This one disagrees.
Age of Sorcery has sorcery, in a limited capacity.
All the tools to have an age of War are either already present or would be less burdensome than a stamina, gear, loot, and economy rework.
War is between two nations, states, or meaningful factions.
Who is at war and what is the Exile’s role in it?
In Age of Sorcery, the Exile’s role was not necessarily Sorcerer, but the story did lead the Exile into collusion with Mek Amoses, and as his catspaw in a contest between him and Kurak.
Age of War, of course, should have improvements to siege and fortifications. We are getting half of that.
It should also have Factions. Plural contenders.
Fortunately the game already has a Half Dozen Factions.
Just as the Exile was thrown in with Mek in the previous Age, one could pick an allegiance in this Age.
Or just add 2 new factions, we are already getting the Stygian Army, why not also deploy the already existent but almost never used Army of Aquilon.
Each could get a camp. Choose a side, that flavours your purges as the enemy comes after you.
Gain supplies and allies by turning in items looted from the opposing faction.
Instead of ambushes, have battles spawn. NPCa already aggro on each other at times.
Include mixed Stygian and Aquilonian encounters in the rando spawns.
Easy fix to make it feel like there is actually a conflict going on.
Could have even tracked on official servers which faction got chewed up the worst, and when the age ended, that faction went into full retreat while the other faction got to keep one of it’s bases as a permanent place, much like Mek’s spire has some of it’s upgrades