Age of Wonders I Quick Start Guide
Thank you very much for purchasing this Age of Wonders Game. This quick starting guide helps you get acquainted with all the basic controls of the game.

Getting Started

This quick start guide list the basics of the game. We recommend you play the tutorial do learn all the basics mechanics of the game. When launching the game, you will arrive at the Age of Wonders title screen. From this page you can access the different Age of Wonders game modes. Scenario A scenario is played on one map and is stands alone; you develop no continuous plot or faction between scenarios, however scenarios offer some customization and support a choice of starting races. All multiplayer games are scenarios. Campaign A campaing is a collection of scenarios.

Ingame Tutorial

Play the tutorial to learn and understand the basic interface and controls used in Age of Wonders. We recommended you play the tutorial even if you have played Age of Wonders years ago, as the tutorial will get you reacquainted with the Age of Wonders interface. The tutorial is a simple scenario, and instruction boxes will appear to help you play the game. To start the tutorial simply select the Tutorial icon in the Start menu of Age of Wonders. Follow the onscreen messages to learn to play the game. The Background Information Book These Books show mission objectives and give background stories behind scenarios. Click on the blue check tab, to close books like these. Research Spell Research spells to add these to your Spell book so your Leader can use it. The Main Interface The Dragon Icon in the lower left brings up the Main Menu in Age of Wonders. Your Party Left-click on the small movement icon below the unit's picture to deselect a unit from a party. To get units off a ship, move it to the coast and deselect the ship.
Age of Wonders Quick Start Guide
2010 Triumph Studios B.V. All rights reserved.
You can select a single unit out of a party to move by holding a left-click on the movement icon and then rightclicking. Movement Points Age of Wonders is a turn-based game. Each Unit has a certain amount of movement points, based on their speed. One turn also represents one day of researching, building and unit moving. When a party is out of movement points it cannot move further for the remainder of the turn. The City Screen Cities are a very important resource in Age of Wonders as most of your units and money will be generated from towns. Protect your cities building walls and units to ward off any hostile invaders. Access the City screen by clicking the Enter button on the Structure floater or doubling clicking on a city hex in the main map. Mines Like cities mines can provide income, although mines are not as valuable as cities. These sites require no upkeep, so try to claim as many of them as possible. There are other sites on the map which also provide income, like Mills. Combat You can choose between Automatic Combat and Tactical Combat. Automatic combat is usually chosen if you want to let the computer handle combat. Caves Caves are valuable strategic points. To enter a cave, press the Go Down button on the Structure Window in the lower-right corner. Power Nodes Power Nodes can be used to either generate mana for spell casting, or Spell Research. The Wizards Tower In Age of Wonders 1 Wizards Towers offer you the option to buy a spell, without researching it. Tactical Combat Units which have a striking ability can fight in melee combat. They can be ordered to attack by assigning them a target. Any unit within or on the edge of the red circle can be attacked. Experiment with cover, it can play a vital role winning or losing a battle! Teleporters Teleporters offer quick movement across the map. Use them for sneak attacks, or be prepared the enemy might use them against you!
The Final Battle Try to take out the enemy hero first. His death puts an immediate end to their empire and leaves you to loot and conquer their remaining scattered cities.

Scenario Screen Information
Single Computer Games played on a single computer can be played up to a maximum of eleven computer players, or Hot-Seat play between human players. When you play a Hot Seat game, you must use the Classic Turns style. (TCP) Internet Used to play a mix of human and computer controlled opponents in Internet scenarios. LAN Used to play a mix of human and computer controlled opponents over a LAN. NOTE: In order to play a LAN game in Age of Wonders 1 please select TCP Internet and press host new. To join, simply press Find Games and select the hosted game to proceed.
Play by E-mail Playing an E-mail game, after each turn players send the saved game file to the next human player in an E-mail attachment. Online Multiplayer and Community To find Age of Wonders players online you can use the Steam Community, Gamespy Arcade or you can start by visiting the Age of Wonders Heaven forums.

Setting up Scenarios

Selecting a Map First you choose the map you want to play on. Scroll in the Select a Map to select a map you would like to play. At the bottom of the window three icons are displayed. The letter next to the globe icon indicates the size of the selected map: XL is an extra large map L is a large map M is a medium map S is a small map The small town icon displays the total number of cities on a map. The human head icon represents the total number of races on the map. Click the Select button to navigate to the main scenario screen. All playable races will be highlighted, and underneath its name you can see one or two fields. When playing single computer scenarios, turn on Classic Turn Style if you play with more than one human player. Age of Wonders Quick Start Guide
Player Settings Top Field This field allows you to customize the owner of a faction. Human A human player. CPU Squire The easiest AI setting. CPU Knight The easy difficulty setting. CPU Lord The medium difficulty setting. CPU King The hard difficulty setting. CPU Emperor The hardest difficulty setting.
AI Behavior Setting Bottom Field Normal The normal play style of a human opponent. Aggressor The computer will search new cities to attack takes a hostile response to most situations. Defender The computer defends its base, and the AI spend resources to maximize his defenses for protection. Expander Expanders focus on expanding. They will seek out any available cities, mines, nodes, etc. to take over. Scorcher The AI plays aggressive and seeks to slaughter his opponents and burn their cities to the ground. Random Radom, the AI picks one of the behaviors above.

Game Play settings

Turns Classic The widely used turn-based model: Players move their units and perform other actions while the other players have to wait for the player to end his turn. This mode is used to play Hot Seat games (multiplayer) on one PC. Please note, larger scenarios can take a long time to complete. Simultaneous Using this mode players can take turns at the same time. When all players have clicked end turn, the turns is ended. Games played with this setting go a lot faster.

Miscellaneous settings

Leaders on Map Each race begins with their leader as a hero-type unit when highlighted. Use leaders as a powerful and strong addition to your army. However, be aware your legion will be defeated should your leader be killed in action! Customize leaders By using the hero leveling system you can customize your leader. If the leader is not highlighted on map selection, you could still customize the leader and his magical spheres. But it will not appear as a unit in the game. Allied victory If this setting is turned on, multiple factions can are allowed to claim victory in a scenario. At the moment a nation wins the scenario, all allied factions also achieve victory. Exploration Turning this on or off toggles the need to explore the blacked out portions of the map. When selected, units or spells are needed to reveal map terrain.

Combat

As with most things, brute force might be the only solution. In Age of Wonders battles can occur almost anywhere on the map. Whenever your units encounters enemy units a battle will occur. Success in battle relies on your knowledge of different types of battle situations. Study various forms of tactics, what works well for a battle in the open, is not the best strategy for besieging a city.
The Adjacent Hex Rule Age of Wonders allows you to split your armies in multiple groups to attack your enemy from different sides during a battle. This can be done up to six groups on the Global Map. Surround a group of enemies and attack them with your group. Each of your groups in the adjacent Hex will join the attack. Battle Modes Battles can be fought either in automatic or tactical mode Automatic Mode A pop up screen will begin to play out the battle if you chose to fight the battle Automatically. The computer controls both sides. Tactical Mode Fighting a battle in Tactical mode brings up a special Battle Map. This map reflects the terrain of the global map where the fight began. Tactical battles are turn-based.
Your units will appear with small red bars (health) and spheres (movement or action) above them. Your units can perform various actions, most of them fall under three categories: Movement - moving over the battlefield to gain the best position. Melee actions - defensive and offensive capabilities such as attacking, healing, etc. Age of Wonders Quick Start Guide

Ranged actions

- attacking over a distance by using ranged weapons or spells.
Your battles will take place in the following environments: Dungeons/Ruins Towns Open fields Each environment requires each own tactical approach.

Diplomacy

Before resolving a conflict by brute force, you have the option to use the arcane art of diplomacy. Diplomatic options are accessed through the Relations interface menu. Select your action in the Diplomatic actions list, but realize the consequences of your decision carefully.

There are lots of units in Age of Wonders. Here you find a short description of the six core statistics. Attack Damage Defense Health Movement Resistance - This is the chance that a units attack will damage an enemy unit. - Determines how much damage a unit will deal to an enemy when attacking - Determines how much damage is received when attacked. - The amount of damage a unit can sustain before it dies - Affects how far it can move on both the Global Map and the Combat map - Determines how well a unit is resistance against poison, magic, fire attacks.

Heroes

Heroes can play a vital role in your army. Develop their abilities to make them stronger. Each hero has a name, title, six basic statistics and four additional statistics and various abilities. The basic statistics are the same as described under "Unit". The additional statistics are as follows: Race Experience Level Gender - The race of your hero - The experience of your hero, Experience is critical to a strong hero - The level of your hero - The Gender of your hero
Magic is a strong force in Age of Wonders. There are seven different types of magic, each with its own characteristics: Life Death Earth Air Fire Water - Magic to protect the living and oppose the forces of evil and death - Destructive spells dealing with the destruction of live - Subtle but powerful, mine or move faster or reshape the ground around you - Control climate to speed up movement or strike enemies with thunderstorms - Magic which represents the chaos of nature. - Closely tied with Life magic
Leaders can learn two additional types of magic: Cosmos - General spell available to users of all types of magic Special - Powerful magic, not learned, but discovered exploring the map

Hot Keys

Arrow keys PGUP PGDN N or. P or , H L D G C CTRL- ENTER F2 or CTRL-O F3 or CTRL-S M O SHIFT ALT-ENTER ESC F1 Scroll the map Map level up Map Level down Select next unit/army Select prev. unit/army Select next Hero Select leader Select party as Done for the current turn. Guard On/Off Center on selected unit/army End Turn Open/Load game Save game Move unit Observe enemy movement Hold SHIFT to select multiple parties or units for a single move command. Switches between full screen and Window display modes Quits from most screens Recalls last tip in the Tutorial

Additional information

For Troubleshooting and additional information, please check the Readme.txt file in the digital distribution client. For Community links, including forums, extensive online game and fan made resources visit the following sites: Age of wonder official homepage: Your starting point for the Age of Wonders universe. Here youll find extensive background information for each of the installments. Be sure to visit this page! http://www.ageofwonders.com/ Age of Wonders Heaven Forums: Discuss the games and find multiplayer opponents here http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/index.cgi Age of Wonders 1 Heaven the ultimate fan resource for AoW1 with user created content http://aow.heavengames.com/