Civilization IV: Warlords

Civilization IV: Warlords
Developer(s)	Firaxis Games
Publisher(s)	Take Two Interactive
Distributor(s)	2K Games
Engine	Gamebryo
Version	2.13 (July 20, 2007)
Platform(s)	Windows, Macintosh
Release date	USA July 24, 2006 EUR July 28, 2006
Genre(s)	Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Media	CD 1
System requirements	Copy of Civilization IV, 1.2GHz Processor, 256 MB RAM, 64MB Video Card (DirectX 8 support needed), sound card, 1.7GB HDD

Civilization IV: Warlords is the first official expansion pack of the critically-acclaimed turn-based strategy video game Civilization IV. .

Features

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

• A new category of Great People known as Great Generals;
• The ability to institute vassal states;
• Eight new scenarios
• Six new civilizations playable in single-player and multiplayer;
• Ten new leaders (Including new leaders for existing civilizations);
• Three new leader traits (Charismatic, Protective and Imperialistic);
• Unique buildings for each civilization;
• Three new wonders;
• New units, resources, and improvements;
• Core gameplay tweaks and additions;
• Inclusion of all patches released for original Civilization IV.

Great General

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 trigger a Golden Age (with at least one other Great Person), 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 re-born in his civilization's capital city after several turns.

Vassal States

The new Vassal States feature allows players to take up other empires as "vassals". 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 resources to its "master" 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.

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.

Unique Buildings

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

*The Obelisk from the original game has been replaced with the Monument.

New content

New leader traits

New civilizations

Six new civilizations have been introduced:

New leaders

Apart from the leaders of the six new civilizations, there are four new leaders in Civilization IV: Warlords.

Existing leaders

Some existing leaders incorporate the new traits introduced in Warlords, and some have had their traits shuffled. Traits in bold are new traits introduced for that leader. These new traits replace the older assignment of traits for the leader. The older traits are given alongside.

Scenarios

• Peloponnesian Wars (1 to 2 Players): After vanquishing the Persian invasion, in 444 BC Athens and Sparta find themselves competing for ownership of the Greek world at the close of the fifth-century BC. Every move counts in this 100-turn scenario. The Athenians start with a strong economy and mastery of the sea, but their empire is far-flung. The Athenian leader is Pericles (Financial, Philosophical). The Spartans have few overseas possessions but a powerful land army, and are led by Archidamus II (Aggressive, Philosophical). Each side has multiple city-state allies, represented as vassal states. The winner is whoever captures the opposing capital, or has the highest score at the end.
• Chinese Unification (1 to 5 Players): Starting in 450BC, this 200-turn scenario sees the player struggling to defeat rival kingdoms to gain control of China. Bloodlines replace religions as a measure of influence that can be spread via emissaries in the same way as missionaries. An "Emperor's Council" wonder that allows a vote-determined victor (similar to the UN in the regular game) provides an alternate method of victory to outright conquest. The scenario is somewhat ahistorical as there were far more than seven states in 450 BC China, and Jin was not split up yet, but offers many new civics in turn that reflect the various political systems of the Warring States Era (e.g. Legalism).
• Alexander's Conquests (1 Player): Alexander's 200-turn scenario has distinct features that are not seen in other scenarios added. In this scenario, the player controls both the Macedonian forces and Alexander himself, who is represented in the game as a special Great General unit who cannot die in battle (and is instead "wounded" for a few turns). The technologies for this scenario are all military and give benefits to units in the field. Finally, the civic menu is replaced with a series of titles (ranging from "Alexander the Upstart" to "Alexander the Great") and will aid the player by giving reductions to war weariness and city maintenance costs. To win, the player must conquer the world.
• The Rise of Rome (1 to 5 players): In 300 BC, with Greek power on the wane, the powers of Rome, Carthage, Gaul, Greece, and Egypt rise to compete for ownership of the Mediterranean. This scenario can be won by controlling 75% of the world's population and land area, or by having the highest score at the end of 250 turns. Up to four special victory resources that provide 10 victory points per turn when improved with a "stronghold" are distributed next to each of AI controlled starting capitals. Leaders in this scenario each have three traits instead of two, and multiple upgrades for existing ancient units (such as the Praetorian) can be researched over the course of the scenario.
• Vikings (1 player): In 800 AD, as Ragnar Lodbrok, ruler of the Vikings, the player will organize massive, loot-gathering raids on England, Ireland, and Northern Europe. The goal of this scenario is to amass the required amount of gold (which varies according to difficulty level) in the allotted 200 turns. Money can be earned by sacking cities, ransoming captured cities back to their original owners, and by researching the location of treasures and bringing them back (in the form of a special treasure cart unit) to the Viking capitol.
• Genghis Khan (1 player): In 1206 AD, the Mongol hordes are unleashed upon Asia. Without a starting city, the Mongolian civilization have special "camp" units, that are similar to settlers but when deployed will automatically spawn different types of units, depending on terrain type (plains may generate cavalry units, forest may generate siege engines). The goal of this 300-turn scenario is to reach 3000 victory points by capturing or destroying enemy cities, destroying enemy units, and pillaging improvements. Sacking a city provides a large one-time points boost, while gaining vassal states provides points over time. The Mongols begin with 500 points and steadily lose points over time (rate based on difficulty level), so the player must aggressively earn new points to avoid going negative and losing the scenario. The goal of the scenario is not to create a large empire, but to destroy or create vassals of all rival empires. The technology tree for the Mongols in this scenario is radically different from the generic Civilization IV technology tree; instead of a tree, each of the 15 enemy civilizations represents a technology that can be earned by the Mongols by either capturing two of that civiliation's cities, or by forcing that civilization to become a vassal.
• Omens, 1754 (1 to 2 players): In an alternative history portrayal of the Seven Years' War, the player must race to colonize the Ohio River Valley while playing as either Marquis Duquesne (Aggressive, Charismatic) of France, or George Washington in the service of Great Britain. The main conflict is a religious one between the French Catholics and the English Protestants, with the native Lenape civilization caught in the middle; to win in single player mode your side's religion must gain 75% influence within 150 turns. In two player mode, whoever's religion is most prevalent at that time will win. The scenario also has a supernatural element, in which the forces of Divinity appear at various times to punish the less-pious and ultimately to declare a winner.
• Barbarian Horde (1 player): In a new gameplaying concept, the player takes control of the barbarian state, whose aim is to destroy all other civilizations on a randomly-generated map. In this scenario, cities are rendered uncapturable; instead, if a barbarian unit enters a city it is razed, providing gold with which further units can be produced. The Barbarians have a camp similar to the one in the Genghis Khan scenario, at which purchased units will appear.

New World Wonders

• The Great Wall: Great General production doubled, and barbarians will not enter your cultural borders.
• The Temple of Artemis: Doubled trade route income and a free Priest at this city.
• The University of Sankore: +2 Research per current Religious buildings.

New buildings

• Stable: This building adds +2 experience points to mounted units built in its city.
• Monument: The obelisk has been renamed to monument. The obelisk is now the Egyptian unique building that replaces the monument.
• A unique building has been added for each civilization (see above).

Note: The Barracks has been reduced in production cost and experience provided (from 4 down to 3). This has been done to reduce the power of the charismatic trait. Otherwise, a (+4) Barracks alone with the charismatic trait would provide two promotions for each military unit built.

New units

The game includes new units:

• Trireme (Naval vessel)
• Trebuchet (Siege Weapon)
• Great General (Great Person)

Music

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 an Arabic love song entitled "Al Nadda".

Technical Problems

Mehmed II Leaderhead Problem

While in the Game Options select process in Warlords, and choosing the Ottoman Leader Mehmed II, the game was known to suddenly freeze up, and crash with the system usually telling the player there was an error. The In-Game Civlopedia's Mehmed II Leaderhead picture also was known to have a similar glitch, causing the game to do the same.

These problems were attributed to certain mods being used with the program, and certain graphics cards such as the GeForce4 MX card. Firaxis developer Alex "alexman" Mantzaris soon posted a downloadable fix for the problem on fansites. .

External links

• Official Civ4 Warlords site
• Civilization IV: Warlords Info Center @ civfanatics.com
• Civilized Online Gaming Community
• PC.IGN's Civilization IV: Warlords Preview
• Gamespot's Civilization IV: Warlords Preview
• PC.IGN's E3 preview
• Warlords trailer at GameSpot
• Civilization series at wikia