Last updated on August 13, 2006
by Thunderfall.
Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform: PC
Release Date: July 24, 2006
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Overview
Civilization IV: Warlords is the first expansion pack for the award-winning Civilization IV. The expansion pack was first announced on March 16th, 2006 and is developed by Firaxis Games. The game is released in North America on July 24, 2006 and other parts of the world on July 28, 2006.
Major features of the expansion pack include six new civilizations, ten new leaders, three new wonders, great general unit, vassal states, unique buildings, and eight scenarios. Besides these major features, the expansion also includes a trireme unit and a trebuchet unit.
Article Navigation
- The New Leader Traits
- The New Civilizations and Leaders
- New Unique Units, Trebuchet, and Trireme
- Updated Leader Traits for Existing Leaders
- The New wonders
- The Great General Unit
- Vassal State Diplomatic Option
- Unique Buildings
- The Scenarios
- Screenshots & Wallpapers
- Warlords Videos
- Warlords Reviews
- Warlords Previews
- Related Links
The New Leader Traits
Warlords expansion adds the following three leader traits:
Trait | Benefit |
---|---|
Charismatic | +1 happiness per city -25% XP needed for unit promotions +1 happiness from Monument, Broadcast Tower |
Imperialistic | +100% Great General emergence 50% faster production of settlers |
Protective | Archery and Gunpowder units receive Drill I and City Garrison I automatically Double production speed of Walls and Castle |
The New Civilizations and Leaders
Six new civilizations and ten new leaders are featured in Civ4: Warlords. Each of the six new civilizations has a leader and four of the existing civilizations each receives a new leader as well. The new civilizations have the same unique unit as in Civ3, with the exception of the Ottomans.
Note: Click leader thumbnail to see bigger image.
Four of the existing civilizations also gain a new leader each:
Updated Leader Traits for Existing Leaders
Due to the addition of the three new leader traits, traits for many existing leaders have been changed. The table below lists the updated traits for all existing leaders.
Civilization | Leader | Old Traits | New Traits |
---|---|---|---|
America | George Washington | Financial & Organized | Charismatic & Expansive |
Franklin D. Roosevelt | Industrious & Organized | No Change | |
Arabs | Saladin | Philosophical & Spirtual | Protective & Spiritual |
Aztecs | Montezuma | Aggressive & Spirtual | No Change |
China | Mao Zedong | Philosophical & Organized | Expansive & Protective |
Qin Shi Huang | Industrious & Financial | Industrious & Protective | |
Egypt | Hatshepsut | Spirtual & Creative | No Change |
England | Victoria | Expansive & Financial | Financial & Imperialistic |
Elizabeth | Philosophical & Financial | No Change | |
France | Louis XIV | Creative & Industrious | No Change |
Napoleon | Aggressive & Industrious | Charismatic & Organized | |
Germany | Frederick | Creative & Philosophical | Organized & Philosophical |
Bismarck | Expansive & Industrious | No Change | |
Greece | Alexander | Aggressive & Philosophical | No Change |
Inca | Huayna Capac | Aggressive & Financial | Financial & Industrious |
India | Mahatma Gandhi | Industrious & Spiritual | Philosophical & Spiritual |
Asoka | Organized & Spiritual | No Change | |
Japan | Tokugawa | Aggressive & Organized | Aggressive & Protective |
Mali | Mansa Musa | Financial & Spiritual | No Change |
Mongolia | Genghis Khan | Aggressive & Expansive | Aggressive & Imperialistic |
Kublai Khan | Aggressive & Creative | No Change | |
Persia | Cyrus | Expansive & Creative | Charismatic & Imperialistic |
Rome | Julius Caesar | Organized & Expansive | Imperialistic & Organized |
Russia | Catherine | Creative & Financial | Creative & Imperialistic |
Peter | Expansive & Philosophical | No Change | |
Spain | Isabella | Expansive & Spiritual | No Change |
New Unique Units, Trebuchet, and Trireme
Here are the details for the six new unique units in Warlords:
Besides the above unique units and the new Great General unit, the Warlords expansion also adds the trebuchet and the trireme units.
The New Wonders
Graphic | Great Wonder | Effects |
---|---|---|
Great Wall Cost: 250 (Double Speed w/ Stone) Culture: 2Great People Points: 2 Requires: Masonry Expires: |
Prevents barbarians from entering borders on continent.+100% Great General emergence from combats that take place within your cultural borders.City more likely to generate Great Engineers.Can only be built on Classical and earlier starts. | |
Temple of Artemis Cost: 400 (Double Speed w/ Marble)Culture: 8 Great People Points: 2 Requires: Polytheism Expires: Chemistry |
+100% income from trade routes and a free priest specialist in the city where the wonder is built.City more to generate Great Merchants.Can only be built on Classical and earlier starts. | |
University of SankoreCost: 550 (Double Speed w/ Stone) Culture: 8 Great People Points: 2 Requires: Paper Expires: Computers |
+2 research to all buildings associated with your state religion.City more likely to generate Great Scientists.Can only be built on Renaissance and earlier starts. |
Wonder movies of the Great Wall and the Temple of Artemis are available on PC.IGN.
The Great General Unit
The Warlords expansion gets its name from the new type of Great Person it introduces: the Great General. As your units gain combat experience during the game, the game will tally up totals, and once you reach a certain amount, you’ll spawn one in your capital city, and the meter starts over. Each new Great General will require more experience than the one before.
You can use Great General to construct a Military Academy (grants +25% bonus to military unit production), or join a city as a Great Military Instructor (gives units built at the city 2 free experience points).
Most importanly, you can turn Great Generals into Warlords to lead your military units in the field. Units that happen to be in the same tile when the Warlord is created gain 20 experience points (divided among units in the stack). When you create a Warlord, you have to join it to another combat unit. The units attached to these Warlords gain free promotions as well as access to five new promotions:
- Combat VI: +25% strength
- Leadership: +50% experience from combat
- Medic III: Heals units in same and adjacent tiles extra 15% damage per turn
- Morale: +1 movement
- Tactics: +30% withdrawal chance
If a Warlord unit is destroyed, he’s gone forever.
Vassal State (Diplomatic Option)
Warlords expansion introduces a new diplomatic option called Vassal State. Vassal states is like an “asymmetric alliance.” Basically, one civilization serves as the master in the relationship and collects tribute from the weaker, vassal nation.
There are two ways to acquire a vassal state:
- During peacetime, after discovering Feudalism, a civilization may voluntarily become a vassal. The vassal (NOT the master) is given the option to renew the relationship after 10 turns.
- A vassal relationship that arises during wartime is referred to as Capitulation. It differs from the peacetime arrangement in that the vassal can’t break the relationship unless a) it grows to more than half the size (land and population) of the master or b) loses more than half the territory it owned at the time the agreement was created.
There are some notable benefits to being a master:
- The master enjoys complete freedom of movement in the vassal’s territory, including the ability to heal normally in the vassal’s territory and use fortifications owned by the vassal. The master can also investiage any vassal city.
- The master can demand any resource from a vassal, even those that the vassal is using. The vassal has the right to refuse the demand but if they do they two states are immediately at war.
- The master’s people enjoy increased happiness. Those in the vassal empire suffer decreased happiness.
- The vassal can’t make war or peace on its own. It immediately adopts the master’s war and peace relationships.
- Half of the vassal’s territory and population count towards the master’s domination victory AND score.
Some costs of vassal agreements include:
- Having vassal cities will incur higher maintenance cost for your own cities.
- Other civs may like you a little less when you have a vassal.
Unique Buildings
Each civilization now has its own unique building. The unique building replaces an existing building and offers a new benefit in addition to the benefits of the building it replaces.
For example, Carthaginian Cothon has the benefits of regular harbor (+50% trade route yield,
+1 health from clam, crab, fish) and +1 trade route.
Note:
* The Obelisk from the core game has been renamed to the Monument.
** Stable is a new building available with Horseback Riding. It costs 60 hammers and adds +2 XP to mounted units. The stable’s bonus is cumulative with a barrack’s.
Civilization | Icon | Unique Building | Replaces | Additional Benefit |
---|---|---|---|---|
America | Mall | Supermarket | +10% wealth +1 happiness from hit musical, hit single, hit movie |
|
Arabs | Madrassa | Library | Can turn two citizens into Priests, +2 culture | |
Aztecs | Sacrificial Altar | Courthouse | -50% anger duration from sacrificing population Costs 30 hammers less than Courthouse |
|
China | Pavilion | Theatre | +25% culture | |
Carthage | Cothon | Harbor | +1 trade route, Costs 20 more hammers than Harbor |
|
Celts | Dun | Wall | Free Guerilla I promotion for units built in the city(obsoletes with Rifling, except defensive bonus) | |
Egypt | Obelisk* | Monument | Can turn two citizens into Priests | |
England | Stock Exchange | Bank | +15% wealth | |
France | Salon | Observatory | +1 free Artist | |
Germany | Assembly Plant | Factory | Can turn 2 more citizens into Engineers than Factory +50% production with coal |
|
Greece | Odeon | Colosseum | +3 culture +1 happiness, +1 happiness from hit singles Can turn 2 citizens into Artists |
|
Inca | Terrace | Granary | +2 culture | |
India | Masoleum | Jail | +2 happiness | |
Japan | Shale Plant | Coal Plant | +10% production | |
Korea | Seowon | University | +10% research | |
Mali | Mint | Forge | +10% wealth | |
Mongolia | Ger | Stable** | New mounted units receive +2 experience points | |
Ottoman | Hammam | Aqueduct | +2 happiness | |
Persia | Apothecary | Grocer | +2 health | |
Rome | Forum | Market | +25% great people birth rate | |
Russia | Research Institute | Laboratory | +2 free Scientists | |
Spain | Citadel | Castle | New siege weapons get +2 experience points -50% damage to city defenses from non-gunpowder bombardment |
|
Viking | Trading Post | Lighthouse | Free Navigation I promotion for naval units built in the city | |
Zulu | Ikhanda | Barrack | -20% city maintenance cost Costs 10 more hammers to build than barracks |
The expansion contains 8 new scenarios spanning from Alexander’s conquests through Genghis Khan’s domination of Asia. These scenarios feature their own units, resources, and improvements which are not available in the core game.
The scenarios are as follows:
- Chinese Unification
- Peloponnesian Wars
- Alexander’s Conquests
- Rise of Rome
- Vikings
- Genghis Khan
- Barbarians!
- Omen
Chinese Unification (Date: 450 BC; Map Size: Small)
Take control of one of Ancient China’s kingdoms in an attempt to unify the country by either the pen or the sword.
- This scenario is among the largest and most detailed in the expansion pack. It has a wide variety of unique units, revamped technologies and wonders.
- The scenario runs 200-turns and centers on China as several factions vie for control over the ancient empire. Whoever manages to unite all of the factions (more likely by force than by diplomatic victory) will win the scenario. As all factions are from one nation, bloodlines replace the spreading influence of religion but acts almost identically.
- You can try spreading your bloodline around the map. Using the same concepts as the core game’s religious system, players can send their emissaries out to gain influence with their rivals. If you manage to get someone from your family on the throne (which works along the same lines as getting someone to adopt your religion), you’ll gain lots of favor.
- When the Emperor’s Council wonder is built, the warring civilizations will vote for its leader who can then call for a vote to determine the winner of the game. If you emissaries have spread far enough, if you’ve been fair in your trading and if you have enough vassals, you’ll definitely have a shot at a relatively bloodless victory.
- Galleys will be able to travel down rivers and have been given the ability to bombard in this scenario.
- The different starting positions in the unification of China scenario make for games that play very differently.
Peloponnesian Wars (Date: 445 BC; Map Size: Duel)
Mighty Athens and Sparta struggle for dominance of Greece and surrounding territories.
- In the Peloponnesian Wars scenario, you’re very, very powerful whether you’re Athens or Sparta, but you only have 100 turns to act. You can end the scenario early by capturing your rival’s capital city.
- The two factions have unique strengths. The Athenians, led by Pericles (Financial, Philosophical), have a mighty navy and a solid economy but their empire is spread across a variety of islands. The Spartans are exactly the opposite. Led by King Archidamus II (Aggressive, Philosophical), the Spartans have a massive land army and few overseas possessions.
- The two factions also have their own vassals. You’ll have to balance out the needs of your overall alliance versus the needs of your individual vassals. To help you build even more support, there are plenty of areas where you can settle new cities. The Persians represent a disinterested third-party in this conflict and, unless they’re provoked, will likely sit this one out.
Alexander’s Conquests (Date: 336 BC, Map Size: Small)
Alexander attempts to conquer the world to the south and east of Greece, taking on the Persians, Egyptians, and Indians.
- In the single-player only Alexander the Great scenario, one of the civics has been replaced with a series of titles. As you win battles, you’ll climb the ranks from Upstart, to Victorious, to Brave, to Amazing, and finally to Great. The titles will make further conquests easier by reducing war weariness, maintenance and corruption. If you lose battles, you can lose positions.
- Player will have control over the Alexander Warlord unit and a massive army of Macedonian forces as they push east into Persia. Alexander won’t actually die even if the unit he’s attached to is destroyed. Instead, he’ll simply be ‘wounded’ at which point he disappears for a few turns before coming back into the action.
- Alexander will be leading a variety of unique units, each of which serves a different purpose. The hypaspists make excellent anti-cavalry troops, the prodromoi serve as excellent scouts, and the heavy cavalry hetairoi form the main weight of any assault. Alexander has access to a handful of military technologies, each of which provides a new benefit to your forces in the field. For examples, recruitment allows moving units to heal as if they were stationary while Army Servants improves the movement rate of all your military units.
- The scenario lasts 200 turns. The only way to achieve victory is by taking over every single city on the map.
Rise of Rome (Date: 300 BC, Map Size: Standard)
Battle as Rome, Carthage, Greece, Gaul, or Egypt for control of the Mediterranean.
- The leaders in this scenario each have three traits instead of the usual two.
- Each unit type has a number of upgrades that can be researched. This means that the Roman player will be fighting with the same Praetorian units throughout the entire game but the latter ones will be considerably stronger than those he or she started with.
- Though you can win by eliminating your rivals or obtaining control over 75% of the world’s population and land area, the real focus here is control of five separate victory locations. Each civilization begins owning one of these. Controlling a victory resource that’s been improved with a stronghold grants you ten points per turn. At the end of the scenarios 250 turns, the civilization with the highest score is the winner.
Age of Vikings (Date: 800 AD; Map Size: Small)
Become ruler of the Vikings and send your men out on numerous raids against Europe. Victory is decided by how much loot can be acquired.
- The objective in this single-player only scenario is to amass a certain amount of gold in a 200-turn limit. The amount required varies according to your difficulty level.
- There is a Ransom option in this scenario that lets you ransom back a captured city (once per city) back to its owner for a good amount of gold. After you ransomed a captured city back to its original owner, attacking that city again would make you lose the option of ransoming any subsequent settlements.
- Another way to make money in this scenario is by hunting for treasure. The way it works is that you “research” a treasure map, like you research any technology. Once you’ve researched it, a tiny indicator on the mini-map will tell you where to look, and you’ll receive a text clue as well. At this point, you get a special treasure unit that you have to use to search the general location of the treasure. Once he comes across the treasure, you must then make sure that the treasure unit travels safely back to your capital, or else you can’t cash in.
Genghis Khan (Date: 1206 AD; Map Size: Standard)
Relive the conquests of one of history’s greatest military leaders and capture – or if you must, destroy – all of Asia.
- This one is less about building up a massive empire than it is about tearing down the empires of your 15 rivals. You’ll start the game without a single city to your name.
- The Mongols can replenish their armies with their unique Camp unit. Once a camp has stayed in one spot for a few turns, it starts pumping out units according to the type of terrain it’s on and the types of technologies you’ve obtained. If the camp is on the plains, it’ll spawn horse units. If the camp is in a forest, it’ll spawn a catapult or trebuchet.
- The Mongol tech tree has no branches. Instead you’ll just have a wide variety of techs that can only be obtained by conquering enemy cities. Each civilization has one new technology to offer and you can earn them by either taking at least two of that civilization’s cities or by making them your vassal. The Koreans will teach you how to build galleys, for instance, while the Russians can teach you the encirclement promotion which allows your units to cause collateral damage during combat.
- Every city you destroy and every empire that you convince to become a vassal grants you victory points. Captured cities and subjugated civilizations also provide a steady stream of points but nothing like the large lump sums gained from completely destroying them.
- The Mongols need to maintain some momentum. Every single turn, your points drop. If for any turn your points are less than zero, the game is over. If you manage to hit 3000 points during the 300 turns, you’ll be declared the winner.
Barbarians!
- Barbarians! allows player to play as the barbarians in single player mode.
- This mode begins just like any Civilization game, with a map being randomly generated and the artificial intelligence picking civilizations to play and taking their turns. However, after they’re done with their turns, you can jump in as the barbarians.
- Player can adjust how developed the world will be by setting the number of turns for the AI to play (from 40 to 100 turns) through before the player enters the scenario. Changing the number of turns can result in different experience each time you play.
- You’ll start with a large amount of gold, which you’ll use to purchase and upgrade military units, such as swordsmen, trebuchets (one of the new units in the expansion), horsemen, archers, and more. You can spend extra gold to buy promotions for your individual units as well. After you’ve selected them, your units will appear on the map from their main base and begin to look for cities to sack.
- Your ultimate goal is to wipe out all civilizations from the map, and you’ll do so by taking enemy cities and burning them to the ground. You won’t be able to take over cities and govern them yourself, so the name of the game is pillaging for gold, which can be used to purchase more units. As the game progresses, you’ll get more advanced units to keep up with the civilizations.
- The units all appear at your mobile barbarian camp. Naval units appear in adjacent water tiles. The barbarian camp doesn’t have any attack value, but it still needs to be kept close to your main force so your reinforcements can get right into the action. The game is won when either all the civilizations or the barbarians are wiped out.
Omens (Date: 1754 AD; Map Size: Duel)
- This alternative history scenario retells the story of the Seven Year’s War in which Great Britain and France fight against each other for control of the Ohio River Valley, with mysterious supernatural events occur along the way. The goal is to convert the native people, and depending on how well you’re doing, you’ll either incur the favor or wrath of the Christian deity.
- Players can take on the role of George Washington in the service of England or of Marquis Duquesne (Aggressive, Charismatic) in the service of France. This duel-sized map serves as the battleground between the French Catholics and English Protestants.
- Players will have to increase belief in their own faith while decreasing belief in the opposing faith. To win the scenarios, you’ll have to raise your side’s religious influence to 75% within 150 turns.
- The forces of Divinity will appear three times during the course of the campaign to judge your progress. The team that’s losing the war of religious conversion will find themselves on the receiving end of some inspired wrath. The divine forces will also appear at the very end of the scenario to declare a winner.
- The native Lenape people is led by Shingas (Expansive, Protective).
Civ4 Warlords Screenshots & Wallpapers
Churchill |
Stalin |
Augustus |
Vassal States |
Great Wall |
Ragnar |
Civ4 Warlords Videos
- Wonder Movies: Great Wall and Temple of Artemis
- Operation Genghis Khan (1:06)
- Operation Warlords (0:41)
- Operation Hannibal (5.25 MB, 0:35)
- Operation Lodbrok (7.8 MB, 0:51)
- Operation Wang (3.5 MB, 0:23
- Operation Ramses (9.8 MB, 1:01)
- E3 2006: Civ4 Warlords Trailer (1:09)
Civ4 Warlords Reviews (Average Rating: 81%)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on 1UP: 8/10 (August 10, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on GamingTrend: 8/10 (August 10, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on GamePro: 4/5 (August 10, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on Eurogamer: 6/10 (August 8, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on Next Level Gaming: 8.5/10 (August 6, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on HookedGamers: 7/10 (August 3, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on GameRadar: 8/10 (August 3, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on Amped IGO: 8.8/10 (August 1, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on IGN: 8.4/10 (July 31, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on GameSpy: 3.5/5 (July 29, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on Game Revolution: A- (July 29, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on Apolyton (July 28, 2006) (Archived with images)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on GameSpot: 8.6/10 (July 27, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Review on Yahoo! Games: 4.5/5 (July 27, 2006)
Civ4 Warlords Previews
- Warlord Scenarios Preview on PC.IGN (July 18, 2006)
- Updated Leader Traits, Unique Buildings on PC.IGN (July 11, 2006)
- The Six New Civilizations on PC.IGN (July 6, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Preview on GameSpy (June 30, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Preview on PC.IGN (June 29, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Preview on GameSpot (June 28, 2006)
- Civ4 Warlords Preview on CVG (June 2, 2006)
- E3 2006: Civ4 Warlords Preview on IGN (May 11, 2006)
- E3 2006: Civ4 Warlords Preview on GameSpot (May 12, 2006)
- E3 2006: Civ4 Warlords Preview on GameSpy (May 11, 2006)