As always, your empire’s morale and the morale of your armies can be affected by a variety of things from your recent win-loss record in the tactical battles to the very terrain on which they stand. The defining characteristic of the Halflings in Golden Realms is a new Luck mechanic that is based on the game’s already-existing Morale system. Now back in their rightful place, the new Halflings bring some interesting game mechanics to the table not seen in previous series entries or in the vanilla Age of Wonders 3 racial roster. The Halflings were a staple race in the older games in the series all the way back to the original Age of Wonders but were not included in the inital release of Age of Wonders 3. New Race: Perhaps the biggest single addition in Golden Realms is the return of the Halfling race.

The Golden Realms DLC brought players the return of a familiar race from previous games in the series, a short campaign focused on that new race, a new victory condition, empire quests, a new school of magic and skill specialization, and some new independent settlements and units for the player to fight against or recruit as they see fit.

Recently, the development studio updated the game again with its new Golden Realms DLC along with a free patch full of more balance tweaks and updates to the AI. The game was a strong entry to, and revival of, the series and Triumph has continued to support the game with free patches to improve game balance and the AI. The latest entry in the series, Age of Wonders 3, was released in March of 2014 by Triumph Studios. The Age of Wonders series has always occupied a strange gray area in the world of turn-based fantasy games, falling somewhere between Heroes of Might & Magic and Civilization when it comes to “4X-iness.” As one of the many pretenders to the Master of Magic throne, the Age of Wonders series is a fantasy based 4X game with a heavy emphasis on the turn-based, tactical battles that fans of the series love.

Age of wonders 3 golden realms review