Age of Wonders 4 revolves around conflicts that ravage multiple realms, and if you plan on emerging triumphant from your matches, you’ll want to quickly understand how the three main victory conditions work.
AoW4 launches with three basic victory conditions that rely on concepts that should be familiar to fans of the genre. You can resort to brutal conquest, make a name for yourself by using diplomacy to extend the reach of your empire, or tap into the potent powers of magic to show your opponents that you’re not one to be trifled with.
Age of Wonders 4 Victory Conditions
The most straightforward Age of Wonders 4 victory condition sees you pursuing a Military Victory. This path tasks you with eliminating all non-allied empires.
To eliminate an empire, you need to capture its throne city – the equivalent of a capital and the first city a race controls at the start of the game –, then defeat their ruler.
When defeated, rulers are forced into the Astral Void, where they spend a few turns recovering. Without a throne city to respawn at, they are cast out of the game.
If you view yourself as more of a map painter, the Expansion Victory might be something you’d fancy more.
This second Age of Wonders 4 victory condition is a bit more involved, first tasking you with controlling enough map provinces to unlock the special Beacons of Unity province improvements.
In order for provinces to count towards the total required number, they need to either belong to your cities or to free cities that you have in Bonded Vassalage.
Once you do so, you’ll need to build the three Beacons of Unity and light them. This spawns hostile armies that will attempt to destroy the improvements.
If you can successfully defend them for a total of 15 turns, you’ll emerge victorious.
The third main Age of Wonders 4 victory condition is Magic Victory. To claim it, you’ll need to focus on unlocking high-tier tomes.
That is because tier 3, 4, and 5 tomes are required to unlock the Seed, Root, and Heart affinity province improvements, respectively.
You’ll then need to build the three province improvements belonging to one particular affinity, which enables you to launch a special Magic Victory spell.
Doing so spawns hostile armies that attempt to destroy these improvements, and it’s your task to hold them off for 15 turns.
You can keep track of your progress towards AoW4’s victory conditions by pressing the Quests button (with the goblet icon) in the upper left part of your screen.
In addition, Story Realms or certain Presence Traits in custom realms can add additional means of securing victory, in the shape of quests.
That is what you need to know about Age of Wonders 4’s victory conditions. For more on the strategy game, check out its pre-made factions and how to increase your city cap.
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