Good evening, you're listening to Three Moves Ahead. I'm your host this evening, Fraser Brown. I'm filling in for Rob Zakney, who is once again out of commission due to back pain. Sorry, Rob. I'm joined tonight by freelance writer Rowan Kaiser. He writes for IGN, Arts Technica. Welcome to the show. That's good to be back.

So we're talking about Angel Wonders 3 today. a game we both reviewed and both of us liked it.

But we feel we disagree strongly about how much we liked it.

So, Rowan, why don't you start us out?

What is Age of Wonders 3 and what's it bringing to the fantasy genre?

Age of Wonders 3 is a fantasy strategy game.

It is the sequel to Age of Wonders 1, 2, and Not 3, Shadow Magic, which were fairly

popular in the early 2000s.

They're very much master of magic, descendant type of games with the strategic

layer where you play as a wizard researching spells and all and the tactical battles. I think

the key difference between Age of Wonders and like a Fallen Enchantress or a Master of Magic

is that it's uh it never says like

you're playing on the whole world they're all smaller scenarios um and at least the initial games

had a very strong campaign uh that i thought was much more of the linked scenarios were much more

of the better way to play where where this game, I don't think

that's entirely the case. Yeah, two campaigns, one of them which was kind of more of a tutorial,

really, the elf one. Yeah, or the easier to get into, I'm not sure exactly, but it definitely

had a tutorial scenario at the start.

It's also got, I think, the thing that I like about the series the most is that it has a sort

of tragic Tolkien-esque vibe, more the Silmarillion than the Lord of the Rings, where you

have like the elves trying to maintain their position as, you know, leaders of the world,

while humans just overrun everything and then some of the elves turn to evil.

...