Creating the Best Faction (Trait Breakdown) in Age of Wonders 4

Age of Wonders 4 has a ton of generic factions for  you to choose from but half the fun of the game   is creating your own realm and the other half is  creating your own faction and those factions can   then Ascend into your Pantheon allowing you to  play your own games with other new factions and   seeing your own custom factions populate the map  for you it's a really amazing system but you're   probably jumping into the game and trying to make  your own faction and wondering what some of these   abilities mean how do body traits and mind traits  really work what tomes are really amazing for what   I want to do what Society traits which culture  all that stuff in this video today we're going   to answer that and kind of guide you through this  process you can navigate to any part of the video   that interests you the most using the chapters in  both the timeline and the description one thing I   do want to say though before we get started make  whatever faction you want do not min max this   process enjoy it create your favorite L faction  from whatever lore you want to make make your   favorite orc or human whatever it is really go to  town on it I just want to make that clear up front   I'm going to talk about some traits and explain to  you how maybe some things are better early or late   game or what their real relevance is because you  probably don't have any concept of that without   a couple hours into the game so I'm just going to  help out with that don't use this as well he said   I can't use that I don't I'm not saying that have  fun make the crazy faction you've always wanted   but other than that if you've not yet picked up  Age of Wonders for you can use my Nexus store   Link in the description and pin comment you'll  get a steam key directly from Paradox and it   is a great way to support me as well as my many  Australian shepherds pup uh puppy addiction to   what are those called Toys he eats so many of  those damn things but also check me out on Twitch   here where I will be streaming Age of Wonders  4 as well as the new ck3 DLC coming up here in   about a couple weeks but let's get started here on  the faction creation guide for Age of Wonders for   jumping into the first portion of the creation is  race or physical form and really you can go crazy   here right you can have any physical form and then  any combination of body and mind traits you're not   limited in any way shape or form so make whatever  you want I'm just going to click human because   it's generic and then the first thing you want to  take a look at here are our body traits now body   traits um have a lot of different things that are  going to help you out with combat mainly both of   them really help you out with combat but uh body  is more of a flat bonus towards very specific   things so to start off here we have bulwark and  I think of the defensive body traits it's the   best one because it grants two defense and two  resistance when you're in defense mode I and I   find that I put myself into defense mode probably  60 70 of the time whenever I jump into combat and   I think it's a pretty solid one from a defensive  standpoint next up here is fast recuperation which   is one of my favorite body traits because it  regenerates an additional five hit points per   world map turn now your units on average like just  just a standard unit without any consideration of   unit enhancements we'll recover five hit points  outside of your domain and 25 hit points within   your domain with fast recuperation you're doubling  your outside domain from five to ten and you're   bringing your inside domain from 25 to 30. and I  find that the majority of tier one two units have   less than 60 health so you can recover full uh  Health on a lot of your main fighting units in two   turns with faster recuperation or and oftentimes  like I think a support has like 35 Health that's   pretty much a full health recovery in one turn  so it's a very nice ability that I think might   seem underwhelming but allows you to kind of keep  your army rolling a lot in the early and middle   portions of the game Hardy here is a flat uh hit  points increase which is just a a perfectly fine   one in fact actually I think as far as defensive  things go it's because it's damage mitigation   right by having more hit points it's a it's a  pretty good one Keen sided is accuracy on physical   uh ranged and Magic attacks so if you plan on  it's I'm sorry it's physical range not physical   comma range comma magic attacks it's physical  range attacks um if you decide to do a faction   that is based a lot off of ranged units and Magic  units this is actually very good because if you   have any infantry in the way it blocks your line  of sight and that oftentimes puts your accuracy   rating at about 50 60 percent so this boosts it  up to about 70 80 percent in those situations   makes it a lot easier to get your rain shots off  if you're going heavy into range so I definitely   would choose that if you weren't quick reflexes is  a nice one if you're going heavy into infantry and   shock troops and any kind of pull arm guys because  this gives you a 30 harder to hit by range damage   a range attack so it's basically the opposite of  keen sided but for your enemy right so they are   negated in their ability to hit you it's a great  way to get downfield without taking as much damage   because you're just mitigating some of that range  damage you would take otherwise it's a very very   solid one resilient and resistant are two that I  actually don't like very much I find that there   are so many ways to mitigate status effects on you  or mitigate a lot of damage that's coming your way   with unit enhancements across these two stats that  is added from unit enhancements that I I find that   the body trait doesn't give me the bonus it's  better in the latter portion of the game but by   that point I'm so jammed up with unit enhancements  that where this would give me benefit in the early   game I never really take advantage of it so I  always kind of skip these two same thing here   with Resolute which negative status effects last  minus one turn you don't deal with that as much   in my personal experience and again there's a lot  of ways to mitigate it through either shutting off   those negative statuses from unit enhancements you  have or from spells so again I skipped this one   strong is nice because it gives you melee and  physical range attacks dealing an additional 10   damage but this increases the physical damage  of melee and range units so if you use a unit   enhancement that changes damage or adds damage of  a specific Elemental type strong will not increase   that unless it did a physical damage increase so  for example if I had a weapon that did 40 fire   damage well I wouldn't do 44 fire damage if I have  strong I would do 40 fire damage and 4 physical   damage so just keep that in mind we're strong I  find it to be really good in the early game does   taper off towards the mid to late game but most  things do both physical plus and Elemental damage   unless it's a pure magic ability tough here just  increases your defense by two I personally just go   with bull work or Hardy and then you've got your  four mounts now this will replace the mounts that   your faction uses take for example nightmare  amounts which look sick so now rather than   riding horses everyone rides nightmares yourself  included now again from a min max perspective go   with whatever you think is coolest the nightmare  mounts aren't that amazing intimidating Aura is   good if you are really trying to rely on things  that reduce the morale of things and you can   definitely build that way so if you want to go  that route definitely the nightmare Mount is going   to be amazing but all these are going to give  you 10 more hit points too which is kind of nice   um also note does not affect non-mounted units so  all of your mounted units get more hit points you   want to go heavy into cab doing these is pretty  cool the spider Mount gets this web ability which   is actually pretty cool it immobilizes things base  60 chance of inflicting and mobilized for one turn   and it deals hammage in a one damage in a one hex  radius so it's actually got a pretty good little   splash effect there so a pretty nice one there  the Unicorn Mount is sick because it can FaZe so   it can move from one target to the next and just  completely jump it's got a range of three here you   can see so you can jump all the way and it costs  zero action points to do so you can phase and then   move that is what makes this particularly cool so  it allows you to really clear a lot of distance   quickly with the unicorn and lastly the wolf mount  is in my opinion the strongest because it's sick   so a powerful boost for your mounted units but has  no effect on your other units of course gains the   pack Hunter passive melee attacks deal 20 damage  per friendly adjacent unit with pack Hunter there   are unit enhancements in the nature tree to give  pack Hunter to everyone so you can you can get   real spicy with this because even though pack  Hunter applies to your mounted units this also   applies if you have a unit enhancement to your  infantry unit so you can stack these bonuses   to get out of control and we'll talk about mine  traits and how you can stack that with pack Hunter   but also you get them feeble and growl  which deals damage and implies one state   of weakened which reduces damage by  10 percent and stacks up to five times   um this is really nice too if you're going with  something like the dark culture which has coal the   week where you do additional damage to weakened  units and also regenerate health so this can be   a really cool and easy way to get a ton of weekend  out onto things so a really cool thing of the last   just wanted to show it off too and your character  starts with a white wolf which is even cooler   so our next thing is the Mind trait and mind  traits are a little bit different these are   typically kind of like not directly combat stats  but do still help in combat in some way or maybe   post combat adaptable here is experience gain  always great it means kind of a flat one no   need to explain that Arcane Focus increases  magic attacks deal additional 15 damage so if   you really want to go heavy into magic you can  really focus on this cold-blooded is morale loss   from all sources this is again trying to stack a  lot of morale penalties I don't like this as much   but um this is for your units right so your your  units are losing less morale I find that I don't   necessarily have morale issues as much but you  can stack morale issues for your opponent and they   usually give you morale bonuses if you go that  route defensive tactics is a really cool one that   goes kind of like overwhelm tactics but defensive  tactics gives you one defense and resistance when   standing next to a friendly unit with defensive  tactics this does not stack it's very fun to have   like a a moving dwarf wall that all gets defensive  tactics with one another on top of maybe bulwark   which further increases their stuff if they go  into defensive mode if they're already a shield   unit you can use defensive tactics to really  explode a lot of mechanics which I really like   so if you want to go for a slower more defensive  play definitely pick this up elusive here is   going to give you six defense and resistance  against retaliation and opportunity attacks so   I like elusive a lot but I'd rather choose  ferocious which is the opposite where you're   dealing more damage whenever you do a retaliation  opportunity attacks I think mind traits if if it's   like my default mind trait ferocious is very  strong because you will be doing a retaliation   attack almost all the time especially in the  early game and opportunity attacks or anytime   anyone moves out of combat with you right like  a tax of opportunity like we get in almost every   other RPG it's the same thing here and dealing 40  more damage that is very very very punishing fast   initiative is going to give you first turn of  combat you can move up to six hexes it's kind   of like a a pre-placement um it's okay unless  you're trying to play a very fast and aggressive   play style I would skip out on it because I find  that there's so many other mind traits that I'd   like a lot more like any of the the tactics ones  are ferocious speaking of overwhelm tactics here   so defensive taxes gave us defensive bonuses  overwhelm gives us 20 crit hit chance when   standing next to a friendly unit with overwhelmed  tactics this does not stack so you could use   overwhelmed tactics use the wolf mount and just  really go to town with putting things next to each   other to boost up their attack damage um you can  use overwhelm tactics plus ratkin to effectively   create the skaven from Warhammer and a bunch  of other things that we'll go into sneaky here   gives you 25 damage on flanking attacks which is  actually quite common so if you do have a lot of   fast moving Target or uh units that you want  to get around things Sneaky's not a bad idea   tenacious is going to give you damage penalties  from casualties or have so this is actually very   nice so you have a unit that is represented  on the battlefield by little tiny models right   and every time you hit certain break points or  damage thresholds you lose less of those models   so when you lose those models you do more  damage that damage penalty now is halved   whenever you take casualties as I it'll explain  here this is whenever a unit Associated sandwich   members of this unit are lost so basically  you do more damage for a longer period of   time than you would anyone else who does not  have this it's actually a pretty pretty good   one then you've got your at your adaptations  for Arctic desert Underground and then water so   the nicest thing about these is that you get  the ability to build farms on these respective   locations Arctic desert and water so that's  cool and also also it's easier to move across   those respective uh terrain types again cool  but very situational underground adaptation   though gives you all the same benefits as the  other two building it on Cavern floors but you   also get excavation from the general Empire skill  line so it's worth noting I personally don't like   the adaptations because I feel like it kind of  forces my uh faction to a very specific playstyle   and that's just not the way I play but if you  have that in mind for your faction then by all   means do it moving on to your culture we have  your different cultures feudal High Barbarian   Industries dark and Mystic so when you're going  through this if you want an idea of what all   these units do go ahead and go back go back  again press this I button for the encyclopedia   press this little helmet for all of the actual  cultural units and then go ahead and select the   ones that you want to see I don't want to jump  through every single one of those things because   I do want this to be a bit of a discovery for you  I will kind of generally outline what the units   are like or what they specialize in but again  I think it's very fun to discover portions of   the game and not have all the game ruined for  you by some blockheaded YouTubers like myself   so to start off here you have the feudal culture  and this has a special all of the cultures have   the same building line but then they also get a  special building line unique to their culture so   they're just basically those generic buildings  and then there are cultural buildings so the   cultural buildings for feudal are going to be  ones with food income allowing them to expand very   quickly they also get a special ability called  Stand Together which is going to increase that   damage by 20 again this is going to go really  well with your wolf mount or your overwhelmed   tactics it's a really really cool ability and  then they get feudal Lords so basically you've   got these different um Lord types and they  are skills that a hero can choose and crops   knowledge magic and production are all special  ones that give them bonuses towards a specific   uh resource income or Lord of War which gives five  hit points and 25 movement after you win a battle   triggering only one so it's a pretty cool way to  kind of flavor your Lords across the map and maybe   make them better governors in certain locations  and what have you so there's that as far as the   units go for feudal you have very weak tier one  units with the peasants and you have your scout   here as well but then it progresses upwards  towards your night which obviously is going   to be filled with a lot of charging you've got  your Bannerman as your support unit the sword   and shield guy which is really good he's got  really heavy Shields or negates it gives them   more defense and Gates flanking and the Spells  here are generally geared towards support that's   the only I guess this guy's the only spell Caster  there are special units that you can research and   upgrade or special units you can get from tomes  I'm not going to go into those but it's just kind   of worth talking about how the general place to  all these guys are they're very well-rounded weak   low morale low armor low health unit tier  one units up to strong cab at the top end   um also too you have your affinities now these  affinities some will oppose one another like for   example order of poses chaos and vice versa  but that's only for external purposes so you   can go with a feudal faction and go heavy into  chaos tomes if you want you don't need to feel   restricted in that regard but it is worth noting  that you're not going to be as fun to deal with   when it comes to maybe a chaos Affinity Empire  or faction on the map next up is high and high   is pretty awesome here so structures have City  stability and knowledge income so allows you   to really push through your research tree a lot  quicker units are strengthened with awakened which   gives four Spirit damage on base attacks and this  is kind of cells just short but dormant traits are   amazing they're basically additional traits that  all the units that of the high culture have which   give them additional abilities take for example  seeking missiles so the sun priest the Scout and   I think that I don't remember the the protoss guy  right here I don't remember what they're called   um it's like a diviner or something like that  and also your Archer when you awaken them seeking   missiles increases their range by one and twenty  percent additional accuracy it's super sick The   Shield guys get more defense these guys get more  damage it's really really cool and it's an ability   that you can easily do through spells or the sun  priest himself this guy over here can cast a spell   to awaken things it's really fun these guys though  have a lot of really good mid-range stay ability   with a lot of punching power from spells with  a lot of spirit damage and the ability to buff   things up with both of your casters that's kind of  their stick is more support less offensive magic   is what I would say when it comes to their units  themselves not the tones or anything like that   barbarians oh did I no no I'm sorry I didn't cover  the rest of this you also get alignment which is   fun because we have 10 good alignment but you have  this other cool thing called the alignment agenda   this is probably the coolest thing about the  uh the high culture so you get three different   options you can go pure good which gives stability  in all cities neutral it gives food and production   per City stability level above neutral in all  cities and then pure evil where the units start   and awaken state so just because you're choosing  the high culture doesn't mean you have to be good   aligned you can go hard on the pain on evil with  them which I think is really sick you can choose   high and then go with um sorry my allergies are  killing me today you can go with high and then   go with like Scions of evil and go into Pure Evil  and make as they all start awakened otherwise you   have to awaken things using skills from your hero  spells from your your units or spells from your   actual tones it's pretty pretty fun barbarians  here are about fast attack and expansion with   structures that gear towards food and draft income  you're going to have a lot of expansion and a lot   of soldiers to jump into male units have Primal  strike here which is a first melee attack that   hits in battle deals an additional eight blight  damage that's kind of their thing they do a lot of   blight damage and they get ritual of alacrity here  so pretty much this is something that you can cast   on outposts and cities and when you do friendly  units on the center of the Outpost or city will   restore 50 hit points and 100 movement points  and remove exhausted from Force march here so   this is all about fast movement fast attack  constantly being on the Move constantly adding   pressure to your enemy your defense is kind  of this it's not like it's not weak like this   is like your tier one unit right here and he has  just the same amount of Defense as this guy right   here so don't think that they have like really  low defense they do a lot of damage and your top   tier unit is this dude right there the Berserker  which gets a cool berserk ability your Shaman has   abilities that are doing poison damage or boosting  the movement of your ability of your of your units   and you don't get any Cavalry if you've noticed  you have this character which is a skirmisher   which does both ranged and melee damage so you  do have a different setup now I mean Hai doesn't   have any Cavalry either but it's just to kind of  illustrate that each one of these cultures has   a different unit set up into industrious now  getting structures with production income uh   through bolstering units get sturdier so you get  either bolster defense or bolstered resistance so   when they take melee or physical damage they get  one defense Stacks five times so if you get hit   four times in combat you get four defense which  is pretty cool and each successive hit you're   getting more and more defense you're mitigating  more and more of that damage and the same thing   here is for magic you get bolster resistance which  increases that resistance lastly they get Scout   prospecting which basically if you come across a  cliff mountain or stalagmite then your scout unit   can Prospect The Province for production or gold  reward one thing to to mention here is that that   the Scout for the industrious is different and  that they can do those abilities and every Scout   is a little different per faction the Barbarian  one for example can actually make outposts which   is really sick industrious Caster over here also  has the ability to bolster defense and bolster   resistances but you can see there's no cavity in  this Force you're dealing with a lot of sword and   board slow-moving defensive juggernauts this is  your tier three unit in the back there and he   is just gonna hold that line he can also bolster  people's defense around him he is a tank of Tanks   moving into dark we have probably remember one  of my favorite factions here there we go uh so   cities can negate City stability income penalties  they get a building around I think the second or   third uh City tier where Irish the third is the  third City tier where they just completely negate   City stability like oh you have like negative  State stability they don't care it's not going   to reduce their income which is awesome Unique  city structures granting knowledge and extra   income from prisons and crypts so again a lot of  uh stuff that's going to push you through your   uh research tree quicker and units specialize in  inflicting negative status effects and exploiting   them with coal the week so a lot of your units  mainly your range units have the ability to put   weekend onto things which reduces their damage  remember right well call the week means that I now   deal 20 damage to that unit with weakened and I  regenerate three or so hit points whatever I think   regenerations a certain percentage oh unit heals  six hit points at the end of its turn in battle   but it Stacks so you can get up to 30 hit  points which is really great if you've never   played temporary hit points leave after the combat  ends so it's not a full replenishment you have to   replenish something on the actual campaign map  once you've lost it in the combat map but it's   a really fun faction I I really really enjoy it  because you're stacking all these abilities to   weaken things with your three range units this is  a Caster back there and this Caster also has the   ability to do like a long range bomb and reduce  their uh they can weaken them and reduce their   resistances as well so it's just it's such a fun  cool uh faction also you got a tier one shock   troop which is different than the other ones we've  talked about so you get a lot of aggression at the   early game and tier three is your uh Knight right  there Dark Knight the antithesis to your feudal   um so lastly we have Mystics which are also  very cool structures with income from Mana or   Mana income units have Attunement star blades  making them stronger when a spell is cast in   battle so when a spell is cast this unit's base  attack randomly gains one fire lightning or Frost   damage for three turns and stacks up to three  times and you have a lot of ways to constantly   cast in combat too so this allows you to get a  lot of spells off to get all three of the damage   bonuses here from the Star blades and they  themselves do I think that's the same correct   grammar whatever they do a lot of different  Elemental damage types which is pretty fun   oh where is it astral Echoes here is your special  pickup only visible to and collectible by rulers   of Mystic culture astral Echoes Grant knowledge  and mana on pickup the city structure alter this   all series grants bonuses income depending on the  amount of Astral Echoes which is really cool kind   of adds a whole different play style to the uh  the culture that is different than the other ones   of course right this is your scout right here  which is pretty cool this guy can pass through   his ethereal just goes right through them and  this is your tier three character right there   so you have a very different setup here with  Mystic than you do the all the other ones and   again if you want to jump into what each one of  these units does before you do that you can go   back go to the encyclopedia go to the cultural  units and look at each one but again I wanted to   kind of lets you discover that with Mystic  you're getting a lot of offensive magic   everything in this Army for the exception of  these guys with their Spears can cast a spell   um these guys have like an AOE like stun these  three have these four actually all have some   sort of AOE Frost or lightning or fire damage  it's a really really fun cool culture as well   for our section on society traits What I want to  talk about here is rain is mainly like what some   of these things actually are not like oh this  one's going to be the best again it's kind of   in the [ __ ] of this whole video but it's just me  kind of outlining what this means for you so for   chosen uniters this is going to give you income  from vassals which is really nice so that makes   it so that at the top end you're actually going  to make 70 more income from vassals than you would   someone else that doesn't have this trait your  lyman's 10 Shield units and pull arm units have   plus one rank to start off with I think the total  rank is either five six or seven I can't remember   it's a legend is the last one or champions  the last one but those ranks just give you   additional things like um more hit points  more defense whatever it is starts with   an extra unit extra shield or pole arm unit and  then a diplomatic Focus so one thing I want you   to think about with these starting bonuses and  the shield and the pole arm units that you get   think about also the culture that you are right  like for example you know you have really strong   Shield units with industrious with feudal  you don't really have very strong pole arm   units so just kind of keep those things in mind  when you are selecting those things if that's   something you care about the extra unit you get  might not be that amazing depending upon which   um culture you've set yourself up with also  they get a starting bonus of diplomatic Focus   now that is a general Empire skill it means  you get one more Whispering Stones you can   have more vassals out the gate and more vassals  probably total than anyone else if you go about   the same kind of General routes but it then  shuts off all of your uh extremely negative   Society traits such as ritual cannibals  ruthless Raiders and Scions of evil   um devotees of good here and now also keep in mind  this is going to choose this is going to increase   your affinity and Affinity also will increase  how much you make in the Empire tree towards the   respective branch of that Seth Affinity which  you'll understand what you get into the game   devotees of good is basically your paladins this  is going to help out with City stability and your   Empire gains five Imperium per level of good  alignment that's really nice because it allows   you to take advantage of your Empire tree more you  can push Allegiance up with your vassals faster   or you can actually just um what's it called not  recruit population encourage population or or get   population it basically it helps increase your  Province expansion quicker if you use Imperium   on it 10 alignment support units and polar  units have one rank and start with an extra   support and or pull arm or or pull arm unit and  shuts off these Society traits imperialist is a   pretty cool one here there we go Peerless is a  pretty cool one here because the throne cities   and cities that share a border with the throne  City gain 20 stability and 20 gold income so this   allows you to kind of make one big spanning  sprawling Empire which you'll probably just   do natively in your gameplay but this makes  you actually get a bonus for doing that and   your Capital City gets one extra population out  the gate that's not an amazing starting bonus   um just because you're gonna get that population  so fast and your population caps for a city at 25.   this doesn't increase that to 26 you don't get  one extra Province just means you start with a   province faster which then can cause a landslide  of getting uh your your production or your food up   quicker but it's not that huge of a starting bonus  just to kind of illustrate that the effect is the   best part prolific swarmers is if you want to  create this skaven from Warhammer cities require   10 less food for gaining a new population and tier  one units have plus one rank all of them it's sick   and also you can get a tone that makes to your T1  units are even better and all sorts of fun stuff   non-magical origin units require 20 less upkeep as  well and start with one extra tier one unit it's   just really jumping in it's even there's even rats  Man Ritual cannibals turns you into vampires units   again the corpse eating ability which is pretty  cool it spends zero points so you use it before   you do anything in your combat turn and you get 15  temporary hit points it's pretty sweet and it only   has a one-turn cooldown so it's pretty pretty cool  minus 10 to alignment the nearest city owned gains   three mana and three food per tier of non-magic  origin units killed or lost after successful   combat so losing units actually gives you income  or killing units gives you income ritual Raiders   here a ruthless ruthless Raiders the nearest city  owned gains three gold and three draft per tier of   unit killed after successful combat per unit  killed not unit lost as well so keep that in   mind also you get two random hero items which is  a really cool way to just get a lot of bonuses   uh for your hero at the gate those could include  mounts so you can have a bunch of Mount options   for your hero too ancient wise ones when a Tome  is unlocked a random skill from that Tome costs   60 percent less knowledge this is just a way to  push through your tone system faster but do be   mindful of this one because if you're not kind  of if you don't really have a really good idea   of what the tone system how it really works what  you'll end up doing is pushing through a bunch of   meager tone uh skills or I guess it's just skills  I suppose and push into higher tiers and and kind   of realize oh man I kind of screwed my progression  up so we'll talk about that in a second in tone so   just be mindful of it one random research skill  is already unlocked too which is kind of nice   gifted it's a random research skill from the  pool of the tone you select gifted casters is   10 both combat and world map casting points if  you've not played the game yet the way that that   works is you have com you have casting points you  use on the combat map and ones you use on the map   from the world map and there's two different pools  on top of Mana you use both both respective uh   either combat or world map casting points and Mana  to cast a spell combat spells cost 20 less Mana to   cast as well and start with one extra combat spell  unlocked and I'll talk about that in the Tome   section because the tomes have skills as God as  well as combat spells and those combat spells are   Buffs on all these ones right here Mana channelers  summoning spot did I get all that yes uh Mana   channelers summoning spells cost 50 less Mana to  cast and Magic organ origin units have plus one   rank start with an extra magic origin unit Mana  channelers is really cool to like double up with   maybe you're doing like a necromancy  playthrough or you're doing any of like   the summoning playthroughs Mana channelers is  a really really cool one that allows you to   get a lot of summoning spells onto the field very  quickly add up settlers also keep in mind though   some of these are shutting off in compatible  Society traits in perilous if I choose this I   cannot then choose imperialists so just keep those  things in mind too add up settlers plus one city   cap nice because that your city cap uh there is a  set City cap in the game that I believe it's like   five add up settlers brings you to six or whatever  the plus one of that total cap is so it's a nice   way to increase that you can increase that through  your general things as well founding cities cost   25 percent less Imperium which is lovely meaning  that every time you find city ruins and you want   to found a city out of that it costs I think  generically 300 Imperium that's going to bring   that down by 25 percent newly founded cities also  gain one pop so as soon as you found them they   jump into a second Province um which is actually a  really nice bit of combo so that you can get some   quick claims out quickly so that you can solidify  that location so your enemy can't push against you   and prevent you from expanding with your provinces  because if you've got claims around you it causes   grievances I covered that in my tips video guess  what it's still in the upper right hand corner   starting bonus capital city starts with plus  one pop so what I like about Adept settlers   over imperialists starting bonus is that the  effects of add up settlers are a little bit more apparent I think you can say in Peerless you have  to build towards placing your things together add   up sellers is you you take advantage of City  ruins a lot better and you can sack a city   and destroy it into ruins and then use all these  bonuses to to turn it back into a city and take   advantage of all the things you get as a as  Adept settler so keep those things in mind if   you want to go with this over order experienced  seafarers Fisheries yield two gold two food and   two draft which is actually very nice if you have  a map that has any actual water on if you don't   this is wasted Naval units cost 25 resources  to recruit and maintain and Naval units have   to rank also you start with basic seafaring which  means your units can disembark or I'm sorry can   Embark and use vessels to cross the water and for  flying on floating units to travel over water so   without this you cannot go over water even with  flying and floating units which is important to   note payabled Hunter and you'll be able to this is  the very first thing that you can actually do in   your general line so if you don't choose it here  you can still do it don't worry about it fabled   Hunters here gain 100 resources from clearing an  infestation which you'll do a lot Ancient Wonders   which you'll do a lot or a resource node clearing  it there's usually something on a resource node   and you kill it clear it and you get a little  bit of resources and 100 resources not items   or anything else that you get it's still a very  good one I just want to make the distinction here   because you might look at that and go oh cha-ching  it's still really good still really good I just   want to again draw the delineation range units and  skirisher units have plus one rank again look at   the culture you're going with skirmisher units  on this might not be amazing for you if you're   The Barbarians but it might be great because  they have good they have good range units so   keep in mind your range units are going to benefit  from this um if you're playing two I think Battle   Mages still count as range units uh uh no they're  not that symbol is the unit so archers are your   range unit your uh scouts or range units so your  Mages are not and support and battle mage units   are not ranged units but they'll also get plus one  rank and you start with one extra range unit so if   you're trying to hinge yourself on Range units  from your uh form selection and body traits this   is what you're going to choose great Builders  here quarries yield to Gold special Province   improvements costing minus 50 production which is  nice and capital city starts with a workshop which   increases draft and production and stone walls all  real great real real strong capabilities if you're   building a very defensive slow moving very high  play through because gold production and draft   are going to allow you to make more units more  buildings and well gold helps with everything   runesmith's here unit in unit enchantment  research costs minus 30 knowledge to unlock   so every single Tome has unit enchantments and  this is going to reduce that knowledge by 30 to   get those research which is very nice and then  actually um casting them causes an upkeep on you   an actual per turn mana and or gold and or Souls  whatever it is upkeep this reduces that by 30 and   then shield and polar arm units get one rank and  you start with an extra shield or pull arm unit I   think the game defaults to whatever one is a  higher rank I'm not sure to be honest Wonder   Architects is a really cool one that I really  enjoy stop it there we go Ancient Wonders do   not require population in order to be annexed to  a city so what that means is you want to Annex um   ancient wonders because they give you a ton of  bonuses ton of bonuses you place an outpost next   to him and Annex them or you just kind of expand  your provinces to Annex them or if you have Wonder   Architects you just get your domain next to them  and they become immediately annexed it saves you   population on which you would otherwise spend  that would detract from your population pool   it's a very good one and then cities gain 20  production per Annex Ancient Wonders which   oftentimes give you production anyway and you  start with one nearby ancient wonder cleared so   you can just jump into one right out the gate  with uh Wonder Architects I do love it indeed   powerful evokers uh battle mage  units here oh oops give me a click it   uh battle mage units and support units have one  rank battle mage units and support units provide   five combat casting points at the start of the  combat and you start with an extra one so if   you want to go hard on the pain and casting a lot  of combat spells and use a lot of battle mage and   support units like if you're playing the mystics  powerful evokers is very good signs of evil here   cities gain 10 draft in your Empire gains 5  Imperium per level of evil alignment so the the   harder on the paint on evil you go the more you  get to increase the amount of units you produce   and you can jump through Imperium which we talked  about before right that is your Allegiance game   that is your empire development tree that's  increasing your population whatever it is   and then units are recruited with one rank when  you are at the maximum evil uh alignment and shock   units and shield units have one rank as well  and you start with an extra one so if you're   playing as um dark you'll start with an extra  shock unit Shadow Walkers is our last one here   cities and provinces have two Vision range Scouts  have Universal camouflage which is pretty sick   means that they can not be seen on the map unless  you're right next to them outposts start with The   Watchtower upgrade meaning they have increased  uh range viewing range uh what's this division   range and then the wayfinder enchantment which is  a generic a chairman that everyone gets access to   they start with it and it's awesome and it gets  no upkeep too so it's immediately on board so   they all of your Scouts move it 48 speed rather  than 32-36 so they get very fast movement and   you start with an extra Scout which I'd recommend  you do no matter what make an extra scalp so the   shadow Walkers is a really really cool one so you  really can't go wrong with whatever Society traits   you wanted to go with I just wanted to give you  an idea of how these actually play into the game   rather than just say hey choose two have at it  or these two are the best just again build how   you want okay on to the tomes now I'm not going  to go through every single tone they give you a   real good summary of what they are right here I'm  just going to kind of highlight some stuff to go   over so every single tone even after this point in  the game will always have an initial bonus it'll   award you some points of affinity it'll give you  some form of something like this is a building in   this specific instance that is a special Province  Improvement that it unlocks with the Tome of zeal   and you'll get some sort of uh hero skill so this  is condemn Target enemy units become condemned   this is something that you would naturally get  as part of the Tome itself for your units but   now your hero can take advantage of it also you'll  get bonuses to casting pools so as we push through   these you can see okay this gives me a special  Improvement for Abby this gives me mending touch   as a Adept hero skill or a support adapt hero  skill so just to kind of illustrate this all   these are going to have this and after this point  in the game you're going to get this no matter   what now the tomb of souls for example here has a  tone passive after winning battle game Souls that   Souls those souls are used as a currency to summon  things like the bone Golem here requires Souls   um and you fuse two skeleton units  together you have a bunch of stuff here   but again for the most part a lot of this is  very self-explanatory it's Illustrated right   here and you have your individual spells you're  going to hover over now you've got a bunch of   different types of spells you've got summon  spells you've got your unit enchantments which   are very important to note because they cost  uh they cost them out to cast then there is a   um upkeep for having it and every time you create  something that applies to this unit so for example   this is staves of warding make support abilities  of Enchanted units game plus two bolstered   resistance uh to affected units so this is not  going to apply to my whole arm units my sword   and board guys my shock units it's going to apply  to my support guys so if I make more support units   then I will pay more upkeep because this is active  and you can see the borders of these they kind of   give you a rough indication of what the spell does  like this is a summon so that's that's the kind of   look of a summon this is an enchantment so it's  this kind of square with these little uh pointed   triangles here this is a buff spell this is a  buff spell you see these have both the same border   and then this is a minor race transformation  there are two types of Transformations minor   in major minor are not permanent you can turn them  on and off they cost an upkeep major are permanent   changes to your race and they will do things like  give them demon wings or give them angel wings and   all sorts of cool stuff you'll get them in the  tier four tomes as you progress through the game   but remember tomes are pretty much how you're  going to generate affinity and that Affinity is   going to dictate what is accessible to you in the  Empire tree my advice to you is kind of approach   this like magic the Gathering choose two colors  and maybe Splash a third that's kind of the the   best way to approach it kind of create a theme for  yourself you know like I made vampire kin and the   way I did that was going dark culture my dark  Society traits and Tome of souls I wanted these   Necromancer vampire characters so that's what I  did or you can go skaven and you can kind of go   uh the time of beasts I think it's time beasts no  no that's that tunnel horde and you can do like   often the tier one units become one strengthened  there's another one here that spawn can increase   the number of units of formations and 20 damage  incompatible super growth Hound Master like   there's all these cool goddamn things you can do  and these tomes completely change the gameplay   or game style or attack damage whatever it  is or the the gameplay you have in mind like   enchantment like each one of these take a look  at the borders that's three abilities that are   unit enchantments one two and three so just kind  of keep those things in mind here because you can   have a lot of fun with changing the way the game  actually plays using these respective tones and   especially as you progress up to the other tomes  where you can't look at it in this menu here but   they're going to change the damage you do or  whatever it is so just kind of look through these   take your time read a lot of them they're really  cool and they're things that I didn't think would   be as cool like ah Thomas Rhodes I don't give  a crap about this oh poison blade that kind of   goes really well with my Barbarian I'm playing  poison arrows that's sick what's Vine prison   do uh combat summon spell what's healing oh this  heals that's pretty sick and regeneration two we   know that gives me six hit points per turn or uh  per click that's two that's 12 hit points that's   really sick oh and Twine thrall which summons  onto the campaign map by the way so you summon   them you put them on the campaign map and you put  them into an army so that's important to know so   have at it this is very much dealer's Choice  choose the ones that are going to fit the theme   of what you're creating and try to really  like look at this this is this is this is   a chaotic amount of affinity so I would probably  go with something from Tome of Faith Zeal roots   or beasts to stack into two or three two colors  splashing a third it's really the best way to   get the most out of your Empire tree because if  you go too heavy into a bunch of different colors   then you won't be able to take advantage of the  high Affinity scores you need for dialogues and   quests and stuff like that I'll just choose  this and we'll move on so now for our origin   we're choosing either our champion or a wizard  King so the champion you can see all cities   have gold income and gold income and 20 stability  increased all non-hero units gain more experience   and starts with 100 relation with three cities the  uh what's it called the the story behind this is   you're a champion rising up in the ranks to oppose  the wizard Kings who are tyrants that have come   from the astral sea to oppress people or not even  oppress more or less just control whatever the   hell they want the wizard kings are all about mana  and casting and they have an Overtown ability that   allows them to even cast more in combat but if  you want to play a combat character you can still   play a wizard King you want to play a champion  and be a Caster you can still play a champion so   don't even worry about it choose whatever you want  the things that are worth noting here is that the   champion can only be of the race you are currently  creating whereas the wizard King can be of any   race that you are that you want so I can just go  physical form look look at that I'm different now   maybe a mom a mole man uh ruling over humans  whatever you want to do it is also kind of worth   pointing out too that your outfit helmet and  Cape options for the wizard King are different   than the champion so like look at this sweet ass  hoverboard yeah look at my my my space Cosmos face   my astral head so you have a bunch of different  little cosmetic choices that you can choose if   you're going with a wizard King over a champion  which has a little bit more terrestrial style of   improvements this is something from the pantheon  tree so if you're looking for it and you won't be   able to to go on the pantheon tree but you have  a bunch of different options here it's not worth   this is again so dealer's choice so have at it  make sure you choose your primary and secondary   colors as well this is your symbol and then your  race can be selected however you see fit here too   um you can swap out your mounts here as well  except for you know you can't have spiders   nightmares unicorns or Wolves although that's a  wolf so take it with a grain of salt I suppose   but we'll go ahead and just press  select and jump to the end here where   you choose your title uh and then you choose your  first last name and your race name and you're done   after that point once you're done once you're at  this point you just go ahead and press onward so   hopefully this helps you out in getting a good  idea of what character you want to make or what   faction you want to make I know a lot of this I've  kept saying choose what you want choose what you   want choose what you want but it really is the  Crux of this game it's creating whatever the hell   you want but hopefully now you have a better idea  of what these units do how these actual things   apply to the game or what Society traits how they  actually overlap and what they really do because   I think that's the biggest thing I got hung up on  when I was making this the first time is what the   hell do the body and mind trades actually do in  the constraints of the game and it took me like 15   hours to actually get to the point to understand  how valuable some things are over the others so   take your time in here experiment go back a little  bit and take a look at uh oops and take a look at   stop it and take a look at this screen to see  more about the units you mean if you want to   go well you know what what comes from the tomes  well going here to the Tome units and get what's   an actual serpent okay cool well it says I can  summon up a chaplain what's that guy oh there's   the chaplain all the stats you can even press this  button and look at what they look like if you give   them certain enchantments so if you really want to  see what like aesthetically like how they please   you you can do that you can have all sorts of fun  with this you can stack them up too it's one of   the coolest portions of the game so have fun enjoy  yourself go crazy with it my vampire kin here   probably one of my favorite factions I've created  and I'm having a ton of fun with them but I made   like Warhammer High Elves here I made I don't  know these dudes paladins so just go crazy make   a lot of them but they will not appear in games  until you win a game with them then they ascend   it to actual leaders there so keep that all in  mind but as always guys thank you so much for   watching here today if you have any questions by  all means go ahead and let me know in the comment   section below more than happy to help out as  best I can but have a good one and take care [Music]   thank you

Channel: ItalianSpartacus

Views: 73,106

Keywords: Creating the Best Faction (Trait Breakdown) in Age of Wonders 4, age of wonders 4 faction creation, age of wonders 4 faction guide, faction creation guide, best faction aow4, aow 4, aow 4 faction creator, best faction age of wonders 4, age of wonders 4 mind traits, age of wonders 4 body traits, age of wonders 4 cultures, age of wonders 4 society traits, age of wonders 4 guide, beginners guide, trait breakdown, age of wonders 4 faction breakdown

Id: BJoUdUyFnQU

Length: 48min 36sec (2916 seconds)

Published: Tue May 02 2023