
Once you’ve established good diplomatic relations with a faction, they’ll be more than happy to trade their unused items with you, including mounts. There are only three sure-fire ways of acquiring new mounts in Age of Wonders 4, one of which involves trading with other factions. You can get mounts from various sources like quests and Ancient Wonders, but this method isn’t an exact science since the rewards you get from completing these tasks are partially based on RNG. A lot of the time you’ll need to rely on luck when you’re trying to get your hands on them. You can acquire a wide variety of mounts for your Ruler and heroes while playing a campaign, including wargs, boars, spiders, wyverns, and more. If you pick a body trait that doesn’t universally alter mounts, your Ruler will get a mount only if their starting equipment doesn’t include a two-handed weapon. The good news is that you’ll still get a mount in your inventory regardless, which you can equip later or give to a hero.

Rulers that wield two-handed weapons like Greataxes, Bladed Maces, or Staves can’t use mounts at all. However, they won’t actually be able to ride it unless you pick the right starting equipment.

If you decide to universally alter unit mounts, your Ruler will also start with a mount of the same type. The last four options will permanently change the mounts of all eligible units to the selected type. When the game asks you to choose your people’s form, hit the button that lets you change their body trait and scroll all the way down. However, you can change them while customizing your faction.

Units like Knights and Scouts get mounts by default and they can’t be changed once the game starts. While seemingly identical, there’s a pretty big difference between the mounts used by your units and the mounts used by your Rulers and heroes.
