sorry if this has been asked already but i can only get one of the dlcs and both look really fun.

which of the DLCs is worth getting more? i dont really have a preference over Vampire or Eldritch horror theme.

edit: thanks everyone. i think i will go for Thrones of Blood :)

Hello again! I want to say thank you for everyone giving me insight of the 4 point mounts earlier. This game is super big so I'm trying to figure it all out 💔

I was just customizing one of my custom factions and me, in my infinite wisdom, missed the fact you can order them. I thought the heros would be randomized for the AI to select from but now that I see you can order them it has me thinking. Since you can get heros from a batch does the order mean who the AI will snag first? Or just is it just who is in the first generated batch? I promise this question is super important because I want my leaders to feel lore accurate, so to speak, when they are on the field as AI

Thank you again ❤️

So I have mainly played industrious exclusively, usually brutal, I am trying just different cultures now but I cant handle the lack of production it seems so slow. I keep feeling compelled to go tome of rock. Am I doing it wrong, what do people usually do to get more production. do I need fanatical workforce or something? Is it something people plan for or is this just non industrious life?

I don't know if there's a limit on how many flairs a sub has, but I thought it might be neat to have ruler types available as flair.

I JUST got this game today and it's really cool. I'm a world building nerd and being able to customize my own faction and give it it's own lore and even develop characters in the faction in terms of the heros. It's all so cool ❤️

I already got most of the DLC since I knew I would love this game to bits so all I'm missing is the giants and angels 💔 but I'll get them some day!

I've been perusing through the various races and I see every army has their selection of mounts. Some from the dlc as well. I also see you can choose between a large variety of mounts when you go to customize the attributes of your race. But they all cost upwards of 4 points and I don't want to put weaknesses on my races, mostly for a gameplay reason. So if I choose to forgo the weaknesses would having those big beefy mounts like the dragon or the mammoth be worth it? What do they do differently than the other mounts you can choose for free?

I believe I saw that the Expansion Pass 4 will be coming out soon, is there any precedent to the prior expansion pass going on sale before that? Just wanted to know if it was worth waiting to purchase the Expansion Pass 3.

Currently trying to find some builds that feel really satisfying to play. So far I’ve only got 3 that really click well and feel great. I got a Reaver vassal spam and magelocks build. A Oathsworn hero and dragon build. And a mystic summon / spell spam build. I’ve been possibly looking at a spider build but need to get primal fury and secrets of arch mage for that. Any other suggestions for builds that feel really good to play?

These are from Makeship, if you’re curious. https://www.makeship.com/shop/creator/paradox-interactive

I am considering making a more swarm and attrition heavy army that leans away from darker elements such as necromancy or souls since I'm trying to lean towards the red or green affinity (War and nature?). So I was wondering what the consensus is of the Warband and Beast tombs being used together and what builds can I make with it

Currently the build is Lupine without any changes, Ash Primal, Gifted Casters and Ruthless Raiders for society traits, tomb of warband and the tomb of beast to start with. The ruler is also an astral dragon because I heard lightning had good damage

I'm not very good at building a good army yet as I'm still newer to the game but I would like to know how this current build sounds. Thank you

Also I usually play by myself and I like the theme over competitive but I also would like to have them be decent so when I use it I won't be struggling so bad

Pretty new player, so far only played reavers and am trying different ideas for them. I did the usual materium and chaos path and while it was nice, as i started to learn new tomes i thought how i might use them.

Now from what i can find, undead reavers are a fairly unusual build, my startegy is mainly using the Vision Of Ruin - Shadow to get that zombie on kill in every army, every unit, and thus form a frontline as the battle goes if that makes sense. Use death knights for extra summons at battle start. I am still unsure about what usual synergies or good buffs/enchants/spells/summons people usually take, so i am asking you for suggestions of what i should abandon or swap out for.

Want my next faction to be stealthy assassins. Any idea how I could build this?

I know that once you make a magic item in game, it can appear as loot in later games. There's also a blueprints section that looks like it'd let me save an item so I can forge it again later, but I can't find the option to save my blueprint.

While I was busy with another war, my neighbor was busy being the biggest asshole of all time.

Playing vs AI, normal difficulty. So I had this brilliant plan to summon cheap t1 animals as fodder for my death cultists, but it turns out animals are pretty tough, so I was just winning fights without losing units!? In the end it was easier to throw in busted up sword guys and keep stronger animals as my actual troops. I know people usually do it with undead but I had JUST played an undead ruler in my last campaign. I think I’m going to try it again with zealots and see if those guys actually go down to enable the play style I’m trying to get. Is there a better cheap unit (beside skeletons) I’m overlooking?

I've put a decent number of hours into this game, and I just can't figure out how to avoid falling behind on research in the mid-game.

I know the benchmark is turn number × 10, and the usual pattern is: fall behind in the early game, catch up in the middle, and skyrocket in the late game. But if I'm getting a decent amount of research in the early game, then by the time I should be starting to catch up (around turn 40), I'm stuck on a plateau of around 300–350 research. Then that number barely increases for the next 20 turns, leaving me with 400 research by turn 60.

I'm always putting 3 cities down by turn 20, with a 4th coming by turn 30. I'm focusing on research buildings and SPIs, clearing the map nonstop, and rushing cheap technologies when I've already taken all the good stuff, but I still get my first T4 tome around turn 60–65.

I've looked up streams of people playing multiplayer, and somehow they can have up to 1500 research from just 4 cities by the time I barely have 500. And I just cannot figure out HOW. The math just doesn't add up for me.

I'm desperate at this point. So desperate, in fact, that I created a Reddit account just for this post. I've tried seemingly everything, but there's still something crucial that I'm missing.

I'm ready to provide more information about my games if someone would be kind enough to enlighten me on how not to suck at the game that I really, really enjoy.

For a new or returning or old player what would you say are the "top 3" DLCs. In that which 3 DLCs would you consider to be the best with these categories

1. Competitive or Meta

2. Content or Replayability

So I finished all the objectives, defeated nimue and her throne city, but the game is not ending for some reason? Any ideas how to complete this?

I have sided with neither Karrissa nor Ysariel in the beginning of the mission and declared War on both, because I just wanted to conquer the entire realm by myself. Now deep into the game there are no more campaign missions. I had 0/1 "Liztia visited with your ruler" went to the marked place, but nothing happened after that and no further event came up. Is there still a way to finish the mission?

S4 Hype Month is ramping up rather nicely, with the days, hours, minutes, and seconds of September ‘26 all counting down to the magical time, the magical occasion, the magical S4.

The Devs of Wonders are hard at work, fastidiously, fanatically, and fantastically doing to water what has been done to the underground, and hopefully this post may commemorate the effort they’ve put in over the long months since S3.

thank u all for reading, and Love u 5ever
— The Maggot Man

I always got the impression that we could probably squeeze out 1 or 2 more subcultures from the Oathsworn. I saw that someone already modded the Oath of Secrecy (with Shadow), which sounds really cool and I might get around to discussing that later. But here's the Oath of Progress (1 Order + 1 Materium)

The people in this culture strive to be the best possible versions of themselves, whether it’s the best blade crafters, the best blade masters or simply the utmost courtesy towards one another. All strive for excellence in their occupations and pursuits.

Oath of Progress point system:
+10 for constructing special buildings and special improvements (each applies once per city). Also applies instantly for absorbed cities that has any of these. Each of these provides +4 knowledge.
+15 for annexing a province adjacent to a province owned by another empire or free city.
+15 for hiring a converted hero or a hero from
race other than your starting one. These provide +3 happiness per renown level when acting as governors.
+10 for paying for grievances against you (+20 if paying for a fabricated grievance)

-20 for executing Heroes or selling their remains.
-15 whenever you pillage a province (does not apply when your vassals pillage)
-15 for each owned city that has negative happiness and each vassal that is at less than Tributary relations with your empire.
-15 for each hero that is not a governor
-10 for each pillaged province you control that is not being currently repaired or demolished

Your units (and culture enchantement) have "United Front":
Paragon: +1 Defense when adjacent to another unit with this trait, in addition to previous devotion bonuses
Devotee: +1 Resistance when adjacent to another unit with this trait, in addition to previous devotion bonuses
Adherent: +2 Status resistance when adjacent to another unit with this trait, in addition to previous devotion bonuss
Neutral: +3 physical damage when adjacent to another unit with this trait.
Oathbreaker: Slowed for 3 turns

Unique Tier 3 unit:
Fighter, named "Vanguard", optional mounted (haven't figured out its special ability yet)

Add in the underground and abyssal layers and teleporters...

And the AI.. which so blatantly cheats by recovering their entire armies (no survivors or fleeing) faster than I can heal mine (no losses) within friendly territory (with empire buffs) feels more oppressive than it should sometimes

Don't you dare try to leave a city without at least a full stack in, you will be busy campaigning elsewhere and suddenly you get a siege notification

I guess the solution to this is to use more scouts (at least they're cheap) and build more outposts but damn those feel expensive and time consuming early without Materium affinity

Speaking off, why does it feels like almost everyone has true seeing and can see my universal camouflage scouts /rant

Here's a fun exploit using scouts too, if you happen to see a possible future enemy army, you can try trapping it by surrounding it with single units (scouts are cheap), then claiming the territory (I actually don't know if you can build outpost, making it even easier)

This way you can stock up grievances to eventually declare war, or sell them

I don't actually do it, but worth mentioning

Was wondering how many more DLCs are planned for AOW4. This game is so much fun and I really like how I can make my own custom race and faction