Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

The Age of Wonders 2 engine, given some new spells and rather needed rebalancing, and an interestingly gimmicky new race (as was the custom in strategy expansions, though this was a standalone sequel). Above all, the campaign received a lot more attention and careful design this time around—it actually introduces game concepts and scales up difficulty at a reasonable pace, steers away from those absurdly large maps from the last one where you just throw huge waves of troops at each other, etc