Should be philosophizing how to become number one on this list.
When we think of truly good Factions, Commonwealth Philosophers fall short. It has an extreme lack of firepower. Specifically it leans unnecessarily hard into astral where the reaver benefits from chaos tomes and ranged units.
It’s ranked here simply because there are much better default options. The Tome of Warding you start out with is a decent early game buff for ranged units. But really is just a strange choice for later better options.
Commonwealth Philosopher Strengths:
Decent Casting
Warding, Gifted Casters, and strong Astral Affinity.
Good early game start
You’re going to be running through weak enemies pretty easily with this build.
Good early defense
“Great builders” gets you in a very nice spot early on with high defense.
Choose “Commonweatlh Philosopher” if:
You like an early steamroll: High damage and Tome of Warding will do that.
You like a more magical build: Gifted Caster and arcane focused have forced you into a magic role.
You like battling alot: Reavers whole thing is battle so you’re gonna have to battle alot to get use out of them.
9. The Grasshorns (ok)
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Goat abs make for an interesting conversation point.
Slightly stronger than the Commonwealth, this build at least has some hardiness. With a specialty in support and healing it isn’t a terrible pick. Problems come later.
The fundamental issue with this one is damage. Really keeping yourself alive doesn’t mean much when you’re not doing anything to the enemy. What keeps it here is that it has a hard magic aspect but lacks any truly great features or cohesion.
Grasshorn Strengths:
Good Magic victory: With the advantages given by the society traits, a magic victory is very possible.
Great starting tome: Tome of Roots is arguably the best starting tome in the game.
Survivability: Hardy, Herbivore, tough, all ways to keep yourself alive.
Choose the Grasshorns if:
You like Magic victories: This build leans into the benefits of mana and tomes heavily.
You like a nature build: Goats, Nature affinity, Primal Society, you better like nature for this one.
You hate losing troops: You’re troops will have a hard time dying with so many buffs to their health pools.
8. Crusading Croakers (Good)
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Just some classy froggy crusaders.
Really just a classic high order build. Not many angles to take this one but it’s a solid pick all around. Hardy and resilient are generally decent traits.
The Awakened feature is really what brings the high culture to a different level. Focusing on awakening is what can possibly turn this from good to great in a lot of ways.
Crusading Croakers Strengths:
Good early, mid, and late game: The Awakened state scales fantastically no matter how many turns pass.
Decent tome pick: Tome of Zeal is a nice little boost early game, and will be replaced by better tomes later.
Nice Diplomacy traits: Imperialists allows you to make a system of free cities as allies.
Play the Crusading Croakers if:
You like diplomacy or military victories: The Crusading croakers have high order and military might.
You like naval combat: The seafarers trait is pushing you to take advantage of oceans and rivers.
You like order spells: Order affinity is going to be very high, you should definitely lean into more order tomes.
7. Stormborn Draconians (good)
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I think any of us would wish for a lizard army to rule over.
Oh how I’ve been ignoring evocation this entire time. Evocation is really fun and a decent starter tome. Astral has some crazy tomes down the line as well.
This is a simple astral build. You want to lean either into lots of summoning or lots of casting blasters. I prefer summons because the game encourages them.
Stormborn Draconian Strengths:
Range attacks: Your best friend is going to be blasting magic from across the map.
High Morale: Cold blooded is a great trait for avoiding routing.
Better Magic units: Powerful evokers gives you a great magic bonus at the very start of the game.
Play the Stormborn Draconians if:
You like lightning: All of evocation is lightning damage and electrified. Definitely cool looking.
You want a smooth magic victory: Your astral affinity is going to allow you gain knowledge at a rapid pace, resulting in faster tomes and magic binding.
You hate routing: Cold blooded helps prevent this quite a bit and is nice for avoiding that frustration.
6. First Elves (good)
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A lovely elf queen and a high culture, what else could you ask for?
First elves is a really solid Summon/Range build. Leaning into three main Affinities. Astral, Order, and Nature.
Your mana upkeep is important to the Tome of beasts success. You need a lot of Mana to fund common summonings. Keep that in mind.
First Elves Strengths:
Great summoning capability: With the society trait and tome of beasts this can be an easy early game run.
Good range: Magic caster, and ranged unit buffs this is a no-brainer.
Awakened bonus: High gets you Awakened status which gives you all kinds of benefits.
Play the First Elves if:
You want to be ranged: Again keen sight, sharp eyes, these are all for ranged bonuses.
You want to be casting alot of spells: Lots of magic abilities here, makes sense if you like caster armies.
You want to start alot of settlements: Adept settlers greatest strengths is the ability to constantly put up cities.
5. Verdant Elves (good)
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Verdant elves, just lamer versions of the first elves.
The classic full range build. There’s a lot of them in the default picks. This one is a little higher than the first elves because it commits to what it’s trying to do.
Please, and please again, get seeker arrows from the tome of enchantment. At the very least grab weapons of mayhem from the tome of mayhem for this build.
Verdant elves Strengths:
Long-Range: Again, you can pepper the enemy from a distance.
Tome of Roots: Barely have to say anything here, tome of roots is great.
Infestation monsters: Can hit stupid infestations from a distance, and receive great bonuses with fables hunters.
Play the Verdant Elves if:
You want to hunt down infestations: Hunting down infestations is going to put you a step a head with this build.
Like order tomes: Pretty cool Primal path that has to do with spirit damage, so might as well dip a bit there.
You like avoiding other empires: Hermit kingdom gives you a lot of benefits as an isolationist.
4. Starbred Salamanders (great)
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The most unnecessarily long named dragon ever known,”Aerelazaliar the Vainglorious.”
This is the build that really wrecked house when it was first released. Dragons and evolution were borderline broken on release. Now they’re more like squeaky hinges on a door.
You really just have to let this build ride. Let the evolution do its job, and kill millonsof marauders on the board to level up real quick. I’d also recommend replacing one of the race traits with adaptable.
Starbred Salamanders Strengths:
Easy mid and late game: The early game isn’t bad either, but mid and late with young dragons is a coast.
Tanky: Dragon vitality gives your race alot of survivability, along with “Shepard.”
Fast level ups: This whole build is about building your tiers quickly.
Play the Starbred Salamanders if:
You like leveling up real fast: Adaptable, Shepherd, Rapid Evolution, Tome of Evolution.
You want some great summons: Wyverns, to young dragons is insane.
You want a quick tome run: With Ancient Wise ones your research will be much quicker.
3. Destined Humans (Great)
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Boring old humans, with a great all-rounder build.
The Feudal order build. How you’ll love getting bonuses for just putting your guys within proximity. Or the fact you’re going to make a buttload of money with vassals.
With both “Stand Together,” and “Defensive tactics” you’re going to want your units constantly touching another unit. You can be quite aggressive in the early game due to having stone walls.
Destined Humans Strengths:
Fantastic early game: Stand together, Defensive Tactics, and adaptable are some of the best race traits in the game.
Great economy: Both feudal, Tome of Zeal, and Great uniters are going to be getting you lots of everything quickly.
Great defense: Again Stand Together and DefensiveTactics are great for defense.
Play the Destined Humans if:
You like having vassals: Chosen Uniters and high order affinity demand your attention to vassals.
You like shield and polearm troops: You’re race and culture traits are going to benefit these units the most.
You like to level up fast: Adaptable is going to get your units chonky real quick.
2. Bloodfang Orcs (Great)
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This is a certified Orc moment indeed.
My sweet sweet orc barbarians. This is a great rush build. Barbarians are specialized at destroying early to mid game.
Speed is your friend with this build. Stack your armies up, kill lots of things. Also remember to raid a lot of free cities or independents.
Bloodfang Orc Strengths:
High Damage: You have savage strike, ferocious, and
Horde Tome: This tome is perfect for a build like this, allowing you to overwhelm the enemy.
Great war economy: Buildings with draft, fabled hunters, and ruthless raiders.
Play the Bloodfang Orcs if:
You like destroying armies: You will do a ton of damage and be rewarded for it.
You’re new to the game: You can just kind of let the game do its thing. Just make your armies big and strong.
You like attacking innocent empires: Your bread and butter is evil. Go and pillage orc brother.
Coppertalons (Best)
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The early bird always gets number one on a Age of Wonders 4 ranking article.
The birdy boys have pulled ahead in this ranking. Even if we aren’t ranking on pure aura and style. The Reaver faction is great.
Focus on using your Miasma to sunder people’s defense. Mark them, then fire from all sides. You will obliterate everyone
Coppertalon Strengths:
Great Range capability: Reavers specialize with their muskets and cannons.
Steady reserve of troops: You can both catch, and draft troops quickly.
Rewards for war: Reavers are all about war, you get heavy rewards for engaging in one.
Play Coppertalon if:
You want to melt enemy lines: Dropping miasma, then marked, then musket shots. Diabolical.
Battle is your favorite part of Age of Wonders: Reavers fight. It’s what they do, and they do it well.
You want to speedrun tomes: With Runesmiths as well as plunder, you’re going to be speedrunning magic.
Taren Glenn, Boomer Shooter extroardinaire, spends his days grinding for xp and strafe shooting flying demons. When he's not picking up health packs he's writing day and night.
