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Pretty useless upgrade

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 134 / 166
Date: August 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I feel a bit scammed, once again, but I knew what to expect when I bought this expansion. It's pretty much what Conquests was to Civ 3. Some new civs, some game tweaks, and some scenarios. All this is great, but the fact of the matter is though, that all of this could have been released with the original version of the game instead of making us pay $30 more. My advise is to pass this over unless you are a hardcore Civ fan. I was hardcore for 3, but 4, although superior to 3 in almost every way, has left me a bit unimpressed.
So there's a handful of new rulers and Civs - but unless you kept finding yourself saying, "Gee, I wish I could play as the Ottomans," during the initial release, there's not really any point in buying it. There's also the Scenarios. If you played Conquests(Civ3), you know that Scenarios just don't work too well for Civ. The same goes for this new batch. All in all, Civ 4 is a lot of fun to play but pass this expansion unless you've got money to burn.

Also worth noting is that they changed the attributes of some leaders from the initial release. Napoleon for example, now has completely different civ traits, and no character has the combination of traits he originally possessed. So if you want to play as someone with that combo you'll have to fire up the original.

It's decent, not great...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 81 / 105
Date: August 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you like Civilization like I do then you'd probabally buy any expansion pack. And if you are I wouldn't suggest skipping this one, it does at some content, but if you aren't a hardcore Civilization gamer, I'd go ahead and skip it. The scenarios are okay, but after you've played most of them once you won't want to go back and do it again. (The only exception might be the Chinese Unificiation, in which you might want to try a few of the Chinese States). And it adds very little to the actual core game, just a few civilizations, unique buildings, and a very buggy vassal system. Again, if you are a big fan of civilization, then go ahead and get it, if you're a casual civver, then skip it.

Excellent expansion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 38
Date: September 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Long term civ fans may groan when an expansion appears, offerings to previous games in the series having offered little in the way of interesting play, but merely offered a few ornements like a new civ or some new units. Not so with Civ 4: Warlords. Of course this offers the usual, a few new civs like Koreans, Vikings, Carthanaginians, and the return of the old favorite Zulus, but that is what makes this a worthwhile expnasion. On the side of the mundane and worthwhile, the game now does things like dispalys the odds for each encounter when you attack, a useful addition to learning players. Of strategic interest the game gives each civ a unique building, really a variant on a pre-existing structure, but a wrinkle that will give players some food for thought.

Where the expansion really shines is on the creative side. The designers truly went out of their way here. THings like the chance to play the barbarians -- a faciniating idea that gives interesting perspective -- or highly creative scinarios such as one being the mongols in the conquest of asia where you have no cities and develop techs through conquest -- an excellent strategic metaphor for nomadic expansion.

Overall, those who did not like civ 4 should not bother. But for those who found them perpetually moving their cursor for "another chance" this game proves well worthwhile.

Obsolete Piece of Software

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: September 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

DO NOT BUY THIS IF YOU ALREADY OWN BEYOND THE SWORD! All the core game changes, including wonders and civilizations, are included in Beyond the Sword. Only get this game if you want to have the scenarios that were included in Warlords.

Gouge me some more....I like it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 17 / 20
Date: October 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First, let's establish one thing here. There is nothing in this expansion pack that shouldn't have been included in the original game. The only reason why I bought it, is because I am drawn to real-time and turn based strategy games like a fly to a bug zapper.

In my previous review of Civilization IV I mentioned that there was a problem with the AI not being aggressive and that certainly does not change here. The problem is that war is primarily driven based on the characteristics of each individual leader (Montezuma is still the best- I think he is a manic schizophrenic with bi-polar disorder), while this is a unique challenge to face off against people who have individual strengths and weaknesses it is not very authentic towards the real human civilization, which goes to war over some of the stupidest reasons. (If you don't believe me turn on the news sometime.)
Personally I think it would be fascinating to have the Civilizations go through different phases, expansionist, reactionary, pacifist etc and have their military policy follow accordingly. Rather than have the same thing over through out the span of history.

The prospects of winning by conquest of domination is extremely difficult, because the larger your empire gets the more it tends to bog you down and your production and science suffer. Usually during any given military campaign you can pick off a city or two and be all right, but long term conquest is out of the question. During a campaign in which my mighty Russians were devouring the Greeks and Spanish, I rarely could afford to keep my science production above 60%. As such after awhile I no longer had technology I could trade with the other CIVs. By the time the Twentieth century rolled around I was so far behind that I was still fighting with calvary and grenadiers, while CIV's like the Egyptians, (Who had not fought a war) possessed Tanks, Infantry and artillery units, thus making any further expansion impossible.

There is really nothing in this expansion pack worth paying $25.99 - $29.99 for. The Warlord Unit was a great addition but it's not phenomenal. The Vassal state feature is supremely useless as enemy civs will never willingly capitulate themselves to you, even if you are by far superior to them. In fact you don't even get the option to propose it as it is always unselectable in red font. Although it should be noted they will willingly capitulate to another AI CIV.

Upon reflection this is major another gripe I have about CIV IV. Diplomacy ain't what it used to be. Unless a fellow civ is in love with you, you are rarely ever allowed to table trades as they are almost universally redded out. In CIV III, even though a civ did not like you, you could still trade with them providing the deal was right. Now you can't even table or propose trades such as to stop trading with someone or to trade a resource or technology. The AI will almost universally bug you about stuff, in a recent game I don't know how many time the stupid Mongols demanded that I stopped trading with Rome-even though Rome was my closest ally and I had told them no three times already.

Personally, I still prefer CIV III and its expansions to CIV IV. CIV IV while it is a good game has many flaws from making it a great game. That is to say I won't play CIV IV again, I can see myself playing it occasionally in between games of CIV III - up until I get zapped again and pay $49.99 for CIV V, maybe even $79.99 for the collector's edition.

Definitely gets you out of a rut

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 21
Date: August 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Personally, I probably would have purchased the expansion even if people told me there was a 25% chance it would delete my entire hard drive and really upset my cat, because I was extremely excited to get it. There really isn't that much new here, but it is overall a solid expansion with some neat stuff. I wouldn't call it a must own, but I have enjoyed it.

I wasn't crazy about the civs they chose to include, except for Vikings and Celts, and would have much preferred they add the Byzantines or the Holy Roman Empire instead of Ottomans and Zulus, but that's a personal problem. The new leaders for the existings civs are nice, and I really like the addition of unique buildings, though a few do seem a bit strained or of limited use. These additions have made me want to branch out and explore playing civs, leaders, and tactics I have not used before. The scenarios, which are not usually my favorite thing, are pretty good, too. I really liked the Viking scenario, but some of them are just too hard to be any fun.. The Alexander one was impossible even on Settler level. I haven't played them all yet, however.
I think the biggest flaw in the expansion is the vassal state system. I was really excited about this in the anticipatory stage, but it's kind of disappointing in the actual game. Even if you can aquire a vassal state, it would be better to just crush them and take their land. About all you can really do with it is force them to give you a resource they wouldn't trade you.
Overall, I give it four stars. It's solid for what they set out to do, but it doesn't change enough to get five. I hope they do another one soon.

another fine example of the "genius" of sid meier

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 51
Date: July 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Civilization Warlords is the expansion to Civilization 4 which is pretty much the universal PC game of the year for 2005. With the term expansion you expect the game to expand and you would be right it does expand the game but not much. The core gameplay sees the least amount of changes,(gameplay n. style of playing a game or manner in which a game is played), it's the other things that expand. To begin with three new wonders; the one thats gotten most of the "pre"-release hype is the Great Wall which does everything you'd think; but there are two other wonder introduced; the Temple of Artemis and the University of Sankore.

The Temple of Artemis functions like a kind of "super" temple, however the University of Sankore pretty much makes your religious buildings into seminary schools with added resarch per turn. The new wonders are not the only inclusion in the pack; the item with the biggest reprecussions is the new great general, which appears after enough combat. It can be used in three ways: first as a warlord to direct a unit(s), second to construct an academy in a city, and 3 to be a general in a city and add exp to new units.

Among the new items are two units Trireme, a kind of upgraded galley, and Trebuchet, think upgraded catapult. The cities themselves have changed there are now new buildings, each civilization in the game can now build a unqiue building for their civilization that grants benefits to the civilization that builds it.
Also, new is the Stable building which adds exp to new mounted units and the Monument which replaces the Obelisk building from civilization 4, the Obelisk is now the unqiue building for Egypt.
New leaders join the exsisting civilizations England gets Winston Churchill, Rome gets Augustus Caesar, Egypt gets Ramesses II and Russia gets Stalin. There also three new
leader traits: Protective, Imperialistic, and Protective.
Which brings me to the brand new civilizations that
"join the fray"; in order they are:

Carthage
leader Hannibal
unit Numidian Cavalry
building Cothon (replaces the harbor building)

Celts
leader Brennus
unit Gallic Warrior
building Dun (replaces the wall building)

Korea
leader Wang Kon
unit Hwacha
building Seowon (replaces the university building)

the Vikings
leader Ragnar
unit Berserker
building Trading post (replaces the lighthouse building)

the Zulu
leader Shaka
unit Smpi
building Ikhanda (replaces the barracks building)

Finally new scenarios, unifiying China, Alexander, Rome, the Vikings, Genghis Khan, Omens(ficitional), and Barbarians(fictional).

In all this is a worthy addition to (not only) the civilization 4 game, but the civilization franchise in general. If you don't have Civilization 4 Warlords pick it up and if you don't have Civilization 4 pick them both up they are by far among the best games you can own.

Good little sparks, but nothing THAT innovative

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: February 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Although after buying this expansion, the Ottoman's have become my new favorite tech, the expansion overall doesnt add much. Vasssal state feature is cool, but hard to attain, and pointless most of the time. I do have to say that my favorite new feature is the special buildings - I think it adds an excellent new strategy to choice of civ.

If you are crazy about civ 4, then definitely get this expansion, but if your just an occasional player, then you'd be fine just sticking with the base civ, and using the $30 getting an extra tank of gas instead.

Warlords is a very worthy expansion pack

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 17
Date: August 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This expansion offers much more than some new civs. The new diplomatic options regarding vassal states and captiulation expand your strategy options beyond wiping out an opponent. All civs get the trebuchet and trireme units (early naval unit for fighting galleys). There is now a stable building for mounted units, new wonders, new leaders, unique buildings for civs, etc. These additions make the gameplay more challenging and fun. I am glad I purchased this pack!

An average expansion that's essentially been phased out

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: September 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This was a decent expansion to the highly addictive Civ4 release but as of the release of Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword the Warlords Expansion pack is really moot. Now, if price is a factor, you do pay less for the Warlords expansion but the Beyond the Sword expansion not only retains the Warlords features, it adds tons and tons of new material. Yes, 2K games should have just skipped Warlords but they didn't and to those of us who bought both Warlords and Beyond the Sword, most of us may be a bit peeved. Alas, that is the nature of the computer gaming industry.

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