Age of Wonders: Planetfall

Planetfall is tied (and likely exceeds) III as my favorite Age of Wonders game. Planetfall could easily be a desert island game for me.
I am quite saddened that Planetfall never gained traction or a sizable following...making a follow-up seem less likely or financially viable.
Age of Wonders 4 with its excessive focus on customization and lack of meaningful race/faction identities hasn't grabbed me as much. Each game of 4 feels very flat and similar. I'll keep giving 4 a try though.

Initially I could not afford the new AofW4 so I bought Planetfall instead. LOVE THIS GAME!
A unique and successful mix of turn based strategy, with civilization-like game and RPG - all my favorite genres together!
From the art, lore through variety of playstyles and replayability it is a well made game. I especially enjoy playing its biggest maps with the most AI players. Different factions of this game have different strengths and weaknesses, so a big game keeps you awake and challenged. Exploration is fun, expansion and conquest are rewarding. Love that taking over other faction's city gives you access to their tech tree, increasing your options for units building. This in return expands your options and styles in fighting battles.
The campaign in AoW Planetfall is just fantastic! You have a chance to play every faction and they way they are introduced makes you fall in love with all of them. And the campaign has multiple ways and outcomes to finalize it.
My first exposure to the Age of Wonders franchise and its overwhelmingly positive!

After trying AoW 3 and 4, I can firmly say that this is the best one of the three. The maps all feel very different from each other, I always get the feeling that every city is unique, The combinations for race and secret tech give place to very interesting playstiles, and your troops feel endlessly customizable with the addition of mods. After playing for a while the other AoW games, I felt satisfied with them, but I never had the urge to someday return to play a game, unlike what I feel with this one from time to time.

This game is really fun to play, even though it took me long time to invest the right time into it, to understand my ways.
You dont need any mods, its rich of story and the turn based fights are very fun.
I like the different approaches of the different races and their style to win... or loose the game :-)
In a sale its pretty cheap to grab and it will grant you alot of hours of fun.
One point feels really cool and remind me on the AOW series the most - levening up the heroes and their equipment! Its amazing to see how they get stronger and attain an enhanced playstyle with a developing skilltree.
Thumbs up, you cant really fail on this one.

This game may not be to everyone's taste due to its exotic mix of fantasy and sci-fi.
The scenarios are varied, as are the units and hero developments, though some elements feel a bit unbalanced.
The story is rather meager, but the empire development is all the more exciting and motivating. The ability to make new developments and build up your empire gives the game significant replay value.
The learning curve is relatively high at first, but you quickly grasp the essentials (thanks also to the wiki). The difficulty level is moderate for turn-based games, though creating your own AIs, for instance, can make it very challenging.
If you are looking for a turn-based game with construction and research along with separate combat mechanics, this game will serve you well.

This is a good game. I bought it (along with all the DLCs) when it first came. At the time, it just never clicked.
After putting it down for several years, I picked it up again while on vacation. It's now a fun, engrossing game. I would say - it's like Xcom merged with Civilization. Definitely good for 40+ hours. There is so much depth. I have only scratched the surface on strategy and tactic. I am not sure how much of the improvement is due to the developers just working on the game vs the DLC. Bottom line, if you like XCom and Civilization, this game works for you.

Great game. The Single Player campaign is my favorite among all the Triumph titles. Really cool going after new planets, and bringing your guys with you.