Source note: Part 2 of the Age of Wonders franchise reference. Factionfaction. An in-game group or nation players can align with or fight against, with its own goals and reputation system. rosters and mechanics are verified against the official Paradox AoW: Planetfall wiki; secret techs and doomsday weapons are cross-checked against launch-era guides (Prima, Neoseeker) and the v1.4 wiki. Part 1 covered the classic fantasy era (AoW1, Shadow Magic, AoW3); Part 3 covers Age of Wonders 4 and a cross-franchise “How to Choose.”
Age of Wonders: Planetfall (2019) is the sci-fi spinoff — Triumph Studios left fantasy behind for a post-collapse Star Union, sector-based planetary colonization, and tactical battles with cover, overwatch, and stagger mechanics. Its “faction” system is the most structurally distinct in the franchise: you pick a primary faction and a secret technology, and the pairing defines your army, your damage channels, and your path to a doomsday weapon.
What it covers: All eight Planetfall factions, seven secret techs, doomsday weapons, and pairings. Why it matters: The faction × secret-tech pairing defines your damage channels and victory path. Who should pick this: Players building a Planetfall run or weighing the DLC factions.
How a Planetfall build works
- Primary faction — your race/culture. Determines your 9 unique units, 2 ships, colonizer, unit mods, operations, buildings, and society doctrines. Each faction leans on specific damage channels and terrain.
- Secret technology — a secondary tech branch at the bottom of the military tree. Adds unique units, mods, operations, a doomsday weapon, and often a damage channel your faction can’t normally access.
- Commander customization — appearance, loadout, and a secret tech pick that can open a fourth weapon group (e.g., Syndicate + Xenoplague gives a faction that normally only does Arc/Psi access to Biochemical and Kinetic).
The faction × secret-tech grid is where build depth lives, exactly like AoW3’s race × class grid — but with sci-fi damage channels (Kinetic, Thermal, Arc, Biochemical, Psionic) instead of fantasy damage types.
Primary Factions (8 total)
Six factions ship with the base game; two more arrive via DLC.
| Faction | DLC | Origin / flavor | Damage focus | Signature mechanic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | Base | Terratech bioengineers; all-female; dinosaurs | Biochemical / Laser | Command genetically engineered beasts; terraform forests; buffed in forest terrain |
| Assembly | Base | Reanimated test-subject cyborgs | Arc / Kinetic | Reassemble fallen units post-battle; gather extra resources from victories; strong research |
| Dvar | Base | Bunker-dwelling mining consortiums | Thermal / Kinetic | Powerful AoE and medium-range; production focus; terraform/destroy mountains |
| Kir’Ko | Base | Liberated insectoid xeno psionics | Biochemical / Psionic | Rapid population growth, large armies; Swarm Shields; strong biological melee |
| Syndicate | Base | Trading-House feudal capitalists | Arc / Psionic | Indentured slave units ignore morale penalties; stealth and covert operations |
| Vanguard | Base | Star Union expeditionary forces | Kinetic / Laser | Combat drones and turrets; propaganda; powerful ranged, weak melee |
| Shakarn | Invasions (2020) | Reptilian ocean-world infiltrators | Laser / Kinetic | Holograms to infiltrate/confuse/mirror enemies; omni weapons (sound + laser) |
| Oathbound | Star Kings (2020) | Archivist seers and paladin battlesuits | Arc / Kinetic | Battlesuits with arc melee; seers manipulate probability to control the battlefield |
Faction notes
- Amazons are the bio/terraform faction — they turn worlds into forest paradises and ride dinosaurs into battle. Strong when they control the terrain.
- Assembly is the snowball faction: every battlefield victory yields extra resources and you can rebuild fallen enemies into your ranks. Excellent research.
- Dvar are the industrial tank faction — mountains, production, AoE thermal weapons. Slow but durable.
- Kir’Ko are the swarm — cheap, fast-growing, biological melee with Swarm Shields. Overwhelm with numbers.
- Syndicate is the covert/empire faction — indentured units that don’t care about morale, plus stealth and operations. Underhanded and economic.
- Vanguard is the conventional military — drones, turrets, propaganda, and the best pure ranged firepower, but weak in melee.
- Shakarn (DLC) is the deception faction — holographic infiltration, mirrored units, omni weapons. Disruptive and tricky.
- Oathbound (DLC) is the probability-control faction — seers bend outcomes; paladin battlesuits bring arc melee. Tactical and durable.
Secret Technologies (7 total)
Six secret techs ship with the base game; the Heritor tech arrives in the Revelations DLC. Each secret tech owns a damage channel pairing and a doomsday weapon that culminates in a Tech (Doomsday) Victory.
| Secret tech | DLC | Damage channels | Theme | Doomsday weapon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Celestian | Base | Psionic + Thermal | Ancient astral philosophy; enlightenment, morale buffs, ideology-swaying | Final Revelation |
| Promethean | Base | Thermal + Kinetic | Planetary purification with PyrX fire; incendiary weapons, shielding | Planetary Purification |
| Psynumbra | Base | Psionic | Dark psionics; terror, mind control, summon abyssal ethereals | Oblivio Mundi |
| Synthesis | Base | Arc + Kinetic | AI networks; hack/compromise mechanical & cyborg units; daemon shells | The Singularity |
| Voidtech | Base | Arc + Kinetic | Phase/teleport mechanics; temporal clones, rifts, time manipulation | Dimensional Cascade |
| Xenoplague | Base | Biochemical + Kinetic | Parasitic bioweapons; super-soldier serum; evolving pustule→destroyer→plague lord units | Omega Awakening |
| Heritor | Revelations (2019) | Es’Teq ancestor essence | Drain essence, incarnate Es’Teq protectors/acolytes/lords, ancestral rites | Final Rapture |
Why the secret tech pick matters
A secret tech often unlocks a damage channel your faction can’t otherwise access. The Neoseeker reference puts it directly: Syndicate only have Arc and Psi weapon groups natively, but pairing them with Xenoplague opens Biochemical and Kinetic — quadrupling their weapon-group access. The same logic applies faction-wide: a Kir’Ko + Promethean build gives a bio-swarm faction thermal fire support; a Dvar + Voidtech build gives industrial tanks phase mobility and temporal echoes.
Each secret tech also fields a themed unit line that your race reskins (e.g., every faction gets its own Purifier, Light Bringer, Echo Walker, Initiate, Hacker, etc. at the appropriate tier), so the race × tech combination changes the look and minor stats of those units too.
The Doomsday / Tech Victory
Each secret tech has a doomsday operation unlocked by building a faction-specific colony upgrade:
- PyrX Refinery
- Omega Hive
- Basilisk Node
- Spire of Suffering
- Beacon of Truth
- Dimensional Amplifier Tower
- Es’Teq Conduit
Each additional upgrade levels the weapon up (levels 1→3). The finisher operation (e.g., Planetary Purification, Omega Awakening, The Singularity) triggers a 10-turn countdown to a Tech Victory once you’ve reached the required level. This is Planetfall’s signature victory condition and the reason secret-tech choice is strategic, not just flavorful.
Sector economy & other systems (brief)
- Sectors, not cities: colonies are nodes in regions; adjacent regions connect as the colony grows and can be specialized (energy, research, food, production). Each sector has two biomes you exploit.
- Doomsday tech tree: a separate research path culminating in the doomsday weapon above.
- NPC factions: neutral factions on the map can be allied with for unique units and mods via quests and relations — they’re “the majority at the start of the game” and can’t be ignored.
- Covert operations & reputation: your morality (justified war, peace, atrocities) shifts reputation and changes how AI and neutrals treat you.
- Tactical combat: top-down, 3 actions per unit per turn, cover/overwatch, stagger (disrupts special attacks, costs an action point), and a “grazing” rule where missed shots deal half damage.
How to choose (Planetfall)
- You want a swarm/overwhelm build: Kir’Ko (bio-swarm) + Xenoplague (evolving bio units) for a pure biological tide, or + Voidtech for phase-mobile swarms.
- You want industrial/tank brute force: Dvar + Promethean (fire + AoE) or + Voidtech (phase tanks).
- You want deception/covert ops: Syndicate + Psynumbra (terror + stealth) or Shakarn + Synthesis (holograms + hacking).
- You want conventional military ranged: Vanguard + Promethean (fire support) or + Synthesis (drones + hacking).
- You want bio/terraform control: Amazon + Xenoplague (beasts + bio) or + Celestian (enlightenment + starlight).
- You want probability/tactical control: Oathbound + Voidtech (seers + phase) or + Celestian (enlightenment).
- You want the resource-snowball: Assembly + Synthesis (reanimate + hack) or + Heritor (essence + incarnations) if you have Revelations.
What’s next
Part 3 covers the current game, Age of Wonders 4 (2023) — the fully modular faction builder (10+ physical forms, 6+ cultures, 6 affinities, 50+ tomes of magic, Champion/Wizard King/Dragon Ruler/Eldritch Sovereign rulers), all DLC through Expansion Pass 3, and a cross-franchise “How to Choose” that ties all three parts together.
→ Continue to Part 3: Age of Wonders 4 + How to Choose Across the Franchise
← Back to Part 1: The Classic Fantasy Era
SOURCES
- AoW: Planetfall Wiki — Factions (Paradox): https://aowplanetfall.paradoxwikis.com/Race — the eight primary combatant factions, their origins, and signature mechanics (verified for v1.4).
- AoW: Planetfall Wiki — Secret technology (Paradox): https://aowplanetfall.paradoxwikis.com/Secret_technology — all seven secret techs (Celestian, Heritor, Promethean, Psynumbra, Synthesis, Voidtech, Xenoplague), their tech trees, units, and doomsday operations.
- Wikipedia — Age of Wonders: Planetfall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Wonders:_Planetfall — the six base factions, premise, sector economy, doomsday tech, DLC releases (Revelations, Invasions, Star Kings).
- Prima Games — Planetfall research guide (secret techs & doomsday weapons): https://primagames.com/gaming/age-of-wonders-planetfall-guide-research-secret-techs-doomsday-weapons — launch-era confirmation of the six base secret techs and their doomsday finishers.
- Neoseeker — Planetfall Secret Technology reference: https://www.neoseeker.com/age-of-wonders-planetfall/tech/Secret_Technology — per-tech damage channels, units, and the faction weapon-group access example (Syndicate + Xenoplague).
Faction and secret-tech rosters verified against the Paradox wiki (v1.4) and launch-era guides. Damage-channel pairings and doomsday weapon names are drawn directly from those sources.
Planetfall’s roster is settled at v1.4 — eight factions and seven secret techs — which makes this reference stable rather than provisional. The live edge of the franchise is Age of Wonders 4’s modular faction builder, and that is where the series goes next.
Next read
- For the current game’s fully modular builder, see Part 3: Age of Wonders 4 + How to Choose Across the Franchise.
- For the fantasy era that precedes this one, see Part 1: The Classic Fantasy Era.