Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne is fantasy-themed turn-based strategy game that follows the semi-turn-based strategy game play path tread by the original Age of Wonders (1999). If you never played the original game, it plays out more like a fantasy wargame or even a fantasy version of Civilization, rather than the Heroes or even Disciples. If you are fan of Civilization, you will notice some similarities, only instead of a technology tree, you have a selection of both spells and specialties to choose from.
In the game, you are a Wizard and you can choose from 7 Spheres of Magic including Earth, Fire, Life, and Death, while customizing your magical skills and abilities. Wizard can be can be moved and brought into combat, but it's always better to keep your wizard locked away in your capital inside the Wizard's Tower so he (or she) can safely cast overland spells over longer distances. After you choosed the Sphere, you have to choose one of 12 distinct and amazing races such as Elves, Frostlings, Draconians, Dwarves, Halflings, Humans, and even the Undead. It's quite nice that all of the races are extremely different in terms of unit makeup but also require different strategies to play effectively. Once you have chosen a race of people, you start off in your city, cranking out basic military units and trying to build up your magic, gold and armies. The basic game's goal is to send your armies forth and take control of mines and other structures surrounding you. In addition, the game has Heroes who can help. You can recruit and summon Heroes to lead your troops into battle, equip them with magic items, and send them on quests to get more. There's over 30 loyal champions like rangers, warriors, and priests, and over 100 special units such as Dwarf Steamcannons, Halfling Eagle Riders, Human Airships, and Frostling Mammoth Riders. 
Tactical combat takes place on a 3D isometric map, as in the original game, but units are much larger and spells look fantastic. If you remember AOW, you will notice that Age of Wonders II's graphics are both more colorful and more detailed than those of the original game, also each race and every spell looks highly polished.
Age of Wonders II also includes multiplayer via LAN/Internet up to 8 players - there is support for three types of multi-player games - quite unusual Play by Email, Hot Seat, and the exciting Simultaneous-Turn System allowing all players to move at the same time. While Age of Wonders II is pretty tough for beginners and require some time to learn, for experts in this genre, you will like it! Since am not hardcore fan of this genre (I more like Etherlors and Disciples II), I rated this game "only" 80%, but if you are hard-core AOW/Civilization fan, it could be rated +90% for you. Well, download playable demo (105MB) and don't forget visit the official AOW2's homepage for more goodies.

Note: Minimum hardware requirements: Pentium II 300MHz/64MB RAM, 4MB Video card.