Age of Wonders 4is a 4X strategy from Triumph Studios and allows players to create, customize, and lead their own fantasy Faction. Instead of a traditional 4X technology tree,Age of Wonders 4players periodically unlock new Tomes of Magic, allowing them to further shape their Faction’s development.
The Tomes of the Shadow Affinity are a little different from the others, as they have one Tome at each of the 5 Tiers, which is focused purely on undead units. TheseTomes of Magicwork best when taken together, allowing players to go all-in on an undead build.
Tier 1 Shadow Affinity Tomes
Tome of Souls
The Tome of Souls focuses on theunique Souls resource, which is used to cast almost all of the undead-themed spells. The Tome also immediately unlocks theSoul CollectorHero Skill, as well as the ability to gain Souls after every battle.
SoulbindersandSoulbind Armycombine to greatly increase the player’s Souls income, allowing them to afford the more expensive Shadows spells. Souls are needed to recruit as well as summon units from the Shadow Tomes, which is the case with theBone Golem, a durable shock unit that turns into Skeletons upon death.
Souls can also be used forSoul Fire, which allows players to deal serious fire and frost damage to a single target and half damage to all enemies in a 1-hex radius. Finally,Soul Overflowallows players to use Souls to buff their own units, granting more damage, HP, and removing negative status effects.
Tome of Cryomancy
The Tome of Cryomancy focuses on frost damage and the Frozen status effect and immediately unlocks the Knowledge and Mana-producingSchool of Cryomancyand theFrost WeaponsHero Skill.
Frost BladesandFrost Arrowsmake up the core of the Tome of Cryomancy, allowing almost all the player’s units to deal frost damage and benefit from the Slowed and Frozen status effects. To make it easier to apply these effects, players can causeBlizzardon an enemy army before the battle begins.
TheLesser Snow SpiritSkirmisher unit andWhite WitchBattle Mage are both ranged units that can easily cause Slowed and Frozen with their abilities, creating the opportunity for extra damage as well as debuffing the enemy army. However, even if they don’t have these units, the player can useIce Coffintactical spell for a high chanceto apply Frozen and a guaranteed application of Slowed if the enemy saves.
Tier 2 Shadow Affinity Tomes
Tome of the Doomherald
The Tome of the Doomherald focuses heavily on lowering enemy Morale and immediately unlocks the Mana and Knowledge-producingDoomdepth Trenchand theCruel WeaponryHero Skill.
TheJoy Siphonersminor race transformationandCruel Weaponryunit enchantment spell combine to allow the player’s armies to sap Morale and then benefit with a boost to damage against low-Morale targets. The same effect as Cruel Weaponry also applies to the basic attacks of theBansheeunit summon, which also has an AoE Morale-reducing ability.
To further set up these combos, theCause Despairspell is a cheap way of lowering the Morale of all enemies in a 1-hex radius, while thePrelude of Doomcan be cast on an enemy army before a battle to ensure that their Morale hits rock bottom as quickly as possible.
Tome of Necromancy
As the next in the undead-themed Shadow Tomes, the Tome of Necromancy focuses on creating and supporting undead units. It immediately unlocks the Souls and Mana-producingSoulwellas well as theUnholy LeaderHero Skill. Players will also gain the Soul Harvest ability if this is the first undead-themed Tome they’ve unlocked.
Raise Zombiesis a combat summon spell that can be used to tie down enemy ranged units or create a buffer on the frontline. Although Zombies are weak, they can be targeted withRotting Explosionto destroy them and deal heavy damage to all enemies within a 2-hex radius.
TheNecromancerunit can also raise Zombies and other undead from corpses on the battlefield, and as a Support unit, it benefits from the effects ofNecrotic Magic. Finally,Restore Undeadisa rare healing spellthat can be used outside of combat, though it only effects undead units.
Tier 3 Shadow Affinity Tomes
Both of the Tier 3 Shadow Affinity Tomes unlock the Seed of Shadow Special Province Improvement, the first stage ofAge of Wonders 4’s Magic Victory.
Tome of the Great Transformation
The third undead-themed Shadow Tome, the Tome of the Great Transformation, focuses on creating an undead society off the battlefield and immediately unlocks theWeakening AuraHero Skill. Players will also gain the Soul Harvest ability if this is the first undead-themed Tome they’ve unlocked.
TheWightbornmajor race transformation is one of the most important spells for an undead build, as it allows the player’s custom race to benefit from the bonuses to undead that they’ve amassed. This includes the damage bonus fromDomain of Death, which affects all undead units in thetarget City’s Domain, but isn’t required for theFetid Legionunit enchantment spell.
Off the battlefield,Necrotic Spireswill help to protect the player’s Cities from Sieges by adding Fortification Health and aunique Tower Structure. Finally,Desecrate Structureis great for turning spare Souls into a constant Mana income by targeting friendly resource nodes.
Tome of the Cold Dark
The Tome of the Cold Dark focuses on frost damage and arctic terrain and immediately unlocks the Knowledge-producingFrostspireand theBlinding MagicHero Skill.
Flash FreezeandMarching Winterrepresent two ways of spreading arctic terrain across the map; the former is sudden and aggressive butlimited to a single Province, while the latter is expensive but dependable and comes with bonuses to the new arctic areas. Spreading cold terrain across the map can be massively beneficial if players also cast theFrostling Transformationminor race transformation spell, which grants extra bonuses on cold terrain.
Additionally,Veil of Darknesscan be useful in sneaking an army in or out of trouble without being intercepted, while theSnow Spiritunit summon is a greatly improved version of the Lesser Snow Spirit from the Tome of Cryomancy.
RELATED:Age of Wonders 4: Astral Tomes Guide
Tier 4 Shadow Affinity Tomes
Both of the Tier 4 Shadow Affinity Tomes unlock the Root of Shadow Special Province Improvement, the first stage ofAge of Wonders 4’s Magic Victory.
Tome of Oblivion
The Tome of Oblivion focuses on the debilitating Insanity condition and immediately unlocks theMind CrushHero Skill.
TheLiving Fogunit summon,Sleep of Obliviondebuff spell, andFog of InsanityCity spell all have a chance of inflicting thepowerful Insanity condition, which causes the afflicted unit to attack nearby units at random. This can be incredibly powerful in the early stages of a fight, where the target enemy unit will most likely spend its turns attacking its former allies.
TheRitual of Somniastrategicarmy spellis similarly debilitating and can cause a large portion of the enemy army to miss the first two turns of each battle, allowing the player’s own units to close the distance or inflict early damage. This combos very well with theDevouring Void, a damage spell that spreads out from a central point over multiple turns, dealing heavy physical damage to all it touches.
Tome of the Reaper
Another undead-themed Tome, the Tome of the Reaper, focuses on boosting Souls production and empowering undead units. It immediately unlocks theGreater Corpse ConsumptionHero Skill, as well as the Soul Harvest if players haven’t already unlocked it.
Greater Reanimationallows players to bringdead units back under their commandin combat, but the unit will die again after the battle ends. Reanimated units count as undead, which means they will be empowered by theReaperunit’s Dark Rites ability. Additionally,Mark for Deathallows players to apply a huge Morale debuff to a target enemy unit as well as dooming them to die in a few turns.
Off the battlefield, theHarvest Populationspell is a great way to turn Population into Souls in the late game and is best used onvassalized and subservient Free Cities. Another great way to generate Souls in an emergency is theConstruct Soul SiphonsSiege Project, which has the added bonus of spawning Zombies when the siege battle begins.
Tier 5 Shadow Affinity Tome
Tome of the Eternal Lord
The final Shadow Affinity Tome is also the final undead-themed Tome and immediately unlocks the Heart of Shadow Special Province Improvement, which is the final Improvement needed forAge of Wonders 4’s Magic Victory, as well as theEternal OneHero Skill.
Raise Undead Armyis a great emergency spell that summons a full stack of Tier 1-3 undead units ontothe Realm mapand can easily turn a doomed fight into an easy victory. Another spell capable of turning the tide of a battle isBattlefield Reanimation, which is best used at the end of a bloody combat to raise multiple units under the player’s control.
True Death Magicallows all the player’s Battle Mage and Support units to inflict the Marked for Death condition, which disables healing and causes the afflicted unit to die when it expires. Finally,Withering Mistis a powerful debuff spell that affects the entire battlefield, causing all enemy units to suffer frost damage, Weakened, and Blinded.
Age Of Wonders 4is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.
