Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne

Shadow magic has all this and better, such a classic and there's quite a few good mods out

the defenses are made up and the stats don't matter. Shadow magic is probably superior to this version, except that you won't know why anything is happening because the campaign for this game isn't in that game. The game, is rough, it feels unfinished. I stepped onto a poison plant with a pirate, and the unit that was already standing on it, my hero, took damage from that and died. Then I rage quit. 50 60% it doesn't matter. Just spam tier 1 units, never tech up, unless you are teching up to flyers. But if you don't care about the campaign, you really don't need to bother with this version....I will say, the battle music is, better in wizards throne, which is weird, you'd think they'd have the same songs in shadow magic but no.

Game is outdated and should not be bought to play it on modern systems since it crashes frequently.

Childhood

I enjoy this more than the civ games, but it is hard to have short games. I have enjoyed it so far. the campaign is quite good. Something about this game and its systems being just complex enough draws me in and keeps me playing for hours.

heroes 3

5/10

Game...of legend!

Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne is the sequel to Age of Wonders the epic fairytale classic.
I owned the box edition along with Age of Wonders and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic back in 2004, so it's somewhat of a nostalgic title for me.
To get this to work on Window's 10, I had to set compatibility to XP Service Pack 3, Disable Full-screen optimisations and Run this program as an administrator.
Also, for configuration i had to untick Allow Resolution Changes and Use Direct3D. However, the game would still crash every now and then.
I did not have any problems with autosave becoming corrupted or deleted like i did with the first AoW here on steam, even so i still kept manual saves.
Anyway, i still prefer the original over the sequel.
Like Its predecessor its still a really fun game if you can get it to run.

Like all of age of wonder series. Do like this much better than first one. This is a nice mix between 1 and 3. Older game feel, but with some of game 3 aspects. Would buy this over 1 for sure. Game is quite difficult even on easy. Seems like A.I. has a lot more of everything, but maybe I missed something when it comes to strategy. Looks good and sound goods as well. for a couple dollars well worth it. Takes some setting adjustments to get it to run on windows 11 laptop.

I've very fond memories of this Turn-base strategy game and it is definitely what I would recommend to those that would want a challenge.

Is fun, nice to look at for an old game, having played 3 this one has a few better features than it.

too many issues with this game. from random black screens on startup.. to really old graphics which doesnt work well with the larger monitors (and unable to select anything but 'window' in the options).. to REALLY bad RNG.. constantly getting squashed by low level units.. yet my units miss miss miss! there is no real strategy.. just spam basic units (no point in advanced units.. because they die just as easily!!) until you have enough to attack a town.. accept the ridiculous losses and move on to the next target..but whats REALLY bad about this game is that your own spells hurt your own troops instead of the intended victim! and the enemy mage can cast spells at you even when you're NOT in their territory (which you can NOT do)!! how pathetic is that!?!

then there is the story... nothing worthy to write about. its just not a fun game

I really enjoy the turn based component. There are so many possible combinations!

Its a classic... a little wanky with limited keyboard hotkeys... but ok

Since the Ai can see you in the fog of war, there's no way to really come up with tricky strategies.
It just becomes a slog.