Age of Wonders 4: The First Preview of This Wild 4X Game

ign.com:

I've spent thousands of hours of my life exploring, exploiting, expanding, and exterminating my way through 4X games like Age of Wonders 4. But typically, even at the end of the most epic campaigns stretching across the ages, it all disappears when I'm done. Win or lose. Like tears in rain. In Triumph Studios' latest fantasy civilization builder, though, the end is only the beginning. My beloved ruler can ascend to godhood and join a pantheon that persists from one world to the next, continuing to have an impact on the bigger picture and unlocking new empire options. And while I haven't seen it play out over dozens of campaigns yet, it's a very exciting prospect.

This was actually my first foray into Age of Wonders proper, as I was introduced to the series through the sci-fi spinoff, Planetfall. And it feels very similar, with a Civilization-like overworld where you build cities, exploit resources, train armies, and deal with rival powers. When two armies meet on the map, though, Age of Wonders 4 zooms way in to an XCOM-like, turn-based battle system where each of your units can move and act independently. Fortunately, these fights don't tend to drag on so long that it bogs down the pacing of the overworld stuff, but they still give you enough time to pull off some clever tactics.

Building the fantasy civilization of your dreams starts before you even found a single city, though. You start each run by selecting a base template – from mainstays like elves and dwarves to somewhat weirder options like frog people – which sets the look of your leader and units and provides some suggested species traits. Elves are quick and keen-eyed by default, but you can always swap these out. There's nothing stopping you from making