So. The Wizard tower

[Veg]

Does it do anything useful? Seems like all it really does is give you mana from your crypt and lets you recall your leader. In older games it controlled your casting but that doesnt seem to be the case anymore. Am I missing something? It seems almost totally pointless to build it.

[Riftwalker]

i don't really get any of the side rooms, but the imperium income is noticable

[Terrkas]

It gives imperium, your most valuable ressource.

[Dynamo Rex (mrrexplorer)]

Originally posted by Veg:

Does it do anything useful? Seems like all it really does is give you mana from your crypt and lets you recall your leader. In older games it controlled your casting but that doesnt seem to be the case anymore. Am I missing something? It seems almost totally pointless to build it.

And is you upgraged the Mage Tower you can make Prisons, Cryps and Interrogatory who are invaluable for your game. You can buy enemy generals who you capture if you upgraded (basically you steal this characters to the enemy) you can kill your generals enemmys for ever and sell this rest and equipement.
Basically the mage tower if you play agresive is the first structure you need it for a quickly victory.

[Astasia]

As mentioned it give imperium with each tier, it also unlocks a large casting point bonus. It's basically the most important building in the game, as one would expect.

[SundiataWTF]

Can high society empires build it? I don't see it in the capital build cue.

[CrUsHeR]

Originally posted by SundiataWTF:

Can high society empires build it? I don't see it in the capital build cue.

It shows up after upgrading the central building

[SundiataWTF]

You mean the town center?

[CrUsHeR]

Originally posted by SundiataWTF:

You mean the town center?

Yes, it has a different name for each culture.

[SundiataWTF]

Thanks!

[Reality]

Tbh I can annex wonders faster than saving up mana cost for tower... Usually just take the bargain one like foundation and l 1

Earlygame especially id way rather have 150 into an enchantment or minor transform

[Malaficus Shaikan]

I have the same problem.
I mostly build it out of habbit then accauly having a reason too.
They dont do enough to be worth it.
My imperium income is great so it isnt like then 5 extra imperium means anything.

[Elliott]

It bothers me slightly that it looks the same regardless of culture or affinity. Or at least look different depending on your ruler type (Champion/Wizard King/ Elder Dragon)

[MrButtermancer]

The imperium income is huge. I can't emphasize this enough. Having more imperium will almost always enable additional BS you couldn't achieve any other way.

The casting points are important. 10 points can be a big deal for a Champion especially.

Being able to teleport armies back to your throne very quickly doesn't seem important until suddenly it absolutely is. Not only can you use it to protect your core cities short notice, it can instantly save a stack or two from certain death. And it gets obscenely better when your empire is teleporter networked. You're two-ish turns from anywhere in your empire any time you're not in spelljammer territory.

[Picklefather Nurgle]

Its in my opinion that the Wizard Towers are not worth the cost of their construction.

You spend hundreds of gold and magical resources in exchange for a big tower that gives you Imperium. Imperium is important, don't get me wrong, but even if you never build the tower, you will accrue more of it than you know what to do with over time. Sometimes you even max out your affinity branch and have to take a new tome/skill in another affinity just to have something to spend it, since you don't really wanna manage 8+ cities at turn 120.

It gives you the Room of Recall, which gives you a worse version of a Tome of Teleportation Spell, somewhat devaluing that Tome even while taking longer to build than rushing that tome through research most of the time. The other buildings are lackluster too. Demon Gate is literally a teleporter but better. And you can get a few other buildings that also function as "teleporters but better" from tier 3/4 tomes.

It gives you the Dungeon and Crypt buildings, which are nice but you have to choose between killing people and/or selling their remains in order to get their gear in addition to tons of gold or.... getting 2 or so extra research and mana per equipment-loaded body. (Really should be able to strip literal prisoners of their weapons and take gear from your slain enemies unless you're Good enough aligned but that's a convo for another time.)

Lastly, it gives you increased vision range. Because big tower help see gooder.

In summary: Tons of gold and mana spent for nothing but the in-game equivalent of Clout, since you have to spend tons of resources to get watered down versions of spells and buildings that can be unlocked far faster and cheaper than rushing the tower buildings for over a dozen turns.



(Small tangent) - The area of influence mechanic was ditched, even though it really would help with balance if you, lets say, had to build literal shrines and places of power dedicated to yourself as a Wizard King in order to spread your reach. Just like the narcissistic God-Kings/Queens did in game 3.

Champions would likely have to build Towers and other monuments, either accepting their people's worship as a Living God or rather re-dedicating themselves to the glory and prosperity of their kinsmen.

But again, that's a tangent. Back to the Wizard Tower, which in game 2 (with each consecutive part of the tower being built) let you unlock buildings that are actually useful outside of collecting bodies like they're pokemon, such as:

- Libraries, (mortal Wizards seemingly take greater care with their arcane knowledge, storing it in their giant magic tower rather than in a public library like Godir seem to. :P)

- Hall of Enchantment, (buffs your garrisoned/defending units during a siege for free once built, with the buff being thematically appropriate for your Spheres of Magic/Affinities, costing no upkeep in mana like a unit/city enchantment would)

- Tower Guard, (literally a magic turret that fires from the top of the tower for, yet again, free once built, costing no upkeep in mana like a city enchantment would)

- Farcaster, (increased casting range, making it defunct but listed for posterity's sake.)

- Casting Chamber, (buffs your ruler's spellcasting, making your spells hit harder, easier to cast and more difficult to dispel)

- Enchanted Walls, (grants Sphere/Affinity-appropriate defenses once built, costing no upkeep in mana like a city enchantment would)

- Forcefield, (literally just a Spelljammer, protecting your city from hostile magic, but hidden behind the construction of your giant magical tower rather than unlocked via tomes)

- Teleportation Gate, (makes sense balance and lore-wise that a stable teleportation gate that can be safely used by mortals would be located in or around your gigantic magical tower, where it can be powered, monitored and defended)

TL;DR - Buff the Wizard Tower pls. Literal mortals in the distant past built stuff more impressive than the Towers in this game.

[Picklefather Nurgle]

Originally posted by Elliott:

It bothers me slightly that it looks the same regardless of culture or affinity. Or at least look different depending on your ruler type (Champion/Wizard King/ Elder Dragon)

This. Imagine choosing the High Culture, then plopping a glowing eyesore of a building literally alight with very-much-unholy-seeming magical purple flames right smack-dab in the center of your pretty golden fortress-city. My eyes are literally bleeding, take it away!