The reason the game refers to "Throne City" and "Capital City" in 2 different ways is because at the start of the game your very first city (capital city) is also your Throne City, however whilst you can through out the game change which city is your Throne City, you can't change which is the capital, as that is always your first.

I would very much hold prolific swarmers as S tier. Unit upkeep is going to by far the largest use of your gold income, and this makes that go 20% further. Combined with the first trait, it might as well say 10% extra food AND 20% extra gold all game. That is insanely good.

Runesmiths is underrated. It's basically +15% mana, +5% knowledge, and +1 Rank to the unit types that need it the most (shield and polearm). You don't need to put your cities anywhere, you don't need to stop at Tier 1 units, and mana is a lot harder to come by than gold.

Played with fabled hunters last night. I thought it was SUPER strong early game. Getting food as a reward for clearing things and doubling that up was popping me like crazy.

I dont think Runesmiths deserves C tier. I find Enchantments to be the key of most strategies and they get expensive! When u have 4+ Stacks with multiple enchants their upkeep starts to get very high. Artisan Weapons, Seeker missiles, Fire Blades/arrows would only be 2 tomes and allready 4 enchantments! Its not for every Strategy i give u that. Order-Tomes are not very Enchantment heavy but anything that utilizes enchantments gets decent to supreme value out of this. I think its defenitly B tier and Enchantments are not that uncommon that i personally would even rate it A.

I feel like not factoring in the specific affinities of each bonus is a major oversight. +1 nature or chaos affinity from the beginning is way stronger then let’s say +1 materium or order affinity. I would also add then I think you massively undervalued Imperialist, Fabled Hunters, and prolific swarmers. Fabled hunters can give you a MASSIVE head start to the game (potentially saving you turns worth of all resources) if you focus on clearing early. Prolific swarmers -20% upkeep costs is actually insane, considering how high upkeep gets in the late game. Lastly, imperialist can also give you a massive head start if you are smart about city planning. +80-100 gold per turn can basically allow you to steamroll neighbors in the early game.

Silver Tongued is easily S tier with lots of free cities map. The trade deals rise in amount of resources you receive depending on vassalage rank and city size 15 pop free city with full vasslage can easily provide 100 knowledge for 0 resources trade deal Or mana Or gold Or production Its incredibly strong in certain situations

A lot of these very much depend on the world map. I think the extra whispering stone from Chosen Uniters is very strong on a map with many free cities, but becomes significantly worse on a map with no or very few free cities. Also a thing to consider is what type of affinity the traits give you, since they are most certainly not created equal (I value Nature affinity very highly and most people seem to agree that Chaos affinity is the strongest in the game). ps: Prolific Swarmers feels like it is THE strongest perk out there. 20% Upkeep reduction by itself would already be crazy good. 10% less food per pop and +1 rank for tier 1 units is just the cherry on top. It even gives chaos affinity, the best affinity in the game. Absolutely busted, in terms of min-maxing I would take this every single time.

Imperialist has a very strong combo with the high culture and ruthless raiders. Every city starts with 20 food production and gold and plus 10% on everything.

I feel like this video would have been far better as a "My favourite traits" over the tier list setup, as he seems to have a few favourite ones and has either not tried the others or just assumes they're all worse than his favourite ones.

One thing not mentioned in the video regarding Chosen Destroyers: choosing this culture trait locks you into a domination victory only, as you need to have three cities under your control to achieve either the magic victory or the expansion victory. It's still quite powerful at what it does, but the fact that all other victory conditions are simply not options makes it even more of a narrow focus than Pixel pointed out.

I think you are sleeping on the hunter (100%increase) one. It doesnt say in the tooltip but it also increases the level of items you get. (So I get a lot more tier 3/4 items) Also the early boost usually translates in taking of massively early game. (If u calculate it it yields a lot more than for example swarmers do) Therefore its a/s in my book.

Finally, a tier list video. I'm less interested in the tiers themselves because I still keep picking meme choices, but the analysis that comes with them are super helpful on how to work around with those traits. Perfectionist Artisans do well with cultures with mount racial traits because their T3 units start mounted. While it's not a massive game changer, like let's say a unicorn-mounted Awakener that can awaken two units at a time and stay safe with teleportation, can turn the tide or even help you beat early enemy armies in manual combat. Bannerlords+Wondrous Architects is also pretty fun and lets you ignore draft and just rely on gold for troops. Really good if you need quick recruits to defend yourself, like magic victories.

I think you are under valuing the Rally time cut, you can pay money but that starts at far more than 1000 at a full fifteen turns. Considering that count doesn't start until you have a vassal the starting bonus is actually really good for getting you the mechanic change into play early. The time cut only has one similar pick deep in the order tree so it is a pretty powerful effect.

If you expand Ancient wonder focused you can get easily 4 wonders often up to 6. You can annex tiles up to 7 provinces from your city if you pick up the nature improvement. Further more it doesn't increase the number of pops, so you get the yield for free. This is huge since it takes far more food to grow bigger cities. It is S tear in my opinion.

I think we have been playing 2 completely different games when he gets to runesmith. Mana addicts - I almost never cast spells in battle, only on hard ones, but all my units are encjanted to the point where My mana pwr turn is always in tje double digits and I still have other enchantments to add. They make every attack hit harder or crit more often, give frenzy or luck. Also very easy for the auto battler to use so your army can resolve and save you time.

I think ruthless raiders should actually be rated a bit more highly. In my experience the trait, when combined with the chaos empire skill for extra cash after battles, is a massive source of income that otherwise I have not been able to replicate. Also, adept settlers means you only have to boost once to get up to 5 cities, which therefore saves you up to 500 imperium on that alone--not even with the savings from founding, integrating, etc. I think that should put it firmly in A tier. Because it isn't a very strong early game mechanic and doesnt affect combat I struggle to put it into S-tier, but I think it's value is underestimated a bit.

Silver tongue is bad, but not as bad as one might think. Sure the trades are minor individually, but you can spawn vassals that act as free cities and also get immediate free trade from them. Had some trades be higher into like 40 of an output for 20 mana or something so you could get some milage out of it, but even so not worth a slot in comparison to any of the good traits. Around 50-80 random resources a turn is not worth a trait, and requires 5 or so free cities/vassals What we really need os a trait buy system, keep the really good traits at 3 points with 6 points max then something like this could be 1 point. Cool and thematic, but not good enough on its own.

Few things you forgot to mention - the whole order/diplomatic line of skills depends on your map setting - If there are no free cities they really sucks.

Adept settlers and wonder architects are easily S tier. City cap is king in this game and with the reduced imperium cost you can easily get 4 cities within the first ten turns of the game. Wonder architects starts you off with a cleared wonder allowing you to use rally of the lieges for powerful units right at the beginning of the game and starts you off with that extra production and imperium and a free population its so strong.

The "Wonderful Architects" trait seems to cause a wonder to spawn near you, not just clear a nearby one. 10 out of 10 tests there was a wonder 2 tiles away from my city (so I could claim it after I hit 2 pop). If this is the case, it is a nice steady 5 Imp bonus, in addition to whatever the wonder gives you. Every wonder that spawned was a bronze one, and it seemed to really like the hidden pool (got that one 4 times).

While I'm not gonna defend Seafarers I am gonna defend sea tiles. You don't really want a ton of them but grabbing 2 fisheries will get you access to all the important buildings in the fish building line and bump up the overall growth of the city.

Wonder architects - one thing you did not consider is the +5 imperium you get from the starting cleared wonder & any additional benetfit eg +20, production, researach, etc that comes with it Personally, I think that move ths to higher tier

Keep in mind that Mana Addicts' Life Steal will trigger when ANY Ruler, including allies and enemies cast, so you won't necessarily have to cast a spell yourself every round.

Shadow walker defender here. I agree for general empires it is rather lame. However, if your race has spider mounts the calculus changes and I’d argue for A tier. Spider mounts are crazy strong due to the web ability; this makes scouts one of the strongest tier 1 units; starting with an extra will let you snowball quick. You can bring a mounted hero and 5 scouts and you can take down wonders very early. Also the free tech removes it from the pool; letting you get a more relevant tier 1 research. It also provides shadow affinity which is good for a militarist campaign and a nice add to a barbarian faction.

I would have liked to see you mention the synergy between cultural and society traits. For example, Feudal cultures receive additional benefits from society traits which boost Polearm ranks since they upgrade to T2 Defenders once they reach Champion rank; for the same reason this makes Prolific Swarmers less valuable since you will be fielding less T1 units over time.

Reconsider the wonder trait. You also get the really good benefits of the (random) wonder very early on too. Which includes an early (random) tier three unit in your first rally.

Great video! My only critique is that you seem a little too dismissive of traits that have a higher value in the early game but less impact later. At one level I understand that perspective, but 4x games tend to be extremely "snowball" focused. Getting a strong early start leads to cumulative advantages with lots of indirect effects as you start to outpace your rivals. So something like Fabled Hunters or Talented Collectors might be a bit better than you give them credit for because those smaller numbers make a bigger impact early on, allowing you to establish yourself in a better position and get out ahead of everyone else. Not saying their S tier or anything, but generally I value early game bonuses a bit higher than late game bonuses for that reason.

Can't wait to watch this, I've typed in "AOW4 tier lists" several times since release and rushed through all that content, love me a good tier list on a fun new game. Thanks!!

To get those pantheon perks you dont need to go down each path, just go all the way down to the bottom and then work up.

I think you undervalue any of the things that give you +1 to a cap (city cap, whispering stones, etc.). Yes, you can unlock +1 City Cap through the empire tree -- but it increases in cost every time you buy it, not based on the size of your current cap. So an Adept Settler can buy their 5th city cap for the same 200 imperium, everyone else gets their 4th, and so on. You keep your edge in that category all game, as you'll always be able to do more of that than anyone else. How much one more city, or one more free city you can build relations simultaneously is worth will vary, but it's better than just saving you 200 Imperium.

Adept settlers is better than just 100 imperium of unlocking another city. It is another city point by itself so its cost is actually 1 higher than what you would be willing tk pay for a city. That is for most games 500 imperium or perhaps even 1000 for a long game/huge map. Upkeep reductions are probably better than it most of the time, but again os something you can use to steam roll to economic superiority.

Runesmiths, when you think about it, is almost as powerful as the Ancient Wise Ones. Generally speaking, you want to unlock enchantments in your tomes, as it's this type of spell is one of the most useful in any situations. So having a 30% reduction for 1 out of 3 mandatory unlocks every tome, is kinda powerful. It almost guarantees that the reduction will be useful. Not to mention the -30% upkeep, which can get huge if you heavily play around mass enchantments. So I would have placed it at a solid B tier personally.

So, there's an important thing to note with Perfectionist Artisans, and it's the fact that it also benefits from upgrades purchased on Outposts. And also upgrades that AREN'T purchased on Outposts; if you have the tier 1 Materium empire upgrade, the free palisades give you +5 gold. If you have Shadow Walkers, the free Watch Tower gives you +5 gold. The outpost itself counts as another +5 gold. And the Work Camp upgrade you usually purchase to get a free extra province also counts as another +5 gold. And unlike other buildings, Outposts don't cost production. It's especially nice if you can get underground and just make a neat little vault of money generators. Especially if you're a barbarian (and thus can make Outposts using scouts) Speaking of Shadow Walkers, I think there's potential for it to be a pretty decent (maybe even 'strong') trait by itself if you pair it with exactly Spider mounts in PvP. The spider mount web ability is very strong for what it is in the early game and running around with a squad of invisible nukers could probably mess someone up.

29:22 The trait is pretty bad but if you are on an island or near the coast, you can build fisherman guild. It gives +3 to production, gold, draft and food for every fishing tile. My starting city had pretty bad location but I got like +40 from fishing tiles alone with fisherman guild.

I have played "Paladins" all 3 of my games so far in AoW4, and for my playstyle, Chosen Uniters and Devotees of Good worked perfectly. On a normal sized map I have gotten 4 additional cities, and that is a LOT of additional income; resources; and units, especially when you have a city cap of 4 also (for 8 total). Of course, you have to be good most the time to keep those allies and bonuses.

One thing to point out here, is the affinity each trait gives. Chaos and Nature are S-tier affinities currently. Astral is like A/B. High is like B. Material is like B/C and Dark is D. All of these borderline Chaos and Nature perks, if it's on the border of B/A, then it's an A tier perk. With the current path argue that 2 chaos perks is S-tier. Period. The end. Likewise with two nature perks. These affinity trees are so much better than any other affinity tree, that any 2, or any combination of the two, makes the whole orders of magnitude better than any other sum. He is also undervaluing the nature perks on their own. Sea-farer is situationally, potentially an S-tier perk. Hunters is no lower than A tier, and adept settlers is also no lower than A tier. Aggressive node clearing with hunters snowballs you incredibly hard. The imperium savings from settlers is also a massive snowball advantage, and presents serious opportunity cost dilemma. Saying it's just "some free" imperium. Is kind of wild. The cost of the extra city repeatable doubles every time you purchase it. Effectively saving you the cost relative to anyone else each time you buy it. 250 I think for the first time, 500 the second, 1000 the third I think. So, you get city 6 for 250, everyone else pays 500.

Yah, Jambo, can not agree with you on many things. Disregarding early game bonuses is unwise. Extra 100 gold from Natural hunters in the early game can mean 2-3 turns early 2 tier unit, mean 5-6 turns earlier wonder clear, 10-15 turns earlier town.... Some of the combinations are also do not deserve to be in D. For example combine 2 early scouts fully invisible with barbarian culture (scouts can setup outposts), can mean everything for setting up you empire. Or having 2 scouts in beggining for materialist can easily be worth thousands of uncollected gold and tons of items from prospecting. I think you ranked them poorly, simply by yields and scaling into late game (though late game I actually do not need any of the bonuses, I usually have all that I need or I dont)

Prolific Swarmers is S tier due to the speed at which it catapults you into the game. A strong start leads to a strong finish. Ancient Wise Ones isn't as good as it seems. 60% discount early on is 2 turns cheaper than 4 and due to tome cycles you only research 2-3 things within a tome of 5. It's better to grab multiple tomes for the 1-2 overpowered abilities than one tome with 5 decent ones. B tier at best.

Gonna agree with others that I think Prolific Swarmers should be S tier. Upkeep and growth are incredibly important statistics, and swarmers get a game-long bonus to both. Plus, it's Chaos, which is definitely a strong affinity (possibly/probably the strongest).

a lot of these traits are meant to be combo'd with other stuff, so i dunno if looking at each one in a vacuum does them justice. a lot of the ones you rated low tier could be really good with the right synergies and make them better than the higher rated ones. and some just make sense depending on the type of playstyle you're going for. i still enjoyed this tier list though and i'm excited for how triumph will balance everything in the future. this game is so good!

Just a thought on Experienced Seafarers - the Seafarers Guild gives +3 Draft, Gold, Food and Production per fishery. I'm currently playing through the 2nd story map which starts near a coast and I'm getting +48 of those 4 resources just from that building. The society trait should basically be the same thing in my opinion, potentially stronger like make it +5 per fishery encouraging a coastal city, going up to +8 with the guild.

Mana addicts had one major flaw. If there is a spell jammer present where you're fighting, you can't cast spells. If you can't cast, you will lose as you units will begin routing by turn 5. In some situations, the spell jamming effect cannot be removed, so you must be very careful.

Ancient Wise Ones is okay, but not great. With an average of 5 techs inside each tome, it's a 12% increase in research, with the potential to get real lucky or unlucky where it hits.

the imperialist 20 gold is pretty significant early game, the same with stability as that gives you % extra yields as well, 20 is a lot, the same as a tavern (3 to 4 turns of production) you can see the extra starting pop like a pop cost reduction as well (as it doesn't increase the cost of the subsequent ones, view the first as free, the seconds cost the same as what normally the first would cost and so on), the same goes for the free annex wonder of wonder builders, it's a free pop or two (usually 1) mana channelers + prolific swarmers + tome of the horde, that summon irregulars becomes pretty juicy (30mana per cast... crazy!) remember that 4X games are snowballing games, the earlier you get your advantages the better, most bonuses fall off mid game unless it's a % (prolific swarmers plz) trades with free cities depends on the map, no free cities, no trades, but they can be pretty good

One thing you failed to notice with the shadow walkers trait is that it will grant you extra resources, and you will steal resources from other players, since your scouts will be moving faster and you have more scouts at the start of the game. It will also lead you to wasting less time running blindly around with your army stack, using it more efficiently. Another thing you didn't really put much thought into is trait synergy, some traits will obviously be stronger if you stack them with other synergistic traits, since they will benefit from one another, making it easier to snowball. I think that could be particularly true for great builders in combination with wonder architects or perfectionist artisans.

shadow walkers are actually pretty good for single player, hostile ai seems rather passive and does almost nothing until they find you and then they get hellbent on making your life miserable, so being able to scout and meet them at your own terms is rather useful

3:53 Presumably they're referring to the throne and capital city in two different ways because your capital city is specifically the one you start the game with. You can later change your throne city from your capital city to a different one which might be relevant if you founded cities in a way where your capital city doesn't border all of them.

Fabled Hunters with prolific swarmers is very much S tier combined, I am currently using that with a barbarian culture and the first ten turns I claimed a new province every turn. Prolific swarmers remains a good benefit through the whole game, fabled hunters might not be as impressive anymore when you no longer can find new spots to clear but it will help your early economy and growth a lot.

I don't really agree with lowering the ranking based on it being "too specific" Obviously if you are taking these traits you are leaning into them, most people don't just randomly choose their traits without a specific strategy in mind.

I wish banner lord also gave 25 off rally the lieges as well as lowing upkeep by the same. Letting you get a lot of good troops for cheap.

Perfectionist Artisans does have a slow burn at the start with that reduced city cap. However, by the mid to late game, it ramps up very quickly with how fast you're raking in gold. Which you can use to speed up production, and thus rake in even more gold. After a certain point, the speed up production option starts paying for itself! And if you combine it with Great Builders, you get two extra city structures right off the bat.

I really gotta fight you on Experienced Seafarers. Ocean tiles come into their own if you specialize in them by going Sailor's Guild. That building provides 3 food, 3 gold, 3 production, 3 draft PER FISHERY OR HARBOR. That's practically enough to make an unresourced ocean tile as enticing as a pasture or gold mine tile. Throw experienced seafarers and that nature perk that makes ocean tiles yield more food, and the sea could easily be a city's best option for every resource besides mana and knowledge. Particularly if you have some fish or oysters nearby.

I think you've underrated Gold in general. Gold being "easy to come by", kinda ignores that you have infinity use for having more gold. I am always short on gold since there is always something that's worth rushing or units that need drafting.

41:33 I think you undervalue the fact that Wonderful Architects give a wonder at the start - it not only gives +20% production to your capital right away, not only gives extra yields - it also gives extra Imperium yield straight from turn 0. And that is a big thing as sources of Imperium are more rare and often take longer to obtain (like.. wonders). Which pretty much pushes it into A-/B+ tier at least. Then add to that an opportunity to hire higher tier wonder units through Rally straight from turn 0. And then add to that the fact that wonders being free province = 1 extra pop bonus for each city with wonder, effectively. All of that - I'd say it is a solid A.

Some combinations to consider : Prolific Swarmers + Great Builders = easier to get population, and you can use that population to make a beautiful city full of amped up quarries. (Also swarmers is just good all around) Ancient Wise Ones + Mana Channelers + Shadow culture or spellbook for affinity : Research summons faster, cast them cheaper, and access the shadow skill that reduces upkeep of summons. Wonder Architects + Bannerlords = while bannerlords might seem underwhelming, ancient wonders do add monsters to the Rally of the Lieges. Want to play monsters? This is the way. Powerful Evokers + Mana Addicts or Combat Casters = Combat casting focus. Not my cup of tea but combat casting is very powerful if you do a lot of manual battles. Chosen Unifiers + Silver Tongued = Diplomacy focus. Needs a map with Free Cities. Start with extra 2 whispering stones, if it stacks. Not a big deal if it doesn't since that's a lot of talking rocks. Note that both light and shadow have useful skills for diplomacy. Trade can be very powerful with vassals. My favorite yet : Prolific Swarmers + Runesmith = reduced upkeep on non-magic units, and reduced upkeep on magic enchantments. Just grab the enchantment or pyromancy spellbook and boost those +1 rank Tier 1 units for early game! If you're not sure about all this, just grab Adept Settlers and Ritual Cannibals, they're just good for all maps.

In defense of great builders: It scales. The more special buildings constructed, it always activates. However, starting bonus is where I actually wuite like it. I don’t see “just” a workshop, I see multiple turns I don’t have to spend building it, I see the gold I save on not having to “rush” it effectively, and I see the extra push I get from the start. Quarries bonus is okay and the wall is okay too (good early defensive buff I guess), but the turns I’m saving building something else and the gold I’m saving not rushing it is too big of a buff to discount imo. Same with Wonder Architects: it scales so well! 20% bonus means it’s not just a flat 5 construction, it means when I start the game, I’m likely only getting 2-3 bonus production, but as we get to the end game, I’m sitting there with an extra workshop or three effectively. Saving in population also means I’m investing in even more resources elsewhere AND expanding more territory.

I think the bonuses highly depend on how you intend to play. I made a faction once with Underground Adaption and Master Seafarers, along with Adept Settlers... didn't do well, stopped playing after 40 turns. Faction shows up next game and wins an expansion victory. I guess I just suck. o.o Still was proud of them, though.

Ritual cannibals feels like it gives more than mana addicts without any real drawbacks.

Perfectionist artisans is godly with 3 things in combination: 1. shadow walkers 2. the first maeterium empire upgrade on the empire tree (outposts require -50% gold and start with a structure already built) 3. Barbarian culture Why? Perfectionist artisans adds +5 gold for each structure. Now, with shadow walkers and materium, your outposts automatically build 2 structures. This means your outposts MAKE YOU 7 GOLD PER TURN instead of draining 10 gold. Don't forget, outposts can annex tiles like ancient wonders or magic materials, allowing you to snowball quickly. Build mines, research posts, and conduits by annexing a tile for free benefits. But why barbarian? Well, barbarian is the only culture in the game that allows your scouts to build outposts. This allows you to spam scouts (scouts are disgusting with spider mount racial trait, btw, web is broken) putting up outposts every single turn and snowballing for thousands of gold income insanely fast. Additonally, the barbarian trait allows your outposts to refresh army movement, allowing you to zip around the map faster than anyone. Perfectionist artisans is S tier with the right combo, easily the best feature in the game. No other trait allows you to ramp up gold and expansion so quickly. Don't overlook it because of the 100% production increase. You can spam buy structures with this build anyways.

One thing to mention, while gold is relatively easy to get, it's also the most useful resource as it is used to make almost everything. It can also be used to outright purchase buildings & units. And, if diplomatically inclined, traded for anything. Making gold increases pretty valuable at all stages of the game

I would challenge you to play some games as chosen destroyers then say they are not good, its so powerful and connect with imperium unlocks of chaos affinity, if u get to raze 2 city at like first 20 turns the game is over for others its give u so much resources and its so snowballi for that

I think mana-addicts very dependent on if you are going to go undead or not, because if you are then it is literally useless otherwise its extremely good, its just that becoming undead is probably the best major transformation in the game, since it gives life-steal. As for perfectionist artisans, its basically a gold mine for every building so if you pair it with other methods of getting gold in the early game it can be incredibly powerful in the mid to late game.

On seafarers, you can get a seafarers guild building that gives all sea tiles +3 gold/draft/food/production so it even though water cities are boring they can be strong but are slow to start and the lack of boosts and other districts actually locks you out of alot of buildings.

Amazing content brother, my new favorite creator, great to see some easy to listen content coming from NZ! Too much.

Great vid dude, i like it 😎

D trait should mean you would virtually never take it. Most of them you have ranked there have a use in one build or another.

Had to do such ranking, as it mostly depends on what you need to achieve and with what you combine the traits. Still nice ranking and good move with the explanation on the rules in how you apply the weight.

scouts are OP when they are on spiders, shadow walkers makes my stacks of spider riders invisible. In pvp this is going to be hilarious

Chosen Destroyers is darn near F tier in a multiplayer lobby that knows how to play. Everyone just gangs up on you early on and destroys your throne city very early on. Afterwards, you're just running for your life in the wilderness until they find you and you're dead.

Great builders is so underrated. Focusing on production to get your city built and upgraded as fast as possible while also getting the gold to do it is insanely strong if you know what you are doing. Gets you miles ahead of the competition with no way for them to catch up because of the strong late game advantages of the perk.

An open letter to any dev from a huge fan of the game here. I'm a retired game designer, now an avid player, with over 550 hours played so far in AOW4, and over 1500 hours played in AOW3, and 2000 hours played in Planetfall. In my opinion you have made one of the best games of all time. I love how you've combined the best from your two previous games with a number of great innovations in AOW4. Here are just a few suggestions to consider as possible tweaks/additions to this already wonderful game. First, I think the main issue currently with sea play is treating sea combat like Master and Commander style 1700/1800's naval warfare with the focus on naval maneuvering of ships. In the current version of tactical combat, each unit becomes a single generic looking ship, otherwise retaining most of its abilities. This is a bit awkward both visually and thematically. AOW is a fantasy series, based loosely on medieval tech. During medieval times, naval warfare was largely about closing to within grappling/boarding range, and then fighting across the decks. You could simulate this by making the ships the BATTLEGROUND, with each ARMY contributing a single stationary ship in the battle (battlegrounds rendered with your ships on one side, enemy ships on the other, 1v1 up to 3v3 ships), all locked in grappling range with boarding planks allowing access to enemy ships (great choke points), water surrounding them, and channels between the ships for swimming units (of course flying/floating units would also be very useful). This would result in beautiful battlegrounds detailing the decks of the ships (with all the amazing, possibly faction related, artwork, features, obstacles, and even perhaps researchable ship upgrades like ballista that could exist on those decks, using a game mechanic similar to how siege upgrades work with cities ). This would make the battleground much more interesting both visually and tactically, while also unifying the way the game works across sea and land warfare. Second idea to make sea play more interesting is to create underwater realms using a similar mechanism to the underground world. Units that have a dive/surface ability could access this realm (in place of cavern entrances). This underwater realm could have kelp forests, beds of seagrass, undersea mountains, coral reefs, merfolk cities, domed cities, underwater dungeons like haunted shipwrecks, kraken dens, and sunken cities, etc. Some units would be bottom dwellers similar to non flying/non floating units on land (say crab units) that would only have the dive/surface ability when adjacent to a coast, while swimming units would work both visually and game mechanics wise like flying/floating units on land (with the addition of always having the dive/surface ability). This change could be accompanied by introducing a Merfolk faction with units like the Triton, Siren, Sea Witch, and Drowned Sailor, crab and/or turtle mounts, and animal units like sharks, baby kraken, giant crabs, etc (The dlc could be called something like March of the Merfolk). By making both surface water play and underwater play both strategically and tactically more like the land game, I think it would make investing in naval/sea/swimming units and research, as well as exploring this part of the game, much more unified, comprehensive, and exciting. On a related note, AOW3 had amazing underground play. It was one of my favorite tactics to take an army early and just spend the entire game exploring the underworld with that army, leveling it up, and exploring the beautiful and wondrous subterranean world. It felt like a D&D dungeon dive. Much of that beauty and wonder, as well as the D&D feel, is lost in the current version of underground. This version of the underworld is mostly all brown/dirt colored (aside from lava). Cavern systems can be made more visually appealing by adding areas of colored minerals, crystal features, glow worms, fluttering bats, phosphorescent or strangely colored fungal forests, etc. Also, exploring the underworld is now nearly impossible as it is almost completely filled in until 'excavated' one province at a time. Adding to the frustration is that there is WAY too much impassable rock. If they are meant to mimic above ground mountains, it should be noted that units can still move over mountains (just slowly). Trying to play underground is literally impossible in many ways, as you usually have to go above ground to both explore AND to engage even other underground cities, players, etc. AOW3 had a nice balance between already existing and interconnected caverns and tunnels to explore, and areas to excavate. The current version of the underworld is visually plain and painfully slow to build within or even just explore. Finally, faction traits and minor transformations focused on granting advantages in a certain terrain are, on average, very weak (if for no other reason than because their advantages are only applicable in that terrain). Because of this, I think they should actually grant, on average, much more advantage in that terrain (making up for the absence of any advantage outside that terrain, which might be most of the time). One example would be leafskin. Currently it only grants faster movement and concealment in forests. This transformation could be stronger by adding strategic advantages like allowing farms to be placed in any province with forest, and tactical advantages like removing ranged penalties for obstruction from obstacles (but only trees, bushes, etc) whilst also increasing the ranged penalties to enemies firing at you in plant cover). Similar additions to the frostling transformation (allowing farms on frozen, and maybe giving all attacks a small chance to slow/freeze when in frozen terrain) and rock transformation (allowing improved prospecting chances and perhaps giving units the rock walk ability - slow passage through impassable rock), and likewise similar additions to the terrain based faction traits. This suddenly makes trying to focus on fighting and building in your chosen terrain a massive benefit, whilst still being useless outside that terrain. This would make forest elves try to stay and grow their forests, likewise for subterranean molekin, frostlings in their icy realms, etc. Suddenly playing to your faction's theme is both advantageous and thematically very satisfying. I hope these ideas inspire some minor tweaks and/or amazing new dlc (like improved and exciting sea play) to what is perhaps one of the greatest games ever made. Keep up the amazing work and thank you.

One point about the traits that save you mana is that it does not lower that casting point cost so it does not increase the number of spell you can cast a turn or during combat.

Shadow walkers is busted if youre trying to get quick pantheon xp though. A free scout at the start to go and find the opponent, become their vassal and "win" via military to get 500 xp every few minutes

Silver Tongued on a larger map with a lot of city states can get extremely broken. Some city states do deals for like 40 knowledge or 50 production per turn, and once you have a few of them vassalized you can spiral out of control from there. Not S tier but definitely more powerful than the rest of the stuff in D tier.

IMO probably underestimating +1 starting pop here. You're starting 3 turns ahead, and since early pop gets you food which gets you more pop, the earlier you get the snowball rolling, the faster your city will grow by a significant margin. You'd have to do the math but your city starting on 2 pop is likely reaching certain income breakpoints MANY turns before a city starting on 1 pop.

Now I need to unlock my pantheon so I can try chosen destroyers + perfectionist artisans…

Im a big fan of perfectionist as a barbarian as you can pump out scouts and spam outposts, each outpost will generate gold after the palisade walls on construct from materium affinity 50 imperium, add on to that a regular king, not a wizard, and the outposts get +5 gold per structure and the +10% i believe gold from having a regular king. Can really up an economy into the stratosphere mid to late game.

I'm new to your channel, but I can tell you play civ as well by your terminology, like when you call the independent cities(I forgot what they're called too lol) city states. Loved the video! Just got the game last week and I loved the detailed overview for some tips for my second game!

I believe "Capitol City" means your starting city in this case, but "Throne City" can be moved. also, city cap is not directly hero cap, though they are very close. hero cap is number of cities you have, so if you're under cap for cities your hero cap is lower than your city cap. for Wonder Builders, the starting bonus is larger than I think you're giving it credit for, as it means you basically start with bonus income for a random resource and Imperium, as well as giving you the ability to rally some units from it at the first possibly opportunity, likely giving you extra t2 units super early, with a chance that you'll get lucky and get access to t3 units. you also get a unique ability from the wonder, but those are significantly harder to judge.

I feel like some of your rankings assume you are NOT going for an expansion victory. That victory requires lot of scouts and vassals and outposts, perhaps diplomacy. Expansion is probably slower than military but faster than magic victory. Your B tier is mostly traits optimized for expansion victory. Expansions and vassals are really good when founding your own vassals and stealing vassals is your win condition. Even the scouts, while still terrible, is only explainable at all if using Barbarian scouts to win an expansion victory.

Having watched The Spiffing Brit basically take over a map with no army or extra cities, just using Bannerlords and another trait, I wouldn't say it's that weak. If anything, it seems quite good to me, but thats just me.

many of the traits you set pretty low give a huge poost earlygame but fall off later on. The thing is that snowballing is a big thing in this game, do not underestimate how valuable a headstart is. Fabled hunters, talented collectors and great builders deserve low B or high C rank. they do wonders in the right setup.

The settler bonus should be understood as the imperium cost of your last city. In a large scale game this can easily be a free 1k imperium The hunter bonus is insanely good if and only if you have regenerating infestations. Otherwise definitely D tier. Also fast starting bonuses should be understood as a long term and constant gain because you are always X turns farther ahead than normal and the delta in income from that is always experienced

From my experience I think you under-rated Hunters, Swarmers, Imperialists, and Rune Smiths. Also Shadow Walkers are amazing for Spider Mounts spam.

Capitol and throne city - its different because you can change youre throne city. So Imperialist for example is regarded to your start city (Capital) as it is a important distinction as the bonus wont move with the switch of youre throne city.

So the only thing i feel that is important to add is the society traits affinity. Everyone might feel different but nature and chaos play very strongly right now so a society trait of theirs that might be a C would imo be a rank or two higher because you are getting much better affinity. People might disagree as to what is stronger or not but i think the traits affinity should definitely be taken into consideration

I made industrial cannibal runesmiths with a nature tomb. Tanky dudes who could heal from the bodies of the dead and had a bunch of nature magic healing.

I do not like Mana Addicts at all. It's like an evil, chaos, undead ability, and is very unthematic for "Wizards". It is something a vampire type race would use. It's needed to be a evil or chaos trait. Fabled Hunters needed to add easier movement through forests.

Experienced seafarers is broken on an island map. Sea tiles can have about as many special tiles as land and when they don't your tile is still better than a default logging camp or farm. The fishing guild is one of the strongest guilds because on an island map you can have 9 or more fisheries that it improves. It is not the kind of thing to do often because water maps are not fun to play, but if you do, it will make your economy dominate

Thank you for the great video. Ancient wise ones - I think I would make it one tier lower. The discount is once per tome.

An idea for future video: Layout these traits again at the start of a new video & come pre-prepared with any traits you would like to update and move around on the list. Elaborate on why based on game updates & your experience. Would be interesting to see if any changes with time.

Runesmith gives -50% to unit enchantment upkeep (the 30% may be a typo), when you look at the in-game effect. for example, it reduces a 2 mana upkeep per unit, to a 1 mana upkeep per unit. I like unit enchantments, (and lots of units), so this saves a lot of mana. I'd rate it "A" tier. Say you have 20 units with 3 enchantments each, that's 20 (2+2+2) = 120 mana. With Runesmith that becomes 20 (1+1+1) = 60 mana, a savings of 60 mana. Best of all, it scales in power as you get more units and more enchantments.

Just watched the first one, and there's almost no nuance in the decision-making process as far as I can see. Chosen uniters is OP for Industrial, because your T2 Polearms and your T1 and T3 Shield units all get more ranks. But it sucks for Dark and Barbarian, since they have only a T2 Polearm and a T1 Shield respectively. And anyone can play the vassal game if they're planning to play on good alignment, so you really just focus on the military aspect of it to determine which culture can use it better IMO.

so either i don't use chosen destroyers right or it just isn't that great but any time i try to use it i can't get far because it takes a long while to get to the point of actually being of benefit (more often than not 20+ turns in at which point other players are at like 3-4 times my possible production just in the fact that they have like 6 city all pumping out 40+ mana) the sea is actually better than you think it is just locked behind the fishermans (or whatever it is called) guild so if you do an island start where you don't have a lot of options the sea will provide.

Home: “I hope Jumbo is doing well. He never writes…”

Very good video Jumbo. Will be playing more aow4 😊

one thing to note with mana addicts, if theres a spell blocker... you need to finish that battle in like 4 turns

perfect artisans and adept settlers is my fave set up 2 city cap to start and the extra gold is really nice if you like gonig tall.

Id argue imperealist is actually S tier. If you pick it you are logically going to rush to 3 cities then to 4. 60 per turn very early game is huge, and more importantly really needed to properly supply 3 cities early. While gold is not a rare resources it never stops being useful. It can be converted into production, which effectively means anything at that point. Need food buy a granary with gold.