July 28th -- Here's the information on the AoWII patch that was released. It addresses a lot of gameplay issues and some are quite noticeable such as the new difficulty level addition.

[New Features]


-Extra “Beginners” Campaign Difficulty added.
-Surrender added to Options Menu
-Objectives added to Options Menu

[Fixes]
-Crop Fields regrow after casting spells like “Evil Woods” and “Poison Woods”.
-Ability levels from higher unit ranks no longer reset when loading a saved game.
-Swapping Artifacts now updates Unit Statistics immediately.
-Charge Info Incorrectly listed +2 ATT instead of +2 DAM
-A rare AI lockup and Spirit crash
-The “C” Center Location and “H” next Hero shortcuts now work.
-Machines now join on their own.
-“Call/Resurrect Hero” now checks max heroes setting
-Casting “Poison Plants” no longer erases bridges.
-“Static Shield” now correctly gives Lightning Strike.
-Tactical AI no longer walks onto Flee Hexes.
-Tactical AI Wall Attacking is improved.
-Tutorial Ice Crossing made clearer
-A rarely occurring slowdown during Tactical Combat is fixed.
-Tactical Combat AI Spell casting is improved.
-Ambient SFX now sound better.
-“Resurgence” Spells and Items now properly resurrect a unit after death.
-Ranged attacks which kill their targets now give proper event text.
-Diplomatic Trading takes offer into account when checking for available mana/gold
-Building Queue is cleared after AI takes over city
-Flee arrows at the top edge of the Combat Map are now visible.
-Abilities which take control of enemy Units (like Seduce) now give Experience when successful.
-When the last enemy is a Possessed Unit, killing it no longer ends the Combat.
-Floating Units can no longer walk over obstacles.
-Markmanship now gives bonuses to non-physical ranged attacks as well.
-Non-physical abilities now show to-hit event info based on RES.
-Combat Spells now have event info when selected.

[Balance]
-“Tower Guard” now only fires for the first 5 Rounds of Combat.
-Random Damage is now more likely to do an "average" amount, with minimum/maximum Damage rolls being more rare.
-Fairy: Concealment added.
-Leprechaun: Taunt added
-Magic Servant: Strike added
-Fire Crossbow: DAM 7 (was 5)
-Hurl Stones: ATT 7, DAM 5(was 6,7)
-Shoot Javelin: DAM 10 (was 7)
-Venomous Spit: DAM 9 (was 6)
-Fire Bolts: DAM 7 (was 5)
-Frost Bolts: DAM 7 (was 5)
-More Hero Experience needed at higher levels.
(Level 10 to 20: 50 instead of 40)
(Level 20 to 30: 70 instead of 50)
-Swarm DAM 5 (Was 1)
-Corpus DAM 8 (Was 5)
-Combat Spells now do from 50-100% of their DAM.
-Healing Spells now restore from 50-100% of their maximum.

[Editor]
-Validate Map Button now works.
-FrameRate disabled by default (F9=Toggle)
-Desert no longer listed twice in NewMap
-ArmyDlg Edit button fixed/Add button removed
-HeroDlg add/remove items fixed.
-Item/Hero Libraries are now saved
-Customize Wizard crash fixed

July 8th -- Gamespot gave AoWII 2nd place in the Game of The Month category following NeverWinter Nights which was the first place winner. It's true... AoWII is the sleeper (turn-based) hit of the year. I haven't seen a large enough fan-base to state otherwise, but there is strong community present on a few sites.

July 1st -If you've been following the character races campaign on Age of Wonder 2, than you'll be glad to hear that more pics have been submitted for week 3. The artwork in this game is fantastic isn't it?

June 27th - I am currently looking for submitted strategies for AoWII. There have been a lot of people commenting on how difficult this game is and I believe these people could use a few strats. Especially those that haven't played the first game.

June25th - Dutch site Gamers.nl will host a chat session with TS Developers on Thursday 27th of June at 19:30 Central European Time, which is 1:30 PM Eastern Time in the US. English Q&A is no problem.

#gamers.nl on irc.gamepoint.net (aka irc.enterthegame.net)