Alpha tests launched, and custom campaign announced for the Shadow Realm Expansion! (News)

Some months have passed since the last news from the Shadow Realm Community Expansion but the team of volunteers designing it has not been idle! The Community Expansion reached a new stage at the beginning of November 2017 with the launch of the alpha phase of tests. Single players will also be pleased to learn that a custom campaign (it will be the first complete custom campaign for AoW3 when it is released!) has been added to the content of the expansion!

Au Articel par Hiliadan

The preliminary design of almost all the content of the Shadow Realm Community Expansion has been completed: the Archon and Dark Elf Dwellings, the Shadow Elf Race, the new structures for the new Shadow Realm layer, the Shadow Demon roaming independents (check out the last article entirely dedicated to the expansion, which introduced the first video of the Shadow Elves and the article about the July 2017 live chat with the team developing the expansion) -> And most of it has also been modded into the game. That has allowed a first stage of testing to begin, the alpha phase. Despite the progress in 2017, many things are still missing (in particular icons!), many others are buggy and much needs to be balanced. The details of all the units, abilities, etc. are thus likely to change significantly during the alpha test, and many bugs will be hammered out.


Official launch of the alpha tests on 1st November!

To conduct the first tests, a small team started a PBEM game with 4 humans (Marcuspers, Markymark, Refineus and Hiliadan) and 4 AI. This game is probably going to be restarted after a few turns, when an updated version of the expansion is released, as things are being fixed and added rapidly.


Shadow Elves require a different way to play in tactical combat but have a very strong (maybe too strong?) potential with Life Stealing Cavalry and Shadow Shifting Irregulars

These PBEM games will also help to spot balance issues with the Shadow Elves (SE).


Their extra +2 resistance makes them good against elemental damage and the Shadow Shift grants Frost Weapons to Touched, making them quite effective against Phantasm Warriors

A new member has been welcomed in the Shadow Realm development team, Refineus! He oversees the development of the custom campaign for the expansion. The campaign will start where the story of the Eternal Lords DLC stopped, and let the player investigate what lies beyond the Shadow Gates. Characters from AoW2 and AoW3 will be met again and their story and ambitions explored further, while the player will have to face the threat originating from the Shadow Realm.


Ready to go back to Athla and to the Shadow Realm in the new campaign?

More will be shared about the campaign as work on it progresses. Additional articles about the new structures, the Archons, the Shadow Demons and the Dark Elves, will also be drafted (as promised in previous articles about the expansion).