Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
Developer(s)	Triumph Studios
Publisher(s)	Gathering of Developers
Designer(s)	Lennart Sas
Version	1.3 (official) 1.4 (unofficial)
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	2003
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Teen (T)
Media/distribution	CD
System requirements Pentium II 300 CPU, 64MB RAM, 500MB hard disk, 4MB DirectX compatible graphic card, 8x CD-ROM drive

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic screenshot

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic or AOW:SM is a turn-based, strategy PC-game in a fantasy setting.

Shadow Magic is the third incarnation of the Age of Wonders series, and is a direct sequel to Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne. All three games were developed by Triumph Studios, a Dutch game developer.

Gameplay

The game features a world on three different levels, the Surface, the Underground and the Shadow World. Scenarios may take place on one or more of these levels. The game can either be played in a simultaneous mode, wherein players move their units at the same time during a turn, and in a traditional turnbased mode. Note that both modes are still turnbased. The game is played both in an overworld mode, on which parties are moved and raised, structures are built and heroes are contracted, as well as a battle mode.

Wizards

The key element of the game are the Wizards. Wizards are very powerful at magic, but rather weak at close combat. Every player has one Wizard, each with a sphere of magic (Life, Death, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Cosmos and finally Chaos/Secret), which decides which spells the Wizard can research. Some Wizards have multiple spheres, but can only learn less advanced spells. Spells range from passive spells (for instance, blessing a unit with additional strengths), to direct spells (i.e. healing spells or attack spells), to summoning spells. Wizards are the only units in the game who can't level up or gain medals. Instead, they improve by researching new spells and skills.

Wizards have a domain, which is the area in which the Wizard can cast his spells. When a wizard is inside a wizard's tower, the radius of his domain is increased by several hexagons, and in addition a small domain is radiated around each hero, so it is usually best to keep wizards inside a tower at all times. Every village, town and city can build a Wizard Tower, and the Wizard only has to be inside one Wizard Tower, the other towers will also increase his domain.

Heroes

Wizards can also attract heroes. Heroes are the men and women who (preferably) lead your troops into battle. Heroes, unlike Wizards, can level up. When they level up, the player can choose between three abilities for the hero to make them stronger. For example they can fire at range or improve the party morale. At a low level, they are rather vulnerable to other units, especially high tier units, so it is suggested to keep them a bit out of harm's way, for at a high level, they can become strong assets to a party, and can even destroy parties on their own. Their maximum level is 30.

When a Hero dies, you can only bring it back by using the reanimate or resurrect spell. When using the reanimate spell, the Hero will return to your Wizard's Seat as an Undead hero.

Heroes can join you either by applying at one of your cities or parties, by being recruited at an Inn or similar building, or can be attained through the use of the "call hero" spell.

Regular Units

Regular units represent the majority of the units in the game. These units can be divided in four levels, based on the various buildings that are needed for creating them. Units can also be awarded medals, which are given independent of respective levels. The medals represent experience and give bonuses to unit statistics.

Multiplayer

Like both its predecessors the game was designed for singleplayer as well as multiplayer, and while the graphic engine is the same as in Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne, gameplay is improved and some important features are added. While every existing race in the game received at least one new recruitable unit and new buildings, 3 races are completely new. Much requested from the fans (and referred to in the forums as the "random map cult"), the game now offers a "Create Random Scenario" option. Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic can be played in multiplayer mode 3 different ways; 1) Joining via I.P (Internet Protocol) address 2) Joining via LAN (Local Area Network) connection 3) Play by Email. Check the forums at aow2.heavengames.com to meet people for multiplayer games or questions. 02.chat.mibbit.com/#AoW is a free browser chat room where players seeking online game play often meet. There are also numerous LAN networks established through a program called "Hamachi" that online players meet.

Settlements and other structures

There are many kinds of structures on the World Map. The most important ones are the cities and the structures that generate either gold or mana.

Cities come in four levels. The lowest level is the Outpost, which can only construct a Wooden Wall and the race's basic unit. The next stage, the Village, can build many more buildings. The other stages are Town and City. The stages differ in how fast they can build, and the income they generate.

Races and their Units

There are fifteen races in the game and these races are divided into five groups; pure good, good, evil, pure evil and neutral races.

		Pure Good	Good				Neutral					Evil				Pure Evil
Tier	Type	Archons	Dwarves	Elves	Halflings	Syrons	Draconians	Frostlings	Humans	Nomads	Tigrans	Dark Elves	Goblins	Orcs	Shadow Demons	Undead
1	Basic	Militia	Axeman	Glade Runner	Peasant	Prospector	Hatchling	Snowscaper	Halberdier	Spearman	Shredder	Night Guard	Grunt	Impaler	Larva	Zombie
	Melee	Legionary	Berserker	Swordsman	Swordsman	Spellbinder	Charger	Swordsman	Swordsman	Barbarian	Hunter	Warrior	Swordsman	Axeman	Spawn	Swordsman
	Range	Archer	Crossbowman	Archer	Slinger	Lightning Catcher	Flamer	Archer	Crossbowman	Horse Archer	Fire Cat	Archer	Darter	Archer	Bombard	Archer
2	Mystic	High Priest	High Priest	High Priest	High Priest	High Priest	Monk	Monk	Monk	Monk	Monk	Black Priest	Black Priest	Black Priest	Black Priest	Black Priest
	Cavalry	Paladin	Boar Rider	Scout	Pony Rider	Rider	Slither	Raider	Light Cavalry	War Elephant	Cat Master	Executioner	Wolf Rider	Heavy Cavalry	Stag Mount	Death Knight
	Specialist	Avenger	Engineer	Nymph	Rogue	Shadow Runner	Crusher	Frost Witch	Swashbuckler	Djinn	Prowler	Blade Dancer	Butcher	Abomination	Skimmer	Vampire
3	Unique Unit (usually cavalry)	Chariot	Mole	Iron Maiden	Sheriff	Giant Warrior	Flyer	Mammoth Rider	Knight	Chieftain	Manticore	Spider Queen	Big Beetle	Warlord	Harvester	Bone Horror
	Unique Unit (usually mystic)	Pegasus Rider	Runemaster	Druid	Eagle Rider	Changeling	Elder	Frostdrake Rider	Herbalist	Slaver	Mystic	Shade	Wyvern Rider	Shaman	Brain	Spectre
	Expansion Unique	Saint	Gargoyle	Treeman	Centaur	Astral Sprite	Hydra	Yeti	Chaplain	Pit Guard	Beholder	Succubus	Troll	Doom Bats	Spirit	Necromancer
4	Ultimate	Titan	Steam Tank	Fairy Dragon	Leprechaun	Forceship	Red Dragon	Doom Wolf	Airship	Roc	Sphinx	Incarnate	Karagh	Glutton	Shadow Lord	Dread Reaper

Summonable Units: Level 1: Black Spider, Dire Boar, Hell Hound, Lurker, Parasite, Unicorn, Wolf, Zeyphr

Level 2: Chaos Spawn, Dire Penguin. Dragon Hatchling, Efreet, Fairy, Magic Servant, Minotaur, Northern Glow, Water Dancer

Level 3: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Elementals, Bone Dragon.

Level 4: Angel, Black Angel, Basilisk, Black Dragon, Chaos Lord, Gold Dragon, Great Wyrm, Ice Dragon, Phoenix

Availability

For several years Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic was only available from third party sources such as Amazon.com and eBay or through illicit means^{[citation needed]}. On September 13'th 2010 it was announced with some excitement that the entire franchise will be re-released on Stardock's Impulse. [1] On September 24'th 2010 it was announced that the trilogy will also be made available via GOG Good Old Games and GamersGate. [2]. As of 10/11/2010, all three games in the series are available on Steam. As of June 2011, all three are available on GOG (Good Old Games).[3]

Development

Shadow Magic was probably planned as an expansion pack for Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard's Throne, but was published as a stand-alone game instead.^{[citation needed]}

The game was unofficially developed further[4] by a fan-community. There is a further update planned.

Age of Wonders Email Wrapper

The Age of Wonders games were released in a time where most ISPs provided open SMTP servers, not requiring explicit authentication or any encryption. These days, and since the age of SPAM, those kinds of SMTP servers are rare. The development of SMTP servers over time effectively broke the play by email automatic-send function of the game. Players could still use the manual sending option, to use their own email client, but this involved manual repetitious actions for each game played.

Recently though a group of Age of Wonders fans have been working together to develop an application to restore the automatic send ability. The Age of Wonders Email Wrapper is a lightweight application that is run on the same PC as the game. It works by emulating an open SMTP server and accepting SMTP requests from the game.

When the game sends an email it will connect to the Age of Wonders Email Wrapper, as it would a real server, to send the email. The Wrapper then receives the email and sends it out over the internet using a modern SMTP server specified by the user and with whatever authentication or encryption is necessary.

The Wrapper can also download email games from IMAP and POP3 email accounts. So it essentially encapsulates the entire Email functionality of the game.

See also

• Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne
• Age of Wonders
• Master of Magic
• Triumph Studios

External links

• Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic at Triumph Studios's website
• Age of Wonders at Heavengames
• Russian fan site (partly English )
• Age of Wonders Chatroom
• Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic at GameFAQs
• Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic at MobyGames