franchise has been growing and expanding in several ways ever since the first game was released in 1991. With coming in a few short months, it is interesting to compare some of the revealed gameplay mechanics to the familiar systems of and earlier titles. While some ideas in the games have been done away with entirely, such as the throne rooms of the first games, many of the features have been tweaked and improved upon with each new entry in the series.
is already expected to have numerous changes from its predecessors, with the new concept of working through three ages being the largest difference to date. For the most part, however, much of the game is simply evolutions of ideas that were tried in the past and now are being brought back in new and improved versions. Of these, perhaps the most promising change is the idea of Independent Powers, which can completely revolutionize the way early game diplomacy and warfare is handled in those first few turns that a player takes in leading their people.
Put simply, Independent Powers in will take the Barbarian Clans and city-states of and give them more of a gray area for the good or bad mechanics. Rather than a player seeing a barbarian on the overworld and immediately attacking, they will see these Independent Powers and choose whether to try talking to them and making an alliance, or entering battle. It sounds as though trying the diplomatic approach on these encampments of Independent Powers may not always be successful, leading to some bloodshed even if the player was attempting to make an alliance.
Unless destroyed in battle, these Independent Powers will then eventually become a city-state. Similar to the mechanics in, they will then declare a Suzerain relationship with an allied country and give unique bonuses to them.
In a February 2021 update to, the game introduced the Barbarian Clans game mode. Similar to the new Independent Powers idea, this mode opened the way for the Barbarian tribes to have some
UPS
Features
Updates
country
peace
Relationships