Animal Sanctuary

[Gargoyle]

So it seems it only gives you the same 3/4 animal units no matter what climate the province is located. This seems like an oversight, because in the same tome (Tome of Beasts) you get the spell summon wild animal and that actually varies depending on the climate region it is cast. Was hoping to get Dire Penguins from the Sanctuary this way to try to make a more thematic Frostling Faction. Does anyone know how to get Dire Penguins or is it just pure BS RNG chance?

[sandman25dcsss]

Install mod with corresponding tome from devs?

[Gargoyle]

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

Install mod with corresponding tome from devs?

The devs made mods for their own game?....wtf

[sandman25dcsss]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2970474377

[CrUsHeR]

Be glad that it works that way. You get the T2 Spider as best allround unit, and you get the Warg in case you want the Pack Hunter mechanics. While the summons are generally unreliable, same like in AOW3 where you could get e.g. a useless T2 elephant or a T3 dire bear.

Also there's a hero trait unlocking animals in cities, but these are really crap with the T2 snakes being a laughable imitation of the AOW3 serpents (hello King Shock Serpent, we're missing you)

[Gargoyle]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Be glad that it works that way. You get the T2 Spider as best allround unit, and you get the Warg in case you want the Pack Hunter mechanics. While the summons are generally unreliable, same like in AOW3 where you could get e.g. a useless T2 elephant or a T3 dire bear.

Also there's a hero trait unlocking animals in cities, but these are really crap with the T2 snakes being a laughable imitation of the AOW3 serpents (hello King Shock Serpent, we're missing you)

Eh i was going for theme not min/max, If only paradox/triumph would add Frostling as a culture already instead of wasting so much time per match to make something that should of already existed -.-

[titanopteryx]

I know that one of the wonders you can annex into a town makes giant snakes recruitable from that recruitment screen up top. It's possible penguins come from annexing a wonder and recruiting from that screen up top.

[Fendelphi]

If you get a hero with the animal tamer special trait, you can get Dire Penguins(among other things) from the city he/she is governor in. At least I did.

[CrUsHeR]

Never understood the ancient wonders as any form of valid strategy.

Even with the "Wondrous Past" map modifier, these are extremely random and spread out very far across the map. To do anything with them, you need a city within range, and have enough population to annex them.

This is completely countered by the fact that you're not supposed to have more than 3-5 cities, and building up cities past the early game phase takes way too much time, as there are no stacking bonuses for expansion like in actual 4X games like Stellaris.

Also if you have a vassal near a wonder, there's no way to gift them the province so at least they could give you 50% of the resources and provide the unlocked units.

[Gargoyle]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

If you get a hero with the animal tamer special trait, you can get Dire Penguins(among other things) from the city he/she is governor in. At least I did.

Is it a guaranteed role to get it, or like i said is it RNG BS?

[ReverseRaven]

Originally posted by Gargoyle:

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

If you get a hero with the animal tamer special trait, you can get Dire Penguins(among other things) from the city he/she is governor in. At least I did.

Is it a guaranteed role to get it, or like i said is it RNG BS?

Sample size of 2 so far for me but they had it both times. Dire Penguin, the two Serpents, and a bunch of Hatchling spiders.

[Gargoyle]

Originally posted by ReverseRaven:

Originally posted by Gargoyle:

Is it a guaranteed role to get it, or like i said is it RNG BS?

Sample size of 2 so far for me but they had it both times. Dire Penguin, the two Serpents, and a bunch of Hatchling spiders.

Do you know the pre-requisite for Hero to have this trait?

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Gargoyle:

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

If you get a hero with the animal tamer special trait, you can get Dire Penguins(among other things) from the city he/she is governor in. At least I did.

Is it a guaranteed role to get it, or like i said is it RNG BS?

The trait itself is random(just like other special traits for heroes) unfortunately. It has nothing to do with the Animal Sanctuary building.
As for the animals the trait provides, my city was in an Arctic area, so maybe that had an impact. I could also recruit Ice Spiders.

The easiest way to get the animals you are looking for, is to use the summon animal spell on an Arctic tile, as there is a decent chance to spawn Dire Penguins or Ice Spiders.

All that being said, just use the murder pigs(not their actual name) and think of them a whooly version surviving in the cold. They are among the best animals you can field, as they have great synergy with other effects and Wildspeakers.

Dire Penguins are cool, but surprisingly vulnerable and being tier 2 fighters is bad for scaling, and Ice Spider Matriarchs ends up costing Imperium(they are great for a Materium/Nature build though).

[Gargoyle]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Originally posted by Gargoyle:

Is it a guaranteed role to get it, or like i said is it RNG BS?

The trait itself is random(just like other special traits for heroes) unfortunately. It has nothing to do with the Animal Sanctuary building.
As for the animals the trait provides, my city was in an Arctic area, so maybe that had an impact. I could also recruit Ice Spiders.

The easiest way to get the animals you are looking for, is to use the summon animal spell on an Arctic tile, as there is a decent chance to spawn Dire Penguins or Ice Spiders.

All that being said, just use the murder pigs(not their actual name) and think of them a whooly version surviving in the cold. They are among the best animals you can field, as they have great synergy with other effects and Wildspeakers.

Dire Penguins are cool, but surprisingly vulnerable and being tier 2 fighters is bad for scaling, and Ice Spider Matriarchs ends up costing Imperium(they are great for a Materium/Nature build though).

Hmmm. At this point i might as well restart the mission and go with tome of Horde over tome of beast.

[Baron]

Originally posted by Gargoyle:

Originally posted by ReverseRaven:

Sample size of 2 so far for me but they had it both times. Dire Penguin, the two Serpents, and a bunch of Hatchling spiders.

Do you know the pre-requisite for Hero to have this trait?

Randomly rolled, I'm pretty sure. I've seen it about as often as any other recruitable hero trait.

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Never understood the ancient wonders as any form of valid strategy.

Even with the "Wondrous Past" map modifier, these are extremely random and spread out very far across the map. To do anything with them, you need a city within range, and have enough population to annex them.

This is completely countered by the fact that you're not supposed to have more than 3-5 cities, and building up cities past the early game phase takes way too much time, as there are no stacking bonuses for expansion like in actual 4X games like Stellaris.

Also if you have a vassal near a wonder, there's no way to gift them the province so at least they could give you 50% of the resources and provide the unlocked units.

If you plop down an Outpost next to the Wonder when you clear it, you can annex it with a Work Camp. Any yield bonuses will go to your nearest city, or directly into your income stream in the case of Knowledge, Mana and Imperium. In fact, you should think of Outpost building in very similar terms to Stellaris: use them to cut off enemy expansion in advance, and secure the resource-rich regions behind.

As someone who is a very big fan of Stellaris (my most-played game, in fact) - I highly recommend setting the Game Speed and Score Victory both to Fast in the Advanced Settings for Realm Creation. For me, this basically fixed the frustration I was having with the speed of economic development.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, because of the way the systems in Stellaris interact, your armies exist kind of like the natural conclusion of your economy. You have an economy, therefore you can build ships. In AoW4, I would argue the systems encourage the opposite mindset: you require an army, therefore you must build cities. "But Baron, that's the same thing; you're spouting BS!" I hear you - I just can't think of a less uh, mystical way of putting into words the way the difference feels. Perhaps, for Age of Wonders, that's appropriate.

[Krigsprästen]

Originally posted by CrUsHeR:

Be glad that it works that way. You get the T2 Spider as best allround unit, and you get the Warg in case you want the Pack Hunter mechanics. While the summons are generally unreliable, same like in AOW3 where you could get e.g. a useless T2 elephant or a T3 dire bear.

Also there's a hero trait unlocking animals in cities, but these are really crap with the T2 snakes being a laughable imitation of the AOW3 serpents (hello King Shock Serpent, we're missing you)

Holding the game up to the standard of AoW3 is not a good look. It should be held to the standard of the original two games, not whatever we want to call AoW3.