That’s kind of a bummer for any previous Age of Wonders fans out there, as Shadow Magic featured 15 different races which still managed to feel unique.

The races feel different in terms of the variety of units, though there are only six total races. A city’s race dictates what units are offered, as it would be unseemly for a High Elven Archer to pop out of an Orcish settlement. The big deals here are their race, which determines your starting city’s ethnicity, and Class, which determines what spells are available to you.

You can choose between a ton of pre-made leaders of different races and classes, but you may also forge your own with insane complexity. Instead of ruling your forces from your magical mead hall, your leader can take to the streets and waste fools themselves. Luckily the game offers up multiplayer options in the form of hot seat multiplayer, LAN and online. We mainly played on the Randomly generated maps which, aside from having an errant swatch of snow here and there, were pretty consistent in their great quality. Out of the 8 scenarios, “A Mirror Pact” and “Taming of the Great Khan” are the only two promoting co-op play, which is entirely too few. Assaulting an enemy city by yourself is gratifying, but teaming up massive forces to break the enemy’s Throne City is some of the most fun this game can offer.

If you’ve played the Total War games cooperatively, you’ll already be familiar with that concept. Want to see what your ally’s draconian mystics are capable of? Get in position and launch the offensive. This counts whether you choose to auto resolve or manual battle. You might find yourself asking “So where does the co-op fit in?” Well, what kind of battle would it be if your friends weren’t there to help out? On the overworld map, any armies beside the attacked unit, no matter who, are immediately embroiled into the conflict as well. Who knows! Maybe that’s the edge your team needed in this entire, brutal war. If you kill an enemy hero and they drop their sick Mace of Face Stomping, then it’s finders keepers. Tactical minds may rule these battles, which can easily turn the tide of an entire campaign. Your leader unit (more on that shortly) has a presence in the fight even if they aren’t physically in it, by casting spells to either help friends or harm enemies. Your units have movement points, various attacks and abilities, and all the great trappings that make pen and paper RPG combat fun. The battles themselves play almost like tabletop RPGs.

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