For the mid/late game, the totems that automatically summon a tier 1 unit every turn during combat adds even more fun! You can dominate "impossible" fights by overwhelming your enemy with TONS of little critters!
My best build so far is an absolutely insane barbarian horde build. Like your build, it uses summoning but with tome of the horde instead (summon irregular). The build only uses T1 units, and the hero's go full support buff. You need to take overwhelming tactics on the race for +20% crit. Tomes = Horde, Enchantment, Amplification, Artificing, Devastation, Chaos Channeling, Daemon Gate, Chaos Lord. Perks are Prolific swarmers and Runesmiths. So what it does is takes the t1 barb comp of warriors and skirmishers and uses only those units. Every pick you make is a new enchant or racial modification to enhance those units. You get 100% crit with: Sundering Blade (+30% crit), Astral Affinity (+10 crit/spell), Flameburst weapons (+20 crit), Overwhelming tactics (+20 crit), Precision training (+10 crit). You get 20% upkeep reduction which is multiplicative with the 30% enchant reduction, so you can outbuild and outclass at the same time. The top spell is GOLDEN HORDE, it gives you a 6 stack of t1 units you can produce. NEVER take any units, they will pollute the unit pool for summons and chaos tree unlocks. This is the sickest way to go demonkin because you get frenzy, 100% crit, enemies explode on death, and killing frenzy on everything with demonic onslaught. If you get an extra tome pick go for transmutation and steelskin with adaptive armor. That might even be better than daemon gate, ill have to try it again ::))
@@NhatAnhPhamDr I use fuedal with tome of beasts and wolf mounts and forget t1 feudal man, peasants suck big time. I focus on hero's and knights and go mounted only. Pack hunter with lancers is lit, it synergizes with stand together. I put all my heroes in one party and follow them with 2 stacks of knights, and throw a Bannerman in every stack.
@@MYPSYAI You gotta see 200 damage “peasant” archer end game with upkeep of 4 gold. The point is you can afford so many stack early game to roll over enemy before they can recruit tier 2-3. Stand together + tome of horde = 60% damage. Overwhelming tactic + artisan enchantment = 50% crit, they dont miss when they crit. Later on there is so much physical missile buff that 2 archer can kill a tier 5 unit. I finish the game with 12 full stack. beacon and magic at the same time. No enemy dare to appear because there is 3-6 stack waiting for them in every corner
The Wildlife sanctuary (province improvement from Beast tome) allows you to outright build animals in cities. These DO get race bonuses just like every other unit constructed from cities.
@@OmegaPuddle It sadly doesn't work that way. They're racial bonuses, so things that aren't your race like beasts don't receive your racial bonuses even if they're built in a city. I've just tested it and can confirm that they don't receive your racial bonuses.
@@OmegaPuddle More like what you're doing correctly since I've had 3 other people test it and none of us can reproduce what you're saying. I'm at the stage of pics or it didn't happen now lol
Thanks for this video. I also love builds that revolve around the mana addict trait. But after some tests, it turns out that this kind of build is very easily countered by the province improvement which prevents casting spells. I've learned the hard way that Scenario 4 is a good way to test the limit of builds that revolve around magic...
Ill give you a good tip, spawn in an irregular, have it raid the spell jammer, even while being pillaged but not destroyed the spell jammer becomes innefective.
If you're looking for a slightly more midrange version of this build you can run a Feudal Society instead, as the flat 20% damage is particularly easy to get with packs of beasts. Their focus towards growth in their unique province improvements allows for some crazy spawning of free units as well, with most cities growing a pop every few turns. For an alternative set of civ perks that's a little less broken you can also snag Fabled Hunters (to get more out of the earlygame hunting of infestations) alongside the Gifted Channellers which also gives you a nice spread of Affinities and gets Nature perks rolling a bit faster. I also found that grabbing the Necromancy tome instead of the Fertility one is interesting when you get the Tome of Cycles, as that lets you raise enemy units as blockers for your high tier beasts that turn into AoE heals upon death. Sanctuary is also well worth it just for Keeper's Mark, as that spell makes it so that nothing you have on the field (even summons) can die in one turn barring instant death abilities like that of the Reaper. This is absolutely hilarious when using vine spells from Horned Gods, as it essentially buys you a turn where there is an immortal wall around any units you isolated or between you and them. An immortal wall that heals you when it dies and might immobilize anyone that was parked next to it 😆
summoned units do not benefit by race traits no... but they can benefit from some race transformations... for example if you went with leaf skin buff.. all the summoned things from nature will also have forest walk and forest camo.
I don't think Mana Addicts is the right choice here. Take Prolific Swarmers, and now all your tier 1 summons come into the game at level 3, only 1 level away from evolving.
This seems more like a(nother) demonstration of the fact that Nature tomes are top tier in the game currently. They are my favorites as well, but I do hope the other affinities gets a buff to get on an equel level.
@@thevoxdeus Astral is the outright winner in lategame tomes even if it starts a little bit shaky in places. I'm pretty sure their T5 Tome gives spells that just invalidate entire builds if someone gets to them, and has the potential to completely flip battles on their head in a way that very few other things do (Mass Rejuvenation into Awaken Instincts for instance 😉)
Mana unchained is pretty bad for mystic culture. With a wizard king and the ability to cast on the 1st round, you can get 3 stacks on everyone before you act on turn 2, and you almost never attack on turn 1. It therefore loses most of its benefit. A summon is a far stronger use of a full action on round 1. For every other culture, its not bad, though I still find summons more useful in practice.
There are Support Skills for heroes that improves Cavalry and Animal units in your army. Also some that increase dmg if your fighting in woods etc. So there is a "druid" build but its on Hero level.
Hello Battlesey great video. Where does that 'Evolve' talent come from ???? I see the animals can evolve when they reach champion rank ??? there is a spell in the order books that allows you to level a stack of units 1 level, might be a way to use that in the late mid game ???
I had no idea that nature affinity node that spawns the animals could spawn higher tier things. I figured it would probably just be t1 or 2 so ive been ignoring it. That'll change now lol
I had a game recently in a desert realm where I got like 5 or 6 phoenixes. If you use the annex thing on water tiles, you also have a really good chance to get a kraken. Downside is that you spend a LOT of imperium and mana on upkeep.
in battle healing is not a good idea, try to fight without losing hp on units instead (; soc traits like 'mana addicts' are noob traps as they just provide some help for battles and nothing more - those are completely made useless and 'win more' just by being able to fight without them (:
Out of battle heals are pretty rare so it's a decent alternative. It can at least stop the bleed and you can't always get mass heal from tomes so as a trait it's pretty good.
![[Brutal] Nature Hordes are INSANE in the early game - Age of Wonders 4 - Ep1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vAyLKmg4r3o/mqdefault.jpg)
For the mid/late game, the totems that automatically summon a tier 1 unit every turn during combat adds even more fun! You can dominate "impossible" fights by overwhelming your enemy with TONS of little critters!
Combine those and Zombies with Tome of Cycles and you can also turn those into healing for the rest of your actual units :D
You buy me at " you can get powerfull units by free"
I also like the Wolf Mount Feudal build
Just get a ton of stackable adjacency bonuses, moral bonuses and crit chance
a much better build unless you are rushing for some reason, may be to get T3 (earth/sorc/theocrat summon, may be even necro for banshee) tomes
My best build so far is an absolutely insane barbarian horde build. Like your build, it uses summoning but with tome of the horde instead (summon irregular). The build only uses T1 units, and the hero's go full support buff. You need to take overwhelming tactics on the race for +20% crit. Tomes = Horde, Enchantment, Amplification, Artificing, Devastation, Chaos Channeling, Daemon Gate, Chaos Lord. Perks are Prolific swarmers and Runesmiths. So what it does is takes the t1 barb comp of warriors and skirmishers and uses only those units. Every pick you make is a new enchant or racial modification to enhance those units. You get 100% crit with: Sundering Blade (+30% crit), Astral Affinity (+10 crit/spell), Flameburst weapons (+20 crit), Overwhelming tactics (+20 crit), Precision training (+10 crit). You get 20% upkeep reduction which is multiplicative with the 30% enchant reduction, so you can outbuild and outclass at the same time. The top spell is GOLDEN HORDE, it gives you a 6 stack of t1 units you can produce. NEVER take any units, they will pollute the unit pool for summons and chaos tree unlocks. This is the sickest way to go demonkin because you get frenzy, 100% crit, enemies explode on death, and killing frenzy on everything with demonic onslaught. If you get an extra tome pick go for transmutation and steelskin with adaptive armor. That might even be better than daemon gate, ill have to try it again ::))
Try feudal heavily focus on tier 1 archer, -50% upkeep. They perform really good in end game with all of the buff
The only reason why horde builds don't work is that most maps have chokepoints that makes it useless
@@NhatAnhPhamDr I use fuedal with tome of beasts and wolf mounts and forget t1 feudal man, peasants suck big time. I focus on hero's and knights and go mounted only. Pack hunter with lancers is lit, it synergizes with stand together. I put all my heroes in one party and follow them with 2 stacks of knights, and throw a Bannerman in every stack.
@@MYPSYAI You gotta see 200 damage “peasant” archer end game with upkeep of 4 gold. The point is you can afford so many stack early game to roll over enemy before they can recruit tier 2-3. Stand together + tome of horde = 60% damage. Overwhelming tactic + artisan enchantment = 50% crit, they dont miss when they crit. Later on there is so much physical missile buff that 2 archer can kill a tier 5 unit.
I finish the game with 12 full stack. beacon and magic at the same time. No enemy dare to appear because there is 3-6 stack waiting for them in every corner
Will adaptable apply to your summoned beasts? It's a racial trait for your people so I don't think it'd apply to animals that you summon.
The Wildlife sanctuary (province improvement from Beast tome) allows you to outright build animals in cities. These DO get race bonuses just like every other unit constructed from cities.
@@OmegaPuddle It sadly doesn't work that way. They're racial bonuses, so things that aren't your race like beasts don't receive your racial bonuses even if they're built in a city. I've just tested it and can confirm that they don't receive your racial bonuses.
@@DWith13Es Im literally looking at my Adaptable keen sighted Hunter spiders right now.... Don't know what you are doing wrong lol.
@@OmegaPuddle More like what you're doing correctly since I've had 3 other people test it and none of us can reproduce what you're saying. I'm at the stage of pics or it didn't happen now lol
Thanks for this video.
I also love builds that revolve around the mana addict trait.
But after some tests, it turns out that this kind of build is very easily countered by the province improvement which prevents casting spells.
I've learned the hard way that Scenario 4 is a good way to test the limit of builds that revolve around magic...
Ill give you a good tip, spawn in an irregular, have it raid the spell jammer, even while being pillaged but not destroyed the spell jammer becomes innefective.
Inb4 Mage Banes lock you out of spells. Terrifying when you don't expect it.
4:10 you actually do have enough movement
left click the hero with 16 movement points left, and right click the enemy army
it was more to show off other ways of using the summon :)
If you're looking for a slightly more midrange version of this build you can run a Feudal Society instead, as the flat 20% damage is particularly easy to get with packs of beasts. Their focus towards growth in their unique province improvements allows for some crazy spawning of free units as well, with most cities growing a pop every few turns.
For an alternative set of civ perks that's a little less broken you can also snag Fabled Hunters (to get more out of the earlygame hunting of infestations) alongside the Gifted Channellers which also gives you a nice spread of Affinities and gets Nature perks rolling a bit faster.
I also found that grabbing the Necromancy tome instead of the Fertility one is interesting when you get the Tome of Cycles, as that lets you raise enemy units as blockers for your high tier beasts that turn into AoE heals upon death.
Sanctuary is also well worth it just for Keeper's Mark, as that spell makes it so that nothing you have on the field (even summons) can die in one turn barring instant death abilities like that of the Reaper. This is absolutely hilarious when using vine spells from Horned Gods, as it essentially buys you a turn where there is an immortal wall around any units you isolated or between you and them. An immortal wall that heals you when it dies and might immobilize anyone that was parked next to it 😆
The wild expansion is even more powerful than that it triggers the spawn again if you transfer the region back and forth between cities
That sounds like an unintended exploit.
@@patinho5589 I'm not sure if it is or isnt but it was sure strong
0:12 your summoned animals and other units don't benefit from your race traits though. Or is it different for the xp boost one?
summoned units do not benefit by race traits no... but they can benefit from some race transformations... for example if you went with leaf skin buff.. all the summoned things from nature will also have forest walk and forest camo.
I don't think Mana Addicts is the right choice here. Take Prolific Swarmers, and now all your tier 1 summons come into the game at level 3, only 1 level away from evolving.
This seems more like a(nother) demonstration of the fact that Nature tomes are top tier in the game currently. They are my favorites as well, but I do hope the other affinities gets a buff to get on an equel level.
Astral tomes are drastically under-appreciated, in my opinion.
@@thevoxdeus Astral is the outright winner in lategame tomes even if it starts a little bit shaky in places.
I'm pretty sure their T5 Tome gives spells that just invalidate entire builds if someone gets to them, and has the potential to completely flip battles on their head in a way that very few other things do (Mass Rejuvenation into Awaken Instincts for instance 😉)
Mana unchained is pretty bad for mystic culture. With a wizard king and the ability to cast on the 1st round, you can get 3 stacks on everyone before you act on turn 2, and you almost never attack on turn 1. It therefore loses most of its benefit. A summon is a far stronger use of a full action on round 1. For every other culture, its not bad, though I still find summons more useful in practice.
I hope we get a Druid culture at some point. It could be a really cool to be able to play wood elves with a proper appearance.
Not a druid culture, but a feral one, yeah.
There are Support Skills for heroes that improves Cavalry and Animal units in your army. Also some that increase dmg if your fighting in woods etc. So there is a "druid" build but its on Hero level.
Nice One. Do More Strong Build Videos. Will Be Fun : ))
Mana addicts been removed?
It is a pantheon unlock around L10 I think going down the Wizard path.
There is a bug where when you trade provinces between cities you get a new animal every time
I don't even see mana addicted in my game selection so I don't have that build or any with lifesteal in 😮
You unlock it via the pantheon :)
Hello Battlesey great video.
Where does that 'Evolve' talent come from ???? I see the animals can evolve when they reach champion rank ??? there is a spell in the order books that allows you to level a stack of units 1 level, might be a way to use that in the late mid game ???
'Evolve' talent comes the unit itself, some have, some don't. you cant change that (from what i know)
I dont see Mana Addicts on my list to pick from.
With the dragon tome this build is even stronger
Hmm I dont see mana addicts as an option under society traits, was this patched out ?
You unlock it via the pantheon, just win a few games to unlock :)
I dont see mana addict option . Does it need to be unlocked?
Hey great video, which site did you use for the Database in the beginning of the video?
minionsart.github.io/aow4db/
so mana addict is op. ok cool.
Why can't I see mana addicts in the society traits?
it's unlocked in the pantheon (quite early though)
Goblin Spider Queen Weebbss thanks you for your advice. your complete vampire spider kit is in the mail "mad cackles"
0:17 Adaptable trait is on your Race, not on the animals you summon. so there provide no benefit.
tried this out really works well easy enough for a novice to understand
Is this pre-release, no sign of mana addicts in my game, probably removed due to as you say it's broken
You unlock it quickly via pantheon, just need to win a few games
I did something similar but with full uh. Arcane? I forget what the blue one is called, focus rather than nature.
The culture is "Mystic." The affinity is Astral.
Dwarven nature mages huh? So weird.
Can take any Physical form ..
and any body form (they won’t call it gender…!)
I had no idea that nature affinity node that spawns the animals could spawn higher tier things. I figured it would probably just be t1 or 2 so ive been ignoring it. That'll change now lol
ive been getting tier 3 and 4 spider matriarch like crazy and it works if u transfer regions back and for between cities you spawn a unit again
I had a game recently in a desert realm where I got like 5 or 6 phoenixes. If you use the annex thing on water tiles, you also have a really good chance to get a kraken. Downside is that you spend a LOT of imperium and mana on upkeep.
Mana is easily recouped on nature.
How do you evolve units?
Just levelling them up :) if you hover over their xp / level you'll see what you'll need to evolve them and what they evolve to.
@@Battleseyttv dope!! Didn’t know that
in battle healing is not a good idea, try to fight without losing hp on units instead (;
soc traits like 'mana addicts' are noob traps as they just provide some help for battles and nothing more - those are completely made useless and 'win more' just by being able to fight without them (:
Out of battle heals are pretty rare so it's a decent alternative. It can at least stop the bleed and you can't always get mass heal from tomes so as a trait it's pretty good.
Great guide! Flows really well