Age of Wonders 4: How to Get Tier 4 and 5 Units

When players first build the tier 3 and 4 Town Hall for their faction in Age of Wonders 4, they may be disappointed by the units they unlock. While each culture comes with several tier 1 and 2 units, they each only have one tier 3 unit that a Town Hall 3 will let them build and no tier 4 or 5 units. So where are all the great units that enemy factions seem to find, and how can players get access to them?

The answer is to look beyond building structures to build a perfect army. Players can get access to plenty of high-tier units, but they must earn access by researching them through tomes or annexing ancient wonders. This guide will explain exactly where each tier 4 and 5 unit comes from in Age of Wonders 4 and how to acquire them.

Tome Units

Age of Wonders 4 High Tier Tomes — The best tomes offer access to the best units in Age of Wonders 4.

Tomes are the research aspect of Age of Wonders 4. Each faction starts with access to one tome, and as players research new spells and unit types they can unlock additional tomes and eventually climb up from tier 1 to tier 5. Not all of these tomes offer new units, but many of them do.

In addition, while some tome units come from summon spells that cost world map casting points and use strategic spells, other units must be recruited in cities. And while players must build a Town Hall 2 to access their culture's tier 2 units and a Town Hall 3 to access the tier 3 unit, all tome units are available to recruit even in a brand-new city.

Both recruited and summoned units can be tier 1 to tier 5. The following list is limited to the tier 4 and 5 units available from tomes.

Name	Origin Tome	Tome Affinity	Tier	Summoned or Recruited?	Creature Type	Unit Type
Druid of the Cycle	Tome of Cycles	Nature 3	4	Recruited	Plant	Support
Tyrant Knight	Tome of Subjugation	Order 3	4	Recruited	Player Race	Shock
Eagle Rider	Tome of Supremacy	Order 4	4	Recruited	Player Race	Shield
Transmuter	Tome of Transmutation	Materium 3	4	Recruited	Player Race	Battle Mage
Living Fog	Tome of Oblivion	Dark 4	4	Summoned	Ethereal	Fighter
War Breed	Tome of Devastation	Chaos 3	4	Recruited	Player Race	Shock
Chaos Eater	Tome of Pandemonium	Chaos 3	4	Summoned	Fiend	Battle Mage
Phase Beast	Tome of Teleportation	Astral 3	4	Summoned	Animal	Shock
Mirror Mimic	Tome of the Astral Mirror	Astral 4	4	Summoned	None	Mythic
Horned God	Tome of Nature's Wrath	Nature 4	5	Summoned	Plant	Mythic
Shrine of Smiting	Tome of Exaltation	Order 4	5	Recruited	Celestial	Mythic
Gold Golem	Tome of the Golden Realm	Materium 4	5	Recruited	Elemental	Mythic
Earth Titan	Tome of the Creator	Materium 5	5	Summoned (in combat)	Elemental	Mythic
Reaper	Tome of the Reaper	Dark 4	5	Summoned	Undead	Mythic
Balor	Tome of the Chaos Lord	Chaos 5	5	Summoned	Fiend	Mythic

Players should note that "player race" units are the same race as the city that recruited them. So if players choose the First Elves to start with and integrate a vassal city of Wholesome Halflings, any Tyrant Knights they build in the Halfling city will be Halflings instead of Elves. This is important because race transformations apply to one race at a time, and not to every race within an empire.

Ancient Wonder Units

Age of Wonders 4 High Tier Wonders — An ancient wonder that provides a bone dragon in Age of Wonders 4.

The other way to get high-tier units is by clearing and then annexing Ancient Wonders. Among its other benefits, each controlled Ancient Wonder contributes one or more units to the Rally of the Lieges. These units range in power from tier 1 up to tier 4.

Currently, there are only three tier 4 units that Ancient Wonders can contribute to the Rally of the Lieges. The first one is the Entwined Scourge, a Plant Battle Mage that comes from the gold fey tree type of Ancient Wonder. The second one is the Bone Dragon, a Dragon Mythic unit that comes from the gold wizard tower ruins. At least in the base game, recruiting a Bone Dragon is also the only way to get the achievement "Fiery Friend." The last unit is the Fire Giant, a typeless Mythic unit recruited from the forge Ancient Wonder.

There are also a few other ways to get tier 4 units. For instance, the Wild Expansion skill in the Nature branch of the Empire Development tree creates a new animal unit on each newly annexed province, and sometimes this animal turns out to be a tier 4 Phoenix. However, the methods listed here are the guaranteed ways to get tier 4 and 5 units in Age of Wonders 4.

Age of Wonders 4 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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