From the few surviving Elves, a faction called the "Cult of Storms" split off and began to wreak vengeance upon the humans. For two hundred years, wars raged upon the Northern Continent. And then a decade of peace came. The lull in violence ended when a new star appeared above the Valley. Is it an omen of hope or doom? The Cult of Storms has some terrible plan to destroy humanity and the Keepers must try and stop them and build a permanent peace.

In Age of Wonders (AoW), co-created by Epic Megagames and Triumph Studios, you take command of either the Cult's army in a mission to destroy humanity or of the Keepers' army in a mission to stop the Cult's dark plans. And it all takes place in a fantasy world of swords and sorcery, orcs, kobolds and unicorns. What is it like? How does it stack up? Read on and find out...

The game play of AoW is mainly turn-based strategy. You manage resources, build military units, deal with diplomacy to avoid battles and attack your enemies, all while defending your territory. Each person moves on their own time so you have time to think out your strategies and individual moves. Units in AoW are widely varied and all fantasy inspired. A mixture of statistics and skills are used to set each unit's abilities and experience makes units more powerful. You also have heroes, special units that can cast powerful spells and which your strategies should center around. There is a simultaneous play mode, where each player moves their units at the same time as everyone else and then waits till all others are completed and a new turn starts. But to us, this just turns AoW into a real-time strategy game with controls made for a turn-based strategy game. It probably makes the game more familiar for RTS fans, but it butchers play and kills the strategy aspect.