TBS Age of Wonders series: user-made maps and campaigns

[octavius]

This will be a similar thread to the one I made about the HoMM games.

I love both game series.
Age of Wonders have overall better game mechanics than the somewhat simpler (and quicker to play) HoMM games, but suffers from poorer AI. The AI can't even use many features, so if I should play PBEM again, AoW would be my first choice among computer games not specifically dedicated to it.

The HoMM games seems to have a much wider following than the AoW games, with several communities, and with the Russians now being the main map and mod makers.
The AoW have only one (AFAIK) major independent forum, which also hosts the one convenient, centralized map depository, where you can arrange them in chronological order.
So while playing HoMM may be quicker to play than AoW, assembling a list of worthy maps and then tracking them down is more time consuming.

I will probably use a variety of mods when playing AoW user-made maps. For typical quest type maps with few units I'm most likely to play them vanilla, while for more combat focused maps I prefer a custom MolzyMod Ziggurat Mod. I found that AoW+ is just too radical, so will probably only use it if playing the campaigns again. I think it was balanced for the campaigns anway.

 

[octavius]

The oldest SP map listed at Age of Wonder Haven is Last Stand Before Destruction, an XL map with only surface level, by Queen Elquein.

I don't think I tried this map back in the days when I last played lots of AoW1 maps, but I remember my reaction to the same map maker's Athendore II for SM was

Last Stand is brutal, but not unfairly so.
You play as Canar Dalac, Queen of an elven kingdom surrounded on all sides by Orcs, Dark Elves, Goblins and Undead, and your only ally a small Dwarven clan to the west. Four of your heroes are are being hunted, one of them surrounded by Wraiths and I don't think anything legitimate can save him. The three other heroes are also in immediate danger; two of them are not too hard too save, while for the third you have to be creative. That leaves only two heroes (plus the leader) safe and sound.

First time I played I used AoW+, but found the changes too radical. So I quit after a few turns and restarted with a modified MolzyMod, the main difference being the Dark Elves having Hydras instead of those useless Incarnates. With Leaders on map this was truly brutal, since they cast multiple Master spells and later Power Leak. Having most of your units Cursed, fighting against hordes of Stone Skinned enemies made it the hardest AoW1 game I've played, and it was not until about turn 40 the tide slowly turned.
For some reason the other evil leaders turned on the Dark Elves, and when I assasinated the Goblin leader things became quite dynamic with the now independent Goblin troops wreaking havoc. The most powerful enemy was the Orcs, who spammed Red Dragons. Cursed Elf Archers are no match for Red Dragons with Def 9, so I used Fire Haloed (a spell I was fortunate to find) Nature Elementals to deal with them.
After I assassinated the Goblin, Dark Elf and Orc leaders I called it quits, finding this method of winning quite unsatisfactory.

So I started a new game with vanilla rules and no leaders on map. The start was even harder now with so little spell power, but after that it was easier since the only enemy Master spell was the Undeads' Earth Mastery, while I concentrated as much magic power as I could on getting Life Mastery ASAP. Killing off enemy spell casters also became a priority to avoid enemy Mastery spells.
Another difference was that with Incarnates instead of Hydras, the Dark Elves became pitifully weak, and was quickly driven to a corner of the map.
Also, I didn't get Fire Halo, so I decided to migrate several conquered cities to Dwarves. The First Borns are natural Red Dragon killers, the only problem being that the First Borns are so slow that they never caught up with any Dragons...
But building Dwarven Balloons made things easier, speeding up troop transports, especially across the narrow seas that were teeming with enemy ships. And with Giants as gate crashers, the Dwarves complement the Elves very well in the vanilla game.

TL;DR: Very hard map, being quite strategic thanks to use of sea and teleporters.
Very enjoyable (I especially like the custom heroes and the custom items), but save it for when you think AoW SP has become too easy and you need a challenge.

 

[octavius]

Lord of Nightmares

This is an XL map with 3 levels (or 2.5 since only half of the Depths seems to be used), made by "Jason".
I thought I had played this map before, but I seem to have confused it with Jason's Coming of the Dread Lord, which I remember as a very challenging and fun map. Lord of Nightmares is rather bland, though, after a promising start, but still worth playing.

I used BING XI LAO's Sword&Sorcery rules, but modified the Wraith to uselessness, since unmodified and with PI a single one can clear most of the map, and with only PP I'd much rather build Bone Horrors and Demons (so I need to come up with something more creative for it).

There's some messages and some themed ruins to explore in the beginning, and the Humans start with a very strong position and have several Air Galleys. So the map starts promising, but gradully peters out and becomes a prolonged mopping-up affair.

The overall map design is quite good, but there's very little reward for exploring and drilling; no prisons, only a couple of independent cities and very few lairs and ruins. There's also too much use of choke points, which only benefits the human player and makes the map less interesting and dynamic when it also makes it harder for the AI factions to clash.
About the only thing the AI can do better than a competent human player is using Teleporters, but sadly there are none for it to use. So the map becomes rather too easy despite the AI having overwhelming forces.
I also made the mistake of playing with no Leaders on map, which make things less interesting. Coupled with no (for the human at least) or few starting heroes it means the AI won't cast Mastery spells. My most intense AoW game was when playing Elves and the enemy factions cast multiple Death and Earth Mastery spells in addition to Fire Mastery and Power Leak. So I'm playing with Leaders on map from now on.

TL;DR: A decent map worth playing, but not an essential one.

Tips:
Play with Leaders on map to make things more interesting and dynamic. With Leaders the AI may even get a chance to cast Master spells, and if assassinated the new Independents will shake things up a bit.

The Hatred spell is very effective, and it makes things more interesting when enemy units start rebeling, but it means your own Orc and Goblin heroes will also eventually rebel. So some C&C there.

 

[octavius]

Coming of the Dread Lord

Like Lord of Nightmares, this is an XL map made by "Jason".
But everything that was wrong with that map was fixed in this map.
This is an extremely intricate map, with 12 factions (all but Orc and Undead being playable), three maps levels, and lots of teleporters, making it an extremely dynamic map. Just the thing I needed after getting a bit tired by the static (but otherwise great) user-made HoMM 3 maps.

Each faction start with an advanced position, with lots of heroes, units and some 3 hex cities. The Highmen start with only a few units, four heroes, but with a hex 4 city. Most of the heroes have their own goals or "quests", so there is a strong role playing aspect to it.

This map is masterpiece, with lots to explore, the only real flaw being that it's so time consuming. After a few false starts, since the Ziggurat mod breaks the map, I played about three weeks with a version of the map edited by BING, and quit when I had killed the Dread Lord, and one of the four factions of the Good alliance broke it. I was really in no mood for yet another mopping up at that point. As far as I am concerned the map is over when killing the Dread Lord.

Being able to play ten different factions makes this map very replayable, and playing only one faction takes about as much time as completing a full CRPG. Beating the map with all the factions would take even more time than completing Diablo 2 on all difficulties with all classes.

This map is not for the faint hearted, for those who have a life, and for those still struggling with winning the campaign.
Save it for when you want a really meaty and challenging map.
It's also designed for PBEM, although I'm not sure how the alliances would work.

 

[octavius]

Paladin's Quest

This is a medium sized map of three levels, where you play a Paladin who after returning to The Order of the Sun after two years of crusading find it burnt down with no survivors, and your quest is to get revenge.
I played this map using vanilla rules since it's a quest map and not a war map. You can recruit a few 2nd and 3rd level units, or build up some lvl 2 cities, but after a while your units cease to have a reason to exist, and your hero becomes an unstoppable demi-god. So not a very strategic map, even if it's technically quite open. It doesn't encourage exploring, since your hero is supposed to be the one triggering all events, and the Eagle Rider you can recruit will be killed on it's first turn if moving it where it's natural to move it. It's much harder to control the flow of the game in AoW than in HoMM 3, and other units will ruin the story line. For example, you can get to the end game too soon if you convert an Orc lvl 3 city to Dwarves and build a Mole.
Another problem is that your Elven ally will suicide herself after 5-10 turn, when exploring a dragon infested area. So some events will not make sense when that happens.
Still, it was not a bad map; quite enjoyable, and the writing was pretty good.

 

[octavius]

The Mirror of Galadriel

An XL map of 3 levels designed for the Warlock's Rules, made by Fingers.

This is the best AoW map I've played so far, and the only thing that prevents it from being a masterpiece is that it punishes good play by releasing hidden units from a secluded area behind one way Teleporters on Fire squares too late. I killed Sauron on day 55, but some units will not appear until turn 100. And by then the Last Alliance of Dwarves, Elves, Halflings and Highmen will crumble (just as annoying as in Civ 2). But at least I got a Victory message after Gil-galad killed Sauron.

I was a bit sceptical about this map at first. Most Middle Earth maps try to stay too close to the source material, but this one is more loosely based. Isildur is Undead and working with Celebrimbor for the Dark Elves, for instance.
Also, the first turn is a bit overwhelming with so many units to recruit. And there are tons of units on the map, but the toughest ones (some are + versions of lvl 3 and 4 units) are garrison troops or they guard (often aggressively) map sites. It will take a while before you can attack these super stacks, and that is what makes this map so special. When you find the Mirror of Galadriel, most of the map will be revealed, and since it's a rather static map (most paths are blocked by Independents or Fire squares, so there is little pressure) you can plan a good part of the campaign early on. Combined with an extremely intricate map layout, it makes it the most strategic AoW map I've played. And there's some interesting terrain around some of the major cities, either preventing you from using all your stacks or forcing you to cast Freeze Water first or use units with Swimming or Mountaineering.

You absolutely need items with Death Immunity before attacking Mordor, unless you want to sacrifice hordes of archers and priests, but those items are heavily guarded by the Goblins and Dark Elves. And you need to find that friendly Super Titan, an excellent killer of + versions (45 HP) of Red Dragons.
One thing that greatly helped me was to charm/seduce the Azrac Lords (+) guarding Umbar.
Pretty good troops:

Spoiler

For some reason their alignment is Good, so you can even cast Holy Champion on them.

If you like strategy, logistics and finding the perfect combo of 100 items on 16 heroes, this is the map for you.
In 10 years time I've hopefully forgotten most of the details and can play it again. I've already edited the map, cutting the times for all the fire squares in half, which will make it a more dynamic and challenging map for a veteran player.

 

[octavius]

Labyrinth

Large map of 3 levels.

You play either the Elves or the Dark Elves, and at the start must decide on starting on surface in the thick of things, or start in The Labyrinth where you can build up your position. All items are custom made, and enemy heroes carry none, so I strongly recommend choosing Items when given the chance.

Once you reach the surface the map looks more like a MP map, being quite symmetrical. But it a dynamic map where lots can happen, not least thanks to lots of Independent stacks popping up and wreacking havoc.

I always end up regretting making alliances in this game, and this map is no exception. Just as victory was within grasp the Highmen decided they wanted to be the victims of genocide instead of on the winning side. I hated this crap in Civ 2, and I hate it in AoW.
If I were to play it again, I'd just make total war on all, both to make things more challenging and to avoid that extra mopping up phase which is so annoying when you're close to winning.

Overall quite an enjoyable map, but not an essential AoW map.

 

[octavius]

Duvian's Rising 1.1

Medium sized map, with Underground.
You play the Humans, with Highmen ally, playing against an alliance of Goblins, Dark Elves and Undead. Duvian is the Undead leader.

This was a fun map with some balancing issues.

On the plus side the map is very strategic, and even if I won in ten turns I spent a lot of time planning my moves.

On the downside nearly all the sites are already explored and none of the enemy heroes have items, so not a single item comes into play, which is a bit dull.
The only sites not explored are prisons, which will be of great importance and an advantage to explore ASAP.

I never got a hero, so I was stuck with my leader. If I'd played with no leader, it would mean not being able to cast spells.
You are supposed to play with leaders, though, which means you can assassinate enemy leaders.

For some reason you get a bonus of 500 mana each turn, so after I killed the Goblin leader, I was able to capture four Altars and then kill the Dark Elf leader by using a Lightning Altar and then kill off all the troops defending the big bad Undead leader.

But despite all this it was quite a fun map which started very promising, but kind of fell apart during the last turns.

 

[octavius]

Illuminaria (Warlock's Rules)

XL, with three levels. Several playable factions and some AI only ones.

Very fun map, that is similar to The Coming of the Dread Lord, with the added benefit of using the Warlock's Rules rule-set.

The factions are not very balanced, and playing as the Halflings it was a constant struggle to keep them fed and happy.
Restarting as the Highmen, the Undead player was defeated on turn 44 and the Humans player on 46, both by an AI player.
But the importance of balance is not that big when playing single player, and it makes for a more dynamic map.

There's lots of well written text messages, but not all the "quests" seem to lead to anything.
There's lots of lairs and ruins to explore, but most of them are already "Explored". Looking in the editor they have defenders, but the map maker did not add random items from the "item flow" to the random item pool.
So these two issues makes the map feel slightly unfinished.

The map is very intricate and a joy to explore, but there are some teleporters that are marked "For the AI players. Don't use". But you have to use those teleports in order to win the game, since as far as I can see there's no other way to access two "pocket" areas.

Since unlike The Coming of the Dread Lord there's no "Big Bad" to conquer, the mopping up phase can be a bit tedious, but it is otherwise very enjoyable.

But you need to edit the map first to get the random items. At least I assume it is an oversight since the lairs do have non-random defenders. OTOH I eventually got more items than my heroes could carry. So even if you don't edit the map you'll still have a nice selection of items.

And just ignore those "AI only" signs on the teleporters.

 

[octavius]

Just Another Day in Hell

Soulclaw the Necromancer is doing time in Hell, but an opportunity for escape has arisen.
Soulclaw was a character in several AoW and HoMM maps made by Alax Mars. He made solid maps, but was always complaining about the AoW editor.

This is a medium sized three level map, of which only two of the levels are available to the players, the third one containing enemy units that will teleport in at various times and places.

Solid map, with all heroes custom made.

I liked the idea of Hell being invaded by Paladins.

Good use of dragon stacks to make the map more strategic.

The victore condition being to capture a location means you could try sending a crack team through a one way teleporter and go for an early victory. But would they survive this choice to face the consequences?

 

[octavius]

Conquest of Zanid

An Extra Large map of three levels. Can be played both SP and MP, with 8 playable races, each with different victory conditions.
I played as the Dwarves, and had to conquer some small goblin towns, a couple of enemy capitals and rebuild one ruined city. One of the goblin towns was the accursed city of Goblin' girls, overflowing with silicone and botox:

I really liked this kind of VCs, since it makes for a quicker and more focused game, and makes the map more replayable. When I won I had explored only about half the map.

The map is very well designed, but felt slightly empty in places, especially the underground with its long corridors. But overall very nice. Fewer cities than what is common in XL maps, so not so much micro-management. You'll also be able to rescue several heroes, so it's more hero oriented than usual.
With leaders on map, and very strong Independents, it makes for a dynamic map where some factions can be defeated on turn 1.

I think all heroes and items are custom made.
Recommended for more experience AoW players. Should also be nice for PBEM.

 

[octavius]

Second God War
Available both with vanilla and Warlock rules. I much prefer the latter, though this map didn't really take advantage of it.

Made by the same guy that made the above map, this is an XL map with three levels, playable both as SP and MP. It starts very promising, with distinct and asymmetrical starting positions, and lots of very tough Independents running around making things interesting.

The eight playable faction leaders are trapped on the lowest level and you'll need need tunneling, and Frost Queens and/or Air Galleys/Ballons to reach these enemy leaders. But the Elves and Azracs (independents) are much harder to reach and you have to either traverse some long bullshit teleport mazes, or if you know where to go, you can tunnel past most of the mazes.

So the map started very well, with a very detailed terrain, and all heroes and items being custom made. But in increasingly got more gimmicky.
I guess it's really most suited for MP with leaders off, since meta gaming will be extra rewarding if you know where the leaders are.

Some tips:
You really, really need lots of units with Magic Strike, since there's hordes of Incarnates and some Wraiths that will block your progress. Nothing worse than a killer stack being decimated by a single Wraith...

Develop tunneling units ASAP, Frost Queens and Galleys/Ballons ASAP.

Playing as the Orcs, lack of heroes was a problem. I started with two, and only one ever offered his service. Had to leave lots of items behind.

 

[octavius]

The Dead Mountains

X-L map of three levels, where the Orcs, Goblins and Dark Elves are initially allied against the Dwarves. Can be played both SP and MP.

Solid map; more of a war map with so few heroes and items.
I played as the Goblins, whose Leader starts with First Strike, Extra Strike and overall pretty good stats, so he was soon a killing machine.

The Dwarves have an almost overwhelming superiority in the beginning, which was made worse with both the former Orc and Dark Elf allies declaring war. So I quickly assassinated their leaders and the next 30 or so turns was a long military campaign (which could have been shortened if I had done more Tunneling) against the Dwarves until I found their HQ and assassinated the leader.

So a well designed and quite strategic map, with lots of text messages popping up. Probably most enjoyable to play as the Orcs with Leaders Off.

 

[octavius]

Uprooted by Ray Bingham, one of the devs, is a Large map of three levels. Most of the faction vs faction action will be on the surface, the two underground levels being reserved for the goblins.

This was a very enjoyable map; better than any of the maps included with the game.
I really liked having a small army of beetles to dig out the underground for my Goblin empire, being careful not to dig too deep and watching out for the High Men driller crews teleporting in in certain spots. All the while wathing the war raging on the surface while you prepare to get uprooted.
Quite a dynamic and strategic and, especially if you play with Leaders Off (I regret not doing so myself).

There's some nifty artifacts to find, and lots of mana, so developing Spell Casting V will be a good investment.

 

[octavius]

Ins't unbalanced with the Goblins having two underground levels for themselves?

Not really, since they have to do a lot of digging through lots of dirt, and IIRC there's only one reasonably accessible 4-tier underground city, while the High Men and Azracs have several of them. And the High Men teleporting in with ever more powerful squads will keep you on your toes.
So there are some unbalances, but they work both ways.

 

[octavius]

Rely Upon Thy Strength

Very enjoyable map.
And being only Large and with Leaders On it didn't take weeks to finish.

A well designed that is a joy to explore. Not as pretty as some maps, but quite strategic. Also quite dynamic thanks to lots of indies popping up. To make it even more dynamic and challenging, make all the factions play on Emperor level. I played as the Elves and the other factions open to human players were too timid at Squire level.

The Elves start with a very strong lvl 28 leader but only a lvl 3 city. The Orcs with an even stronger one (better skills) and a lvl 4 city. The Dark Elves and Goblins start with lvl 14 leaders and a lvl 4 city. So if you want to develop your leader choose Dark Elves or Goblins. If you want to play a one man army, play the Orcs. For the challenge play the Elves.

There's lots of custom items to be found, and some heroes to recruit or liberate.
I found the pacing of the map just about perfect. There's lots to do right from the start, but not so much that it's overwhelming.

 

[octavius]

The Legends Of Hectoraze is an XL map of three levels.

Very nice map, designed for MP and not much of a challenge when playing it SP. Playing as the Elves, the AI players never were able to expand much. The are lots of strong independent stacks, but they can usually be avoided, especially if you have scouting units that can conceal themselves. And before you are strong enough to want to expand in that direction, you can use the indies to protect your own borders.

If things get too problematic the map has its own Safe Space.

 

[octavius]

Scaxlian Wars

An incredible map only let down by the too drawn out mopping-up phase, which is an unfortunate side effect of a very intricate map design. You really need to start tunneling and explore every nook and cranny ASAP.

I think every hero, item and town are custom made/named. And there's lots of items to find and heroes to rescue from prisons. There's not much text messages, instead the background story is indirectly told by the presence of these prisons and the ravaged landscape.

Playing as the Humans, my Highmen ally was defeated very quickly, while the Azracs held out on a small peninsula. The Dwarves were also wiped out very early, while the Elves and Halflings held out for a while. The Elves seem to have the esiest starting position and the Highmen the most difficult one.
With six races to choose from the map should be fairly replayble. It's a very exhausting one, though; it took me three weeks and 75 turns before I quit with only some hard to find and reach pockets of resistance left.

There are so many units issuing forth from Death Nodes that I envsioned this map as having a third level wall-to-wall with undead units behind timed flame barriers, but it is really only two levels with lots of clusters of 2-3 towns producing an endless horde of undead pouring into one way teleporters. It's very rewarding to head down below and conquer these towns.

 

[octavius]

Shadows of Destiny​

Very enjoyable XL map of three map levels, using Warlock's Rules, which reminds me of Scaxlian Wars mentioned above, with three factions to chose from (so perfect for co-op) and swarmes of enemies coming out of one way portals. But it's not as hard (AI controlled human players actually survive) and not as detailed map. Nor are there any indies to liven things up, and with a few exception(s) none of the heroes start with any items.

Based on Wheel of Time, playing it actually made me want to read the books again. There's very few message popping up, so it's much more of a war map than a story driven one.

I played as the Elves until day 63 when my enthusiasm had just started to decrease due to the start of the mopping up phase, when the game came to a crashing halt thanks to an "exception occurred during TArmyCombatMoveTE".

 

[BING XI LAO]

Care to review my own Desolate Maugogom next? It has a special win condition, flag five hidden altars, so it shouldn;t have too turgid a lategame. For best results, play with my zig mod too...

 

[octavius]

Care to review my own Desolate Maugogom next? It has a special win condition, flag five hidden altars, so it shouldn;t have too turgid a lategame. For best results, play with my zig mod too...

Reviewing a new map will be a severe breach of autism...
But are you sure you want that? I'm not afraid of using the whole scale when reviewing, you know.
I must admit the VC makes the map attractive to me.

 

[BING XI LAO]

I've made 15 maps, so I don't really mind if a few get panned by the critics )

 

[octavius]

Athendore

This is a legendary map by Queen Elquein, who also made the first map I reviewed in this thread.

Very hard XL map of three levels. It's not especially pretty or "realistic", but very strategic.
It kind of lulls you into a sense of false security the first turns, but then dragons and superheroes appear to make it challenging for you. Make sure all your own heroes have ranged attacks or they will be roasting ducks.

Lots and lots of items to be found, and lots of heroes and high level units to liberate, all custom made for this map.
Also lots of well written text messages at various places.

There are some big caches of mana to be found at certain places on the map. This mana will help tremendously. Without one such cache I would not have been able to dispel enemy Master spells and Power Leak, and then cast Life Mastery on the same turn. With Spell Ward, a spell I've never used before, I had magic superiority.

I tried both the Goblins, Frostlings and Humans before I was able to win as the Elves on turn 61, when there were still terror squads behind flame barriers itching to be released. Thanks to Leaders on Map I was even able to win an Allied Victory for the first time. Usually my allies break the alliance just as I'm about to win.
The Frostlings are probably the hardest faction to win with, since they start underground and have no Night Vision, and very soon their Air spells will have double cost. At least I found them the most frustrating of the factions I tried.
The Humans will be not much affected by enemy Master spells, but start in a rather cramped position. They were the only faction to get wiped out by the AI. The Dwarves did pretty well for themselves.

 

[octavius]

Care to review my own Desolate Maugogom next? It has a special win condition, flag five hidden altars, so it shouldn;t have too turgid a lategame. For best results, play with my zig mod too...

I've played some of it, but I don't think it's really suitable to play as SP.
The starting positions are too similar with no custom messages, and the Big Bad is too passive, so there's no sense of danger like in the best maps that can also be played both SP and MP (Athendore and Scaxlian Wars).
Doing the mistake of playing MP games solo was one of the reasons I tired of AoW1 back in the days.

But the background story was well written and the map design reflected it quite well.

I'm not crazy about all the changes due to the Ziggurat mod. I hate the Hurl Boulder ability of the Trolls. Hurl Boulder is one of those things that make me convinced the RNG is loaded; my units almost never hit, and when they do they do 1 damage, while enemies hit surprisingly often and usually do max damage.

 

[octavius]

Coming of the Dread Hobbit

XL map of three levels, where you have to hold your initial three towns, build up a four hex ruin and conquer the Halfling HQ Happy Feet.

I really like it when a map has other victory conditions than the usual to conquer the whole map (with Leaders off).
So this map is different than your typical XL map, and a different strategy is needed. I quickly found out that trying to conquer the whole map would by a Sisyphean task, what with the increasingly more powerful independents teleporting in, some with patrol orders, others raiding. Three or four of the leaders were killed by indies (I assume), but none of the of the player enabled races.

Playing as the Goblins (I like Night Vision on all units) I had an advantage in getting Beetles to act as engineering troops for the army heading for Happy Feet.
So I was able to complete the map before the Dread Hobbit himself appeared.
After finishing an XL map I'm usually exhausted, but this one left me craving for more. I only explored a small part (less than 1/4) of the map, so this means the map should be quite re-playable, except after the first time you will know the winning strategy.

This map should make for a good MP map with the players competing to be the one to conquer Happy Feet.