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					Originally Posted by  parone
					 
				 
				olm, was that the first age of wonders?  god i loved that game.  always played the big map, and had to have played in 200+ hours.  i gog AOWII but was underwhelmed. 
			
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 No, it was planned as an expansion to AOWII, but then came out as a standalone game. It's often referred to as AOW 2,5.
I played AOWI and remember that there was one single thing that ruined the game for me: Heroes were much to strong. After some training they would crush every army.
In SM that is much better balanced. I do not remember having played AOW II, I guess I advanced to SM immediately. 
Well, all I can say is: It's great, and there is much community content (great scenarios!!) for it. You can probably get it for small coin and should give it a try.