Combat in Age of Wonders 4 focuses on a few units at a time. Only six units of any type, including heroes, can move together as a single army. On top of that, every unit has an upkeep cost of gold, mana, or both.
These facts are important because each unit eats into its faction's gold and mana income. So, if players want to replace their tier 1 units with tier 2s, or if they want to reorganize their armies and create better combinations, one important step is to disband existing units and save on resources. But while the Age of Wonders 4 tutorial explains how to buy new units, it doesn't cover how to get rid of old ones.
Locating the Unit Dismissal Button
When players select an army, they can choose an individual unit in that army by highlighting their portrait. Players can then inspect the unit to get a closer look at their stats, traits, active effects, experience, and so on. By default, the Y button on the Xbox controller and the right mouse button on PC will call up this screen.
Also on this screen is a tiny red button on the right side of the unit's stat sheet. This is the disband button, and clicking it (and then confirming) will remove the unit from the game immediately. Players won't get any resources back, but they won't have to pay the unit's upkeep cost any longer.
Dismissing a Hero
One unit players can never dismiss is the faction leader. In fact, the faction leader can never truly die, and if defeated they'll end up respawning in the faction capital. Players can't dismiss heroes, either, but it is possible to get rid of them in other ways.
If a hero falls in battle, then depending on the circumstances, they'll either end up in the prison of the faction that defeated them or in the crypt of the faction that lost them. By building the Wizard Tower: Crypts structure (after building the Wizard Tower: Foundation), a faction can resurrect a hero. They'll have all their equipment on them and all the experience and abilities they had from the moment they fell.
However, players without the Crypts or who don't want the hero back can sell their remains and be done with them. This gives the faction a decent amount of gold, and the hero's equipment goes straight into the arsenal for other heroes to use. This also gives players an opportunity to hire a new hero or convert a hero they captured from a rival player without going over the hero cap.
Still, there's no real need to remove heroes like this. Unlike regular units, heroes have no upkeep cost unless players go over the hero cap, and players can always reset a hero's skills once for free. On top of that, any hero can wield any weapon, so if players hire a ranged hero but don't like his abilities they can reset them and turn them into a melee, mage, or support build. All of this is why the game doesn't bother with a "dismiss hero" button.
Age of Wonders 4 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.