To determine the outcome of each conflict, Age of Wonders lets you choose between the two most common combat systems: Fast Combat or Tactical Combat.

Fast Combat

Fast combat quickly determines the outcome of a battle by utilizing complex algorithms. The fast combat algorithms are surprisingly accurate in determining the outcome of battles, taking into account unit stats, experience, special/spell abilities, immunities, defense provided by city walls, terrain, and more.

Fast Combat is most useful when you want to speed up the pace of the game, or if you like to focus primarily on global strategies. Fast combat is also very useful for battles in which the outcome is a foregone conclusion and those which involve primarily mundane units, such as warriors and archers.

Tactical Combat

Many strategy- and war-gamers prefer to fight out battles turn by turn on a tactical level. This option is also available for each confrontation in Age of Wonders. In tactical combat, you control each of your individual units and command them to attack specific units, guard, cast spells, use items, etc. Tactical combat takes place on zoomed-in "battle maps," showing the exact placement of units, terrain and obstacles, such as city walls, trees, bridges, etc. If you have a specific goal in mind when attacking or defending, tactical combat is the best way to ensure that specific goal is reached. Tactical combat also makes for interesting sieges, as the attacker must actually breach a city's wall to enter a city and conquer it.

Strategic Overview

Much care has been taken to ensure that there are many strategies to use on both global and tactical levels. The "adjacent hex rule," for example, lets parties adjacent to the attacked hex join in the fray, allowing for varied global strategies in both defense and attack. Many global abilities, such as flying, swimming, digging, concealment, invisibility and many magical spell effects, affect global tactics independently of tactical combat. Some factors, such as party composition, can affect both global and tactical strategies alike.