Is the BEST Age of Wonders Game... Shadow Magic?

Let's play some Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic! This week we streamed 4 Nostalgic Medieval Games of Magic, Heroes, & Kingdoms for a series of 4 Nostalgiasms! I spend 1-2 hours of gameplay with an good old strategy game and I am the king! Be sure to check out all 4 videos - Majesty, Knights & Merchants, Heroes of Might & Magic III, and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic! Buy the game and support the channel using this GOG referral link: af.gog.com/gam...
If you'd like to see some Age of Wonders 1, my completed playthrough starts here!
• Age of Wonders Intro &...
#Nostalgiasm is a series about gaming nostalgia and #NostalgicGaming where I jump back to a game from the 'Nostalgic Period of Gaming', 1995-2006, and either relive my old memories or experience something I missed out on. I play through the initial gameplay for about 1 hour plus to see if I still enjoy the game.
Get AoW Shadow Magic Unofficial Patch
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Get AoW Shadow Magic in HD with the Multiplayer Evolution (MP)
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#AgeOfWonders: Shadow Magic on Steam
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Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic on GOG (referral link)
af.gog.com/gam...
NOTE!
I also had an issue where the game was super laggy no matter what settings I had on. To fix this, tell your PC to restart. Don't shut down and power on again, actually choose the restart option. This is a known issue and for some reason that's a solution to the laggy gameplay.
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[@GamerZakh]

Welcome to the Nostalgic Medieval Week of Magic, Heroes, & Kingdoms and I am your king (see crown)! Buy the game and support the channel using this *GOG* referral link: af.gog.com/game/age_of_wonders_shadow_magic?as=1715648857

[@Ivo015]

GamerZakh Hi i really enjoyed your video thanks for posting it. I am having a hard time searching for the hd patch can you tell me where you got your from? Say something if you can.

[@Ivo015]

GamerZakh sorry i just saw that you have all i need in the description of the video.

[@hdknz]

This was my favourite Age of Wonders game. Thanks for the video man, very nice to see the game again, I think I will try buy it again.

[@nybethobdilord6912]

Just subscribed cuz of this. Glad to see someone give Age of Wonders the attention it needs. Especially Shadow Magic which I believe is one of the best turn based strategy games out there.

[@GamerZakh]

Hey welcome! I do really love this series, especially the older ones.

[@nybethobdilord6912]

@@GamerZakh Same! Not a big fan of 3 due to the changes they tried to do with the series. But I love Shadow Magic. Don't know if you checked it out but try Seven Kingdoms 2: Frytan Wars. It's a great classic RTS.

[@jeroenbraun9129]

I'm trying to host a 2vs2 game. If interested, let me know!

[@Tsejjest]

Agreed, also Best New World mod it lovely. The best map i played so far is Attendore II, do you know any other great maps for hot seats for AoW2?

AoW was one my most loved games of adolescence, i just love it, with Heroes Of Might and Magic

[@nayyarrashid4413]

these first three games were my favorite. AOW shadow magic was definitely the best one. I was so happy finally I don't have to worry about the heroes upkeep. And the dragons and a lot of other things fixed. i always wished they can remake the first two games again but keep the rule set except for a few QoL changes.

[@nawr494]

saw the length of this video - instant subscribe lmao

[@GamerZakh]

Thank you and welcome! Awesome that you enjoy longer videos, I do that a lot.

[@projectnostalgia5427]

This was my favourite game when i was younger. My dad has old games and he has all 3 age of wonders.

[@NatiuneaJucatoare]

I prefer the AOW series over HOMM. It has so many things going on with it. There are so many possibilities on the strategic layer and especially on the tactical layer.

[@Tsejjest]

This is THE BEST strategy game. It is even greater to play with mod Brave New World. Also I would suggest to try map Attendore II.

[@skyforer]

I rember playing this game non stop, thanks for nostalgia :)

[@GamerZakh]

Glad you enjoyed it! I played the original more than this but I still remember spending a ton of hours on this too back in the day.

[@PillowWillow007]

Time to jump into this series of games, I guess. Thanks Sseth! Hehehe

[@PillowWillow007]

Now even more so with the coming of AoW 4

[@therealdannymullen]

I'm usually pretty good picking out accents. Before seeing your face (previous vid) I pictured you being Austrian (or at least eastern European). My ears have betrayed me. Lol, just an interesting thing I guess. Love that someone is doing these vids, saw this game on a shelf at Walmart and wanted to review it before buying. Thanks to you, I'm probably going to haha

[@gylhondirliluieth9502]

Do a let's play on this one!

[@GamerZakh]

I tend to convert Nostalgiasms into a series if they get a lot of attention, so we'll see how it goes.

[@MaegnasMw]

I guess you are talking about the first map of the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 campaign (Restoration of Erathia, not the expansions). If you thoughr that was too "loaded" you should inspect a few maps made by players where you take 10 steps, find 20 things, and wish Expert Logistics plus Boots of Speed AND Equestrian Gloves gave 4 times as much movement!! Generally the campaigns are not THAT loaded but, there are custom maps....it is a nightmare!! This is a great game, I remember it faintly, playing with a friend (his copy, not sure if it was pirated or not but I do remember it took some "magic" to get the game to run so all possibilities are open!). I remember this map a bit and one other that required you to hide in a remote cave underground, with one or two Golden Dragons (magnificent graphics there!!), guard the narrow passage to the "safe area" and spend around 500 turns building up your forces/strengths before taking on the enemies. I also remember the spell "Dominate", it allowed you to "recruit" enemy heroes!!

[@gentlesirpancakebottoms6692]

Great video as always. I love the amazing fantasy turn based startegy games from the mid 90's-00's. I'm old:( You should try Disciples 2 some time, It borrows ideas from both homm and aow but does its own unique thing and has an awesome dark and gothic, and sometimes creepy atmosphere and has a great campaing and lore as well.

[@GamerZakh]

Thanks! I've never really seen or played Disciples. Will check it out.

[@gentlesirpancakebottoms6692]

haha that's what I was planning to give you as a gift on steam:)

[@danielhathaway8817]

Disciples one and two are very similar, but 2 is so very much better. Bypass one, and you'll love it. Fantastic game. A metric shitTON of content.

[@zeusapollo6504]

Its the best Age of Wonders in multiplayer, especially FFA games with more players. I know hosted 30K hours of it in peer 2 peer and balanced upatch 1.4. with some other guys, 2 of them Triumph AoW Devs, about 20 years ago. The best part is the magic balance, there is no magic sphere, that will disappoint even if you commit to just 1 sphere of magic. Try that with AoW4s Affinities, it does not work in a competetive sense. Heroes were weak, so there was plenty of room to use tactical units and their synergies over hero spam.(unlike modern versions) My favorite unit synergy was Dark Elf Incarnates + Undead Necromancers, thats really pure love in terms of tactical combat design. The necromancer can lower resistance with black bolts and can use drain will to make posessing really easy for incarnates. If the incarnate dies he will just be reanimated and not vanish after combat, if he finds a host. But you really have to play this in PvP to see its true strength and greatness over other tactical strategy games. The combat was build with multiplayer in mind. The A.I. cannot use the tactical potential and of course just make trash stacks on the global map and throw them at you without enchantments on Emperor difficulty. Don't be fooled, the SP part is just for story and testing mechanics. Once you you see stack of T3s and T4s units with multiple enchantments, walking into your direction to burn your wizard tower and its surroundings to the ground, you'll learn what the tactical combat and proper global movement is all about. The game did not even have a meta, everything worked fine with the 15 races and their units + 6 magic spheres, i won with every combination against the best players availible at the time. AoW3 and especially PF is fine though, just not that well designed as the first 2 AoWs. Those games had more character for sure and were better balanced, heck even AoW1, Leader OP? But the game is over if he dies and there is no respawn mechanic = balanced.

[@Gojoseon]

I quite like AoW: Shadow Magic, but found the possibility of having individual troops exploring the countryside a bit too micromanagement-y compared to Heroes of Might and Magic III. Heroes of Might and Magic IV also allowed that, and like AoW: Shadow Magic also had RPG-esque elements for the heroes, who are (as here) strong troops as well. Great music and nice delicate UI/font/etc though--there's a sophisticated feel to Shadow Magic which is quite nice. And I like that the races are relatively distinct (in the Nomad campaign I recall you could pack cities up and move them elsewhere for example).

[@GamerZakh]

Yeah you can really tell HoMM 4 took a lot of inspiration from what AoW. Though that why HoMM 4 isn't that liked. I generally find things clearer in AoW, like you said the races are more distinct so easier to tell apart and define playstyles.

[@lukemillard7722]

lmao that white party hat. Really nice video man i loved this game bck in the days. i downloaded it again recently however with my new windows 10 the game can't be minimized or it goes all weird. how exactly can you play it on fullscreen, have you tried to minimize it , if so what properties settings did you change,

[@GamerZakh]

I made that crown myself haha. And yeah old games often have issues with minimisation or alt-tabbing. It's been a while since I did it, but in the description there's a couple links for patches and HD stuff that might get it working in fullscreen.

[@lukemillard7722]

@@GamerZakh after an hour or so tadding in dxdiag and regedit i got it fully working in fullscreen. no worries lol

[@manupainkiller]

@@lukemillard7722 In general, old games (especially under 2005) don't work well with alt+tab/ minimize. Even more so, the games that are not DX 9.0c. (which makes alt+tabbing more accesible) And Windows 10 just makes matters worse, in this regard. Try to abstain from doing that. :)

[@lukemillard7722]

@@manupainkiller it's fine i found a fix for it , just play on windowed, been playing on 1920 x 1080 windowed

[@abcdef2069]

hi, good to hear from you since dune 2 legacy. i can not play or didnt wanna play Age of Wonders 2 or Shadow Magic, because compared to AOW 1, AOW2's mini map is 4 times smaller. units walk too slow for my taste and trees are too tall and i cant see units well, the magic book is too small, i have to be an ant to read it. i think this was all because when the maker decided to put the interface at the bottom and not at the side. just about anything in there is too small and too slow. despite of all of my holdup, i am trying to give it a go once in a while , but still wrestling with the 1st mission last 20 years, hehe!

[@FrozenLegion]

How were you able to edge scroll. I have the mods installed and I cant scroll left or down which makes this game a pain in the ass to play.

[@lenandov]

There's a $10 three game bundle at the big blue store. It's steam tho plus a disc.

[@Sohcammys12]

1:38:10 'I fisted the wrong guy. You know, it happens' lmao

[@Erduk]

I'm still playing Lords of Magic. :P

[@horkerfan4314]

LOL @ "fairy dude" :)

[@GamerZakh]

I say worse things in this video haha.

[@pavelkulinich9765]

Great game. Undead Rippers are a bit op though

[@jeroenbraun9129]

Reapers are far from op

[@Microphunktv-jb3kj]

Syrons / Shadow Demons = op

[@jeroenbraun9129]

@@Microphunktv-jb3kj Syrons and shadow demons are weak.....

[@greatdude7279]

Dark Elves are OP once you figure out how to play them. Tier 1: (shrine of war) Build 4 swordsman and 4 archers and buff the archers. Your archers will have 14 attack and 10 damage against good units while 13 attack 8 damage against others so one archer will kill single 1 tier or 2 tier unit, 2 archers will kill single tier 3 unit in most cases. (Marks 2, weapon enchantment, dark gift, unholy champion) Archers benefit most from the buffing and leveling since for every level they get +1 attack and +1 damage while non ranged units get +1 attack on veteran and +1 damage on elite. Dark elf archers already start with 9 attack and 5 damage compared to others (8 attack 4 damage) so it scales, crossbows on the other hand already have high attack and damage so they don't benefit that much from it they also fire only 1 shot. Tier 2: Bladedancers and blackspiders combination. Tier 3: Spider queen and bladedancer combination. Tier 4: Same as 3 but put some incarnates into the mix. Webbing works against air units stunning them and it brings them to the ground.

[@20nickookcin]

Fuck that's my favourite game pretty much ever for PC games, heroes of might and magic 3 and age of wonders 2 SM (which you both just played so jeez lucky me) I would fucking love to do some game with you Zakh ^^ Would be great to get a nice big game instead of fighting ais, peaces diplos etc

[@20nickookcin]

And I know i'm just a random guy and you got a lot of subs but yeah I still hope ^^

[@GamerZakh]

Glad you're enjoying it! I generally don't play much multiplayer of anything but sub count has nothing to do with it haha. All the multiplayer games on the channel have been with community members and people from chat. Whenever I'm planning a multiplayer game, I'd ask who'd like to join on Discord and kinda just go from there.

[@Tsejjest]

@@GamerZakh mutliplayer in this game is incredible, you can summon invisible units on enemy territory to snach unprotected locations. You can build and burn cities, but whn you burn city of your own race they might all rebel. My friend burned town he won from me, but he didnt check that it was of his race. He burned it so that I wont get it back, but all of his units and heroes rebeled, next turn they attacked his wizard and killed him ^^ He died to independents :)

[@horkerfan4314]

Is there a digital copy of this game available anywhere? Like steam?

[@GamerZakh]

Yeah, all links are in the description including the mods I'm using here.

[@horkerfan4314]

oh yea der derp- clicking show more hehe

[@GamerZakh]

Haha no worries, I know description is easy to miss because a lot of channels don't really put a lot of useful things there.

[@2DarkHorizon]

Its a good game but the problem with it is there is too many ways to achieve the same aim the actions seem very watered down. Like why you need so many different spells with so many minor advantages?

[@chaosapiant]

Holy shit it's Chong Li from Bloodsport!!!

[@TheErikdark]

i still play this game with mod bnw 3.2

[@Tsejjest]

Thats the right way to play it :)

[@user-hs3bm4hf2s]

hope you can try dominions once

[@dariuszbalut]

How to change to FullHD graphics mode?

[@GamerZakh]

I used the patch and HD mod linked in the description. It's been a while so I don't remember details, but those should still work.

[@dariuszbalut]

@@GamerZakh Oh, right. Both ("Unofficial Patch" and "HD with the Multiplayer Evolution (MP)") are needed?

[@GamerZakh]

@@dariuszbalut Yeah that's what I did here. After those 2 everything seems okay. Oh a note, when I first was testing all in-game animations were frozen. To fix that, restart your PC. Don't shut down and boot up, actually do a restart. It's a weird thing with how some old games are programmed.

[@andrewdupuis1151]

i have all 2 and addons of them i bought on gog i want to get 3 game

[@user-ww2lc1yo9c]

Try playing the game at hard difficulty and see how the all devourer devours you, I challenge you

[@GamerZakh]

Nah I'm good

[@Crazy1990chiller]

Can anybody help me how i can play this game fluently...

[@Tsejjest]

Read the explanations and stats, allow hero to snach kills (you get expo only from kills). There are may tactics to build, my freind is playing aggresive game and units from the get go, i build town buildres and production first, we clash a lot and our strategies change accordingly :)

[@stalemateone8802]

GamerZach, this was interesting to watch but you made a lot of mistakes.

[@Mirrodin82]

This game looks interesting, but problem for me is that fight looks somewhat lame.

[@Mirrodin82]

Wow, the combat looks so pathetic in this game...

[@GamerZakh]

As in the style or what? It's pretty good really when it comes to tactics and stuff. Personally I prefer the impact and feeling from the first game a bit more though.

[@manupainkiller]

@@GamerZakh Maybe he is confused about the thing that units can miss attacks ; and also that units retaliate back.

[@GamerZakh]

@@manupainkiller Could be, we can only guess since they never replied.