The Age of Wonders 4 Golem update has arrived, providing ample reasons to revisit or discover one of the finest 4X games on the PC. It coincides with the release of the new Age of Wonders 4 DLC, Empires and Ashes, which brings a blend of industry and magic to this already outstanding Paradox strategy game. The Golem update is a substantial enhancement available to all players, offering several exciting features and system improvements.
Age of Wonders 4 by Triumph Studios and Paradox Interactive garnered praise from us at PCGamesN, with our review hailing it as a game “you should definitely experience.” It ranks alongside the likes of Crusader Kings 3, Cities Skylines 2, Stellaris, Victoria 3, and Europa Universalis 4 as one of the top strategy games on the PC, adding to Paradox’s impressive portfolio. The free Age of Wonders 4 Golem update enhances the game further, introducing new features and refining existing ones.
The first noteworthy addition is the Item Forge, which can be constructed in your cities once you’ve unlocked the Wizard Tower. This facility allows you to craft, modify, upgrade, and infuse items using essence obtained by disenchanting equipment at the Arsenal. It offers the potential to add new passive properties, alter weapon damage types, and forge active abilities onto staffs, wands, and melee weapons.
Next, there’s a new cooperation panel, accessible in the city interface, which facilitates interactions like trading and war coordination. When you increase your influence over a free city to the point where it acts as your vassal, you can instruct it to launch attacks on various targets, including infestations and enemy cities. You can spend Imperium to expedite its assault or reinforce its efforts, and you’ll receive the rewards once it successfully pillages a province.
Form traits have also been revamped; you now have five points to allocate, with each trait costing between one and three points. Triumph has updated the default traits for all existing forms to make full use of these five points. Some existing traits have been modified, and three new traits have been introduced: ‘light-footed’ prevents friendly units from blocking movement, ‘sharp eyes’ provides additional vision and sensing on the world map, and ‘hideous stench’ reduces the resistances of nearby enemies.
Water gameplay has received a facelift, allowing you to annex coastal provinces much like you can on land, applying the same general improvements. Seafaring perks and water vision have been tweaked slightly, new unique ship models based on unit roles have been included, and special waterborne underground passages have been added to connect the seas. There are seven new maps focused on water-based combat.
The Golem update also introduces 18 new war-related events and six additional war-related quests, as well as new banner icons, hero origins, and society traits for pantheons. Several quality-of-life improvements have been made, including a new spellbook interface and the introduction of a Pangea map type.
The Age of Wonders 4 Golem update is now available on Steam. It’s accessible for free alongside the paid Age of Wonders 4: Empires & Ashes DLC, which is also available and priced at $19.99 / £16.99. The base game is also available at a 30% discount on Steam until Monday, November 13. For comprehensive information, you can refer to the complete Golem update patch notes provided by Triumph Studios.