Age Of Wonders 4 is a pretty typical 4X game where you start off with a small city and eventually end up with a massive empire. Your starting city will serve you well for at least 20 to 30 turns if you keep expanding its borders by acquiring nearby provinces as soon you have enough population.
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Once you’ve managed to set up a good base of operations, you can start thinking about expanding further by adding new cities to your burgeoning empire. There are multiple ways of acquiring new cities in Age of Wonders 4, some more difficult than others. It’s up to you to decide how you want to go about it, but taking the pacifist approach is usually preferable if you’re a beginner.
How To Found New Cities
If you’re familiar withCivilization VI,Old World, or other similar 4X games, you might be surprised to find that there are no settlers in Age of Wonders 4. Instead, all the units you can recruit in the game are meant either for exploration or for combat and those can’t be used to found new cities. However, you can found a city using your Ruler or a hero character.
Setting up a new city is a bit of a lengthy process, but quite simple overall. Your first order of business is to locate an unclaimed province outside your borders and build an Outpost there. Make sure there are no hostile armies in the area. Once the Outpost has been established, you can then upgrade it to a full-fledged city in exchange for a sizable chunk of Imperium. Alternatively, you can simply upgrade it with various structures and use it as a fort of sorts. You can then transform it into a city at a later time.
How To Acquire New Cities Via Diplomacy
The diplomatic approach is arguably the best way of acquiring new cities in Age of Wonders 4 since it gives you access to cities that have already been developed. However, convincing other factions to part with their cities takes a lot of work. Free Cities are usually your best bet since you can easily increase your allegiance with them via pacts, trades, and the occasional quest. Once you have enough allegiance with a Free City, you can vassalize them and then either let them remain independent or absorb them into your empire.
When it comes to major factions, you’re able to attempt to convince them to trade you one of their cities instead. Or, if you’re so inclined, you can trade away one of yours. Either way, you’ll first need to establish strong diplomatic bonds with a faction before you’ll get access to that option. Start with a Declaration of Friendship and some trading and then work your way up from there. Ideally, you’ll want to do this with factions that have similar affinities to yours. Diametrically opposed factions are more likely to declare war on you than engage in diplomacy, let alone give you their cities.
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How To Acquire New Cities By Force
If you don’t want to waste time with Outposts or diplomacy you may always choose violence instead. War is always an option in Age of Wonders 4 and you’ll inevitably find yourself embroiled in one sooner or later. Both Free Cities and major factions can declare war on you and, in turn, you can decide to declare war on them. Once you’re at war with a faction, you can assault its cities and try to take them by force.
Conquering cities in Age of Wonders 4 can be quite challenging, especially if you don’t plan ahead. Every city has access to defensive structures like Palisade Walls and Ballista Towers. The more of these buildings a city has, the more difficult it will be to besiege. In addition to the bonuses given by these structures, you’ll also need to deal with the city’s defenders. On the bright side, once you launch a siege you can start various projects that will make taking the city easier, though researching these projects will take some time.
