In Age of Wonders 4, Tomes of Magic serves as a representation of an empire’s technological or intellectual tree build. They provide a variety of components that can be studied to advance your empire, such as spells, hero skills, units, and unique province upgrades. They are completely customizable and can be selected during the world-building. You can select the tome according to the people and ruler you want for your faction.
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Tomes of Magic
After selecting your faction and culture, the next step is choosing your Tome of Magic. Let’s start with the basics. There are a total of 54 tomes of magic.
Tiers of Tomes
For each tome, there is a tier mentioned. The tiers depend on the level you have, with 1 being available from the start going up to tier 5.
Tier I tomes are constantly accessible and are yours to take whenever you choose.
For tier II, you must have finished two tier-one tomes.
Similarly, for tier III, the same holds true. However, in this situation, you need to have two, tier II tomes. Consequently, you need two at Tier I, two at Tier II, and finally two at Tier II.
To reach tier IV, you must have a certain number of points in one of these Affinity categories. Therefore, you must already have six Affinity points locked up in the chaos Affinity to research the tier IV chaos Tome.
Similar rules apply to tier 5, except this time you must have eight points in one affinity category to access. These tomes, by the way, are exceptionally Special; not only do you require a lot of affinity points for them, but your options to obtain one are limited.
Affinities
These are spread across 6 affinities, which are:
| Astral tomes | +2 boost to Astral Affinity. | Evocation Warding Amplification Scrying Teleportation Summoning Astral Convergence The Astral Mirror The Arch Mage |
| Chaos tomes | +2 boost to Chaos Affinity | Pyromancy The Horde Mayhem Revelry Devastation Pandemonium Chaos Channeling The Daemon Gate The Chaos Lord |
| Materium tomes | +2 boost to Materium Affinity. | Enchantment Rock Artificing Winds Terramancy Transmutation The Crucible The Golden Realm The Creator |
| Nature tomes | +2 boost to Nature Affinity. | Beasts Roots Fertility Glades Cycles Vigor Nature’s Wrath Paradise The Goddess of Nature |
| Order tomes | +2 boost to Order Affinity. | Faith Zeal The Beacon The Inquisition Sanctuary Subjugation Exaltation Supremacy The God Emperor |
| Shadow tomes | +2 shadow affinity (Some Shadow tomes will unlock or improve the powerful Soul Harvest ability). | Cryomancy Souls Necromancy The Doomherald The Cold Dark The Great Transformation Oblivion The Reaper The Eternal Lord |
These are just the basic tomes that come under a specific affinity. The details for each tome can be checked by seeing what each one is for.
Researching Tomes
There are a few options shown after choosing a Tome. First off, we are only able to choose from a few options, instead of being able to investigate every spell we’ve acquired from every Tome. You’ll observe that they tend to focus on various issues and themes.
If I want to refresh this to receive three new possibilities, I can invest a small amount of mana occasionally. It will also display some of the standard choices related to my culture or faction.
The number of turns is precisely indicated by the hourglass beneath the study item. The Roman numeral designates the spell’s power and level of expertise.
You’ll also see that there are five, sometimes six, and even three unlocks for spells here. These are your unlocks, and they range greatly from finding new classes of units that you may either train in your cities or summon with magic. If you like any of the options, you can lock it and then try rotating the others to land yourself a more favorable combo.
Best Tomes of Magic for each Tier
Tier V
Tome of the God Emperor – Order Affinity
The God Emperor tome is one of the strongest in the game since it gives you access to a crucial Mass Revive spell that brings back to life dead Zeal or Faithful friends with 50% health. Additionally, if you use the Wrath of the Emperor spell while in the enemy’s zone, it will do an additional +50% damage on top of the standard amount.
Tier IV
Tome of Chaos Channeling – Chaos Affinity
With this time, you will have access to many strong spells, such as Gremlin Ambushers. They will attack a city in the domain you are fighting to help weaken the forces. Access to potent spells like Gremlin Ambushers is made possible by this book. In a domain you’re fighting in, it can spawn to assault a city. Or you can try golden hour to get some Tier I army of people to help you. Either way, it’s a good one.
Tier III
Tome of Transmutation – Matrium Affinity
The Adaptive Armour spell found in this Materium Tome, which enables units to increase their magical defenses whenever they take non-physical damage, alone makes it a wonderful item. You can use transmute resources to change a city’s extra mana into other things. Melt Armour can be used to weaken your targets and can be quite helpful for mass combat.
Tier II
Tome of Glades – Nature Affinity
The Tome of Glades is a great choice among the Nature Affinity’s selection of top-notch tomes. Polearm and Shield’s units are improved by the Aspect Of The Root, enabling them to self-heal and enter Defence Mode simultaneously. Glade Runners are reliable ranged units in the mid-level, especially when equipped with Leafskin for woodland concealment. You can establish Forests on the world map using The Tome Of Glades which is sometimes very useful.
Tier I
Tome of Roots – Nature Affinity
Tome of Roots is great for starting the game as it has small but useful spells. Vine prison is a highly affordable and effective early spell that grants access to five units. Despite not being extremely powerful, they can immobilize and stop them for a while. To aid in fighting, a healing spell like Healing Roots is excellent. The poisoned blade spell can poison the enemy with a probability of 30% along with increasing the attack rate by +3.
These were the picks we thought could guide you with the gameplay, and hopefully, they were helpful. In Age of Wonders 4, all the Tomes of Magic under different affinities offer different types of gameplay that you can select as you wish to play.
The suggestions given above are just the ones we found as a good option, but if you like any other don’t hesitate to try. Just read what the abilities are see if it sticks with your current game and go for it.
