When playing any scenario inAge of Wonders 4,you need to keep the Affinity system in mind. Affinities in the game have less to do with the classical elements (although many affinities provide elemental damage types) and more to do with personality types and play styles. Learning this system is essential if you want to have the best chance of winning the game.
The six Affinities inAge of Wonders 4can determine which Empire Skills you can access, which allies and enemies you can expect, and which units you can summon or build. While it’s possible to stick with one Affinity from start to finish, a more well-rounded empire can be a far more dangerous threat to its foes.
Affinity Basics
The first thing worth knowing about the Affinity system is that it maps very similarly tothe land types ofMagic: The Gathering. If you have any familiarity with the card game, you’ll know the basics of how affinities work inAge of Wonders 4.
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If you’re not familiar withMagic: The Gathering, no need to worry. This guide will explain each Affinity in detail.
Each Affinity inAge of Wonders 4has an opposite.The pairs of opposites are Chaos and Order, Materium and Astral, and Nature and Shadow.Players suffer zero penalties if they build an empire around two opposites. The opposition mechanic only matterswhen dealing with a free city or rival empirethat has an Affinity that opposes yours. This penalty vanishes if both empires also share an Affinity. The only major issue you may encounter is that opposing Affinities don’t synergize as well as others.
Every faction starts out with6 Affinity points. Two come from their Culture,two from Society Traits, and two from their starting Tome of Magic. It’s possible to build an empire with all 6 points in a single Affinity, but this isn’t the best strategy. While there are six-point empires in the faction library, most factions have at least one point in a second Affinity type.
Affinity Boosts and Tomes
You can get more Affinity points during a scenario bycollecting new Tomes of Magic. Once you complete enough research cycles, you can pick a new Tome from all those you’ve unlocked.Each Tome gives you +2 Affinity. Base game Tomes give you +2 to one Affinity, and DLC tomes give you +1 to two Affinities. Which Tomes you can access depend on your current Affinity scores.
Based on these numbers, it’s easy for an empire that has two or three Affinities to keep up with an empire that focuses on one. If you start with four or more points in a single Affinity, you only need to choose two additional Tomes of the same Affinity to unlock the tier 5 Tomes as fast as possible. In fact, you’re able to choose a tier 1-4 Tome of two different Affinities, and choose between their tier 5 Tomes at the same timethat a single Affinity faction would choose theirs.
Empire Skills
The biggest impact your Affinity score has is on your Empire Development screen.The Empire Skill treelets you spend your Imperium on various short-term and long-term bonuses, and these bonuses unlock based on how many Affinity points you’ve gathered.
Empire Skills are the main reason why you might want to focus on a single Affinity instead of several at once. The more points you have in an Affinity, the faster you can access those high-level skills. However, there are some issues with this approach.
Ultimately, you’re best off focusing on two or three Affinities,even when it comes to making the most of your Empire Skills.
Story Decisions
The last way in which Affinities affect the game is when you’re making decisions in conversations and encounters. Depending on the conversation, only your highest Affinity will show up as an option, but certain choices only provide extra options for specific Affinity types. Whenever this is the case, the dialog option that exists because of your Affinities will have an Affinity symbol next to the option.
A few Affinity dialog options have a chance of success or failure. When that’s the case, the odds of success depend on how many points you have in the relevant Affinity. However, these odds stop improving after you reach eight Affinity points.
All Affinity Types, Explained
Chaos Affinity
Chaos Affinity is all abouthigh numbers, high damage, and lots of destruction.This makes it an ideal Affinity for a military victory. You don’t have to be evil to make use of Chaos, but it helps.
Materium Affinity
Materium magic focuses onbuilding faster and defending better,making it useful for players who prefer to aim for a score or magic victory.
Order Affinity
Order favors diplomacy over combat. However, when combat does happen, their units are hard to kill thanks to constant healing and defense buffs. You don’t have to be good-aligned to use Order, but it helps.
Nature Affinity
Nature is all aboutpopulation growth and terraforming the worldaround you to be more useful. Empires with this Affinity also tend to be good at summoning creatures, both in combat and on the world map. A domination victory isn’t so hard when you’re investing in Nature.
Astral Affinity
Astral Affinity is the magic about magic. An Astral empire’sspells are more effective and more numerous, and eventually they can get enough Mana per turn to do whatever they want. Needless to say, they have a leg up when it comes to the magic victory.
Shadow Affinity
Units from Shadow factions are hard to keep down. Empires that invest even a bit into Shadow can get access to the specialSouls resource, which gives you a new way to cast spells and maintain your units.
