Reviewed: August 11, 2006
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
2K Games

Developer
Firaxis

Released: July 24, 2006
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Players: 1-16

10
9
8
10
9.3

System Requirements

Civilization IV: Warlords adds these new features:

• Six new civilizations with unique units and buildings, new wonders and the introduction of vassal states.
• Ten more of history’s military leaders including Shaka, Wang Kon and Augustus Caesar.
• A new great person unit called the Warlord. Capable of changing the course of history through military might.
• Eight new scenarios including Alexander’s Conquests, The Rise of Rome, Genghis Khan, The Vikings and more.
• Expanded features, core gameplay tweaks, patches and additions like Pit Boss for Civilization IV.

One thing that I think has been at the heart of this series is the overall things they have added to the game to make it a complete enjoyable game. The little graphics like your men running across the countryside as they explore or the fighting add to your enjoyment of the game. Yes this does not really make much difference to the actual gameplay and whether you win or lose the battles but it sure looks cool to have some graphics and visuals added to a turn based simulation game. After all a game with just little tags representing groups of men don’t add a special feel to the game.

Civilization IV has done a great job with all these things and the expansion Warlords takes this game even further. The scenarios and new features meld seamlessly with the core game and add even more things for you to do and have fun with. New scenarios add a whole new flavor to the original game types with ones like the Vikings push onto the Isle of England in their search for gold or the British General George Washington’s assignment to keep an eye on the French in the Ohio Valley.

Not only do they have new types of game play they have added new wonders, units and leaders. The new wonders are The Temple of Artemis, The University of Sankore and the Great Wall that encompasses the first civilization to get that far in the game for added protection and security for their lands. New leaders include men of history like Augustus Caesar, Genghis Khan, Theodore Roosevelt and George Washington.

They have also added some new units like the Trebuche which is more powerful than the catapult, the Trireme naval vessel which has an advantage over standard galleys or the Omens which are messengers of divine power that evaluate your progress in the Omens scenario and decides whether you are progressing properly.

The new leader class is a bit different than the great person of the core game. The Great General is a military leader and increases military aspects of units in combat. He can also create a military academy and teach his war prowess to others to train military units with a production bonus.

They have added diplomatic options as well in Vassal states, which are an allegiance of one state to another. This allegiance is usually between one strong nation and a weaker one with the benefits of the larger nation being able to have free reign in the smaller one and the smaller nation getting protection. Both nations benefit in different ways and the agreement is broken after ten turns or if the smaller nation grows larger.

There are several new civilizations to play as like Carthage, Celts and Vikings along with new leaders, units and some unique buildings added to each civilization. These buildings are unique to each civilization and only that civilization has it, such as the shopping mall for - you guessed it, the American Empire. They have added other new people to the original civilizations to add some different characters and fun to the core game as well as new civilizations.

The Pit Boss feature is an addition that was created after Civ IV was first released. In it you join a multiplayer game and play as usual with other players over the Internet with one large difference. If you or other players log off the turns of players moving units around will only commence after the next person logs back in and makes his moves. You take your turns when you log on and play only commences in order when someone logs on. You can change technologies, research or do other internal things to your cities but not move units that would have any affect on others of the game. This way a game can be played out over time with your move being taken in turn with others in a fair game of multiplayer Civilization IV.

Civilization IV: Warlords plays pretty much the same as the core game but when something works well you don’t mess with it. They have added things to create more value and gameplay but have not changed things so drastically that you would notice. You still have to deal with building your towns into cities and the tactics of fighting unless you’re in one of the new scenarios where the goals are a bit different. The same great civilization game is there at the heart of Warlords and this expansion only makes the game that much better.

Fighting between units and especially the new ones like Omens are carried out for your enjoyment and you can zoom in on the fun to watch them duke it out. The graphics are pretty good and are a great addition to the turn based game even if they are not necessary to the concept of this game type.

The interface and core game play has not changed but some of the games graphs and helper pages have been tweaked to make them easier to read and understand. The game overall is a great one and the graphics and visuals like in game cut scenes for important events and the little battles between units adds to a fantastic game.

During gameplay you have the usual, or for this series excellent background music with appropriate background sounds for events that occur. All your people from a particular culture have the appropriate dialect when you hear them and it all adds to a rich sounding addition to the game.

In many of my reviews I talk about an overall feel and complete gaming experience and this is definitely one game that has not only kept the standard of quality for their game but also improved upon it with the Warlord expansion. The expansion has included several different types of turn based gaming scenarios with different objectives than the original ones for even more hours of gameplay. Some of these objectives are to dominate new lands or obtain a certain amount of gold or as simple as destroying everything else on the globe.

You get all the original Civilization IV gaming experiences and fun plus more game types in the new scenarios and the added units, people and features of the original game. Warlords adds even more to a game that started out great and only continues to be an excellent turn based strategy game.

If you have not started in on your gaming experience with Civilizations this just adds to the reasons to try your hand at conquering the world, or at least the world on your computer.