Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Warlords

I never bothered reviewing previous Civ expansions as individual entities, because all they added were scenarios, some new units and factions that were slightly numerically different, and in one case, completely broken online multiplayer. Warlords is the first one that actually adds new mechanics to the gameplay – namely vassal states and Great Generals – on top of the usual sprinkling of content, but my belief that this would make it more worthwhile was apparently misplaced. Vassal states are an oddly complicated sort of disproportionate alliance whose primary gameplay purpose seems to be keeping losing players around and sparing the larger factions the cost of wiping them out, while Great Generals are a fairly straightforward addition to the existing Great Person system. There’s not much else worth talking about. There’s some new music, and each civilization now has a (slightly numerically different) unique building to its name, but for the most part, it’s very easy to forget you’re not just playing the vanilla game. On the other hand, the vanilla game is Civilization IV, so it’s still perfectly enjoyable.