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Age of Wonders 4, the 4X fantasy strategy from Triumph Studios, allows players to create a custom Faction and lead them to victory in a Realm full of magic and adventure. As they spread their influence and grow in power, the player's Faction in Age of Wonders 4 will gain access to new units, spells, and structures.
In place of a technology tree, Age of Wonders 4 players instead unlock new Tomes of Magic. These Tomes each come with an initial bonus and up to six research options, all built around a specific theme. The Astral Affinity Tomes are generally themed around spells and magic, containing a wide range of combat and world map spells and several powerful unit summons.
Tier 1 Astral Affinity Tomes
Tome of Evocation
The Tome of Evocation is focused on lightning damage and immediately unlocks the Mana-producing Channeling Tower and the Lightning Weapons Hero Skill.
Unit enchantment spells like Lightning Blades and Lightning Focus allow players to boost the damage of their armies, while direct damage spells like Fulmination and Lightning Torrent allow them to wound enemies without risking their own units.
Finally, the Tome of Evocation comes with extremely useful units: the cheap Lesser Storm Spirit summon to reinforce the frontline and the powerful Evoker to deal ranged lightning damage to multiple targets.
Tome of Warding
The Tome of Warding focuses on defensive magic and grants the Bolstering Support Hero Skill as an initial bonus.
The Phantasm Warrior unit can fill a defensive role that most magic-heavy armies lack. At the same time, the rest of the Tome of Warding spells allow players to increase the survivability of their armies greatly.
These include Static Shield, which gives a chance to Stun when the target is attacked in melee, and the Mark of Invulnerability, which prevents all damage for one turn.
Tier 2 Astral Affinity Tomes
Tome of Amplification
The Tome of Amplification is focused on powerful combat spells and immediately unlocks Resonance Fields that boost Casting Points and the Spell Amplification Hero Skill.
The Astral Blood Minor Transformation spell and Amplification Pylon are all about boosting the effectiveness of combat spells, which combos well with Chain Lightning as one of the most powerful direct damage spells at this Tier.
Players who selected the Astral Culture in Age of Wonders 4's Faction creator should prioritize Frenzying Focus over Amplified Arrows, as the latter only applies to physical ranged attacks, which the Astral unit roster lacks completely. Finally, the Amplify Minds spell is useful for accelerating to the next Tome.
Tome of Scrying
The Tome of Scrying moves away from direct damage spells and instead focuses on vision and accuracy, immediately unlocking the Precognition Hero Skill.
Mental Mark and Guided Projectiles combine to make sure that the player's ranged attacks are incredibly accurate, and the Watcher unit summon can take advantage of this with its two powerful lightning damage attacks.
Additionally, Tower of True Sight and Scry Enemy ensure that no hostile army moves undetected through the player's territory, removing the possibility of nasty surprises.
Tier 3 Astral Affinity Tomes
All Tier 3 Astral Affinity Tomes unlock the Seed of Astral Special Province Improvement, the first step to Age of Wonders 4's Magic Victory.
Tome of Summoning
Living up to its name, the Tome of Summoning is all about unit summon spells and magic origin units. Unlocking the Tome grants the Summoning Well Province Improvement and Wisp Familiar Hero Skill.
Arcane Restoration, Arcane Supercharge, and Arcane Bond all target magic origin units exclusively, meaning that players that pick the Tome of Summoning are heavily incentivized to fill their armies with as many magic origin units as possible, either through summoning spells or the Rally of Lieges.
Fortunately, the Tome of Summoning itself comes with two excellent summoning spells. The Astral Serpent is an aggressive and powerful melee fighter, while the Astral Keeper is a support unit that is particularly good at healing other units of magical origin.
Tome of Teleportation
Another well-named Tome, the Tome of Teleportation, focuses on instant movement both on and off the battlefield. Choosing this Tome immediately unlocks the Chrono Gate Province Improvement and the Quick Phase Hero Skill.
Emergency Teleportation can save a wounded unit from destruction on the battlefield, while Mass Recall can allow players to instantly return an army to their domain for defense or escape. Phasing Enchantment is a powerful buff for Support and Battle Mage units, making it much harder for enemies to pin them down.
The Astral Trade Relay is a useful City Structure that allows players to massively boost their Gold income if they have multiple Cities. Finally, the Phase Beast summon spell creates a powerful Tier 4 Shock unit with the ability to teleport into close combat.
Tier 4 Astral Affinity Tomes
All Tier 4 Astral Affinity Tomes unlock the Root of Astral Special Province Improvement, the second step to Age of Wonders 4's Magic Victory.
Tome of Astral Convergence
The Tome of Astral Convergence is focused on multiplying the effects of other spells and magical abilities, making it an ideal choice for players who've committed heavily to other Astral Tomes. Unlocking the Tome immediately grants the Astral Surge Hero Skill.
Arcane Maelstrom and Astral Shattering are powerful world map spells that can overcome fortified Cities or destroy entire Provinces, respectively, allowing players to exert diplomatic pressure on enemy Factions in the late-game. The sustained world map spell Cascading Power and powerful combat spell Explosive Manifestation can combine to turn even the direst odds in the player's favor as they cast more spells on the battlefield.
Finally, the Astral Attunement Major Race Transformation is expensive to cast but grants significant bonuses to an entire race. On the battlefield, the chosen race can walk through solid objects at will, while on the world map, they generate extra Mana and Knowledge for each Population.
Tome of the Astral Mirror
The Tome of the Astral Mirror focuses on overwhelming enemy armies with illusionary duplicates and reflective defense. Unlocking the Tome immediately grants the Magic Deflection Hero Skill.
The core of the Tome of the Astral Mirror are the Astral Reflections, duplicates of friendly units that deal -50% damage. The Summon Astral Reflection combat spell creates two Reflections of a targeted friendly unit. At the same time, the Throne of Mirrors City Structure allows an Astral Reflection of the player's Ruler to be at every City defense battle. However, as the Throne of Mirrors is a City Structure, it cannot be used to defend Outposts in Age of Wonders 4.
In addition, the Mirror Veil unit enchantment spell allows Shield and Polearm units to reflect 50% of all non-physical damage, while the Mirror Mimic unit summon can take the form of any enemy non-Hero unit on the battlefield. Finally, the Astral Revelation world spell grants +7 Vision Range to all Cities, allowing players to see threats long before they arrive.
Tier 5 Astral Affinity Tome
Tome of the Arch Mage
The final Astral Affinity Tome is the Tome of the Arch Mage, which focuses on powerful control, utility, and debuffing spells on and off the battlefield. In addition, unlocking the Tome of the Arch Mage will grant the Heart of Astral Special Province Improvement, the final step in Age of Wonders 4's Magic Victory and the Maximized Magic Hero Skill.
The Tome of the Arch Mage's two combat spells are Time Stop and Disruption Wave, which are incredibly powerful support spells. Time Stop completely freezes all enemy units in 1-hex radius for a turn, making them incredibly vulnerable to damage. At the same time, Disruption Wave dispels all positive effects on enemies and negative effects on allies, as well as disabling enemy unit enchantments for three turns.
On the world map, the Tome of the Arch Mage unlocks Astral Travel and Cosmic Overdrive, allowing unprecedented movement. Astral Travel allows the player to teleport their Ruler to a target hex anywhere on the map, even to Age of Wonders 4's Underground. Cosmic Overdrive buffs all magic origin units with +30% damage and a huge increase in movement speed.
Age Of Wonders 4 is available now on PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.