Civilization IV: Warlords review

Nine months on from the initial release and I'm still enjoying the occasional fix of CivIV. Sid Meier's epic strategy series is the gift that keeps on giving with endless ways of wasting hours in diplomacy or outright international thuggery. But now we have the arrival of this Warlords expansion, which brings new content and scenarios to a game that's already bulging with things to see and do.

The most obvious new content are the six new civilizations you can control. A good Irish lad such as myself can now play as the Celts and also play as the Koreans, Ottomans, Vikings, Zulus and Carthaginians. Each of these new civilizations can be played in the regular game and within new custom scenarios provided in the expansion. Each of the races gets its own unique leader, music and units.

Sun and Steel

But what of the warlords themselves? These new units act like the great generals of Civ games past. They offer experience bonuses to units under their command, leading armies more successfully into battle. They can also aid construction of units be speeding up creation or improving their stats from the get go. The Warlords serve the useful purpose of providing a more militaristic bent to a game that tends to reward the more dove-like players. This expansion is aimed at go getters and those who prefer a more warlike solution to problems with rivals.

Another important new feature is that you can turn subjugated enemies into vassal states. Here you can demand tribute and gain credit for much of the state's achievements as they do your bidding. While not giving the player total control of the enemy, it does offer a way of neutering a rival without going to the expense of completely annihilating them.

However despite many of the new features the vanilla campaign games pretty much play out as before, you're not going to notice much of a difference apart from the appearance of the new races. There are new wonders such as the Great Wall, but thankfully the main game hasn't been tinkered with or broken to any great extent. So you may be wondering then what the actual point of the expansion is beyond the new races.

Run to the Hills

Well it's the new scenarios that makes Warlords so interesting. Rather than being mere customized starting points for regular games they offer some very interesting changes to gameplay. These scnarious tend to reward risky play as there's pressure on by goals to be achieved in limited turns. Restructured tech trees and unique units make the scenarios a challenge to players who've already got to grips with the main game and like to sit back and gently coax each city through the ages.

One of the most interesting scenarios sees the French and English battle to control 18th century North America. The goal is to spread Protestantism or Catholicism and win by converting 75 percent of the map. It's pretty unique in being such a late setting for a Civ scenario, but what makes it more interesting is what happens to the side that's in last place, including the Native Americans. Periodically an avenging spirit appears and causes mayhem among military units - it's an unstoppable force armed with fireballs that is a wonder to behold. Once you've seen the spirit in action once you'll always feel pressured in the Omens scenario to keep ahead of the opposition.

Alexander the Great

Not all of the new scenarios are fantasy based though. Retelling historical campaigns also plays a part. Can you achieve as much as Alexander the Great did in his short lifetime? You have a set number of turns to defeat the Persians and push into India. A Roman scenario will be familiar to those of you who've dabbled with Total War, allowing you to play as the Romans, Celts, Egyptians, Greecians or Carthaginians for control of the Mediterranean. Going even further back in time is the Peloponnesian Wars where intelligent use of naval forces will be required for your Athenian or Spartan forces to conquer.

The Barbarian campaign is a lot of fun. Here your playing as those pesky nere do wells that normally plague your regular campaign game. In this scenario the AI takes the role of all the civilizations on the map. You start with a certain amount of gold to buy units. Then it's a case of destroying as many cities as possible. There's no need for any ideas of settling down. This is all about kill, smash, destroy. You raise cities, take the gold, build more units at your mobile encampment and then move on.

Genghis Khan

For a more advanced version of this sort of nefarious behaviour there's Genghis Khan's scenario. Again the goal is to conquer and pillage rather than settle down and start fashioning a palace of Doric columns. The Mongol units rely on mobile camps rather than cities and you must place the camp wisely as this effects the sort of units you can build. Technology isn't as easy to come by either as it has to be stolen from vanquished enemies. In practice that means you'll have to camp on grassland to raise an army of cavalry and for catapults the tents have to be pitched in forest squares. It's an interesting game mechanic that requires a different set of strategies from the regular game.

Another far eastern campaign is set in fourth century BC China. Here the player vies to unite the country and become Chinese empower. There are some interesting twists on the regular game here. Firstly this is a game of massive conquest so big armies are the order of the day. However success isn't just based on military might, spreading your DNA around helps too, arranging marriages and the like. One of the best defences again the large armies in this scenario are the large walls you can build around your territory - unlike the Great Wall wonder each nation can build one of these rather than just the first to build it.

To Tame a Land

Warlords is an interesting package with plenty of new content such as units and buildings. The vassal states abilities and warlords mark this as an expansion for those who'd rather seek a military solution to diplomatic troubles and it's a welcome change to the game. The focus now seems more evenly split between economic and warlike policies.

The real meat of the expansion though are the new scenarios which offer plenty of variety and interesting gameplay nuances. However they do tend to be rather tricky, even for experience players. But then if you were a Civ IV novice you probably wouldn't have read this review now would you? Warlords is a worthy addition to the game, but do shop around as the RRP does seem a little pricey.