min-max from them, to the races that you force to inhabit those cities. New Specialisations: Not too much to say about these, the diversity is always good. Wild Magic focuses on providing random benefits or debuffing your enemies, chaotically terraforming city domains, swapping unit locations, summoning the (new) lesser elemental units and so on. Partisan is a specialisation that allows a player to perform hit and run attacks, hide units and get discounts on buying troops from Inns. Empire Quests: Possibly my second most favourite generalised feature of the expansion. These are competitive quests that are available from the start, can only be completed by one player, and confer benefits upon the player who completes them - either generally, or restricted to the city that completed it - depending on the player who actually completed it. This can be a stack of new units for reaching Full Good/Evil alignment, or randomly recieving two new spheres of magic to research after being the first to research all available spells and abilities in your research book. Seals of Power: The strength of these lie in providing a new way to complete a level. When they are present, the map can be won the traditional way (by defeating all the enemies), or by holding these for a (customisable, in the RMG settings) set length of time. However, as you hold a seal, it will periodically spawn new defenders who will try to reclaim them from you, meaning that you have to defend them against both your enemies and the seal itself. Especially good for L+ maps which you are worried about taking too long to finish. Defensive City Upgrades: Make besieging a city a slightly more risky proposition than it had been before, is basically the AoW3 equivalent of the Magical Guard Towers from AoW2, but with each race getting their own, individual form of it. Not game-breaking, and a feature you will wonder how you ever survived without. All this ties together to plug seamlessly into the base game and make you wonder how you ever played without it. It highlights Triumph's Strategy of "Improve, and Add More", and that they actually mean it. That feature list should really convey all you need to know, it expands the game, adds new ways to play it, a new race and a whole slew of features that enhance the game greatly. If you like Age of Wonders 3, you really should buy this expansion pack, as it is a lot of bang for the buck, and if you're staring at this during a sale, then... buy this already.

While the Golden Realms Expansion for Age of Wonders III only offers one new race, this expansion adds a lot of new features to the game - units, items, spells and skills - all of which are usable in the random map mode, as well as a new campaign and a couple of new scenarios. The halflings (effectively hobbits, if you prefer) are the main feature of this expansion though. While they may seem a bit weak and wimpy at first, they do have one very useful thing on their side - luck! This helps them to survive dangerous encounters more effectively than you might expect them too. Although I've never been a fan of halflings myself, I have to admit that I've had a lot of fun playing them, much more than I expected to. Even if you're not a fan of halflings, this is an essential addon in my opinion, if only for all of the other features it includes.

I am extremely pleased with Age of Wonders 3. It is the most fun I have had with a game in years. I think the game strikes the right balance of empire building, exploring, and combat. Playing mutliplayer is a blast and the AI in almost all circumstances is the best I have experienced in a game. The lone exception in the excellent AI performance is handling random summons during combat (it over reacts big time). As opposed to Elemental Enchantess, AoW3 has soul and is a very fun experience.

Golden Realms is the first expansion for Age of Wonders 3. It introduces a number of new featurers to the game and adds a lot of new content as well as some unique mechanics to the (already very good) base game. You are in for a treat with these new features: [list] [*]A new race: The Halflings (with their own campaign) [*]A new neutral dwelling: The Naga [*]Two new specializations [*]An alternate victory condition: Seals Victory [*]Empire Quests, Mystical City Upgrades and racial Defenses [*]Two new scenarios [/list] [h1]The Race[/h1] The Halfings are back, and they play quite different! The halflings are available for any class and of course also have their own (rather unique-looking) racial units (ever wanted to throw chickens at the enemy? Well, now you can!) They also come with their own campaign, making use of most of the new features added with Golden Realms. [b]The "Lucky" mechanic[/b] Being rather small fellows and not heavily armoured either all halfling units suffer a 20% physical weakness. To counter that they all have the brand new innate trait "lucky". Lucky units have a chance to completely dodge attacks (both physical and magical). The luckier you are, the higher your chance to avoid being stabbed to death. The lucky trait is in direct relation to the unit morale: happier units = luckier units; units with negative morale will no longer be lucky. While other races have some means to get the lucky trait too (mainly by visiting the new "Lucky Cloverfield" structure) it is a central mechanic for the Halflings. With their physical weakness halflings need to uphold high morale for the chance to avoid hits. This makes for some very interesting battles, especially on terrain they don't like much. Many existing and new abilities have also been revamped and given moral modifiers. Severely poisoned units now suffer a morale penalty for a few turns, while the new "Halfling Brewbrother" unit can prepare a feast for a friend, increasing their maximum HP and morale for the fight, for example. [h1]The Neutrals: Naga[/h1] These slithering guys are the new neutral faction that you can encounter on random maps, adding to the existing dragons, giants, fairies and archon revenants. They come packed with 5 units (4 of those are new additions to the game, the other one is a Baby Reed Serpent) and a unique-looking city (which should look familiar to Age of Wonders 1 veterans). They are powerful melee fighters, but their matriachs also know how to weave a spell or two. Their scariest unit by far is the gigantic "Glutton". The "Swallow Whole" ability gives the glutton a chance to simply devour its target, using it as a snack and to regain health. Fret not though, as - more often than not - you will be able to "retrieve" your most recently devoured unit if you kill the glutton. All naga units (except the glutton and the reed serpent) have the "Regrowth" ability, allowing them to heal 20% of their HP every turn in battle and 100% of their health on the world map. [h1]New Specializations[/h1] The Partisan and Wild Magic Adept + Master specializations have been added with this expansion. [b]Partisan[/b] focuses on guerilla-warfare and stealth. The spells you get with Partisan are mainly focused on concealing your units and lessening the cost of hiring neutral units/buying neutral cities. [b]Wild Magic Adept and Wild Magic Master[/b] give you access to highly powerful albeit very random spells. For example, "Spontaneous Mutation" gives all your units 2 "mostly beneficial" mutations for the duration of the combat, while "Unstable Transformation" allows you to transform a friendly target into a random unit of equal or higher power for the rest of the battle, afterwards the affected unit will die. [h1]Alternate Victory Condition: Seals[/h1] "Seals of Power" are a new optional victory condition available both on random maps and the 2 scenarios that come with the Golden Realms expansion. The goal is to find and conquer the seal structures on the map. You control a seal by standing on top of it, and for every turn you control a seal you get a charge. You will win the game after accumulating a certain amount of charges (depending on map size and your user-settings when you generate a random map). Be careful when capturing a seal though, as capturing a seal will periodically attract all kinds of elementals. [h1]Empire Quests, Mystical City Upgrades and racial Defenses[/h1] [b]Empire Quests[/b] will reward the first player (or AI) to complete them with a set of appropriate rewards. These quests usually center around your city or empire. For example, being the first player to achieve a "Pure Good" or "Pure Evil" alignment will reward you with a set of alignment-appropriate units, whereas the first player who grows a city to a metropolis will get a permanent bonus to all gold, mana and research income for that city. [b]Mystical City Upgrades[/b] become available when you have cleared treasure sites and they become part of one of your cities' domain. This allows you to build a special structure in that city that will bestow you with unique bonuses. For example, having a "Crystal Tree" in your domain will allow you to build an "Enchanted Armory", giving all future armored units bonuses to defense and resistance, whereas owning the new "Lost City" structure allows you to produce the new "Feathered Serpent" unit in your city. [b]Race-appropriate defensive city upgrades[/b] are a relatively minor thing, but they add a lot to the individual style of all the races. This allows you to build a racial defense upgrade in your cities. Halflings get to build rabbit burrows, sending out vicious rabbits to defend your city if it gets attacked, whereas the human's bell tower upgrade makes your citizen shoot arrows at enemies every turn during combat. [h1]Two new scenarios[/h1] These should be rather self-explanatory, two new hand-crafted maps by the developers. One of them is a large 6-player map while the other one is a medium 4-player map. Both scenarios utilize many of the new units, structures and other features of the expansion as well as the Seal Victory. Keep in mind that, while the additions listed above are the main features of the expansion many new heroes, units and items have also been added to the game.