Age of Wonders 4: Creating factions Age of Wonders 4 guide, tips

Creating a faction is one of the more extensive options you will use in AoW4. On this page of the guide you will learn every detail of it.

Last update: 30 May 2023

In Age of Wonders 4, aside from the option to create your own Realm, the second significant customization feature is undoubtedly the faction creation menu and all the options that come with it. When choosing/creating a faction, aside from the visual side, you will want to add certain body and mind characteristics.

• Race
• Culture
• Society Traits
• Tomes of Magic
• Rulers Origin
• Appearance
• Summary

Race

The first major option when creating a faction is choosing the race. Their list, and traits that come with them can be found on a dedicated page of the guide. At the current stage, you can choose from 10 races. Above else, focus on choosing the right body and mind traits, as the visual side alone doesn't affect the gameplay and the growth of your empire.

Body Traits

Body Traits affect things like health, accuracy, or the ability to make better use of horses or wolves. Traits from this group also affect the vitality of your army. The list of bonuses you can choose from depends on the biology of your people. Visit a dedicated page to view a full list of these traits.

Mind Traits

Mind traits, in opposition to physical, focus mainly on how your people utilize their knowledge and intelligence to receive bonuses to combat, or to gain bonuses on the world map e.g. making armies move more efficiently in snowy or frosty regions. Visit a dedicated page to view a full list of these traits.

Culture

Choosing a culture will affect your future empire greatly. Visit a dedicated page to view a complete list of Cultures. You can choose from 6 cultures, all differing greatly in the bonuses they offer. First and foremost, we have a bonus to a certain Affinity, and the other bonuses involve topics such as Production, or Food.

Society Traits

Society Traits are special attributes of your race, which allow further customization of your newly created faction. Remember that choosing some of them blocks you from activating other ones. The choices may seem unintuitive at first, as e.g. Chosen Uniters trait blocks you from choosing Ruthless Raiders, Ritual Cannibals, or Scions of Evil.

Every chosen Society Trait offers additional bonuses and an Affinity point - through this, you can mitigate some of the weaknesses of your chosen culture or, on the contrary, focus only on one Affinity and in this way find your own path to victory.

To learn more about Society Traits, visit a dedicated page of the guide.

Tomes of Magic

Tome of Magic is another choice you need to go through when choosing to create a custom faction. A list of all Tomes can be found on a dedicated page of the guide. The first thing you want to know when choosing a Tome, is to what Affinity it gives points to.

Other bonuses from Tomes include:

1. Empire bonuses
2. Unit or building bonuses
3. Access to new spells either affecting allied or enemy units

Rulers Origin

Here you can choose whether the ruler comes from the people or came into this world by a portal. There are 2 choices here:

Champion

"A Ruler risen from their people" This choice provides you with following bonuses:

1. All controlled Cities gain +10% Gold income and +20 Stability.
2. All your non-Hero units gain +20% Experience.
3. +100 Relations with Free Cities from the start

Wizard King

"Powerful sorcerer seeking to conquer a new realm." This choice provides you with following bonuses:

1. All controlled Cities have +10% Mana income.
2. +5 World Map and Combat Casting Points per level of the hero.
3. Overchannel ability - in combat, the hero can cast two spells per turn.

Appearance

In this part of the wizard, you can decide how should your Empire's flag look. You can choose the colors and the design of the emblem. In this part of the creator, you can also change the race's appearance, the color of their skin, used mounts, and finally armor and hair color.

Finally, we can decide on the ruler's appearance. You're free to choose from a wide range of options, from the appearance of the body, head, color of the skin, and finally the outfit.

Summary

The final part of the wizard is Naming your hero. You will also be able to name the faction and choose a title that your hero or heroine will brandish. The creator will also create a historic background of the faction, based on names and traits you've chosen during creation.