Quick Start

How to Start a Game in Age of Wonders II

Welcome to Age of Wonders II: The Wizards’ Throne. If you’re just interested in getting a
game going as quickly as possible, this guide is for you. First of all, start up Age of
Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne, (abbreviated AoW2 from here on out) and select the
second option, labeled Scenario, from the main menu.

To play a game by yourself, or to play a hotseat game with friends on one computer,
select the Single option. If you wish to play a multiplayer game, you will need to either
host or find an Internet, LAN, or E-Mail game. For now, let’s stick to a simple single-
player game, so select Single.

First, you must select a scenario to play. To do this, hit the Pick Scenario button near
the bottom right. Another box will pop up, presenting you with several drive/path options
and a list of scenarios. Each available scenario’s name, size of map, and number of
playable Wizards are listed in the box. Simply click on one of the scenarios listed, and
description of that scenario will appear in the bottom frame. You can use the little blue
sliders on the sides of each frame to pan through lists of scenarios, or through the text
descriptions of the scenarios if they don’t all fit on your screen.

Once you’ve highlighted a scenario, press the Select button. The game will take you
back to the previous screen, 2 only this time several Wizards’ portraits will be shown. The
default Wizard you will control is always the Wizard listed in the upper left. If you wish to
change which Wizard you will control, click on any of the boxes listed next to any of the
Wizards and then click on the Human option. You can also change the difficulty of the
computer opponents by changing their options from CPU Squire to something harder,
like CPU Lord.

Now that you’ve got your Wizard chosen and the difficulty of the computer opponents set,
you can play with the other options on the Scenario screen. The box under the label
Turns allows you to change the turn structure from AoW2’s special Simultaneous turn
system into a more Classic turn-based system, like those found in many other strategy
games. With the bars listed in the Duration box, you can change the time limit per turn,
or limit the game to specific number of total turns. There are also three selectable options
in the Miscellaneous box, but for now, just leave them at the default settings; you can
experiment with them later.

Now, hit the Start! button to begin your AoW2 game.

Chapter One: Introduction

The Age of Men sprang upon the world in a way that none of the prophets expected, least
of all the men. What should have been a peaceful transition between the caretaker Elves
and the newborn Humans turned into an epoch of sorrow.

I was born in this age and, because of the measures taken to save all mankind, I will
cease in an age when men cease.

But I fear I get ahead of myself.

I am Merlin, and I was not born when the calamities began. I lived in a remote area, far
from the Valley of Wonders. No, the Humans first came from their Garden and took their
place upon the Blessed Continent where the Wizard-King Inioch reigned. My forefathers,
little more than barbarians when compared with the refined Elves, drove his people from
that Valley and slew Inioch.

They knew nothing of Elves. Immortals. Even in death Elves haunted the Humans.
Without the balance imposed by Inioch, hordes of wicked creatures gathered and the fruit
of human freedom was more war.

The son of Inioch and his daughter gathered against us. Meandor, willing to cause the
extinction of Humanity by any means, unleashed a force of undead led by the dead king,
Inioch. Julia gathered the forces of 4 light, called Keepers, and stood against a tide of
darkness.

Julia prevailed.

Such apocalyptic battles were prelude to the destruction that would follow.

I was born centuries later, but my people still talked of the mischief caused by Meandor
and the undying Inioch. Rumors spread about godlike beings dwelling in ivory towers,
calling the powers of creation to fight for themselves. Cults dedicated to these beings
enticed many with strange promises of conquest and prosperity.

Then the sky rained debris. The earth churned and swallowed my people. Queen Julia
tried to maintain balance, but her Keepers were defenseless against this new magic. In a
time when Magic diminished, it battered the people like a monstrous storm. I was among
the few who survived. We fled from settlement to settlement, only to find smoldering
heaps of stone. In order to survive, many of my own people sought protection under the
shadow of these Wizard Towers. Those who refused were hunted by the very elements of
nature.

My men boarded our air galley on a clear evening. I looked over the sea, scanning the
skies for an island that once hosted human settlers, but the island was no more.

The skies rippled with lightning. Clouds whirled and from their billows emerged a
formation of red dragons. They destroyed my ship, and I fell overboard.

That was when Gabriel first reached out to me. That was when my life would begin and
when it ended – all in one moment, during the Age of Wonders…

Campaign
The campaign portion of Age of Wonders 2: The Wizard’s Throne is the story-based single
player game. The campaign follows the journeys of the apprentice wizard Merlin on his
quest to claim the Wizard’s Throne. The campaign comprises 20 scenarios and includes a
short Tutorial for new players who are unfamiliar with how Age of Wonders 2 plays.

Scenario
Scenarios are a collection of unrelated maps on which you can play games. The scenario
button brings up a list of several options. If you want to play a single player or Hotseat
multiplayer game, pick the Single option. If you’re looking to play a multiplayer game
over the Internet, hit the Internet option. If you are not going to be the one hosting the
internet game, you must find out the host’s IP address before you can join his server. The
IP of your machine is listed when you click on the Internet option in case other players
need to know your IP to join. If you want to play a game over a network, hit the LAN
option. All you need to do is poll the network for servers; you don’t need to know the IP to
join LAN games. The last option, Email, requires you to be able to send saved games to
your opponents, usually via Email.
Scenario Setup
You’ll need to select a map to play the game on by hitting the Pick Scenario button. The
list of available scenarios, coupled with some information on their size and number of
Wizards, will appear. Pick the scenario you wish to play and hit the Select button. By
default, Age of Wonders 2 uses a system called Simultaneous Turns. This allows all of
the Wizards in the scenario to play their turns out in pseudo-simultaneous fashion. If you
wish to play your scenario in a more conventional fashion, players taking their turns one
after the other, change the option in the upper right from Simultaneous to Classic.". If
you are trying to play a Hotseat multiplayer game, you must pick Classic style before
you can assign other players to a Wizard.

There is a variety of scenario options, such as modifying the amount of time allowed for
each turn, the total number of turns, and several other features. Customize Wizard will
let you pick a different Wizard than the default one, or create an entirely new Wizard. For
more info on customizing Wizards, see the section on Wizards and Heroes. IMPORTANT:
Be careful about changing your starting race with the Customize Wizard option.
Scenarios often have starting units and/or cities that may react violently if you do not
play the race originally intended in the scenario design. Exploration, on by default,
means that a black ‘fog’ covers unexplored parts of the map. If you turn this option off,
the underlying terrain of the map will be revealed. In multiplayer games, turning
Exploration off usually balances the map between players who don’t know the map and
players who do. Allied Victory means that your Wizard and other Wizards can
simultaneously achieve victory if they are allied and eliminate all opposing Wizards.
Otherwise, you must eliminate all other Wizards in order to win.

The option Always Watch Tactical is important for multiplayer games. In multiplayer
games, the option of Allow Tactical Combat will appear. If human players can engage
in Tactical Combat (TC), the overland game must pause until the combat is resolved.
Always Watch Tactical allows the other players to watch the events of the tactical
combat while the two involved players fight the battle. If this option is off, the other
players will not get to watch the combat and will have to wait until the fight is over to
resume their playing. The option Preferred Color in multiplayer lets you set the default
Wizard to play as. You are not guaranteed to get that Wizard, but if it is available, the
server will automatically give you that Wizard.

To select your Wizard manually, or to change the difficulty of computer opponents, click
on the box underneath each Wizard’s name and race. Computer opponents range in
difficult from the easy CPU Squire to the difficult CPU Emperor. Once you have set all
the human players to a Wizard, set the difficulty of the computer controlled Wizards, and
selected your game options, hit Start! to begin your scenario.

Chapter Two: Interface

Once a map has loaded and you’ve clicked in to start the game, the first thing you’ll get
to watch is your Wizard teleporting down to his or her starting position. The default
interface in AoW2 is broken down into the Main Window, where all the action takes
place, and three ‘sub’ windows that feed you information. Before you go playing with the
main window, take a look at the three windows across the bottom of your screen, starting
with the far left.

Events Window
The Events Window is a simple sequential text list of all the important events that are
occurring within your range of sight. If you click on one of the events listed in the window,
it will center your Main Window on the place where the event occurred. For events that
occur off-screen (like Messages from other Wizards), clicking on their listing will bring up
an entirely new window for you to examine.

IMPORTANT: When you receive messages from other Wizards and from Spirits, you must
click on their entry in the Events Window to bring them up! For now, just remember that
you can click on the events listed here to center your view on them.

Below the listing of events are three icons with some numbers next to each. The first
icon, a pile of gold, should be followed by a number plus (or minus) another number (for
example, 250+17). This represents your total amount of stored gold, follow by how much
gold you will either earn or lose at the end of the current turn. Gold is used to pay for city
upgrades, building new combat units, hiring heroes, and paying the upkeep for your
armies. The next icon, a deep blue crystal, is followed by a number plus (or minus)
another number. This number represents your total stored Mana and your Mana income
(or loss) at the end of the current turn. Mana is used for casting spells, paying upkeep on
magically summoned creatures, and for some miscellaneous other minor tasks. The last
icon, a bright blue and white star, is followed by a number/number (like 20/20). This
represents your current / total number of magic Casting Points. Every time you cast a
spell, it consumes Casting Points equal to the spell’s Mana Cost. You can only cast your
total number of Casting Points of spells each turn. Each new turn will automatically
replenish your Casting Points up to, but never exceeding, your total Casting Points.

Middle Window and Options

The middle window is used for many different functions. When nothing else is selected,
this window defaults to your Magic Options.

IMPORTANT: To get rid of any other options window and bring up the Magic Options
window, simply right- click on any space in the Main Window.

You can cast spells by clicking on the Spells button, you can center your Main Window
view on your Wizard by clicking the Center button, and you can change what spell or skill
you are researching by clicking the Research button. The tab at the top of the Magic
Options window labeled Active can be clicked to show what spells you, and what
global/domain spells the enemy Wizards currently have active. The Active tab is
important because it is where you go to cancel enchantment spells that you want to turn
off. The Power tab in the upper right will show you a list of everything that is generating
Mana for your empire. If you right-click on one of the listings in the Power tab, it will
center your view on the source of power.

Clicking the Wizard tab simply takes you back to the default window if you were on the
Active or Power tab. If you click on the Research button, you can change which spell or
skill you are researching. You can switch between researching spells or skills by clicking
either the Spells or Skills button in the research book. There is also a sliding bar on the
left that shows how much of your Power is going to generating Mana and how much is
generating Research. More Mana means you can cast and maintain more spells, more
Research means you get new spells more quickly. Simply click the Close button to
remove this window.

The Spells button from the Magic Options window is what lets you cast new spells. If
you want to see what types of spells you can cast, click on the bookmarks named Global,
Unit Enchantment, and Combat on the bottom-right page of the book. Any spell you
can’t cast will be grayed out. To exit this book, click on the bookmark shaped like an X
attached to the bottom-right page.

IMPORTANT: You cannot cast your spells anywhere on the map; you can only cast them
within your domain.

Put your Wizard in a city with a Wizard’s Tower to increase his domain. Domains appear
as colored borders surrounding your Wizards and Heroes in the Main Window.

You’ve probably noticed the five big icons to the right of where your Magic Options
appear. These icons, from top to bottom, represent the Magic Options, Object
Options, Realm Options, Diplomatic Options, and Game Options. The Magic
Options will automatically come up whenever you don’t have anything else selected, as
well as whenever you right-click on a space in the Main Window. The Object Options
will automatically pop-up every time you click on a unit, city, or other object in the Main
Window.

The Realm Options is mainly just an informational tool. It has several choices that will
give you information on your Treasury, Cities, Heroes, and Quests. For now, just
remember: like other lists, you can right-click on most things in the lists to center your
view on them. Using the Cities tab and the right-click method, you can quickly manage
all of your cities.

The Diplomatic Options window will not have much information at the beginning of
each scenario. Until you meet another Wizard, all you can do here is just see how your
Race Relations are faring. When you meet new Wizards, their portraits will start to appear
in the empty boxes and you can click on them and try to Negotiate. When you have your
Wizard selected, you can see your personal info and Race Relations. Race Relations are
important; they determine how much the 12 races in AoW2 like you. Happy faces mean
they like you and are probably willing to help you. Neutral faces mean the race doesn’t
care for you one way or the other. Angry faces mean the race doesn’t like you and will go
out of its way to make you miserable.

IMPORTANT: You can click on each race for a more in-depth description of why that race
hates or likes you.

Check out the section on diplomacy and race relations for more information on how to
use the Diplomatic Options.
The last of the options list is the Game Options. From here, you can change some of the
graphic, audio, and gameplay settings of AoW2. IMPORTANT: If you wish to prevent your
units from moving automatically when you select them, turn off the Auto Move option in
Game Options. Also, this is the menu for saving, loading, and exiting the game.

You can get rid of window in the same fashion as the other option windows: right-click on
a space in the Main Window.

Minimap

Lastly, we have the Minimap Window. The Minimap is simply a tiny representation of
the entire scenario map. You can click on any part of the Minimap to center your Main
Window on that part of the map. If the map supports both Surface and Cavern levels,
there will be a tab at the top of the Minimap. Clicking on either Surface or Caverns tab
will change the Main Window to show that level.

Beneath the Minimap are four very important features. The first button is the Next
Active Party button. This button can be used to quickly cycle through all of your parties
that still active for that turn. Next, there is the Unread Events icon. This icon will flash
whenever you have an unread event (check the Events Window) and you can click on it
to automatically center on the next event. The next icon is just a series of colored bars
called the Turn Indicator. This nifty bar is there to show you either who has not clicked
in during Simultaneous turn scenarios, or to show which player is currently active in
Classic turn scenarios. The last button at the bottom right is the End Turn button. When
you click this button, you are irrevocably entering you desire to end your turn. In
Simultaneous turn scenarios, once everyone has clicked this button, the next turn will
proceed. In Classic turns, once this button is clicked, it proceeds to the next player’s turn.
Remember, do not click this button until you have finished managing all of your cities and
armies for that turn!

The Main Window

This is where all the important stuff in AoW2 is carried out. You can left-click on almost
anything in the Main Window (from units to cities to windmills to magic nodes) to bring
up a more information on the object. Most of the time, this new information will appear in
a box that replaces your Magic Options window. You’ll notice that you can only see a
small portion of the map; the rest of it is blackened or grayed out. The black areas
represent areas of the map that you have never explored. The gray areas represent parts
of the map that you have explored, but you have no units or cities there currently within
visual range of that spot.
IMPORTANT: If you wish to increase the viewable area of the map in the Main Window,
you can use the + and – keys, or your mouse wheel, to zoom your view in and out.

For now, let’s just worry about the two most important things in AoW2: cities and parties.

Cities
Cities are the most important strategic resource in AoW2. To bring up more information
on a city, click on one of the hexes of the city. If all of the city hexes are occupied by
units, you can simply click twice on that same square to alternate between selecting the
Party Options or the City Options. The City Box will appear on the bottom middle of
your screen, giving you some basic info about the city. The current production queue is
listed on the left; from here you can either Hurry productions by spending extra gold or
Cancel productions entirely.

IMPORTANT: Hurrying productions costs 10 Gold and 10 Population for each unfilled coin
remaining.

To the left of the production queue, the race that inhabits the city and the City Morale
status you will be shown. (See the section on Diplomacy and Race Relations for more
information about City Morale.). Underneath the racial info, how much production, gold,
mana, research, and population growth the city is producing is shown.

If you want to bring up the detailed city information, you can simply left-click on one of
the city hexes. Doing so brings up two new windows, a Production Options window on
the left and an Information window on the right. The Production Options window has
three tabs, the first for Units, the second for Structures, and the last for Other
production options. If you click on anything listed in the Unit or Structure production
lists, the Information window on the right will change to give you more information on
that unit or structure.

IMPORTANT: For city size information, the list of city structures, and the list of the units
each race can build, see the appendices.

It takes both gold and turns to produce structures and units. The gold cost will be
immediately deducted from your treasury if you double-click on a unit/structure, or if you
click the Produce button.

IMPORTANT: The gold cost of each structure or unit is also the production cost. If a unit
costs 100 Gold and your city has 40 Production per turn, it will take 3 turns to build the
unit

If you do not have any unit or structure selected, the Information window will show you
more information on the city. In the top right, underneath the name of the city, the
number of turns remaining until the city grows to the next largest size will be shown. The
larger the city, the more it contributes to your empire. Underneath the city growth
indicator are two tabs; one for City Structures, the other for City Information. The
City Structures tab will list all the current structures and what they contribute to your
city. You can click on a structure and click the Sell button to sell structures back for gold.
If you click on the City Information tab, a list of everything the city naturally
contributes, as well as all modifiers for things like Terrain bonuses, will be shown. Crop
fields will naturally grow around the city at a rate of one hex per turn if the terrain is
favorable to the inhabitants; see the appendix for more info.

If you wish to build new cities, you must first construct a Pioneer unit. Pioneers can be
built in any city as long is it has both a Builder’s Hall and enough citizens to support the
Pioneers. Whenever a Pioneer is built, some of the city’s residents (200) will permanently
leave the city and join the Pioneers. Once these residents have joined the Pioneers, there
is no way to merge them back into the city. When the Pioneer is built, simply move it to
an open spot on the map that has enough open terrain (7 free hexes) and is not too close
to another city. Click on the Pioneer’s party in the Main Window, and then click on the
Pioneer itself in the list of units in the Party Options. Select the ability Build Outpost
and the Pioneer will build a new city if there is enough room. Once a Pioneer starts a new
city, it is gone forever.

Remember to leave at least some units to guard your cities, especially the city in which
your Wizard resides. An undefended Wizard is an easy target for your enemies. Produce a
few defensive units and consider building some walls around your cities to protect them
from enemies. Cities can be destroyed using the Raze City or Loot City options from the
Production Options. If a city is destroyed, a Pioneer can rebuild it using the Rebuild
Structure ability.

Parties
Next, there is the Party Options window. Whenever you click on a unit in the Main
Window, a little box of information about that unit will appear in a box where the Magic
Options window usually rests. AoW2 uses a ‘party’-based system where each spot
(called a hex) on the map can contain anywhere between 1 and 8 units. When multiple of
your units enter the same hex, they combine to form one large party. Each hex, however,
can never contain more than 8 units, nor can it ever contain more than one ‘Transport’
unit (like a ship). Each party of units has a little number listed next to it on the Main
Window; this represents the number of units stacked in that hex. When you select a
party, your icon will change to show a little foot. If you then click on a spot on the map, a
little trail of yellow and gray dots will appear, leading from your party to that spot on the
map. The yellow dots represent how far the party can move that turn; the gray dots
represent distances too far for them to move that turn. Whenever you click on a spot on
the map that is too far for the party to move to that turn, a little flag with a number will
appear at the end of the gray dots. The number in this flag represents, at maximum
speed each turn, how many more turns it will take for the party to reach that spot on the
map. To move the party, click on the spot on the map again, or simply hit the ‘M’ button
on your keyboard.

There is some additional information in the Party Options window presented for you to
inspect. In the bottom-left corner of the window is the Movement Indicator. The current
/ total (shown as something like 20/32) number of movement points that the party has is
listed in the bottom left of the window. On average, it takes 4 movement points to cross
one piece of terrain, but obstacles like forests will slow you down. The list of movement
costs for non-flying units on the various terrain types is as follows:

Terrain Type Moves Cost

Desert 4
Dirt (with Cave Crawling) 4 (3)
Forest (with Forestry) 8 (4)
Grassland 4
Ice 4
Lava (with Fire Immunity) Impassable (4)
Mountain (with Mountaineering) Impassable (8)
Road (with Enchant Roads) 3 (2)
Snow 4
Steppe 4
Swamp 4
Wasteland 4
Water 4

Next to the Movement Indicator, there is a Party Status icon that shows you how the
party’s morale is doing. As long as this isn’t an unhappy face, your party isn’t in danger of
rebelling against you or running away. There are three buttons in the Party Options
window. Clicking the first button, Guard, will remove a party from the active party list.
Put units who are defending cities on Guard so you won’t have to pan through them as
you move your non-defending armies around the map. The Done button simply marks
that party as finished for the current turn. Next simply selects the next active party. You
can also hit the ‘N’ key on your keyboard to select the next active party.

Left-clicking on a unit shown in the Party Options window will bring up the statistics for
that unit. This is also where you can Disband units that you no longer need, usually to
save on upkeep. The little red bar underneath the unit’s icon shows you how much of
their current health they have; a full red bar means full health. This little button
underneath the unit icon, called a Movement Switch, usually shows a foot with a
number underneath. This foot icon represents the type of movement (Foot = Walking,
Wing = Flying, Wave = Swimming) that the unit uses and the current number of
movement points that it has left for that turn. If you wish to split up a party (including
leaving a ship or other transport) simply click on this Movement Switch. The switch will
grow dark, indicating that the unit will not move with the party from that spot.

To split up your parties, you must use the Movement Switches in the Party Options
window. Simply click on the switch for every unit you do not wish to move from that spot.
Remember, to move off of boats, simply click 22 the switch for the boat and move the
rest of the units onto land. If you right-click on a switch, all other units will have their
switches darkened. This allows you to quickly separate one unit from a party. If you again
rightclick on that same unit’s switch, his will grow darkened while every other unit’s
switch will brighten. Play around with the Movement Switches a bit until you are
comfortable using them; they are a big part of AoW2.

Other Objects
In addition to Cities and Parties, there is a variety of other interesting structures on the
Main Window. Structures like Gold Mines and Nodes can be ‘captured’ to provide extra
gold or mana. Some objects on the maps, like Magic Vaults, are not capturable but will
give you some kind of special effect for visiting them.