Age of Wonders 4 – Combat Guide

Combat

Each turn all units gain 3 Action Points. Action Points can be used to attack, use abilities, or move. Only up to 2 Action Points can be spent on moving. The swords button in the upper-right corner will toggle Auto-Combat, giving control of the player army to the AI.

Depending on the location of the battle, certain unique effects may trigger at regular intervals. Usually these effects help the defender but sometimes they affect both sides.

During naval battles land units will appear as ships but behave as usual.

The unit stats bar

Morale

Morale represents a unit’s confidence in victory. High Morale increases the chance of a Critical Hit while low Morale increases the chance of a Fumble. If a unit’s Morale is depleted completely the unit will Rout, meaning it will automatically use Action Points to move to the closest retreat point and ignore zones of control and attacks of opportunity.

Level	Morale	Effects	Description
High	20 to 40	20% Critical Chance	The unit is in high spirits and confident of victory.
Neutral	-19 to 19	None	The unit is content and ready for battle.
Low	-39 to -20	20% Fumble Chance	The unit is wavering and doubtful of victory.
Very Low	-59 to 40	40% Fumble Chance	The unit is despairing and close to breaking.
Routing	-60	Unit Routs	The unit is terrified and fleeing for its life!

Terrain

The overall layout of the combat map depends on the province the battle takes place. If the battle takes place on an Ancient Wonder hex the combat map will be one unique to each wonder.

Certain hexes on the field of battle may affect units standing on them.

• Water costs twice more to move through and give units that stand on them Wet, meaning that they gave +2 Fire Resistance and -4 Frost Resistance and Lightning Resistance.
• Low Foliage and High Foliage give units that stand on them Obstructed, meaning that they are 40% harder to hit with ranged attacks.
• Lucky Covers and Lucky Sunflowers give units Lucky, meaning that they receive +10% Critical Hit Chance.
• Poisonous Mushrooms give units Poisoned for 3 turns.
• Rocky hexes cannot be passed through with land units.
• Certain hexes will block movement but can be targeted and destroyed.

Naval battles in open sea do not have any terrain.