I've made him look as much as possible like the main prawn from District 9, only in my headcanon, he's become a sort of 90s kid's rapper, with cool guy shades and a sweet rapper's cape The connecting pin between both modes is your faction leader, an RPG-style-customisable figure who acts as both a hero unit in the tactical game, and a figurehead on the strategic level, changing your society bonuses and research options based on the perks you’ve picked for them. When said gunishment begins, it’s time to zoom into the contested hex, which becomes its own hex-based map (pleasingly faithful to what was there on the strategic scale) with the troops laid out ready for turn-based fun. You spread your cities across the strategic map, doing all the usual stuff like moving up a tech tree, wiping out rogue NPC settlements, and gunishing or diploming your rivals. Planetfall is a tactical combat game resembling a hex-based XCOM on a large scale, wrapped in a civ-like strategic layer (I’d call it a 4X, but given the term came from a 1993 preview of Master of Orion, I’m beginning to feel like either the term, or the genre, should move on). But then, I would have missed out on the rich, dense marrow within. Like a jaded ogre examining bones for shreds of meat, I nearly tossed it aside with a grunt, letting it plonk down the bone-hill into the Steam refunds ossuary. I’ll be honest, I came dangerously close to not recognising Age Of Wonders: Planetfall for what it is: a solid, well-designed strategy game.

Age of wonders planetfall ign review