Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes release date and gameplay revealed
Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes arrives on November 7, 2023, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S alongside the free Golem Update for the turn-based strategy game from Triumph Studio and Paradox Interactive. Empires & Ashes is the second of a series of planned expansions for the game and it has a boatload of content in tow.
Players will be able to choose a whole new culture as well as brand-new a physical form in the faction builder: Reavers are an industrial and technologically minded people, who stop at nothing in the name of progress, fueling their relentless march towards the future through conquest and war. After Dragon Dawn introduced the Lizardmen as a form, Empires & Ashes brings Avians into play, allowing you to fashion your people as birdlike creatures.
Magic bird conquistadores? Take my money, Triumph!
Triumph Studios / Paradox Interactive
What’s more, Empires & Ashes has four new Age of Wonders 4 Tomes of Magic in tow, which allow you to unlock the secrets of transmutation, get some anti-magic capabilities, and muster armies of battle automatons.
In addition to the units included with the new culture and tomes, an array of wildlife creatures comes to the game in the new expansion. Among them are bear mounts for your characters and scrap hermits.
Empires & Ashes contains an additional victory condition, the Seals of Power, as well. Two story missions, a new Ancient Wonder, and a fresh Infestation Location round out the package on top of six additional music tracks for the game.
Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes screenshots
The free Golem Update for everyone, which will release on the same day as the expansion, has more goodies in store. It’ll introduce a new feature called Item Forge, which allows you to create magic equipment for your characters. War Coordination will enable you to make better use of your allies and 25 additional in-game events freshen up the experience. Form Traits will get a big rework in this update to provide a better faction creation experience. Finally, water gameplay will get visual and mechanical improvements that will hopefully make this relatively weak part of the game more enjoyable.
You can watch a trailer for Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes below:
“Age of Wonders 4 continues to evolve with ongoing development and community feedback. To add new and different elements to our fantasy world, we’re adding a new culture into the mix that will help shape new stories,” said Lennart Sas, co-founder of Triumph Studios and director of Age of Wonders 4. “We will add many features on top of this industrial warfare, like the Avian Form and Seals of Power victory condition, alongside one of our biggest free content updates, the Golem Update, which we built based on direct community feedback. Together with our players, we have many more worlds to explore!”
