(P)REVIEWS - Civilization IV: Warlords Review by Solver
Civ for Cultural Diversity!
Another new feature in Warlords is the inclusion of unique buildings for
all the civilizations. Every unique building replaces some regular building for
a specific civ, and comes with an extra bonus. These bonuses vary quite notably
in strength.
Unique buildings do not create extra strategic depth, seeing how they
replace some buildings – hence, there’s not the option of building one or the
other, it’s just that one option gets swapped for another. The feature, does,
though add some extra flavour to the game and it helps to make each
civilization feel more unique.
Unique buildings, as far as their actual usefulness goes, are quite
diverse. As you would expect, the earlier unique buildings are more useful,
simply because they’re going to have that much more impact. The Russian Research
Institute, for example, gives 2 free scientists, which is a very good bonus,
but seeing how the building replaces Laboratory, it just becomes something to
extend your lead.
Several unique buildings have very interesting effect. In this regard,
my favourites would be the Viking Trading Post (replacing Lighthouses, free
Navigation I to sea units), the Spanish Citadel (replacing Castles for +2 XP to
siege units) and the Roman Forum (replacing Markets, +25% Great People birth
rates). An honourable mention goes to the Mali Mint, which is a Forge that also
gives +10% gold. Coupled with the Financial trait, it makes Mali the best money civ in the game.
My overall impression of the unique buildings is that it’s a good
flavour addition that will make it easier for some people to decide on their
favourite civ, and just add more uniqueness all around.
Speaking of unique things, the new Unique Units also deserve a mention.
They are, thankfully, for the most part rather interesting strategically.
Ottoman Janissaries can be a very good weapon in single player games. Being
Musketmen with a 25% bonus vs. archery, cavalry and melee units, you can do Big
Bad Things (TM) to AI civs if you can manage to get Janissaries before the AIs
get Gunpowder. An Ottoman beeline for Gunpowder has the potential to be one of
the strongest strategies against the AI, which will be protecting its cities
with units that are at a disadvantage against the Janissary.
The Korean Hwacha is a Catapult with a 50% bonus against melee units,
which makes it, briefly, a good field unit. Still very vulnerable to mounted
units, the Hwacha compares favourably to all three melee units of Classical
age.
Korea is a very powerful civ in the right
hands. It has a pretty unique quality of being able to do both a religious
building game, and a powerful early assault. Starting with Mysticism gives you
a good chance to found a religion, and starting with Mining means access to
Bronze Working earlier, which, in turn, reveals Copper and allows an attack
immediately. Wang Kon’s Financial trait clearly helps any and all building,
whereas the Protective trait is very useful for an early choke, and makes
fighting slightly easier. Add to that a Catapult replacement that can hold its
own in the field against everything except Horse Archers, and you have a
civilization that can do some early conquest while having a religion and a
solid economy.
Finally, I would like to give credit to the Zulu Impi as the ultimate
pillager. A 2 move Spearman that ignores terrain movement cost, it’s a
pillager’s dream. Horse units are not effective vs. the Impi, and it’s not too
easy to build Axemen when your metals are probably the first pillaging target.
Here I am glad t say that the AI understands the power of Impi when used as
pillagers, and will not hesitate to show that. [ ... Previous Page | Next Page ... ]
