Age of Wonders III Gameplay Tutorial

[@ZombieRofl]

THIS is what you call a tutorial. Great work!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks - I'm glad you found it helpful! If you are interested, I've got lots more AOW content on my channel as well :)

[@peddroelm]

by far the best AoW introduction video I was able to dig up after 2 days of searching. Plenty of good information in this one. Would love to see a full lets play from you.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks, I'm glad you found this helpful! If I ever get around to doing a full let's play, I'll let you know. If I do, it will contain much more in-depth strategy than this tutorial did.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

+peddroelm I just put up a new AOW video. It is the first episode in a full playthough focused on advanced strategic gameplay. Thanks for the support - I hope you enjoy the new series!

[@shawnp6653]

Just got the base game from Steam for free! :) Thought I would watch you beginners guide and maybe some playthough(s) to see if I might enjoy AoW III. I assume most information is still relevant. Regardless, thanks for the effort and time spent making/sharing what you have learned.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

No problem, thanks so much for taking an interest in my channel! This gameplay tutorial should still be relevant as most of the information in it is fairly basic, but If I made any mistakes (which happens a lot) you can bet someone in the comments corrected me. In most cases, you can learn just as much from the comments on my videos as you can from watching me play. The AOW community helps me out a lot, and I've learned a lot from them :)

[@kerravon4159]

Haven't played a single game of this yet and this is exactly what I needed, thanks for a great tutorial.

[@jennisonb37]

Excellent tutorial. Thank you!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

:D

[@neochaos03]

Thanks for this, I LOVE this type of game but I really never bother to learn the games properly, even when I win it's usually down to me base building and everyone killing each other and other times i don't even know why I won ha.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

I'm glad you thought the video was helpful! If you are interested, my channel is full of AOW content. I make a lot of mistakes and get a few things wrong in my early series, but the people who leave comments on my videos have been really nice and have helped me improve my gameplay drastically. If you want to improve, I would definitely recommend checking out the discussions going on in the comments of my videos. Cheers :)

[@bkolluru]

Terrific job Bob on this tutorial!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks so much! Good to see new people showing an interest in my earlier AOW videos. I'm thinking the free AOW III giveaway on steam helped a lot, so that's great :) I hope that you can learn a lot from my videos, but the AOW community has also been very god about correcting my mistakes and sharing information with me that I didn't know. The comments are basically the other half of my channel at this point, so if you really want to learn the game, I would highly recommend reading through them from time to time :)

[@BlackArrowGaming]

I might, provided that I can survive to the late game, haha. Its actually pretty challenging on the hardest setting.

[@GrungefolkBoy2010]

Nice video, I had this game in my steam library for ages, but only just got into it!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks! I've got a whole bunch of video content for this game on my channel, so feel free to stick around and get involved! It's a great game for sure :)

[@happytime2781]

All over it's a great tutorial for new players. Main mistake made was not using his strongest melee unit - Unicorn Rider at all in fights , instead scouting should be done by cheaper unit or summoned Hunter. Positions/damage distribution in battle 47:10 could be done better as joined hero almost die when his king could tank a bit to. All over good material :)

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks! It's hard for me to even remember what was going on in this tutorial (was a "very" long time ago), but hopefully the feedback will be useful to other new players :)

[@nullvoid2013]

Thanks for the great overview!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

I'm glad you liked it! I have much more AOW III content on my channel if you are interested :)

[@melindawhite2696]

Very well done intro video and I've been playing for a bit. Only down side was the loud music in the background that made it difficult to hear everything.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've produced a lot more AOW content since this series and at some point I did get a better mic, which (I think) helped with the audio issue that you mentioned. Wow...I can't believe that I published this three and a half years ago. Yikes...

[@philippvoid1800]

gud guide. now im gonna replay that tutorial and do things right ;)

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Great to hear, thank you!

[@alas_poor_Yorick]

I appreciate your work.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks! I've got...a lot...of AOW videos up now, lol. This tutorial is quite old and I've been getting much better overtime thanks to input and advice from the AOW community, so you may find some of my more recent videos to be more helpful. Regardless, nice to see someone new around here! Cheers :)

[@blitz8998]

You should do a late game tutorial. Say after you find all the other leaders and wars are breaking out. Just to show how some of the mechanics of the game work when there is more stuff going on.

[@derangedgoblin429]

Great tutorial. Thank you.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad this was helpful :)

[@salbei21]

Very nice tutorial. Really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Thank you! I'm glad it helped :)

[@zhico123]

More Please! :D

[@BlackArrowGaming]

+zhico123 My first episode in a new AOW series just went up today. This series will be a full playthrough with a focus on advanced strategic gameplay. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for watching :)

[@zhico123]

Nice!

[@blazer1983]

hey there! not sure if the uploader of these videos is still active or not, but i have a question that i'd really want to know the answer to. i'm a fan of RTS and turn taking strategy games. about this game, i have played it for a few months but never went into so much details like you did. you seem to make advantage for yourself from everything possible in the game. i wonder what's your ideology about seeing new things and getting the most out of them. really appreciate if you'd help me because i do love to be a guy like you and go into as much details as possible and get my knowledge to work.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Hi Blazer! Yes, I am still very much active - posting a new AOW video every week. Believe it or not, back when I made this video, I was actually pretty sloppy and made a lot of mistakes. Thanks to over a thousand comments since then, I've learned a ton from my viewers. More importantly, I've learned that there's always more to learn, haha. The best solution to your problem is practice, but more specifically I think it helps to stop and analyze each decision you make. On the strategic map, play the first turn very carefully. Explore as much as possible, try to locate a friendly neighboring city if you can, and try to decide on an overall strategy to pursue aggressively. If there's a specific empire quest you think you can get thanks to your starting spot, go for it. If you are playing as the elves and spot a vault of knowledge and a crystal tree near each other, plan to put a city there and build archers (which benefit from both upgrades). A lot of the game is about seeing opportunity in the world map. (Once you know who your enemies are, you should adjust your strategy to take advantage of their weaknesses if you can.) In tactical combat, I usually play very defensively. Force the computers to come to you if you can, and during the battle always ask yourself whether any of your units could be killed if all of the enemies gang up on it. If so, you should probably try to get that unit out of harm's way, because the AI tends to be very aggressive in that regard (especially when it comes to heroes). The other best solution that I can give is to check out the comments in my other videos. You would be surprised how much you can learn from the other viewers, and they have all been pretty nice when it comes to helping each other out :)

[@targe762]

you didn't explain the game controls, keyboard shortcuts. I find the game interface and controls in this game highly annoying. Ive been playing for hours and still dont know what control changes unit facing, and figuring out what buildings are required for units is also extremely annoying.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Hey Targe! I can't go into a ton of detail about the controls or build order here (the wiki is a good resource for that info), but I do get a lot of questions about changing the direction a unit is facing. To do this, select a unit with left mouse, click and hold on it with right mouse, drag the mouse in the direction you want it to face, and then release right mouse.

[@bogdanpiros3665]

Game is free on steam right now.Til tomorow 15 /07

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Right, thanks for pointing this out to everyone! I made a channel update as well :)

[@hundun5604]

One thing I want to know. Is this game a improvement compared to AOW2: Shadow Magic? I'm not talking about the graphics. That's obviously better. I wonder if I miss out on something by skipping AOW2 and go right to AOW3.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

I'm actually probably not the best person to answer this - I spent a lot more time playing the original AOW than AOW 2, and I never actually played shadow magic. That being said, I know shadow magic is pretty popular amongst the community in general, so if you are interested, it may be worth giving it a shot! I imagine it should be pretty cheap to pick up. Only concern would be making sure it runs ok on newer PC hardware/operating systems.

[@Lwilibert]

AoW 2 SM is amazing

[@oboification]

Would you still recommend this game in May 2023?

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Disclaimer: I personally like AOW 4 a lot more than AOW 3, so my opinion is biased, lol. In my opinion it improves on the game in (almost) every way. However, if you prefer the mechanics of AOW 3, or you don't have the money to drop on AOW 4 (and presumably the many upcoming DLC's cuz it's a Paradox game), you can't go wrong with AOW 3. It's still a fantastic game in it's own right :)

[@oboification]

@@BlackArrowGaming I have played Age of Wonders 3 now some and I enjoyed it. I like that more than Age Of Wonders Planetfall. AoW IV is in list in future!

[@DorotheeWeis-Rickert-dh1rw]

Des bro

[@Андрей-ъ3с3ю]

Hi Bob. Could you tell me how to face units towards enemy in combat without moving them? I don`t find this information in the internet. You do this some how with a mouse or somethig else.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

I think MrSorryBot answered this question in a comment you posted on a more recent episode, but for anyone else interested: (1) Select the unit you want to turn (2) Point the mouse cursor at the unit (3) Press and hold the right mouse button (4) Drag in the direction you want the unit to face (5) Release the right mouse button Cheers!

[@Андрей-ъ3с3ю]

@@BlackArrowGaming Yes, he answered. I posted this question in your latest video just in case if nobody looks through old videos. But anyway, thank you!

[@BlackArrowGaming]

@@Андрей-ъ3с3ю You bet! :)

[@swedeonhisway8608]

this looks alot like Civ and HoMM had a baby

[@BlackArrowGaming]

You're not wrong, haha. I've heard many people compare it to both games :)

[@aidanmorley3736]

What's that fourth installed DLC that the game says you have installed on the main menu?

[@BlackArrowGaming]

It's most likely the pre-order bonus, although I don't remember exactly what it gave me, haha :)

[@KwaaahOG]

Tried to recreate your high elf, however the partisan specialization isn't something available to me. Is this something I unlock? Please explain if you are able.

[@BlackArrowGaming]

The Partisan specialization is part of the Golden Realms DLC. There are two "main" DLC packs for this game: Golden Realms and Eternal Lords.

[@KwaaahOG]

Black Arrow Gaming Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. This cleared it up.

[@Justathought81]

Thanks

[@BlackArrowGaming]

No prob!

[@lucascoffey8883]

Lmao i love the santa claus character

[@BlackArrowGaming]

Ah, then you might enjoy my second "Advanced Strategy" series. Santa makes a surprise appearance (even to me). Let's just say he was very naughty that year.

[@lucascoffey8883]

Black Arrow Gaming lmao well played, I'll have to watch for him. On episode 10 of this series