Hi, welcome to this post, Age of Wonders 4 – Surmounting Mounts Gameplay and Combat Tips guide.
As the game has only just come out, any opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. It is an extremely complex game and I cannot even speculate as to where its meta may lead.

As the systems in this game are too complex to decipher via browsing of wiki pages and theory-crafting alone, any comments sharing your experiences would be greatly appreciated – both by me and those that read comments.

Body Racial Trait

You can only select one Body trait when creating a custom faction. Optional enhancements include +10 HP on ALL mortal units, +10% physical and ranged damage, +20% accuracy, -30% opponent ranged accuracy, and so forth.

Instead, you might choose a racial mount that only affects people of your race who utilize it. Most civilizations only have two mounted units, one of which is the game’s weakest unit, the scout.
So.you’re really only buffing one unit from your roster. You’re using an entire racial characteristic point that might have benefited your entire race to enhance only one unit.

Mount Options

Mounted mortal units get +10 HP. By itself, that’s a waste of a racial trait.

The ruler gets a free starting mount. Mounts are plentiful by midgame and a mixed blessing depending on your gear and skills. Polearms – even tier 1 spearmen – get a massive damage bonus against mounted units – including mounted heroes! By itself, that’s a waste of a racial trait.

Mounts increase combat and world map movement speed to 40. This does not affect scouts since they already have 40 move speed.

The mount-specific bonuses are as follows:

– Nightmare –

Intimidating Aura: At the end of your turn, adjacent enemies have 90% to lose -5 Morale. Heroes and t5 units unaffected. Note that this is PER unit, so if a target is surrounded on all 6 sides, it will be taking -5*-6=-30 morale damage per turn.

Most units start with 0 morale.

Morale has the following effects:

+20 to +40: +20% crit chance.

-19 to +19: No effect.

-39 to -20: 20% Fumble Chance (20% chance to deal half damage).

-59 to -40: 40% Fumble Chance (40% chance to deal half damage).

-60 or worse: Routing (stops fighting and tries to flee the battle).

Note that some unit types, like Undead, are immune to Morale.

– Spider –

Web: Full Action, Always Hits, Range 4, AOE 1, 18 Physical Damage, 60% Immobilized chance, damages fortications (like walls). Cooldown 3.

Unlike most abilities of it’s type, it does NOT care about Zone of Control. You can use it in melee just fine. Just be careful about friendly fire!

– Unicorn –

Phase: 1 Partial Action, Range 4, teleports caster to target point, ignores retaliation and zone of control, CD 2.

Note that after using a Partial Action movement ability, like Jump or Phase, you’ll never have more than 1 action remaining. If you don’t spend 1 of your 3 actions moving before you Phase, that action is wasted.

This is not to be confused with Blink, which has no action cost at all.

– Wolf –

Enfeebling Howl: 1 Action, Always Hits, Range 0, AOE 2, 18 Frost Damage, Inflicts Weakened 2, no friendly fire, damages fortifications. Cooldown 2. Woof that’s a lot to unpack in one ability.

Weakened: Deal -10% damage per stack. Stacks up to 5 times. <WIP> Check numbers and duration.

Pack Hunter: Melee Damage +20% if adjacent to another unit with Pack Hunter. (<WIP> AFAIK all +% abilities are additive, not multiplicative.)

Cultures

To know how good the racial mounts are, you need to know which of your units is mounted and how those mounted units are used in combat alongside unmounted units.

Mounted units are always mounted regardless of racial traits, and usually have 40 speed (32 is the default for foot soldiers). (Mounted) units are normally foot soldiers, but get a mount if you have the racial trait.

You can check the wiki for more accurate / complete / up to date information. I’m only including basic information for easy reference. I’m leaving out most special abilities and passives, especially on the more complicated units.

— Basic Attacks —

A))

Requires at least one action, does one attack per action available, up to 3 attacks with 3 actions. “A” requires at least one action and ends turn, “AAA” requires all three actions.

R

Range. Ommitted if melee. R2 is two hexes, R3 is 3, etc.

AOE

1 hex AOE impacts a target hex and all 6 surrounding hexes, for 7 hexes total. R0 AOE is an AOE centered on the caster.

% acc

Accuracy. Accuracies of 100% are omitted. Debuffs may have a separate chance. Always Hit abilities ignore accuracy (and evasion) entirely.

Phys

Damage type. Physical is the most common.

CD

Cooldown, NOT including the turn it is used on. CD1 means usable every other turn at most.

Barbarians (1 Chaos 1 Nature)

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 6 Phys.

Tier 1 *Shield A)) 10 Phys. Shield Bash 90% Stun.

Tier 1 *Skirmisher A)) Melee 12 Phys. A R4 90% acc 24 Phys.

Tier 2 (Mounted) Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 12 Phys.

Tier 2 Support A R4 90% acc 14 blight 90% Poison (8 Blight for 3 turns).

Tier 3 *Shock A 24 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~36 Phys at 3 tiles.

*Has Primal Strike: +8 Blight damage on the first successful melee attack of the battle.

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

Archers ending their turn in melee is what some call “A Barbarian’s worst Nightmare!”

– Spider – Web –

A full attack from a scout has 90% to deal up to 6×3=18 damage. Web does that much damage, guaranteed, with a 60% chance to stop melee units from moving, in an AOE.

A full attack from a T2 barbarian archer does twice that much damage, but with a miss chance and only to a single target.

Given that most counters to archer units involve melee units or adding a miss chance to ranged attacks, Web is very useful.

– Unicorn – Phase –

Phase costs one action that DOESN’T end the turn, so you can Phase to flank or escape melee range, and still have one action left for attacking.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

If you don’t mind clumping up your squishy archers to benefit from Pack Hunter or getting uncomfortably close to melee enemies to use Enfeebling Howl, it could merely be a bad idea instead of a terrible idea.

Dark (2 Shadow)

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 6 Phys.

Tier 1 *Shock A 18 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~29 Phys at 3 tiles.

Tier 1 Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 10 Phys 90% Weakened.

Tier 2 *Polearm A)) 14 Phys.

Tier 2 Battlemage A)) R4 90% acc 8 Dark 90% Weakened (3 turns).

Tier 3 *Mounted Shock A 24 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~38 Phys at 3 tiles.

*Has Cull The Weak: +20% damage vs Weakened units, and gains Regeneration for 1 turn upon attacking a Weakened unit.

Weakened: <WIP>

Regeneration: Gain 6 Temporary HP per turn. Stacks up to 5 times.

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

Not as useful as you’d think for a Dark faction. Scouts can’t make good use of Nightmares*, while T3 Shock troops tend to kill things long before morale kicks in. Also, shock troops usually rely on hit and run charge attacks, reducing time spent in melee range.

There are probably some T3 units tanky enough that morale will kick in before they die, but by that point in the game you start seeing morale-bolstering and morale immune units.

*(I’m sure someone will prove me wrong about scouts in a hilarious fashion. “Fear my triple stack of scouts that can’t actually kill you!”)

– Spider – Web –

Good on scouts, as usual. Strong synergy with Shock cavalry, for enough reasons to be worth a guide all to itself.

– Unicorn – Phase –

The only thing scarier than Shock cavalry, is Shock cavalry that teleports.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

The only thing scarier than Shock cavalry, is more Shock cavalry.

Feudal (1 Order 1 Nature)

Tier 1 *Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 6 Phys.

Tier 1 *Polearm A)) 11 Phys.

Tier 1 *Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 10 Phys.

Tier 2 *Shield A)) 12 Phys.

Tier 2 *Support A)) 16 Holy 60% Sundered.

Tier 3 *Mounted Shock A 24 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~38 Phys at 3 tiles.

*Has Stand Together: +20% damage when adjacent to a unit that shares this trait.

Sundered: -1 defense and resistance. (~10% less damage resistance.)

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

Same advice as for Dark. A poor fit, unless you get very specific tomes.

– Spider – Web –

<WIP> Does Stand Together apply to Web damage?

Same advice as for Dark. Nice synergy on high tier Shock units.

– Unicorn – Phase –

Same advice as for Dark. Nice synergy on high tier Shock units.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

What’s scarier than Shock cavalry that gets an adjacency damage bonus? Shock cavalry that gets another adjacency damage bonus! Sadly, the damage is *only* additive, not multiplicative.

<WIP> Pack Hunter and Stand Together are additive, right? Do they add or multiply with Charge?

High (2 Order)

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 5 Phys.

Tier 1 *Shield A)) 10 Phys.

Tier 1 *Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 10 Phys.

Tier 2 *Polearm A)) 14 Phys.

Tier 2 *(Mounted) Support A)) R4 90% 16 Holy.

Tier 3 *Battlemage A)) R4 90% acc 12 Holy.

*Has Dormant: Gain a bonus depending on unit type when Awakened. The details are complicated.

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

The support unit responsible for Awakening your otherwise lousy army, is a great unit to put in melee range of your foes.

Seriously. The t2 Polearm is actually good, but the damage on that T3 Battlemage belongs on a T2 mundane archer.

– Spider – Web –

Probably a bad idea. The Support that is propping up your sleepy army should not be tempted by Full Action abilities.

– Unicorn – Phase –

A waste of a trait slot IMO, but it IS one way to get your Awaken Support where it needs to be.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

No. Just no. The High Scout does lousy damage by Scout standards, and the less said of the High Support the better. Whatever they are smoking, it can’t be healthy.

Industrious (2 Materium)

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A R4 90% acc 12 Phys.

Tier 1 **Shield A)) 8 Phys. A? Always Hits, 90% Taunt (3 turns).

Tier 1 *Ranged A R4 90% acc 20 Phys. AAA R4 90% acc 30 Phys.

Tier 2 ***Polearm A)) 14 Phys.

Tier 2 *Support A)) R4 90% 16 Phys.

Tier 3 **(Mounted) Shield A)) 12 Phys.

*Has Bolstering: Once per turn, getting damaged by physical/magic boosts defense/resistance.

**Also has Watchful: +1 Retaliation attacks.

***Also also has Rune of Retaliation: 40% of damage from melee is reflected onto attackers.

(I bet there were some fun discussions regarding which of the Polearm and Shield units were going to be T2 and T3)

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

Least bad scout to have in melee, as it only needs one action to deal full damage.

Amazing synergy with the T3 Shield. It has poor damage, respectable HP, and a ridiculous amount of defense if it’s in a formation. This is the perfect unit to park next to enemies. As a reminder, one of the first effects of low Morale is a chance to deal less damage.

Additionally, speed is surprisingly useful on a shield unit. Especially a shield unit actively trying to surround it’s foes, or get between enemies and allies.

– Spider – Web –

Having trouble tricking your enemies into pin themselves against your shields? Immobilize them at range! Also, spending a Full Action to deal guaranteed AOE damage, on a unit whose primary job is to be stationary, is quite the bonus.

– Unicorn – Phase –

High defense and extra retaliations make this the perfect unit to teleport into the middle of enemy formations. Three units with their backs to eachother can’t be flanked.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

Shield units aren’t usually known for their damage, but the Howl is pretty handy for reducing incoming damage even more, and does decent damage by itself.

Mystic (2 Astral)

Tier 1 Scout A)) R4 90% acc 1 Frost 1 Fire 1 Elec (total 3)

Tier 1 *Polearm A)) 12 Phys.

Tier 1 *Battlemage A)) R4 90% acc 3 Frost 3 Fire 3 Elec (total 9)

Tier 2 *Shield A)) 12 Phys. R0 AOE, Always Hits, (total 9) 60% stun.

Tier 2 Support A R4 90% (total 15).

Tier 3 *(Mounted) Battlemage A)) R4 90% (total 12).

AAA Always Hits AOE (total 15) cancels all enemy buffs and all ally debuffs. No friendly fire. CD 2.

*Has Attunemend Star Blades: +1 damage of random element added to basic attack, each time a spell is cast in combat, for up to +3 damage.

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

No mount for the scout. As for the battlemage… the very squishy, very expensive battlemage…

– Spider – Web –

Hear me out – despite not having a mounted scout, this is the best faction for Racial Mounts.

What goes well with an a ranged AOE Always Hit magic canceller with a cooldown?

Why, a ranged AOE always hit melee canceller with a cooldown, of course!

Half the reason to go Mystic in the first place is to get the Spellbreaker, so it’s not like you’ll ever not have 1-2 of these guys per army the moment you can afford it.

– Unicorn – Phase –

Sadly, a unicorn’s phase costs one action even if it doesn’t end the turn, so it can’t be used to reposition on the same turn as a full action Starpurge. It’s great for positioning during the cooldown, though. This unit can shutdown or trivialize many T4 units, but is kinda squishy, so positioning is very valuable.

I strongly suspect that Mystic Unicorn Battlemages will become the meta for PvP, since players are much smarter at avoiding potential Web artillery than the AI.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

<WIP> does the damage buff apply to magic too? If so, you can pair a Battlemage with some White Wolves hired using nature tomes to get access to more Pack Hunter units? The Howl likely won’t be useful often, but I’m not sure.

Playtesting needed.

Scouts as early game combat units.

All scouts cost 50 gold, and require 60 draft to make.

All t1 units cost 60 gold, and require 80 draft to make.

Typical balance:

T1 Scout 45 HP, 40 move speed. ~18 Damage (6*3)

T1 Melee ~65 HP, 32 move speed. ~30 damage (10*3)

T1 Ranged 50 HP, 32 move speed. ~30 damage (10*3)

Barbarians are special.

T1 Skirmisher 50 HP, 40 move speed. ~36 Damage (12*3) in melee, or ~24 damage at range, with +8 Blight damage on the first successful hit.

The balance is a bit more complicated thanks to special abilities, synergies, and positioning, but you get the idea: Scouts are about 20% cheaper in exchange for being 30% lousier.

But what if you gave them Mounts?

– Nightmare – Intimidating Aura –

Archers ending their turn in melee is what some call a “Nightmare!”

That said…

If you are fighting a single stack of 6 units, and you brought 18 scouts, you’ll outnumber them 3 to 1. If you can surround a unit with 6 scouts, it will suffer -30 morale a turn, meaning it will Route in 2 turns.

Unlike regular damage, debuffs don’t care how about casualties. As long as at least one scout in a unit is alive, it will still deal full Morale damage.

Sadly, most mid to high tier units are very good at one shotting scouts, and tier 5 units and heroes are immune to Morale.

To take full advantage of this tactic, you’d need additional sources of morale loss, like some Shadow and Chaos Tomes. It’s probably not worth the effort, but it’s a funny idea.

– Spider – Web –

A full attack from a scout has 90% to deal up to 6×3=18 damage. Web does that much damage, guaranteed, with a 60% chance to stop melee units from moving, in an AOE.

A full attack from a T2 barbarian archer does twice that much damage, but with a miss chance and only to a single target.

Spiders make your Tier 0.7 Scouts as strong as Tier 1.5 Battlemages, or Tier 2 Supports!

– Unicorn – Phase –

Stuck in melee? Phase behind your foe, then shoot him in the back for a gaunteed flank. Such a shame that getting hit in melee lowers your DPS by about half.

– Wolf – Enfeebling Howl – Pack Hunter –

Instead of 6*3=18 damage, you could do 7*3=21 damage! On basic attacks! That’s almost as good as the ~30 damage of a T1 Ranged!

But wait, there’s More! Enfeebling Howl does a guaranteed 18 Frost to enemies in a 2 hex AOE centered on yourself – as a Single Action! That’s right, charge your scouts right into melee range and let loose! Two turn cooldown. Retaliations and First Strike may apply.

Scout Comparison

A quick comparison of the Scouts from each culture.

Barbarian – Pathfinder

A)) 90% r4, 6 Phys.

Can build Outposts without a hero.

If you hadn’t guessed by now, Barbarians are the “early game rush / late game zerg” faction.

Dark – Outrider

A)) 90% r4, 6 Phys.

+2 Vision while trespassing on enemy soil (stacks with the +1 vision all scouts get)

On worldmap, camouflaged while on Forests, Rock, and Swamp. Can still get walked into by accident!

Note that this is partially redundant with the Shadow Culture Trait that camouflages scouts in all terrain.

Feudal – Scout (Because sharing a unit name with a unit type isn’t confusing!)

A)) 90% r4, 6 Phys.

Stand Together: +20% damage if adjacent to unit that shares trait.

Low Maintenance: -25% upkeep, so it costs 6 upkeep instead of 8.

If you want to spam scouts, Feudal is the way to go. If you fix the miss chance with a racial trait, and fight in groups, you’re looking at 7*3=21 damage on a Full Action attack, before any other bonuses.

This still pales in comparison to the T1 units, but it’s something!

High – Lightseeker

A)) 90% r4, 5 Phys.

Greater Farsight: Gets +2 vision instead of the +1 most scouts get.

For whatever reason, the extra tile of vision was deemed powerful, since his already pitiful damage got nerfed.

Industrious – Pioneer

A 90% R4 12 Phys

<WIP> The tooltips don’t completely agree on his special trait, but I’m sure he has one!

Thanks to the crossbow, he can use two actions to move to a flank and still deal two actions worth of damage. It’s not much, but every bit helps.

Mystic – Mystic Projection

A 90% R4 1 Frost 1 Fire 1 Elec (3 total)

Ethereal: Can pass through solid terrain (except on the overmap), Float over obstacles such as water (?), and is immune to a bunch of debuffs.

Half the damage of an average scout, in exchange for not being slowed down by ANY type of terrain short of a solid mountain.

Outro

Apologies are extended for any formatting mistakes, factual inaccuracies, miscommunication, poor advice and puns that appear.
Note that any strategy will depend heavily on realm, race, playstyle, enemy type and research RNG/quest RNG mechanics; due to how intricately linked all game mechanics are. As such, this guide could become outdated with just one patch or DLC update.

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