Another thing about Age of Wonders vs Master of Magic is it took away too much of the army feel of the game and made it more of an RPG romp than a fantasy stragety wargame. Nary a unit is a regiment they are all individuals and playing a stack in AOW felt more like playing a Gold Box RPG game.
Fortunately Elemental brings the army stacks back again. 10 units with 10+ members per unit. A regiment of fighting units that feels like a regiment of fighting units instead of "Frodo goes to Mt. Doom w/friends" like AOW did it.
Of course the other thing is AOW ai was terrible just pitiful and no challenge whatsoever. At least MOM challenged me and sometimes sent me into the abyss on higher difficulties and major magic. AOW:SM is also TOO DARK I can hardly see my units and stacks and just plain ole stuff on the maps. I don't know why they think playing in the BLACK is fun? The Shadow Realm was the worst. Plus the ai in AOW never used Pioneers/settler types like MOM does. Hell even Lords of Magic is better than AOW:SM
