Age of Wonders III update 1.4 and Golden Realms expansion released

It’s a big day, Age of Wonders III: Golden Realms has gone on sale and a massive update’s been released freely to owners of the vanilla game.

Golden Realms sees the Halfling race appear as a playable faction, a new campaign, and a stack of new features that will filter through the game no matter which race you play as.

Meanwhile, the update changes just about everything.

Goldren Realms brings back the Halflings from previous Age of Wonders games. They’re a nation built around bar culture and having a good time. While not natural fighters they’re lucky enough to be able to dodge incoming attacks, particularly if they’re happy. So, get the little buggers drunk before going into battle.

The expansion comes with a new campaign that sees you lead an exodus of the Halfling people to a new exotic land. There they’ll find a lost city and the kingdom of the Naga. There’s been more than 20 new units thrown into the mix, too. Including a shit-throwing monkey.

There’s more than 50 new items as well, including your very own Indiana Jones-esque crystal skull. You can now use wild magic, which lets you cause mutations “and turn orderly battles into a pandemonium where the lines of battle are violently warped.” Or, if that’s a bit too overt for you, you can now take part in guerilla combat with ambushes and hide-outs.

Check out this video showing off 17 minutes of in-game footage:

New features of the expansion include treasure sites containing upgrades for your city, “making the location and specialization of your cities more important than ever.” For instance, “building a city near a Crystal Tree unlocks the Enchanted Armory which reinforces your armored units.”

You can read more details of the expansion on Age of Wonders’ site.

On the next page are the patch notes for update 1.4.

Features

Added Package Manager to facilitate user generated content. Includes Steam Workshop Support for people playing on Steam.
Added Cloud Save support on Steam Users
Disjunction mechanics update. See Dev Journal: New Disjunct and Spell Mechanics
Added an option so you can decide to observe all Manual Combat, No Manual Combat, or only Manual Combat within your range of vision. Naturally this only concerns Manual Combat you are not involved in. Note that you will not be able to take any actions while Manual Combat is in progress, even if you are not Observing the battle. It is still a turn based game, so you’ll have to wait for your turn before your next move. It will, however, prevent other Players from seeing your unit composition.
Non-Hero units can now continue levelling up beyond “Elite”. Each subsequent level grants a rank of Champion, giving the unit +10 max hitpoints. This to prevent units from becoming unused at max level for players that like to min/max XP in TC, because XP would be wasted.
It is now possible to raise the hero level cap to 30 by using a setting in the advanced game set up. The default cap remains at 20.
Added gameplay option to stop figures dying in units as units take damage.
Added advanced setup option so that all heroes/leaders have resurgence, but only in autocombat.There is now an option to give heroes and leaders resurgence, but only in auto-combat. This is on top of the existing option that gives heroes and leaders resurgence all the time. This option is now on by default in all modes, except campaign.
Added advanced setup option to change the strength of spawned structure defenders. When you start a new game, there is a new option to increase the strength of the independent armies that defend structures. This option is in the advanced settings menu.
RMG setup is now saved in the user’s profile. Note that settings for handmade scenarios are not saved, since handmade scenarios can override and lock settings.
The units spawned from Monster Dens, Brigand Camps, Pirates Nests and Haunted Boneyards will now get stronger as the game progresses, to maintain the threat of these structures throughout various stages of the game.
Defenders can no longer move onto flee hexes. Which was added to prevent an exploit.
Added new “disabled retaliation attacks” passive (Dazzled/Slow status effect)
Enlarged the maximum amount of possible Teams to 8 so a forced 8-way battle is now possible.
Added in game option to disable rendering of flags over armies, structures and units.
Added a toggle to the map settings panel to disable camera centering when the AI moves its armies on the world map.

AI Improvements

AI Scouting System. If the Strategic AI is unable to find valid targets within range, the AI determines the closest point of interest – e.g. another player – and sends an army to that location. Added to increase the challenge when playing on large maps with few Players.
AI doesn’t just Trespass any more. AI will avoid Trespassing. The AI will now try to get an Open Borders agreement if reaching it’s targets would require it to Trespass. If this fails it will declare War.
AI City Defense System – actively defends domain now. AI will not always turtle if a large force approaches. Instead it will now engage the force with defenders if it thinks it can win.
Added AI Surrender System: To reduce the work you have to do while you effectively have an AI opponent beat the AI can now offer his surrender to the player. This will happen when the AI has lost a large battle to the player and is substantially outmatched in military force. The player will have the option to accept or decline this surrender. When the player accepts, the AI’s leader will join the player’s forces as a hero and the player gets control of the AI’s throne city.
Strategic AI will now occasionally decide to spend the game being evil instead of good (evil AIs do not buy cities or allow structure guards to flee). This will create a greater variety of alignments on the map.
The AI will no longer move units onto walls/flee points when trying to attack.
Tweaked tactical AI to hang back a little when doing a melee charge.
The AI will now be more cautious about taking attacks of opportunity in tactical combat.
AI now understands that Vengeful Vines should be used in siege attacks and regenerate walls in siege defense.
AI should now not dispel things as frequently.
Resorted the Hero upgrade priority for the AI (should make for better AI-leveled heroes/leaders now).
Improved how AI engages larger forces, to improving the chance of winning such engagements.
AI is less likely to raze its own cities.
Made AI more aggressive. It now froths at the mouth when you anger it.
Tactical AI will now try to stop bunching units up so much in siege defense
Tactical AI will now try to stop fast units running ahead as battle begins
AI – Opportunistic attack mode. AI will now sieze undefended cities even when it can’t possibly hold them against counterattack
AI – Fixed an issue where the AI would freak out if too many enemy spawning structures were nearby.
Tactical AI now understands how to use the sprint ability
World map AI much less likely to disjunct spells that don’t affect it
Tactical AI will now use Throw Curse.
Fixed an issue where the tactical AI would suicidal attack a unit with first strike and get the unit killed before it did any damage.
AI now kicks more buttock than before.

Diplomacy Improvements

Changed the way trespassing works. You can now attack Armies that trespass in your Domain, without needing to Declare War on the owning Player. This will, however, negatively effect your relations with the owning Player.
You can now move onto Structures within another Player’s Domain without having to declare War when you have an Open Borders agreement with that Player. Also note that having your Army on a Structure will not deny income to the Owning Player in this case.
Tweaked relation modifiers. This addresses several issues raised by the community in how relation modifiers were applied.
Fixed issue where declare war was not showed when moving on a construction marker that was rebuilding a razed city.
Fixed issue where provoke war by trespassing modifier would be applied when there was already a war between the players.
Implemented ‘Do not expand near domain’ message.
Added angry and happy animations to the Leaders in the Diplomacy interface to reflect the relation you have to those Players.
Added additional information to relation and alignment modifier to clarify the source of the modifier. For example: “John declared War on you.”
Fixed issue where preset diplomatic states would not correctly update their relation value and base relation value when the game booted, which caused erratic diplomatic behavior by AI Players.
Added flavor text to auto balance option.
Changed relation tooltip to better reflex effects of alignment.
Added tooltips for diplomatic options and diplomatic options by proxy to better describe their function.
Fixed item tooltip in diplomacy interface so you can preview the item abilities.
Added tooltip for cities in diplomacy interface so you can preview the cities stats.
Merged the “You Meet” events for independent cities with their diplomatic message. So, now you only get one message – “You meet the Friendly City of Delft” – instead of receiving two messages whenever you meet an independent city.
Independent city of Delft will now always be Friendly and is a very nice place to visit. Just in case you are considering where to go on your next vacation.
Fixed issue where declare war option of ‘Hostile Action’ would not be immediate for independent Cities.
Fixed demand text on send button
Fixed bug where “You have Vanquished” modifiers were not applied correctly.
Fixed issue where some modifiers would be applied twice
Fixed issue with slay ally modifier
Added alignment tooltip to alignment tab to display additional information.
Changed the way waning works for trespass relation modifier. The modifiers effects now only start to decay when the Army is no longer Trespassing.
Fixed a bug where the Enemy in Domain modifier would not be removed
Fixed bug where the AI would not accept a peace proposal when it should
Updated the Diplomacy Event panel, making it more shiny
Fixed bug where breaking treaties from interface was not possible
Treaties are now automatically broken when a player does not have enough mana/gold to pay the treaty

Performance Improvements

Improved the bootup speed of the game, so you can AoW3 even faster.
Increased AI performance in large maps.
Optimized overview panel performance when displaying large amounts of data
Doubled the speed of saving the game (autosave, quicksave, custom save)

Balance Changes

Arch Druid

Buff: Savage Rage now costs 7 mana (was 8) and gives +5 damage (was +3)
Buff: Non-Draconian Shamans now have Melee Physical Upgrades on Bronze and Gold medal.
Summon Gargantuan Animal now has a chance to summon mature shock/reed serpents. Chance of summoning a T4 serpent remains at 1/3.
Hunters no longer have Befriend Animal, now have Animal Slayer instead

Dreadnought

Buff: Engineers now have Armored ability, and +1 defense.
Nerf: Flame Tanks now start on a 1 turn cooldown
Flame Tank and Golems swapped position in dreadnaught research chain
Flame Tank now produced from tier II dreadnaught city upgrade
Buff: Force Field now costs 7 mana (was 8) gives 80% protection vs fire/frost/lightning (was 60%)
Buff: Golem now has movement 32 (was 28), cost 150g 40m (was 160g 40m), resistance 12 (was 10), Armored (raising its defense to 14), Tireless, 40% Shock Weakness (was 20%) and now has Defender on Gold (was Tireless)
Produce Ironclad added to chain after Advanced Logistics.
Nerf: Produce Ironclad is now tier 5, 750 knowledge (was tier 4, 350 knowledge)
Nerf: Musketeer Hit Points now 45 (was 48), Defense 10 (was 11)

Rogue

Buff: All assassins now have Mountain and Forest concealment
Nerf: Assassins no longer get a second copy of back stab from the “Cruel Backstab” skill
Nerf: Blind now costs 15 mana (was 8)
Buff: Trained Killers now called Corrupted Killers, causes scoundrels to evolve into Lesser Shadow Stalkers on reaching gold.
Buff: Corrupted Killers now gives the quick learner ability to Scoundrels so they level 50% faster.
Buff: Researching Corrupted Killers will now cause all gold medal Scoundrels to instantly evolve
Guild Of Shadow Thieves now increases the casters gross gold income by 5% per city the spell is active on
Buff: Sadism now costs 25 mana (was 18) and gives +100 morale and +1 melee strength to all friendly units every time an enemy unit dies.
Buff: Scoundrels now get Projectile Avoidance on Bronze.
Buff: Shadow Form now grants 60% protection (was 40%)
Buff: Shadow Stalkers now have Urban, Forest, Mountain and Swamp Concealment
Buff: Smoke Screen now only buffs friendly units.
Buff: Treasure Raiding reward now scales the value of the total reward from quests and structures, not just the gold part of the reward.

Sorcerer

Buff: The Arcane Binding spell can no longer be resisted.
Nerf: The Arcane Binding now lasts 2 turns instead of until the end of combat.
Nerf: If you win combat with an enemy unit under control of Arcane Binding, that unit will now die at the end of combat rather than coming under your control.
Buff: Glyph Of Warding now does 16 damage per turn, was 10
Buff: Node Serpent now has Inflict Shocking on Bronze, and now has Sprint.
Node serpent now gets +8 Move Points on Veteran (was Inflict Shocking)
Buff: Star Blades now gives +1 frost and fire damage as well as lightning and inflict shocking
Nerf: Summon Fantastic Creature now costs 110 mana (was 80)
Buff: Shadow Stalker now has resistance 11 (was 10).
Nerf: Removed True Sight from Wisps and added it to their gold medal reward.

Theocrat

Buff: Beacon Of Faith now has 40 casting cost (was 50) gives +100 population (was 50)
Nerf: Cherubs now have 26hp (was 30)
Buff: Crusaders now have defender ability (Guard bonus doubled from 20% to 40%)
Buff: Divine Protection now costs 7 mana (was 8)
Buff: All Evangelists now have a base damage of 6 Physical, 8 Spirit (was 10 physical).
Buff: Exalted Martyrs now gives the quick learner ability to Martyrs so they level 50% faster.
Buff: Researching Exalted Martyrs will now cause all gold medal Martyrs to instantly evolve.
Nerf: Mighty Meek now treats Leaders and Heroes as if they’re tier 4 rather than tier 5 and 6.
Buff: Mighty Meek now costs 7 mana (was 8) gives +3 bonus per tier (was +2).
Nerf: Order Of Healing now tier 3, 200 research (was tier 2, 120 research)
Buff: Slayer’s doubt now has a strength 16 (was 9) and applies a -800 morale as well as the move point penalty.

Warlord

Nerf: Maintain cost of Authority Of The Sword is now 10 (was 5)
Buff: Last Stand now doubles the guard bonus of a unit as well as it’s original effects (i.e. a guarding unit gets 40% extra def/res instead of 20%)
Buff: Lion’s Courage now costs 7 mana (was 8) gives +5 damage bonus (was +3)
Buff: Manticore Rider now has Fast Healing.
Manticore Rider no longer gets Inflict Crippling Wounds from Bronze medal (already has it from the start)
All mounted archers cost 20 mana more to produce, have +2 ranged strength and sprint.
Nerf: Phoenix Warrior no longer affect Machine units and combat summons.
Steadfast Ward now costs 20 mana (was 15). Stead Fast Ward now can only be cast on a single unit once per battle
Buff: All Warbreed units now have Regrowth ability, which heals 20% of a units maximum hitpoints per round in combat.

Draconian

Draconian Evangelist now has Ranged Fire Upgrades on Bronze and Gold medal instead of Melee Spirit Upgrades.
Buff: Draconian Flier now has Projectile Avoidance.
Nerf: Fire Bomb now does 7 fire 4 physical damage (was 8 fire, 4 physical)
Draconian Flier now has +1 Vision at bronze (was inflict bleeding).
Draconian Flier now has Killing Momentum at gold (was tireless)
Buff: Draconian Flier now has Projectile Avoidance. Flier now gets +1 vision at bronze(was inflict bleeding) and killing momentum at gold (was tireless)
Nerf: Draconian Flier now has Defense 11 (was 12).
Draconian Hatchlings can now evolve into Draconian Elders and Flyers as well
Buff: Draconian Shaman now has Ranged Fire Upgrades on Bronze and Gold medal.

Dwarf

Buff: Dwarf Assassin now has cave concealment
Nerf: Dwarf Forge Priest now at defense 11 (was 12), cost 83gold (was 77 gold)
Nerf: Dwarf Firstborn now has 14 physical 2 fire melee strength (was 15/3).
Buff: Dwarf Hunter has mountain concealment.
Nerf: Unit spawning systems now properly take Dwarf value multipliers into account. Resulting in less Dwarfs unit to be spawned, to compensate for their cost efficiency.

Goblin

Buff: Goblin Assassin now has Swamp and Blight concealment
Buff: Goblin Beetlerider now costs 135 gold (was 144)
Goblin Blight Doctor now has a base damage of 4 Physical, 4 Blight (was 8 physical).
Buff: Goblin Hunter has Swamp Concealment.
Buff: Goblin Marauder now cost 40 gold (was 45)
Buff: Goblin Scoundrel now has Swamp Concealment
Buff: Goblin Skewer now cost 40 gold (was 45)
Buff: Goblin Untouchables now have Disgusting Stench
Buff: Unit spawning systems now properly take Dwarf and Golbin value multipliers into account. Resulting in more Goblins to be spawned, to compensate for their cost inefficiency.
Buff: All Goblins now have Wetlands Foraging, an ability that lets them heal an extra 9hp per turn on the world map if they start their turn on swamp hexes.
Goblins received a lot of buffs. It’s almost as if there’s a dev that really likes playing Goblins

High Elf

Nerf: High Elf Longbowmen now cost 80g (was 75g)
Nerf: High Elf Unicorn Riders now cost 90 gold, 10 mana (was 90 gold only)
Buff: High Elf Scoundrel now has Forest Concealment

Human

Buff: Humans now like Water terrain
Buff: Human Assassin now has Swimming
Buff: Human Assassin now has Water Concealment
Buff: Human Archers now have 35hp (was 32)
Human Archers now get Blessed Arrows at elite, giving +2 spirit damage to their attacks (was inflict crippling wounds)
Buff: Human Cavalry now evolves into Knights at gold
Buff: Human Hunter now has Water Concealment.
Buff: Knights are no longer devout, now have Monster Slayer and Dragon Slayer.

Orcs now have Victory Rush which heals 6hp after a battle
Buff: Orc Shocktrooper now has 75hp (was 70hp).
Orc Shock Trooper now has Killing Momentum on gold, instead of Martial Arts.

Heroes

Rogue heroes now get Cause Fear instead of Stunning Touch as a hero upgrade.
Buff: Fixed Sorceror Shock Protection upgrade costing 2 points, not 1.
Nerf: Armored no longer stacks in the item forge (or in general).
Nerf: Hero ranged damage upgrades now only give +1 damage to 1 damage channel rather than all of them
Buff: Theocrat Healing Aura hero upgrade now costs 4 points (was 5)
Reworked item forge point and gold/mana prices. There are now 1 point cost upgrades available in every slot.
Nerf: Divine Justicars no longer affect Machine units and combat summons.
Buff: Dreadnaught Heroes can now learn Cure Disease. Warlord and Sorceror heroes can now learn break control.
Buff: Field medic is now available to Warlord heroes from level 1
Nekron’s Kris of Decay now has 2 Blight and 2 Spirit melee strength as intended (was 4 Spirit melee strength)
Warlord Ranged Command now adds +1 to 1 non-physical damage channel, if the unit’s ranged attack doesn’t use the physical channel.
Buff: Poison Knowledge now gives a Conditional Attack Bonus on melee and ranged attacks (was Melee only) and with this fixes the display of blight resistance in Combat.
Buff: Reduced cost of hero casting point upgrades II to 5 points (was 7).
Buff: Reduced cost of hero casting point upgrades III, IV and V to 7 points (was 9).
Buff: Hero Upgrades that give 20% damage resistance to the hero only, now cost 1 skill point (doesn’t affect item forge costs)
Buff: Hero Upgrades that give 20% damage resistance to the whole stack, now give 40% (except Toughness, which remains 20%)
Assassin’s Stiletto of Silent Murder now has Inflict Bleeding Wounds, +1 Physical Melee Strength and Armor Piercing
Wizard Hat of the Worldly Wanderer lost Channeler (didn’t work on leaders) but got +1 vision range (+2 in total now), Throw Curse, Phase, Nightvision.
Made Heroes even more Heroic.

Other Units

Cause Fear now causes Shaken on failure (was Hindered).
Nerf: Support units now require the temple, rather than the shrine to be built.
Buff: Archon Infantry now has Shield. Melee damage is 12 (was 10). Hitpoints 50 (was 45)
Buff: Archon Archer now has 45hp (was 36), melee strength 9 (was 7), has +1 ranged physical strength
Buff: All Troll units now have Regrowth , which heals 20% of a units maximum hitpoints per round in combat.
Buff: Stone Giants now have tunneling
The following are now Animals, instead of Monsters: Blight Tusk Boar, Bleak Warg, Nightmare, Hell Hound, Baby Reed Serpent, Baby Shock Serpent, Shock Serent, Reed Serpent, Dread Spider Queen/Baby, Hunter Spider Queen/Baby, Vampire Spider Queen/Baby, Gryphon
Buff: Spider Queens now use “Greater Webbing Touch”, which is 14 strength 3 turn duration (compared to 11 and 2 for normal webbing touch)
Added new “Elemental” unit type. All elementals and the Shadow Stalker have this type (they were previously using the Monster type)
Elementals reworked so that their protections, weaknesses and abilities are more varied
Elementals are now immune to the following spells and status effects:

Seduce
Charm
Convert
Shadow Form
Panicked
Slayer’s Doubt
Suffocate
Revitalize
Bleeding Wounds
Deadly Poison
Frost Paralysis
Spirit Breaking
Noxious Vulnerability
Enfeebling Fever
Exhausting Fatigue
Daze
Dazzled
Fearsome
Immolation
Shocking
Frostbite
Stun
Choking
Skin Of Oil
Scorching Heat
Crippling Wounds

Reed Serpent now called King Reed Serpent
Buff: King Reed Serpent now has strength 16 poison spit (was 11)
Shock Serpent now called King Shock Serpent
King Shock Serpent now has Static Shield instead of Fearsome
Baby Shock Serpent now evolves into Mature Shock Serpent (A tier 3 unit which evolves into King Shock Serpent)
Baby Reed Serpent now evolves into Mature Reed Serpent (A tier 3 unit which evolves into King Reed Serpent)
Buff: All reed serpents now have swamp concealment
Buff: Shock Serpent now has 65hp, 32move (was 60hp 28move).
Frigates are now tier 2 (was 1) Galleons are tier 3 (was 2). This change only affects the upkeep and XP requirements of the units, no other stats are affected.
Buff: Kraken and Baby Kraken now have the “Terror From The Deep” ability, giving them +6 melee damage vs boats and embarked units.
Wraith and Wraith King are now Support Type instead of Monster Type
Buff: Unicorns now have Cure Disease.
Buff: Nightshade Fairies now have Break Control
Buff: Nymphs now have Dispel Magic on Bronze medal

Buff: Haste now grants units immunity to attacks of opportunity as well as double move speed
Buff: Seeker Enchanment now adds +1 to all active damage channels as well as ignoring Line of Sight and Range Falloff
Summon Air Elemental is now Tier 5 skills, at 700 knowledge (was T6, 1200). Cost 150 mana to cast (was 180)

Creation

Buff: Bless now grants +2 defense, +2 resistance and +300 morale

Destruction

Buff: Disintegrate is now strength 15 (was 12) is now instakill on success instead of 50 damage.
Buff: Wreck now applies 100% physical weakness instead of 40%
Buff: Wreck spell now also applies 100% blight weakness as well as physical weakness

Earth

Buff: Slow now disables a unit’s retaliation and attacks of opportunity as well has halving move speed
Buff: Stone Skin now gives +5 defense, +3 resistance but reduces move points by 16.
Summon Earth Elemental are now Tier 5 skills, at 700 knowledge (was T6, 1200). Cost 150 mana to cast (was 180)

Fire

Nerf: Domain of the Sun casting cost now 70 (was 60) maintain cost now 30 (was 20), since it affects 2 climes instead of 1
Buff: Skin Of Oil now does -2 defense, -2 resistance, -2 melee damage and 60% fire weakness (was -1,-1,-1 and 40%). Costs 7 mana (was 8)
Buff: Fire Halo now adds +2 fire damage to all attacks (was +1 to melee attacks). Costs 7 (was 8)
Summon Fire Elemental are now Tier 5 skills, at 700 knowledge (was T6, 1200). Cost 150 mana to cast (was 180)

Water

Buff: Drench the Lands spell now also converts volcanic terrain to temperate terrain
Summon Frost Elemental are now Tier 5 skills, at 700 knowledge (was T6, 1200). Cost 150 mana to cast (was 180)
Rot spell now also applies 5 turns of weakness to the target machines as well as damaging them, costs 20 mana (was 15).

Happiness and Morale

Removed -100 empire happiness for losing a battle and +100 empire happiness for winning a battle
Unit morale bonus for preferred terrain now 200 morale (was 300)
Unit morale bonus for winning a battle now 100 for 5 turns (was 150 for 10 turns)
Unit morale bonus for losing a battle now -100 for 5 turns (was -150 for 10 turns)
Buff: Revive Instinct now reduces morale by 400 as well as reducing move points
Buff: Killer Instinct now increases critical hit damage by 50% (critical hits do +80% damage instead of +30%)
Buff: Choking now also applies a -300 morale penalty
Buff: Curse now also applies a -300 morale penalty
Buff: Weakened now applies a -200 morale penalty
Buff: Noxious Vulnerability, Enfeebling Fever and Exhausting Fatigue all also apply a -300 morale penalty, lasts 4 turns (was 2)
Buff: Broken Spirit now applies -2 resistance, -600 morale penalty, lasts 3 turns (was 2)
Buff: Immolated now also applies a -400 morale penalty, lasts 3 turns (was 2)
Buff: Severely Poisoned now also applies a -500 morale penalty, lasts 3 turns (was 2)
Buff: Panic, Mass Panic, Charm and Seduce now all apply Shaken (-400 morale) for 2 turns on failure (was Hindered for 1 turns)
Touch Of Faith now gives +400 morale as well as 3 resistance, now has 1 turn cooldown.

City Upgrades

Archon Dwelling upgrade costs:

Buff: Sigil of Awakening 50 gold 50 mana (was 100 gold)
Buff: Obelisk of Undeath 75 gold, 50 mana (was 150 gold)
Buff: Grave Field 100 gold (was 150)
Buff: Charnel House 100 gold (was 150)
Nerf: Barrow 100 gold, 50 mana (was 150 gold)
Nerf: Haunted Vault 160 gold, 40 mana (was 160 gold)
Nerf: Chamber of the Rite 100 gold, 100 mana (was 200 gold)
Nerf: Mausoleum 250 gold, 75 mana (was 280 gold)
Nerf: Throne of Bone 200 gold, 100 mana(was 200 gold).

Dragon Dwelling upgrade costs:

Buff: Fire Dragon Ward 150 gold, 50 mana (was 250 gold, 50 mana)
Buff: Frost Dragon Ward 150 gold, 50 mana (was 250 gold, 50 mana)
Nerf: Fire Lair 300 gold, 75 mana (was 300 gold)
Nerf: Frost Lair 300 gold, 75 mana (was 300 gold)
Nerf: Golden Lair 400 gold, 75 mana (was 400 gold)

Giant Dwelling upgrade costs:

Nerf: Frost Menhir 300 gold, 50 mana (was 250 gold)
Nerf: Fire Menhir 300 gold, 50 mana (was 250 gold)
Nerf: Granite Menhir 350 gold (was 250 gold).

Arcane Item Forge costs rebalanced so more of the cost comes from mana and less from gold.
Rebalanced costs of use items in the item forge, allowed some abilities that weren’t available before.
Buff: Made ranged damage upgrades in item forge more powerful.
Buff: Laboratory now provides a level up for priests.
Buff: When a Master’s Guild is built in a city, then all builders constructed in that city will have Repair Machine.
Buff: Shrine now costs 75g (was 100)

Misc Balance Changes

Greater Disjunction can now not appear in the skill booked until after round 12.
Buff: Unit – e.g. Martyrs – now resist 35% of the damage transferred to them by Absorb Pain.
Break Control ability now dispels all spirit based debuffs with no fail chance
Removed Berserkers from Brigand Camps and added Assassins.
Combat Summons now have a lifetime of 7 turns
Units no longer get move points back when Disembarking from transports
Dispel Magic spell and abilities now have a chance to fail, to match Disjunction system changes.
Buff: Entangling touch now strength 13 (was 11)
Nerf: Fairy Units now hate Blight and dislike Volcanic terrain.
Nerf: Fire Strike (from Dragon Ancestry), XXX Slayer, Holy Champion and Unholy Champion now no longer give damage bonuses to spells.
Nerf: Cost of Hurry Production in Dwellings raised from 50g per turn to 70g per turn.
Buff: Incorporeal units can no longer be stunned or immolated
Buff: Inflict Shocking lasts 4 turns (was 2)
Buff: Mind controlled units are now left with 1 action point, instead of being forced into guard mode when captured
Nerf: Resurrect Hero now costs 80 mana (was 40)
All “Slayer” abilities (including the Heretic slayer from Mark The Heretic) now add +3 to the first active damage channel in an attack, rather than turning on the physical channel and adding +3 to that.
Shocked status effect from Inflict Shocking now applies 40% shock weakness as well as -8 move points, lasts 2 turns (was 4)
Nerf: Stunning Touch now lasts 2 turns, strength is now 11 (was 13)
Steal Enchantment is now Short Range (was long)
Nerf: Steal Enchantment will now steal debuffs as well as buffs
Nerf: Units affected by Disintegrate and Banish can no longer be resurrected or come back to life via Resurgence
Buff: Tunneling now gives a small amount of gold for each hex cleared

You made it through all the Balance patch notes. Congrats

Interface and Controls Improvements

Fixed missing alignment change visualization
Fixed Icon sizes in unit panel
Increased the character limit imposed on multiplayer names/descriptions.
Added confirmation to the surrender button.
Enabled opening the Tome of Wonders during Leader Customization.
Added a medal slot to the tome of wonders so players can see what the level upgrades are.
If a debuff can be removed by Break Control or Cure Disease, this is now indicated on the Popup for the debuff in the unit panel.
When two AI’s battle each other and a human player is dragged into combat a combat requester will be popped for the human player. Before the battle was always resolved automatically, now you get do decide instead.
Changed battle won / battle lost popups to show who’s lost / won a battle.
Toggling the grid in Tactical Combat by using the shortcut now updates the toggle grid button in the HUD.
Toggling the domain in Strategic mode by using the shortcut now updates the toggle domain check in the map settings.
Summoned skills now have the summoned unit displayed in the spell description in the ToW. This only applies for summon spells which can only summon 1 possible unit.
Added tooltips to the next and previous city buttons in the city panel. These show the currently assigned key
Does less damage at long range message added to the popup descriptions of abilities with ranged falloff.
Clicking an event about a spell being cancelled/disjuncted now centers the camera on the spell’s location, if possible.
Added casting cost to research skill tooltip.
Added unit tooltips to guards, surrender and hero join event panels.
Tooltips are good, so more tooltips are better.
Implemented next/previous hero on hero panel.
Added tooltips to the Tactical Combat Mode selection in the map setup screen. These rules are now applied to the AI controlled players too, as they previously only applied to the independents.
A notification is now being shown when a sustained spell is dispelled or units are disbanded because of low mana
Quests now show a marker for all quest targets instead of just 1.
New turns of unknown players are shown as “unknown player is moving” instead of showing their name.
Added production costs to city screen tooltips.
Added mana per turn to research tooltip in spellbook.
Made the army morale tooltip more accurate and informative.
Changed button text on save prompt box. The button now more clearly shows what it will do, to prevent confusion.
The number keys at the top of the keyboard are no longer bindable, as they always control the unit skills in Tactical combat. The keypad keys are now bindable separately – they are no longer treated as regular number keys – and as a consequence now no longer control the unit skills in Tactical Combat.
Clicking the units in the “Enemy in domain” panel, now opens the unit panel of these units.
Added “Waiting for other players” in the first round when you do classic turns and you’re not the first player.
A panel for naming your cities now appears when you found a city.
Fixed issue where an equipped mount that was still being courier would be rendered .
Added tooltips to starting resources and skills in the advanced game setup.
Fixed incorrect orientation of the attack of opportunity indication for Units on city walls.
Made disabled resource/income icons look more consistent on the world map.
Increased Item forge name length limit to 26
Updated description for Purifying Burst to clarify what it can affect
Fixed Forge Priest’s Guardian Flame description. It used to say that it gave the Fire Strike ability. Now it correctly states it gives a +2 Fire damage bonus to melee attacks only. Note that Dragon Ancestry does actually give Fire Strike.
Fixed Goblin Racial Traits description. It now correctly states the +20% population bonus (instead of the faulty +10%).
Various text changes in based on community feedback, including over 150 updates to Russian text based on community feedback. Thanks guys and girls.
Updated Shrouded Altar description for all languages (changed Monster to Elemental)
Befriend Animal description now correctly mentions Feral Mount
Night Wish description correct value displayed
Warlord Thoroughbred Mounts skill now works on Mounted units (was Cavalry) plus updated the description for all languages
Column of Champions now displays correct Icon in the Tome of Wonders.
Polish and French language correction for campaign difficulty indication.
Time to get another nice cup of tea – or another beverage of your choice – there’s a bunch more patch notes to go still.

Graphics Improvements

Fixed visual issues in the Shrine of the Fickle mermaid TC Map.
Refitted orc houses to fix issues with clipping units.
Fixed positioning of mind control icon in the Tome of Wonders.
Fixed popping particle effects in Blighted, Volcanic and Node TC Maps.
Fixed inverted normals on Draconian Leader hairdo.
Fixed Fire Cannon ability for Heroes (boulder was stuck on right hand).
Updated underground diggable walls such that they are less regular in shape. E.g. we made it even prettier.
Fixed Poison Spit particle effects on Serpents
Fixed Crystal Tree branches
Added a golden shield to Archon Infantry
Fixed render issues with roads in low-quality setting
Fixed stack size number outline on banners, so its visible even on white/white colors
Fixed ‘Fire Cannon’ ability animation on leaders
Fixed Bard hair textures
Fixed Glitches around the pits in the Goldmine
Fixed the limited camera movement in the Tomb Unexplored map
Fixed draconian cavalry weapon position.
Updated Thorn Hedge Walls graphics on city map. Now forms a circle around the city like a city wall, instead of having the graphics concentrated in the center of the city.

Editor Improvements

The splash screen of the editor no longer stays on top of everything.
Made interfaces on the left hand side of LevelEd resizable
Spawn groups can now spawn on water
Added Raze City script
Added CityGetSize script
Added independent player starting skill list to game global settings. So, now you can have independent units embark.
Changed save directory of campaign files for AoW3 Editor
Fixed issue with levelEd terrain tab when using OS dpi scaling
Added support for setting leader starting level in AoW3 Editor
Improved implementation of localized hero names. System is cleaner now.
Added new Conditional Army markers for LevelEd (Builder + Support)
Added support for story messages without sender icon
Changed OnNumCitiesChanged script handle to only fire when the world is fully activated
So dear community members, please go forth and Create. We’d love to see what you come up with.

Misc Improvements and Fixes

And this is the list of unsorted patch notes. Bring a packed lunch before venturing in here.
Fixed various issues with how Inns replenish their units, resolving some Inn based exploits while we were at it.
Reduced the number of cities generated in RMG maps when choosing “Few” cities.
Fixed a bug on random generated island maps where sometimes cities and cave entrances were being placed in the water
All races in the RMG now start on the surface layer, except for dwarves and goblins, which have a 50% chance of spawning on the underground layer (if there is one).
Wetlands now appears more frequently in small patches in random maps.
Underground without any players spawning now have a smaller playing area.
Added 10 turns to the time limit in 5th Elven Court campaign map (Torchbearer branch).
Fixed Valery not dropping the Oscillator Gem on delivering it in 2nd Commonwealth Campaign Map
Revamped the ambient sound system. Logic behind what sound should be played has changed. Independent ambient sound volume now takes position, frequency and camera height into account. A subtle, but it gives the game that little extra je ne sais quoi.
Changed ambient sound in Tombs. There are no longer crickets in the tomb. Silly crickets.
Fixed damage effect of Fire Aura, Frost Aura, Static Shield from only triggering when resist effect failed.
Resurrecting a unit in battle no longer resets the “Has Unit Leveled This Battle?” flag, ensuring you can power level units by exploiting resurrect.
Fire Cannon now properly does friendly fire.
Mark The Heretic now properly affects all attack types.
Nymph now has correct unit level-up upgrades.
Overload now properly affects Flame Tank damage.
Tweaked quest rewards: no more Giants as reward from easy quests. Sorry.
Units can now evolve on the world map if they level up from Columns of Champions, Global Assault or a cheat.
Fixed stack order priority of Nymph, Felhorse, Wraith, Wraith King and Dwarf Forge Priest, such that they are placed in the correct army slot.
Observe mode is now togglable in classic turns and a message is now shown when the player toggles observe mode.
The observe mode toggle is now disabled in hotseat mode.
Fixed issue with units having incorrect move points after paralysis effects were dispelled.
Fixed issue where some independent units weren’t joining in battles when they should.
Changed some events to not spawn when a player has been defeated.
Fixed quest issue where a global absorb quest was generated but other players would not get an absorb reward.
Fixed issue where quests rewards were not received in hotseat when the quest target would attack the player.
Fixed bug in boss logic spawning where it would ignore the value of the units it should spawn when it was looking for a boss unit. This resulted in T4 units being spawned when the spawn value was set to ‘Very Weak’.
Fixed bug where no quest difficulty could be retrieved and a too difficult quest would be generated.
Fixed crash when an independent city was captured and razed in the same turn.
Fixed issue where a quest would not be generated for a city even though both the city and the player did not have a cooldown anymore
Changed military requirement for very easy quests. Very easy quests no longer have a military requirement, resulting in more quests in the early game.
Fixed issue where leader dead modifier would be removed when leader respawned (this shouldn’t happen as this modifier has a duration)
Fixed crash in campaign selection when clicking back before campaign where done loading.
Fixed issue where unit spawner could generate units with too high value when the ideal number of units was exceeded and there was still remaining spawn value
Fixed issue where ‘army affected by magic event’ was not being shown for hazards
Fixed issue where throne city happiness modifier would not be applied
Fixed issue in classic turns where heroes would not be spawned when a save game was loaded.
Fixed issue where weapon items were not correctly displayed on the strategic map
Fixed issue where event list would try to display more than 2 player shield for a combat completed event
It is no longer possible to press enter on a teleporter when there is a stack standing on the other side. Also added a message to inform the player of this.
Slay quests are now also completed when you mindcontrol units instead of killing them.
Fixed pulse effect of units. The selected unit is now blinking in the overview map.
Harbor structures now spawn on hexes that can contain structures (used to be able to spawn on blocked water)
Fixed quest accept bug due to strange quest stacks
Fixed sound skipping
Fixed next turn message showing behind another window.
Clicking “Surrender” in combat will no longer trigger special On Unit Dies magic effects, such as Explosive Death.
Class specific upgrades in cities are now properly disabled if owned by a player of another class
Fixed a glitch in tactical combat where the player could get the game stuck by clicking left and right mouse buttons very fast. This is not an RTS guys and girls, no need to spam for APM.
The shortcut to open the chat window is now no longer bindable, due to issues popping up when bound to certain keys. It is bound to Tab by default.
It is now possible to copy paste text from word with accents and apostrophes in the editor
Improvement modding support for campaign images and sounds
Fixed issue where trespass requestor/events would spawn when at war
Fixed issue where old save game would load with 0 gold and mana
Fixed issue with hom Diplomacy AI handles acception of peace offers
Fixed issue with incorrect leader names when SpawHeroAsLeader script was used
Fixed sound initialization when not using default settings
Fix for music not shuffling correctly
Reduced playback of event songs to give more time to the normal music to play
Fixed “… Is Moving” message in hotseat and in first turn of classic turns
Fixed diplomatic music mixing with world map music
Fixed an issue where the system messages would display incorrectly
Fixed an issue where a “unknown character sign” would appear in front of the names of eggs in French
In multiplayer the load and back button of the load dialog have swapped position.
Fixed an issue where the “next” and “previous” buttons would quickly switch between enabled and disabled in the game setup
Fixed a sorting issue with the fading screen where certain screens would render in front of the fading screen
Fixed an issue where sometimes text would remain visible in the TC combat log
Fixed a graphical issue in the map settings panel
Reduced the width of the credits as that was blocking input on a tiny bit of the main menu buttons
Headers in the controls options panel now have a different color background
Fixed scrolling with the mousewheel in the “pick secondairy color” combo box of the customization panel
Changed the colors of the hyper links
Fixed an issue when displaying multiple damage channels in the unit window
Fixed a bug where punctuation signs could start a new line
Fixed a bug in the campaign selection screen where the selected campaign would be grayed-out
Fixed a bug in the enemies surrender dialog where the bottom half of the unit icons wouldn’t react to mouse input
Fixed the tooltips on the tabs of the seals overview
Fixed a visual glitch when a new unit was sometimes spawned (visually) inside a mountain instead of on top of the mountain
Fixed a bug in the launcher where the name of the application in the task bar could sometimes disappear
Fixed a bug in the bloom effect where it did not affect unit and structures in the strategic world
Fixed a bug where the tactical combat background was sometimes invisible or even flickering on low graphics settings
Fixed a bug where the night dusk background in the leader customization screen was black on low graphics settings
Repositioned the new turn message
Changed how RMG generates city walls for independent cities, can now start without walls, wooden walls or stone walls, where chances are based on city size
Fixed a bug where deleting a save file did not clean up the corresponding backup save file
Removed Isolated Hexes in Monster’s Nest TC map
Fixed a rare issue where the combat predictor wouldn’t understand that a unit was taking place in a city or fortress
Fixed the Scoundrel shooting with the wrong hand.
Fixed the Elememental’s – Shadow Stalker, etc – death model being visible when on mountain hexes.
Fixed civic guards holding their crossbows backwards when firing.
Fixed issue where ‘vanquised player’ morale modifier would be applied when a leader was killed but the player still had a throne city
Added ‘Content’ Menu Item to AoW3 Editor, can now enable Halfling content for user made maps
Fixed an issue with water only summoning spells being able to target roads if advanced logistics had been researched
Player can no longer use disjunction in tactical combat if their leader is Dazed or Blind
Dazed heroes and leaders can no longer cast spells in tactical combat
City Growth Constraint system rewritten so that it checks potential domain size against an ideal number of hexes for the size it’s trying to grow into
A cheat window is now shown when ctrl-alt-C is pressed in the overworld. The command is bindable now too.
The cheat window can be closed by pressing Esc
Added the medal upgrades tooltip to units in the Tome of Wonders
Did a pass over all tactical combat spell audio. Big effects sound much more impressive now.
Added a range to the camera shake of City Quake. This now prevents the whole map from shaking, for all players
Added particle effects and sounds to cobweb, hook briar and Blighted Vines to show their effect.
Changed the festival and rebel events so they stand out more
Fixed a bug where the turn indicator would blink due to the fade in/out not properly resetting
Fixed a bug where the slider on the statistics screen would reset when switching tabs
prevent the upgrades button in the hero panel from glowing in TC
When a teleporter is disabled, its particle effect is also disabled, making it visually clear that it is disabled!
User maps of which the leaders have not been set don’t crash the game anymore. The game now shows an error warning and returns to main menu when this happens.The levelEditor now shows a warning when saving a map of which a leader’s spawn position has not yet been set.
Added keybindings to the tooltips of “toggle hex grid” and “next unit” buttons in tactical combat. The “next unit” keybinding is now also shown on the unit portrait
It is now possible to save the quicksave and the autosave files to the cloud. This can be done by toggling them in the gameplay options screen.
Fixed Heal Undead icon link
Leaders now have slingshot when they have Slingshot ability.
Fixed Archon Priest floating head
Fixed shadowstalker death model is visible on top of ancient ruins
Fixed Civic Guards/Rogue scoundrel hold their crossbows backwards when firing
Fixed Crowns glowing white
Fixed Serpents disappear on water
Fixed shadowstalker death model is visible on top of ancient ruins
Fixed streaming issue with ColumnOfChampions texture
Increased audible range for structures on the map
Updated Malzua Campaign Character
Fixed shock serpent’s skinning
Fixed transparant Leader hair
Fixed face-decorations/eyebrow mapping on Draconian female heads
Fixed Orc Warbreed Unit Set to contain orcs instead of elves.
Fixed domain invasion event
Fixed an issue where the user would sometimes still have vision on hexes from a fort after it was razed
Added Particles and Audio for Secret Spells: Great Immolation, Great Healing Shower, Great Stoning, and Great Reawakening
Fixed visualization Lizard on a Stick
Added fade in/out effects to the vignettes
updated the diplomacy panel to show a large image of the leader
fixed the extensive spacing that sometimes occurs in the ToW around hyperlinks placed in text
Fixed story messages not opening when the interface came from the spell panel (build city/fortress panel for example)
Summoned units now have a new move order when they are summoned.
Changed Harbour on select sound.
Fixed an issue where structures would sometimes fail to give an item reward
Rogue units now shoot crossbows correcly
If a unit is obliterated in tactical combat (by Banishment, Disintegrate or Unstable Transformation) it will no long trigger after death effects, like explosive death.
Abilities that destroy corpses (like explosive death) no longer prevent units from resurging.
Meet events are no longer spawned when cities change to the independent player due to a player losing
Fixed a bug where Courtesan Ambassadors would give a relation boost to player -> player relations
Fixed siege attack and defense AIs not using buff abilities like Draconian Ancestry.
Game now automatically assigns players into two teams when you switch teams on in the lobby
If one player picks up a cartograophers hut, the target location is now also revealed to that player’s allies
Cavalry with Fire Pistol (from the Dreadnaught Side Arms) now show correct animation when using the ability
Removed tome of wonder button from front end menu.
Units resurrected in combat now have all abilities put on cooldown and have all “Once Per Battle” abilities blocked off.
Fixed an issue where the “Disjunct ready to cast!” event would stick around when you didn’t have enough casting points to use the disjunct
Fixed issues with leader getting incorrect amounts of XP when casting spells in battles where they’re not present
Non-hostile units can now no longer trigger Enemy At The Gate penalties
Fixed Plunder giving extra gold instead of mana
Units can now use Cure Disease, Break Control and Dispel Magic on themselves.
Taunted units now correctly attack the nearest unit.
Commonwealth loyalist final map: some small general improvements.
Woohoo, you made it all the way to the end. You deserve a cookie. Hope you have some tea left to go with that.