Dont know anything about this series, but i figure theres some of you that do know this series and are stoked that there is a 3rd game in this series.,

so for those who didnt know and are stoked, the official website is up for the game.

http://www.ageofwonders.com/aow3live/

and here's a kotaku news story for said game.

http://kotaku.com/5982082/after-a-decade-off-the-age-of-wonders-series-is-returning

and heres a trailer for said game

My dream comes true! Shadow Magic is my favourite turn-based game, so I'm really looking forward to this. Good to see Triumph is still behind it too.

I never played either of the originals so I'm interested. I played a ton of Age of Empires but had moved to other genres when AOW came out. Did the series always have "hero classes" like the new trailer suggests or is that something new to this third edition?

@PenguinDust: according to the kotaku story, its new for this game.

I played a load of the first game, but never got around to playing the second one.

Hopefully I can get into this one.

Never heard of the series, but it has me interested.

Looks similar to the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I'm in.

@Zomgfruitbunnies said:

Looks similar to the Heroes of Might and Magic games. I'm in.

They are very similar, actually, though the game the series most closely resembles is Master of Magic. Also, all of the games are like $6 on GOG and well worth the price.

Also, this is fantastic because Age of Wonders is fantastic.

they had 'hero' classes, but 'hero' was the 'leader' unit and if they died you lost the game/match.

This is objectively the best news ever. I've been a HoMM fan ever since 3DO was still a thing, but there's no doubt that Age of Wonders took the fantasy turn-based crown and never gave it up.

I am very excited for this, I played so much of the old Age of Wonders games. None of the other games in this genre really caught my attention the way these games did, and I'm very happy Triumph is finally able to revisit this franchise.

soon...

Excuse my ignorance, but I am thinking of buying this, but is this pretty much just an heroes of might of magic clone? What is the key differences.

It's a fantasy turn-based strategy game, yes, but if Age of Wonders owes anything to any game, it owes it to Master of Magic. As for the gameplay, I'd say it's a cross between something like Civilization and Heroes. It has tactical combat that is a bit more freewheeling than Heroes (units have more abilities, no stacks, etc) and isn't very management heavy on the overworld map either. There are already a handful of LPs from the closed beta on youtube if you just want to see for yourself.

@tothenines: You could say It plays like Heroes of Might and Magic crossed with Civilization. The biggest difference is you get to build cities and research really awesome spells! Also, the combat works differently since units don't stack and you have a limited army size (6 units in Age of Wonders III). All adjacent armies are drawn into a combat (for a maximum of 42 units) and the terrain features you are fighting over often have interesting structures and effects.

Played hot seat with friend last night for about six hours. Really fun so far.