I could never really figure out why I didn't care for the Age of Wonders series when I liked all the other similar games like Disciples, HOMM, Etherlords. On the one hand, the games are often the prettiest examples of the genre at the time they came out, but then you open the package and everything is just so slow. All the units move slow, there's nothing very interesting to explore on the map other than cities you have to conquer, when you finally upgrade your hero, none of the skills are exactly game changing. the first game had some terraforming spells and units and I always hope the new ones will build on that but if anything terraforming becomes less important (certainly compared to the slightly more Civ-like game Warlock). I don't know. I just need more of a feeling of exploration and development beyond a bigger army and conquering the map.

One of the best turn-based strategy games of all time.

Indrid Casts YouTube channel introduced this game to me.
Learnt a lot about playing this game on Single Player on the hardest difficulty from Black Arrow Gaming YouTube channel.