This is apparent right away even from the artwork, as each unit has a ghoul textured model it uses in place of its normal one. The ghoul versions don’t feel overpowered, but instead uniquely different. They are vulnerable to spells that are effective against undead and lack the ability to heal naturally, but they also ignore most morale modifiers, become immune to blight damage, and can benefit from necromantic skills and spells that boost the Undead. Like any other class, they can build their race’s specific units, but unlike any other class, these units are also undead ghouls. The Necromancer has access to a wide variety of units. These provide population each turn in a similar manner to what the living races get from their buildings, but in addition these ghoul cities can also gain population whenever enemies are slain on the battlefield.
Instead of the standard morale and food production buildings, they build harvesters guilds, embalmers guilds, and a cathedral of bones.
They don’t use farms to grow crops and are actually encouraged to turn those useless farms and springs into vile corrupt places that only they can benefit from. Ghouls receive their race’s standard racial attributes, but also gain the benefits and detriments intrinsic to the undead. Rather than create a specific undead race, which already existed if you consider the Archon minor race, the Necromancer can instead turn any race into a pale ghoulish version of itself. It’s a class that is exceptionally well executed and is one of the best Necromancer implementations I’ve seen in a game.
It comes complete with a slew of new heroes, units, spells, special powers, and some exciting changes to existing gameplay systems. It’s hard to call any one aspect of such a large expansion the headliner, but the introduction of a new Necromancer class is certainly significant. They’ve released one of the biggest and most jam-packed expansions I’ve ever seen for a strategy game. With the recent release of their second expansion pack, Eternal Lords, Triumph Studios has done the exact opposite of what other companies would have done. Expansions seem to be a bit of an antiquated idea in the minds of many developers and consumers. After releasing Golden Realms, a very successful and well-received expansion for their Age of Wonders 3 franchise, it would have been easy for developer Triumph Studios to switch development to smaller, and perhaps more profitable, DLC packs.
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