AGE OF WONDERS 4 IS A PERFECTLY BALANCED GAME WITH NO EXPLOITS - Everything Is Broken

[@thespiffingbrit]

*You wouldn't pay someone to break your game* Also yee can check out the game here: play.ageofwonders.com/SpiffingBrit

[@tuanmemes]

Good point

[@EEEEEEEE]

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎E

[@Classy_NPC]

True

[@leoleo1035]

Well I get paid for that, as a QA! Hhahaha

[@GreenDude_Gaming]

please fix your Skyrim playlist it's an absolute mess.

[@ThatHeathenJay]

I like to think that Spiff is just the final stage of QA and testing before release.

[@kae5717]

Spiff is the final boss, and no one has yet reached his final form

[@rotomwash0355]

Spiff is so far beyond quality testing. Spiff is litigation evidence in the lawsuits proving the developers never tested anything.

[@Dirge_Prime]

No, what he is playing is what we are getting and playing on release tomorrow, lol,

[@Drathlan]

Final Boss xD

[@QIKUGAMES-QIKU]

I doubt very much he can do this on LORDS MOBILE ! 😁💢😈

[@pinkwolf2020]

I love at 7:40 the leader of the other land says "Salutations, Barry THE DESTROYER." And asks for him to respect their territory. Sure, that's going to happen.

[@byjercam]

I mean, the man's avatar literally looks like the physical embodiment of evil.

[@damiennixel925]

@@byjercam Looks like a British Jafar

[@gManGabe]

@@damiennixel925 That's how I envisioned Spiff tbh

[@seb2750]

That day, Barry taught them the meaning of "THE DESTROYER"

[@elfiwolfe]

I like Paradox. Other companies like to hide problems. Paradox pays the Spiffing Brit to break their game publicly.

[@gotdangedcommiesitellyahwa6298]

Their company name is appropriate.

[@-JustHuman-]

The real problem is they don't really fix the problems, they instead make DLC's and make the problems seem smaller compared to the new one :)

[@Dan280974]

@@-JustHuman- i like that

[@Rin8Kin]

Well, it's a good promotion, showcase and entertainment along with testing, so why not?

[@SomeTexan]

Paradox didn't make this one they only published it.

[@gannonpatton2858]

I love it when game mechanics can be confused with exploits. Generally makes for a fun game!

[@thespiffingbrit]

That grey area of balance and customisation is where amazing fun exists

[@xX_Lord_Headass_Xx]

That basically applies to at least half of all Elder Scrolls "exploits". Most of the broken magic mechanics are intended and lore-accurate.

[@brennanruiz1803]

@@xX_Lord_Headass_Xx Horse-tilting and fall-damage canceling with paralysis

[@anasexualmeatbag2979]

@@brennanruiz1803 horse magic

[@xX_Lord_Headass_Xx]

@@brennanruiz1803 We can call those "advanced transportation methods". Totally intended.

[@bluicarys732]

"Its not a war crime if there are no survivors" -Spiff

[@RishiX]

Chad quote

[@512TheWolf512]

by how he says it, you'd think he's russian, and not british

[@sandronecromancer]

@@512TheWolf512 why not british? :3

[@messire9837]

@@sandronecromancer Mucho exacto. Why not uk rains over london even, at the point we're given, hey? Russians have nothing to do with this. Ho? A Might & Magic fan. Hey, brother!

[@xX_Lord_Headass_Xx]

He really IS British...

[@flubru7742]

Finally, a game that allows Spiff to power an entire society on the souls of the innocent.

[@Roketsune]

I noticed something peculiar. In the info popup for Chosen Destroyers at 1:45, it says that you do start at war with everyone. However, 21:20, it says you only start with a 300 relations malus with everyone. I hypothesize that they had originally chosen the former, and changed it to the latter at some point further in development, but failed to update the tooltip popup to reflect that until Spiff informed them, which they fixed in the middle of this video's production. EDIT: Wow, 195 likes is by far the most I've ever had for a comment, I think!

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Sounds accurate

[@gManGabe]

I was going to say that, but then Spiff said: "These units should have upkeep, but don't". Seems like behind the scenes, the game is held together by duct tape, glitter glue and hope.

[@omarsabeur9039]

@@gManGabe once you hit like move 90, the game starts chugging pretty hard.

[@gustavosanches3454]

I think the intention is to start at war with everyone, however, at turn 1 you don't know any other faction and they apparently can't make you automatically start a war whenever you meet a new leader :D

[@doublepinger]

NEEEEEEERD (good catch! programmers taking a technical note :) )

[@igorposselt3612]

1:06 - "remember kids, it's not a war crime if there's no survivors" I'm going to hang this sentence on my wall 🤔

[@catlover708die_all_humans_lol]

Same.

[@Turnil321]

It is not a crime against humanity if they are not human.

[@catlover708die_all_humans_lol]

@@Turnil321 Everything's a crime if you try hard enough!!

[@Turnil321]

@@catlover708die_all_humans_lol Remember, everything is legal if there are no cops around.

[@catlover708die_all_humans_lol]

@@Turnil321 Fair enough.

[@jameszd4470]

I want to see a multiplayer game where each person takes one of these tactics and see which one wins.

[@__-tp4tm]

Wakes memories about Heroes of Might and Magic 3, it wasn't the question if a certain thing is bullshjt, rather who had the biggest bullshjt. Anyhow, definitely look forward to this.

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

@@__-tp4tm If everyone is overpowered, no one is and that's the best.

[@TherosonDragonstoungue]

That's what "Moba"s are.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

​@@TherosonDragonstoungue oh?

[@neckropemancer5416]

@@TherosonDragonstoungue I think you mean RTS

[@adamcryer]

Spiff is literally a bug finder for devs

[@Sazabi4prez]

Most of the stuff he does isn't a bug though, it's just things the devs didn't think of would break the game. Just like you can overpower yourself in RPGs and go back to the starter zone and laugh at the enemies

[@Mankorra_Gomorrah]

Spiff and his team are probably some of the highest paid QA testers in the business. Having a big chunk of the funding coming from ads, sponsorships and patreon helps with that lol.

[@huntermcintosh8173]

@@Sazabi4prez Literally the basis for this run is a bug, Chosen Destroyers are supposed to start at war with everyone, first person he meets he's not at war with. Immediate bug.

[@you_tube6733]

just exploits. not bugs. everything is legit in the game. lol.

[@kenzieafent6291]

​@@Sazabi4prezI agree, he finds exploits not bugs. If devs want a bug finder then they should sponsor let's game it out.

[@ObscuriaDragunAed]

For those wondering about the last custom army, the specs that matter are: Tome of Faith, Fast Recuperation, Overwhelm Tactics, Fuedal, Silvertongued and Bannerlords. He picked humans too, but, that's not necessarily a big deal if you pick another given that the traits can be changed.

[@mentalshatter]

0:48 Oh god, he can't turn it off, he's began breaking everything on instinct alone, even the English language!

[@Rastayeti666]

the good thing is, Triumph Studios has a history of great support and communication after release. While even bugs in total war games will mostly never been patched you can expect the first update with balance fixes a few weeks after release or even shorter

[@Kipkerrie2]

The spiffing brit cant be stopped he’s making the best content now

[@EEEEEEEE]

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎E

[@Kipkerrie2]

@@EEEEEEEE E chain maybe

[@12ratsinatrenchcoat]

E

[@cyberNinjaJesus]

E

[@ALLMINDmercenarysupportsystem]

E

[@endless2239]

reminds me how on age of wonder 1 you could make your leader a literal God, didn't even need an army at the end of the game, perfectly balanced.

[@TheTownGuard]

Not only do you entertain us, but you also make the games you break better by pointing out to the devs where there is an issue. I raise my southern style tea to you sir.

[@cocacola4blood365]

When the premise is Barry the Destroyer ruling the British from Barry's Party Palace, you know the game breaking is going to be out of this world.

[@cutekittensmeow]

Its always hilarious when devs sponsor Spiff. They asked for this!

[@Dirge_Prime]

Yeah, seems a bit self defeating to me, but hey their time lol!

[@caseywensnahan3543]

@@Dirge_Prime You say that like these companies don't employ QA testers.

[@bomjus1706]

zealots are summoned with mana, but their upkeep is gold you can see yourself gain ~40 gold per turn after winning the battle at 8:20 after a couple of zealots die. at least one part of the game isn't broken lol. you can also see your gold per turn go down by 8 at 6:05 when you summon your first zealot.

[@brocksamson3282]

I confirm, Zealots have 8 gold upkeep, and 0 mana upkeep.

[@kirkendauhl6990]

My god 16 seconds ago? Last time I was this early my gf said it was normal and it happens to every man at some point.

[@thespiffingbrit]

I think there's a pill that can help

[@soulin11]

@@thespiffingbrit it’s called Yorkshire Tea

[@KingOfGlory383]

@@thespiffingbrit Im from south africa and I can't get yorshire tea :(

[@Kasaaz]

I do appreciate you releasing this video actually close to the release date. Some of the marketing and whatnot has been so weird around this game and it's already faked me out twice thinking the game was out and then getting disappointed. Their 'Launch' Trailer was like a week and a half ago.

[@alexneal9534]

Perfectly balanced

[@Zstrchironsport]

Like everything should be

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@Classy_NPC]

A

[@Danjovisagat]

Awh yes

[@ethancarey2893]

P

[@purplefanta7142]

My childhood favorite franchise, so glad to just see you playing this regardless. This game looks like the culmination of the series. So effing excited.

[@koenvandenbroek5814]

Okay so it’s settled, I have to get this game now

[@i_have_spoken]

Just never update it or they will have patched the exploit

[@AntonsVoice]

Agreed

[@thespiffingbrit]

I'm not allowed to review it yet but I can say I now have 70 hours in the game xD

[@AntonsVoice]

Hello again Mr evil Brit from teen titans

[@koenvandenbroek5814]

@@thespiffingbrit yeah I already heard Potato’s ultra positive review, and now that you’ve made a video on it as well, I’m fully convinced

[@miloelite]

30:52 "The game even has multiplayer. Why not grab a copy for your friends and invite them to a multiplayer session, where you can use what you've seen in today's video to absolutely decimate that friendship and make them never want to spend time with you ever again." 🤣

[@bucketman5386]

Spiff is the type of person to buy a hamster, exploit the worlds laws of physics to create a laser cannon, and put it up against a dragon

[@АнтонБородин-з8з]

Lovely and briliant as always! Also, when you talk about ho to get fast pantheon points, you can get that even faster. Just go with your scouts, find your only enemy on the map, declare war and as soon as you can- surrender to be its vassal. When you do so, game starts to think that you both are practically allies now. And as both of you r only players in the game, so its counts as your win!

[@mastertwitums3476]

At this point Spiffing Brit is basically a game company's exploit tester, just give him the game, sponsor the video, and just take notes.

[@TheUrobolos]

Paying a youtube expert to find every single possible exploit/cheese feature in your game is some 3D chess tier big brainer move. Well played, Paradox/Triumph

[@donpollo3154]

I get the feeling that this might be a perfectly balanced game with no exploits

[@thomasneal9291]

It's much more balanced than he implies. But that's how he makes a living...is by conving the credulous that hard is easy.

[@TribalGrayFox]

All broken jokes aside, this seems like a very enjoyable game

[@freezysyahz]

True!

[@Yuki_Ika7]

Agreed, seems like my kind of 4x game!

[@aaaagamedev3524]

If only it didnt lag progressively worse with each turn.

[@TroopB-so3jm]

@@aaaagamedev3524 I don't have any lagg issues, but the issues with playing online are really annoying, having to reload a lot of battles because of sync issues.

[@aaaagamedev3524]

@@TroopB-so3jm yeah seems its congenital trait of civ and its inspirees

[@miloelite]

25:09 "This is exactly how the developers intended you to make your way through the game." 😂

[@sedah4562]

Gotta love how this was uploaded the day before release. Great work Spiff!

[@timomajere]

Spiff could literally make millions just being a Quality assurance game developer for hire.

[@zesky6654]

He already is

[@Jeckhyl]

@@zesky6654 Maybe not for the "millions" part of the sentence :p.

[@minervaalexia6074]

lmao as if companies would pay QA anywhere close to that

[@SaintedKarma]

Spiff is the final QA and LGIO is the stress test 😂😂😂

[@ojrmk1]

I can imagine the meeting between marketing and execs on these games. Executive: "You're just going to...let him? Let him break the game?! Then everyone will know!" Marketing: "But you can't break a game you don't own..."

[@unitedyoga]

To be fair, one of the company's team mentioned (in a press interview) how he made overpowered elven archers and so acknowledged that some synergies are out of control. I'm curious how this will affect the user's experience and how the difficulty of the game might be increased in the future.

[@johnarcher6150]

The longer Spiff is on this world, the stronger he becomes.

[@NatheBruv]

Game devs should sponsor you not for their games to get exposure but so they could see what exploits and bugs their game has

[@biigsmokee]

thats literally this video.. its a sponsored video...

[@MrSkysenGames]

26:33 Protag casually existing. World: "You make a compelling argument. We're in."

[@mikev4135]

How have I never heard of this game before! It looks amazing

[@Luckmann]

It was only just released. That said, AoW1-2 are also great.

[@finschii]

because its releasedate is tomorrow

[@marcbennett9232]

I was really hoping to see a spiff video about this. glad you didnt disappoint! would love to see more!

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

"I shot the gift horse!" We're in for something special.

[@goosse_]

This video only reached my recommended as I began brewing a cup of tea. Incredible

[@Loregasmo]

I love how Paradox makes the exact same game 14 times with slight thematic changes, charges full price of a game for each DLC and then releases 23 DLCs per game which equals out to like 45 versions of the same game at full price. Absolutely beautiful.

[@razmatazz9310]

Paradox did not make this game.

[@current9300]

You have not played a single Paradox game. Also Age of Wonders games are nothing like the grand strategy games Paradox makes themeselves.

[@PhoenicisEstuans]

Imagine being such a big youtuber that developers look at your channel, are well aware that if they give you the game early you WILL break it anyways, and they still feel a need to give it anyways XD great content as always Spiff

[@spenceduggs]

This *could* have been three separate videos, but Spiff gave it all in one. He did that for us

[@EldritchRex]

This game is amazing and it's amazing to see you break it. I would love to see more content around breaking this game!

[@DFloyd84]

I tried your dragon-eating exploit for Hero's Hour and it seems the devs have patched it. Your CK2 Viking retinue exploit still does and got me Emperor of Scandinavia in three generations.👍

[@Karagianis]

12:57 Spelljammer? Great, now you can invade the rock of Bral!

[@GameBreakerCura]

I am so excited to finally play AoW4. I've been replaying 3 a lot as of late.

[@real_entless1301]

I like how spiff gets a free copy because of his influence, then goes and takes the game over his lap breaks it, and then an execution all mortal combat style, then is like it's a fun game. I enjoy the character that he's made, good stuff.

[@EvilMrFoo]

love this guy.... i'm even willing to overlook the obsessive tea drinking! 😁🍻

[@simruizhiryanacis1827]

"Something that insipires fear into our enemies" "Coffee drinkers"

[@Sophia-vk5bq]

Me getting ready to not cheese the game when I download it tomorrow at precisely midnight.🤓

[@Volactic]

You have 19 hours a 42mins

[@kennethlai6364]

The sarcastic tone is off the chart!!😂. GJ.

[@TheBouregard]

Since they showed those faction traits I thought they would be incredible broken because they turn the entire 4X difficulty system of AI having massive cheats to replace cities and armies on its head - Now I sure hope it wont get nerfed until I had my fun

[@Xtreamaniac]

1:27 You're not sorry you can't fool me.

[@caffeinatedsloth4136]

Spiff, you must find an actual perfectly balanced game, then break it

[@tomaslonda1806]

problem is, that Spiff (as far I know) only makes exploits of vanilla versions. In vanilla version of basically any game anyone who spend few hours can find exploit. Like, in aow4 there are two more exploits/unbalanced things I already know about, that none of streamers mentioned and I only caught them from fractions of gameplays. There is no magic to break up freshly released game. Also, only two things of what he introduced here were exploit - one is switching domain exploit, which is more likely bug, it shouldnt suppose to work like that. Other is the free trade - which is truly exploit of stupidly designed trait. Like first one - winning game after 150 turns? How is that exploit? Anybody can beat AIs at turn 150, basically with any non-idiotic strat.

[@immortalgroz1379]

Paradox: Nerfs Spiff's army. Spongebob narrator: One hour later. Spiff: So I got buffed.

[@Bloodrisesx]

They need to add Spiff to the game as a optional final boss

[@prichardgs]

Brilliant! God save the King! Have a tea on me!

[@chrisofthehoovers4055]

I love the idea of devs handing him some money to destroy their baby

[@TheSnero3]

Liking just for the brewing pun at the beginning! DOES NOT GET BETTER THAN THIS!

[@cplson2706]

Ive been playing so much AoW2. What a great game

[@cspeazy6484]

“You wanna see me raise that city?” “Wanna see me do it again”

[@Kipkerrie2]

And ofcourse he comes out with the best content ever

[@EEEEEEEE]

E

[@Kipkerrie2]

@@EEEEEEEE E chain now

[@themaksplay7270]

Another perfecrly balanced game! Absolutely fantastic!

[@nancybasel]

Extremely fun video, and the game is awesome. I think the second exploit (trading provinces) between cities are going to be the most troubling for developers to fix

[@askat1085]

i don't think so. You just have to check, if the new field was under control of the player the turn before. That should fix it

[@r.d.6290]

​@@askat1085you mean each province having its own cooldown value for that animal thing?

[@askat1085]

@@r.d.6290 that should be done in the current version, but they also have to check, if the field that is "new" to the province, was a field of the player the turn before. If yes, ignore it, cause it is just swapped. If not, it is the normal case and should trigger the event. :)

[@NinthSettler]

i am very interested to see you try your stuff in both rift wizard (a game where you can intentionally get incredibly busted in multiple different ways) and DCSS (a game where, if you managed to exploit it, it would be fixed in the next stable release)

[@barrybend7189]

As someone named Barry I dare you to break the game Twilight Imperium. As someone who played it it's very balanced. With your buddies it might mean either playing IRL or on Tabletop simulator.

[@unkindguy88]

There's no more Chosen Destroyers 😢😢😢

[@chucklestorm]

Barry's party palace almost killed me. What a start.

[@rayhiros]

I wonder. The chosen destroyer trait is pretty strong, but your created heroes and civilization can appear in other games of yours as well. Would this also be strong when an A.I. has the control over it? In a way you would create an easy to win game for yourself but an absolute nightmare scenario for when you play as something else and find your creations as an enemy.

[@Can_O_Crayola]

Ehh, the traits are only ever as good as the player. And the AI doesn't necessarily feel obliged to follow the upgrade paths you take or that *they* should take. You could have your mage pantheon hero turn their entire race into a bunch of angelic swarm tanks for no reason and waste all their bonuses anyway.

[@rayhiros]

@@Can_O_Crayola Sure about this? That would be kind of sad, having an AI following the path you did would be interesting and makes for an unique challenge.

[@NeonBlacklightTH]

War Crimes? Don't you mean Opportunities of Attack?

[@john_michael97]

They succeeded in making me want to play their game, Spiff describing the features (and then subsequently breaking them) is effective advertisement 🤷‍♂️

[@ratt2453]

Tea moment

[@kasumim1772]

Barry's Party Palace sounds like one of those Chuck E. Cheese type of restaurant. But instead of pizza and animatronics, everyone wears medieval outfits, participate in melee combat death matches, jousting and tea parties.

[@john_titor1]

Keen-sight is a wasted trait. Critical hits ignore accuracy entirely, so if you get high crit, or even guaranteed crit (which is extremely easy to do) you don't need to worry about accuracy at all. So you kinda picked an awful trait combo.

[@getlost650]

Spiff: Oh you want to sponsor me? *breaks the game even more than usual*

[@hgcv9785]

I’m starting to think these games aren’t perfectly balanced

[@bobfromlogistics]

Spiff is everything right with the British as a world power.

[@LordHammer33]

Spiff: Sorry, producers! Producers: furiously taking notes

[@Lowkey009]

I would love to see a future where we get a bunch of Spiffing Brit Clones all playing a strategy game against one another.

[@ferristriangle3514]

Spiff is laughing now, but just wait until Frodo destroys the one ring in the fires of Mordor and the British will be done for

[@wolfhowl983]

Brit The Spiffing would have been a more terrifying name, that is the name of a true destroyer.

[@MaddoBatto]

Spiff in most games: *murders people in order to make money* Spiff in strategy games: *makes money in order to murder people*

[@_Jay_Maker_]

I've been playing a _lot_ of Planetfall the past weekend or so, and I'm pretty hyped to see how AOW4 stands up compared to it. So glad the Brit put a new video out just in time.

[@TazzSmk]

is AOW4 anywhere close to Northgard? I'm thinking of something similar to play...

[@cyphrox8555]

@@TazzSmk It depends which parts of northgard you like. I think something like Dune spice wars might be initially more similar or the settlers franchise. The thing about something like AoW is that it is a turn based civ like game in the overworld and a turn based tactics game in the battles.

[@TazzSmk]

@@cyphrox8555 I enjoyed HOMM5 years back, turn based fights were cool, but never really liked Civ games, I guess I can give this one a try :)

[@Patrick-vt2qx]

4:45 he’s doing the “applaud my supreme power ” pose

[@leaguemastergg3647]

5:08 I am surprised to see that Reanu Keeves hasn’t infiltrated this game yet with his immense power

[@normalhuman9878]

Glad I found the True Neutral version of the Chaotic Evil ‘Let’s Game It Out’

[@TheGreyKami]

I'm four minutes in and I already see some of the exploits. Maybe Spiff has been teaching us TOO well

[@misere4]

omg, i'm gonna c... didn't expect Spiff to play an AoW, this gonna be good

[@左idari]

The first 8 seconds....I choked on my orange. That was so goddamn funny.

[@duphasdan]

That quote from the start would make for a perfect Spiffing Brit tshirt.

[@ThePikachuThing]

Spiff video is the perfect bank holiday viewing

[@dinosaurkin5093]

"Mr. The Destroyer-?" "Please, call me Barry. Mr. The Destroyer is my father."

[@dachannien]

As a Barry who has a Party Palace and destroys things, thank you for designing your character after me.

[@wesleywallace2548]

Ive been looking forward to AoW4. I love Spiff. Im so happy they had him play this!

[@badadvice787]

Video games not having padded walls outside of competitive multiplayer is usually the best part. I think it’s rather short sighted that so many people think being able to do crazy things a fantasy land is bad game design, simply playing the game in a differently to change the difficulty is usually an option, hopefully competitive online multiplayer has guardrails, if it needs them.