A lot of 4x games you don't really feel your racial perks because they are something like +2 food +1 gold per whatever, here it's units and spells, impactful stuff and that is really cool, gives it more replay value. The race differences are very pronounced which I like. It has a hex tiled over-world like Civ which is nearly a must for me. I found it to be better than Endless Space. I can't really predict my losses because I don't understand what happens on tactical level, and I feel too lazy to start learning in those huge multi-army battles. In random maps and scenarios I tend to concentrate on big picture and all those armies become faceless and boring. I played campaign where it felt right to concentrate on combat - there's no diplomacy (unless you count minor races) and the army is limited. I find it that AoW3 is not for me even though I played more than 100 hours of it. But it can mean so much for your army composition and general tactics! Tactical spells are very important. If you just autoresolve battles you won't notice it - it may not even affect most battles. You invent some tech that, say, gives all your cavalry pistols. It's not a game about empires, it's a game about gun-wielding orcs smashing into undead tigermen. But the game shines when you focus on those battles. AoW3 has all of those and you technically can skip all the tactical battles, and you can win by peaceful means. Judging by your tastes you're like me: appreciate grand scheme of things, diplomacy, high level decisions. it does the eXterminate and eXpand really, really well, and doesn't even try to do much of anything else. I'm not quite sure you could even call AOW3 a 4X.

However, if you want multiple win conditions, the ability to play tall, in depth city mgmt, etc., AOW3 probably isn't your thing. If you like tactical turn-based combat AND 4X, AOW3 is a beautiful game. You MUST expand aggressively ASAP to gain your piece of a map's resource pie and deny your opponents, or you will lose. Cities only serve as resource collectors / troop factories. The game plays a lot like a supcomm style rts in terms of map control. Turtling in AOW3 is simply not a viable strategy. So, for me, AOW3 is the perfect storm of a game. I also happen to love tactical combat like XCOM, FF Tactics, Shadowrun, etc. AOW3 strips away all of the pretense of alternative win conditions for me, and dials up the eXterminate to 11. So, in pretty much every 4X game, despite the myriad of options, I'm going to ignore them, and be that asshole that you pray you don't start anywhere near in multiplayer. Most 4X games give you multiple win conditions and diplomacy options, but IMO those options typically don't hold up vs someone going pure domination. For example, I love AOW3 because it caters to my dark, warmongering heart. BUT it fills a very specific niche, one it sounds like you aren't into at all.

Age of wonders iii demo