Every guide on this site
Twenty-five guides across buying, culture, tomes, water rules and builds, all checked against game version 1.017.001.126767 on 5 November 2026.
Every page below is written against game version 1.017.001.126767 and checked on 5 November 2026, three days after release. The table is the whole site: what each page answers, in the order you are likely to need it.
Every page, and what it answers
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| What the expansion adds | What is in the box, and what is free |
| Release date and price | When, how much, on what platforms |
| Expansion Pass 4 | What the pass contains and whether it saves money |
| Is it worth $24.99? | The buying argument, including who should skip it |
| Mercantile culture | How the sea culture plays, and why routes are the engine |
| Cartel vs Barony | Which subculture to take, and what each one costs you |
| Mercantile units | The full roster, with the numbers Triumph published |
| Aqualon | The elegant aquatic form and the Merfolk trait |
| Sharkkin | The martial aquatic form and its builds |
| Tome of Hydromancy | Control through Wet and guaranteed immobilise |
| Tome of the Damned | Ghostfire, the Damned status and the Wisp engine |
| Tome of Piracy | Ember Dust, Rob and the raiding economy |
| Tome of Eternal Ice | Chilled, Whiteout and the Ancient Hoarfrost Manta |
| Free Captains | The pirate dwelling, its six captains and Life Bond |
| Sea cities and outposts | Building on water after the rework |
| Ocean happenings and locations | The 20 events and the new sea map objects |
| Manta update | Everything the free patch changed |
| Trade routes | The new economy, with capacity and cost tables |
| Water combat | Embark cost, turning, ships and sea wildlife |
| Sword and Staff | The new Magic Fighter loadout and infusions |
| Achievements | Six new, 114 existing, and what the numbers mean |
| Mercantile build | A build order that survives the opening |
| FAQ | Short answers to the questions that keep coming up |
Pick a route
New to Age of Wonders 4. Start with what the expansion adds and the free Manta update, then read the FAQ for the platform and purchase questions. Do not start with the tomes; they will not make sense without the culture that uses them.
Returning after a break. Read the Manta update first — your old build order probably does not work, because outposts no longer pay by themselves. Then read trade routes and water combat, the two systems that changed most.
Here for the navy. Read water combat, then sea cities, then the Free Captains and the ocean happenings. The Mercantile culture is the only culture that can live out there permanently, so it is worth reading even if you plan to play something else.
Not covered here
There is no codes page, because Age of Wonders 4 has no redemption codes. There is no tier list, because the game's balance changes with every patch and a ranked list of units ages badly. There is no Switch page, because there is no Switch version.
There is also no walkthrough of the base game's campaign. This site assumes you know how to play Age of Wonders 4 and covers what the expansion and the free update changed. If you are completely new, the base game's tutorial is a better teacher than any page here.
How pages are kept current
Every page carries two dates in its footer: the last verification date and the game version it was checked against. When a patch lands, pages that touch the changed systems are re-checked and their date moves; pages that do not are left alone, so a stale date is a signal rather than a mistake.
Numbers are the first thing to go out of date. If a page quotes a value and the game shows something different, trust the game and send a note through the contact page, the version number in your report is what makes the correction possible.
If you only have five minutes
Read what the expansion adds, then trade routes. Those two pages explain the shape of the expansion and the system everything else is built on. Still deciding whether to buy it? Read is it worth it instead and skip the rest.
How to use the table
The pages are ordered the way a decision usually arrives: what the thing is, whether to buy it, how the culture works, then the tomes that support it. If you are mid-campaign, skip to the system you are stuck on, the trade and water pages are the two that answer most in-game questions.
Each page ends with three links to the pages that logically follow it, so you can read in a chain rather than coming back to this table every time.
Why this reads differently
Most coverage of a new expansion is written in the first week from the announcement and never touched again. The pages here are built from the developer diaries and the patch notes, which means they contain the numbers the announcement leaves out: how much a trade structure pays, how many stacks it takes to freeze a unit, what a raid is actually worth.
They also say what is not known. Where the official material does not publish a value, the exact damage of a tome spell, the names of the six achievements, the conditions behind them, the page does not guess. Not modesty: a wrong number is worse than no number, because you will build a strategy around it.
Where to send corrections
The contact page is the fastest route. Include the page and the game version; patches change numbers quietly.