Age Of Wonders 4 is a distinctly high fantasy twist on classic 4X games, and part of developing a faction is choosing which tomes and affinities to invest in. The game introduces a grand total of 54 different tomes, split across 6 affinities. All of these tomes have unique abilities, units, and bonuses that can be beneficial to players.
There are tons of great options to choose from, and a massive variety of possible playstyles and builds. While all the tomes may be viable in one way or another, a select few provide more interesting and powerful gameplay mechanics than others. Here are the best tomes in Age Of Wonders 4, ranked.
Updated June 29, 2023, by Nathan Dawber: With the release of the Dragon Dawn DLC for Age of Wonders 4, two more powerful tomes have entered the game: the Tome Of Evolution and the Tome Of Dragons. Each one will no doubt earn its place in the game’s extensive library, and will provide players with more unique playstyles to try out. With so many tomes already available, the decision on which ones to invest in is largely down to personal preference, but the game is at its best when players experiment and vary their strategy. The addition of these two tomes will only increase the possibilities available to players.
15 Tome Of The Cold Dark
A Shadow Affinity tier 3 tome, Tome Of The Cold Dark is ideal for those looking to play as the frostlings from previous games. It provides access to the Frostling Transformation ability, turning the player’s race into frostlings and granting them all the corresponding perks, such as frost resistance, immunity to Frozen, and faster movement over arctic terrain.
This tome also allows players to benefit from this transformation by spreading arctic terrain across the world with abilities like Flash Freeze,terraforming a province into a snowy wasteland.
14 Tome Of Revelry
A Chaos Affinity tier 2 tome, Tome Of Revelry gives the player’s forces bonuses to morale and experience. Abilities like Revels Of Blood grant attacking forces extra morale and diminishes the morale of defenders, whereas Revels Of Carnage boosts combat experience by 30% for 3 turns.
The tome also gives access to the Skald, a support unit that inspires friendly troops.
13 Tome Of Evolution
A Chaos and Nature Affinity tier 1 tome, the Tome Of Evolution focuses on evolving units into more powerful versions of themselves. Slither Hatchlings are a tier 1 unit that, when they reach tier 3, evolve into Slithers. Tier 1 Wyvern fledglings evolve into random tier 3 Wyverns.
Players can keep these weaker units alive with the Rapid Evolution Enhancement ability, which can resurrect dead tier 1 and 2 units to make sure they reach their full potential. This strategy might be a little risky in the early game, but can pay off later on if players manage to evolve enough units.
12 Tome Of Beasts
A Nature Affinity tier 1 tome, Tome Of Beasts is focused on summoning and buffing animals to fight in the player’s armies. The Summon Wild Animal ability calls forth a random tier 1 or 2 animal, depending on the type of terrain this spell is cast on.
Tome Of Beasts also buffs animals, with Animal Kinship providing damage bonuses to animals and cavalry if adjacent to another animal, including +10% damage and +10% critical hit chance. Additionally, Call Of The Wild gives animals and cavalry +2 Bolstered Defense and +1 Strengthened.
11 Tome Of Warding
An Astral Affinity tier 1 tome, Tome Of Warding is primarily a defensive tome, allowing players to protect their units from harm. Staves Of Warding provides +2 Bolstered Resistance to support units, while Static Shield gives a unit a shield that can stun attackers. In addition, Magical Wards increases lightning, fire, and frost resistance,
The Mark Of Invulnerability even allows players to make a unit invulnerable for one turn. This will remove all negative status effects from that unit, and negate any damage the unit takes on that turn.
10 Tome Of Faith
An Order Affinity tier 1 tome, Tome Of Faith increases the amount of healing and support that players can output. In addition to the Faithful bonus, which reduces unit upkeep by 10%, the Army Heal ability heals all units by 20 hit points.
Staves Of Mending grants access to the Mending Touch healing ability, which can be used by support units in battle. The tome also provides other bonuses, such as Faithful Whispers, which increases the player’s allegiance with free cities 30% faster.
9 Tome Of Enchantment
A Materium Affinity tier 1 tome, Tome Of Enchantment is focused on buffing up troops with enchantments. For shield units, Spell-Tempered Shields grants +1 resistance and a further +1 resistance when entering defense mode. Meanwhile, for ranged units, Seeker Arrows give +1 range. Finally, for melee units, Sundering Blades provide a 90% chance of reducing enemy defense.
This is a great tome to pick regardless of the affinity the player specializes in. It can be picked up for an early game boost without fully committing to the Materium Affinity.
8 Tome Of The Golden Realm
A Materium Affinity tier 4 tome, the Tome Of The Golden Realm lives up to its name by filling the player’s coffers with endless amounts of gold. The Goldtouch transformation grants one gold per population, which can stack up quickly. Additionally, Golden Golem can be summoned to turn enemies into gold and loot the newfound treasure.
The extra gold can then be used to field more armies, upgrade cities, or trade for resources. This is an ideal tome to pick up if players are struggling with upkeep costs, or if they simply want to become the wealthiest faction on the map.
7 Tome Of Teleportation
An Astral Affinity tier 3 tome, Tome Of Teleportation lives up to its name by giving players the means to instantly transporting units around the map. A movement-focused tome, its abilities include Mass Recall, which can teleport an entire army to its nearest friendly city, and Emergency Teleportation, which can teleport and also heal a unit. Phasing Enchantment even allows units to teleport in battle.
This tome is great at moving forces to where they need to be to meet a threat head-on. It is universally powerful for this reason, and is always a good tome to have.
6 Tome Of The Horde
A Chaos Affinity tier 1 tome, Tome Of The Horde lends itself to massed force, overwhelm tactics. Its most crucial ability is the Spawnkin transformation, which makes the player’s race smaller while also increasing the number of units in a formation and granting a +20% damage bonus.
Fury Of The Horde also strengthens tier 1 units, and Blaze Of The Horde allows tier 1 units to deal fire damage. This all comes together to empower tier 1 units, which can be fielded en masse to outnumber the enemy.
5 Tome Of Dragons
A Chaos and Nature Affinity tier 3 tome, Tome Of Dragons is essentially a more powerful Tome Of Evolution. Young Dragons, a tier 3 unit, can evolve into their full adult form at tier 5. They have access to powerful attacks such as elemental breath and stronger melee strikes.
Players also get access to a Fire Bomb magical attack, which deals burning and bleeding damage to adjacent units, as well as a Draconian Transformation, which grants immunity to burning and natural regeneration. This tome is very strong, mainly due to the sheer power that adult dragons can bring to the battlefield.
4 Tome Of The Goddess Of Nature
A Nature Affinity tier 5 tome, Tome Of The Goddess Of Nature buffs animals and plants, and as a result, works best with other nature tomes. The Forest Awareness ability allows players to gain vision of all forests on the map, making it easier to gather intelligence about their rivals.
Force Of Nature increases critical hit chance and deals blight damage. Additionally, Mass Rejuvenation brings all dead animals and plants back to life, and heals units by 40 temporary hit points. It’s a niche but powerful tome.
3 Tome Of The Chaos Lord
A Chaos Affinity tier 5 tome, Tome Of The Chaos Lord is the ultimate way to unleash mayhem on enemies. It contains one of the strongest summons in the game, Balor, who is devastatingly powerful and essentially scorches the earth, causing an enemy city to lose 2 population automatically.
The Incite Rebellion ability also makes two enemy units mind-controlled at the start of battle, shifting the odds heavily in the player’s favor. For chaos players, it doesn’t get better than that.
2 Tome Of The God Emperor
An Order Affinity tier 5 tome, Tome Of The God Emperor allows players to become exalted among their people. Abilities like Wrath Of The Emperor are ultra-powerful. This particular ability deals 50% damage to armies in enemy territory while also condemning them, demoralizing them, and applying 20 spirit damage.
Another game-changing ability is Mass Revive, which brings back all friendly units in a battle with 50% of their hit points. This is the ultimate tome for Order players.
1 Tome Of The Eternal Lord
A Shadow Affinity tier 5 tome, Tome Of The Eternal Lord is one of the most unique and powerful in the game. This tome allows players to become the Night King themselves. Battlefield Reanimation not only resurrects the player’s own forces, but also the dead of their enemies, all with 50% hit points.
If that wasn’t enough, Raise Undead Army summons an entire army at the player’s will. These are the most powerful necromantic abilities in the game, cementing Tome Of The Eternal Lord as one of the most powerful and valuable tomes to have at a player’s disposal.
Age Of Wonders 4 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.