Civilization IV: Warlords

Last updated
Civilization IV: Warlords
Warlordsboxart.jpg
Developer(s) Firaxis Games
Publisher(s) 2K Games (Win)
Aspyr (Mac)
Composer(s) Jeff Briggs
Series Civilization
Engine Gamebryo
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Release
Genre(s) Turn-based strategy
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords is the first expansion pack of the turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV .

Contents

Gameplay

Warlords added many new features to the original game. These include:

The game introduces a new type of "Great Person" unit, known as a Great General. Great Generals are usually created when the total experience earned by a civilization's military units against other civilizations reaches specified thresholds, rather than Great Person points generated by its cities. In addition, the civilization that acquires the "Fascism" technology first receives a free Great General. A Great General can be used similarly to other Great Persons: to join a city as a "Great Military Instructor", which gives +2 experience points to any military unit created in the city, or to create a Military Academy, which permanently boosts military unit production (by +50%) in the city. The Great General can also be attached to a military unit forming a joint unit led by the Warlord, sharing 20 experience points with all units in its square and giving the Warlord unit free upgrades and exclusive access to special promotions. In all normal games and most scenarios, a destroyed Warlord unit is lost permanently. However, in the Alexander and Genghis Khan scenarios, the title characters serve as Great Generals, and if either is lost, he will be reborn in his civilization's capital city after several turns.

The new Vassal States feature allows players to take up other empires as "vassals," the game's equivalent of protectorates. When an empire becomes a vassal, it loses the ability to declare war and make peace independently, and may be called upon to pay "tribute" in the form of game resources to its "master" (suzerain) state in return for the promise that its master will protect the vassal. Players can use Vassal States to achieve a Domination Victory, since half the vassal's land and population count towards a domination victory for the master, but not vice versa. Similarly, if the master goes to war with another civilization, the vassal too has to go to war. However, other countries' opinions of you will worsen if you have a vassal they dislike. The vassal may still reject trades for gold and technologies.

During peacetime, civilizations can offer their vassalage in return for protection from an enemy, but it may be ended if the state's relative land and population statistics change. Vassal agreements signed in a state of mutual war, as part of a peace treaty, are considered capitulation and bind both parties. The agreement is terminated, however, if the vassal acquires 50% more land area than the master or the vassal loses half of the land it held when the agreement was signed. The only way a master can terminate the agreement is if the vassal refuses to pay tribute. The master can then choose to declare war.

In order to make the civilizations more distinctive, every civilization has received a "Unique Building". These unique buildings replace the standard buildings, and grant special advantages.

New civilizations include Carthage, the Celts, Korea, the Ottoman Empire, the Vikings, and the Zulu. Four new leaders are introduced for existing civilizations. Three new leader traits are introduced, and many existing leader traits have been changed.

Warlords includes new music and also features older music directly from Civilization III and Civilization III: Conquests , which augment the game's existing ancient and classical era music that had relatively few selections. The new opening theme is a Lebanese love song entitled "Al Nadda".

Reception

The expansion received generally positive reviews. Metacritic, which gives a weighted score to games, gave the expansion an 84/100, [4] while Game Rankings gave the expansion an 82.80% [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri</i> 1999 strategy video game

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a 4X video game, considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron ("Planet") in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.

<i>Civilization</i> (video game) 1991 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization is a 1991 turn-based strategy 4X video game developed and published by MicroProse. The game was originally developed for MS-DOS running on a PC, and it has undergone numerous revisions for various platforms. The player is tasked with leading an entire human civilization over the course of several millennia by controlling various areas such as urban development, exploration, government, trade, research, and military. The player can control individual units and advance the exploration, conquest and settlement of the game's world. The player can also make such decisions as setting forms of government, tax rates and research priorities. The player's civilization is in competition with other computer-controlled civilizations, with which the player can enter diplomatic relationships that can either end in alliances or lead to war.

<i>Civilization II</i> 1996 turn-based strategy video game

Sid Meier's Civilization II is a turn-based strategy video game in the Civilization series, developed and published by MicroProse. It was released in 1996 for PCs, and later ported to the PlayStation by Activision.

<i>Civilization III</i> 2001 turn-based strategy video game

Sid Meier's Civilization III is the third installment of the Sid Meier's Civilization turn-based strategy video game series. It was released in 2001, and followed by Civilization IV. Unlike the original game, Civilization III was not designed by Sid Meier, but by Jeff Briggs, a game designer, and Soren Johnson, a game programmer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4X</span> Genre of strategy-based video and board games

4X is a subgenre of strategy-based computer and board games, and includes both turn-based and real-time strategy titles. The gameplay generally involves building an empire. Emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development, as well as a range of military and non-military routes to supremacy.

<i>Civilization IV</i> 2005 video game

Civilization IV is a 4X turn-based strategy computer game and the fourth installment of the Civilization series, and designed by Soren Johnson under the direction of Sid Meier and his video game development studio Firaxis Games. It was released in North America, Europe, and Australia, between October 25 and November 4, 2005, and followed by Civilization V.

Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as Sid Meier's Civilization VI. There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series. The series is considered a formative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate".

<i>Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword</i> 2007 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is the second expansion pack of the turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV. The expansion focuses on adding content to the in-game time periods following the invention of gunpowder, and includes more general content such as 11 new scenarios, 10 new civilizations, and 16 new leaders.

<i>Civilization Revolution</i> 2008 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution is a 4X, turn-based strategy game developed in 2008 by Firaxis Games with Sid Meier as designer. It is a spin-off of the Civilization series. The video game was released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Windows Phone, and iOS. A Wii version was originally expected but was cancelled. The absence of a PlayStation Portable version was attributed to a lack of development manpower.

<i>Civilization V</i> 2010 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization V is a 4X video game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014.

Rhye's and Fall of Civilization (RFC) is a "fan scenario" (mod) for the 2005 computer game Sid Meier's Civilization IV. It is an 'Earth simulator' that uses a variety of scripted events to mirror history much more closely than a typical game of Civilization. The name of the scenario references its core feature—the dynamic "Rise and Fall" of civilizations through time—and its creator, Gabriele Trovato, known as "Rhye" in the forums community.

The music in the Civilization video game series has been composed by various composers.

<i>Civilization</i> (2010 board game)

Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game is a 2010 board game created by Kevin Wilson based on the Sid Meier's Civilization series of video games and published by Fantasy Flight Games. While the previous board game based on Sid Meier's Civilization, published by Eagle Games in 2002, was based on Civilization III, the 2010 version takes its primary inspiration from Civilization IV. Its expansions, Fame and Fortune and Wisdom and Warfare, also began to incorporate concepts derived from Civilization V.

<i>Civilization V: Gods & Kings</i> 2012 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings is the first official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization V. It was released on June 19, 2012 in North America, and on June 22, 2012 in the rest of the world. It adds both religion and espionage mechanics to the game as well as reworking the combat and diplomacy features. It is available either in disc form or as download content via Steam.

<i>Civilization V: Brave New World</i> 2013 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World is the second official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization V. It was released on July 9, 2013, in North America and on July 12, 2013, in the rest of the world.

<i>Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide</i> Expansion pack for the game Civilization: Beyond Earth

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide, is an official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization: Beyond Earth. It was released on October 9, 2015.

<i>Civilization VI</i> 2016 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K. The mobile and Nintendo Switch port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the Civilization series, it was released on Windows and macOS in October 2016, with later ports for Linux in February 2017, iOS in December 2017, Nintendo Switch in November 2018, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2019, and Android in 2020.

<i>Civilization II: Conflicts in Civilization</i> 1996 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization II Scenarios: Conflicts in Civilization is a single-player historical turn-based strategy game, and the first expansion pack to Civilization II. It contains 20 new scenarios; 12 made by the expansion pack developers, and 8 "Best of the Net" scenarios created by series fans. These were the fan-made scenarios that were "deemed the best by the developers". The game was developed and published by MicroProse. The game was "produced by the players and the development team, including some of the script and the 'new content'". This content contained new worlds, new maps, units, an updated technology tree, and new music. The game also allowed players to create their own custom scenarios. it was released November 25, 1996.

<i>Civilization VI: Rise and Fall</i> 2018 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Rise and Fall is the first official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization VI. Released on February 8, 2018, the expansion adds new features, civilizations, and leaders.

<i>Civilization VI: Gathering Storm</i> 2019 video game

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is the second expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization VI. It was released on February 14, 2019, about a year after the release of the first expansion Rise and Fall. It is available for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux. The expansion adds features, civilizations, leaders and wonders. Key additions are mechanics for natural disasters, and greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change and subsequent effects. It received generally positive reviews upon release.

References

  1. 1 2 "Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords (PC)". GameSpy . Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  2. Jastrzab, Jeremy (June 12, 2012). "Updated Australian release list, 12/06/06". PALGN. Archived from the original on June 13, 2006. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
  3. "Civilization IV: Warlords Updated Impressions - Details on Two Newly Revealed Scenarios". GameSpot.com. 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2012-06-18.[ permanent dead link ]
  4. "Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Warlords". Metacritic .
  5. "Video Game Reviews, Articles, Trailers and more - Metacritic".