Age of Wonders 4 – Tomes: What You Need to Know

by Fernando Diaz / Age of Wonders 4, Articles / 25 Jan 2022

Tomes are the backbone of magical progression in Age of Wonders 4. They are the primary way to unlock new units, abilities, and structures for your cities. In this guide, we will break down the mechanics of tomes, covering knowledge and learning, tome progression, spell types, mana and casting points, and casting spells.

Knowledge and Learning

To research a new tome, you need a resource called knowledge. You primarily generate knowledge from your cities through buildings like libraries, province improvements such as research posts, and tribute resources from your vassals. You can also gain knowledge from resource pickups, quests, and affinity bonuses.

When selecting a tome, you receive an initial bonus (for example, Tome of The Horde provides +2 Chaos Affinity, the Mob Camp special Province Improvement, and the Battle Seeker training skill for Heroes). You can shuffle or lock in research choices for a cost of mana.

Tome Progression

As you progress through the game, you will unlock new tiers of tomes to research. Researching two tomes of the same tier will allow you to research a higher-tier tome. Tier 5 tomes typically have the most powerful abilities and your affinity win condition.

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Spell Types

Spells in Age of Wonders 4 can be categorized into world map spells and combat spells. World map spells include unit enchantments, racial transformations, summon spells, city spells, and terraforming spells. Combat spells include buff spells, debuff spells, healing spells, damage spells, and combat summon spells.

Mana & Casting Points

To cast a spell, you need both mana and casting points. Mana is obtained primarily from city buildings, province improvements, and mana node resources. Casting points come in two types: world map casting points and combat casting points. Unlocking new tomes and higher tiers will increase your casting points.

Casting Spells

Casting spells is straightforward. Open the spell list, select the spell you wish to cast, and choose the target. Different spells target different things: summoning spells target hex tiles, army spells target armies, terraforming spells target provinces, and city spells target cities. In combat, spells target individual tiles, units, or unit categories.

Combining Tomes and Affinities

Experiment with combining tomes and affinities for unique strategies. For example, combining Tome of The Horde with Tome of Beasts can create a powerful core ranged army with a strong frontline of disposable animals.

Unit Transformations and Enchantments

Tomes also allow for unit transformations and enchantments.

Enchantments

These are spells that increase the power of certain unit types or grant them extra damage or abilities. Unlocked through your tomes of magic, they are cast on the strategic map and affect all existing and newly created units in your empire of the appropriate type. These sustained spells have an upkeep cost, consuming a portion of your mana every turn. There is no limit to the number of enchantments you can cast, as long as you have enough mana production. When used effectively in combination with combat spells, enchantments serve as your most reliable method of upgrading your units

Transformations

Transformation spells can be unlocked through your tomes of magic and affect an entire race in the world. There are two types of transformation spells: minor and major. You can cast as many minor transformations on a race as you like, stacking significant advantages onto your cultural units, such as defensive stats, passive combat abilities, terrain bonuses, and more. Major transformations are high-tier spells that function similarly to minor transformations, but a race can only have one major transformation at a time. These offer some of the most powerful buffs in the game and can fundamentally change your empire. For example, the Demonkind spell transforms all units of your race into flying demonic units with fire resistance and damage buffs. In the right hands, these spells can turn your armies into terrors on the battlefield.

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Fernando Diaz

Fernando is doing what he always did, sharing his honest opinions about games whenever he can. The difference is now he is writing and not talking about it.
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