"A Mediocre Expansion For An Excellent Game"

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is the second expansion pack for Firaxis's grand civilization game. While it adds plenty of new concepts and variety, its two largest changes are left to be desired.

BtS offers several new things to the player. (Note that BtS includes all the gameplay additions, though not the scenarios, of the first expansion, Warlords. I'll only cover those that are new to BtS.) There are new scenarios, new Wonders, new civilizations and leaders, new techs, new buildings, new gameplay options, and two major new concepts, espionage and corporations. Note that there are no new traits.

New Scenarios: There are about a dozen new scenarios, some user-provided and some designed by the original designers. They're all pretty good (or seem so; I've played most, if not all of them yet) and even the user-designed ones have been vetted for playability. Like any scenario pack, though, some of them talk big and provide little. One of the more interesting ones, "Crossroads of Civilization," for instance, is great in theory (use bandits to steal Gold, expand guilds like corporations, etc.) but end up being lackluster (Bandits are too weak to attack cities, their main use, and are left to pretty much fight other bandits to no use). But all in all a positive addition; it adds a lot of flavor and variety.

Wonders: There are five new Wonders: Statue of Zeus (increases War Weariness for rivals fighting you); Shwedagon Paya (Choose any religion civic); Mausoleum of Maussollos (extends Golden Ages); Cristo Redentor (eliminates anarchy, no time limits for multiple switches); and Apostolic Palace (works as kind of an early UN for your state religion only). They're all nice and balanced, even though they clutter the early game up a bit. They're a positive addition. There are also two new national wonders, the Moai Statues (production in ocean tiles) and National Park (increases Health). Also note that many of the early existing wonders have been switched around significantly, requiring different techs (Hagia Sophia requires Theology, for instance).

The jury is still out on the Apostolic Palace. [It's easy to understand yet complicated--probably more complicated than necessary. There's tiered voting and kind of a strange requirement to hold votes; it may take a few games to understand the details.] While it's certainly useful for its owner (it gives some pretty nice production bonuses), its usefulness as an early UN within the religion is mixed. I've had games that have seen this used often and to game-changing effect, while others it was worthless. Not sure how to assess this one yet.

New Civilizations and Leaders: sixteen new leaders are added, six with existing and ten with new civilizations. It's nice to see nearly all the trait combinations and new flavor to the game. Without new traits, though, I can't get too excited.

New Techs: Mostly placeholder techs to tweak the tech tree a bit, such as the Laser and Aesthetics. Nothing exciting.

New Buildings: A few nice ones, such as Levees and Public Transportation, fill in some gaps. Some, such as the Custom House and Industrial Park, seem expensive with little benefit. Most of the other ones are for the new concepts, such as the Intelligence Agency.

New Units: About a dozen new units. Some gaps are filled, such as an earlier horse unit between Cavalry and Horse Archer, but most simply seem like counter units to existing units (Mobile Artillery, Anti-Tank Unit, etc.) Not bad, nothing great.

New Gameplay Options: There's lots and lots here, but most are fairly routine and I won't go into detail. A few to mention: you have the option to choose what religion you found (nice to mix the game up a bit, so you're not sure of what techs your rivals have discovered). More importantly are events. They're not game-breaking but it's nice to have quests and deal with problems that come your way (such as building enough Libraries or training enough Axemen).

There are other tweaks as well. The AI is significantly more aggressive. Some of that is simply improving the AI's assessment and decision-making abilities, but some of it is simply coding the AI to attack you more often. This is not always welcome, and in some games an AI will attack before it is theoretically possible for you to discover Bronze Working, connect it to a city, and build an Axeman. Somewhat frustrating, and it makes the game's already-too-simplified diplomacy nearly worthless.

The two new major concepts, however, is where the game loses much of its benefit. While the above changes are largely positive, espionage and corporations are dismal additions.

Espionage adds intrigue into the game. Just like science, culture, and taxes, espionage points are accrued by various means, such as from Wonders, buildings, etc. A Spy unit is available earlier and does not require the Scotland Yard. These Espionage points build up, and you are then able to send your spies to do dastardly things to your rivals, such as poison their water supply, steal gold or technologies, or foster rebellions. Anyone who has played Civ II or Alpha Centauri will feel at home; it's nearly identical except espionage points are spent instead of money.

Unfortunately, the designers added Espionage to nearly EVERYTHING--which in effect makes it so cheap everyone can afford it, which in effect makes everyone able to COUNTER it as well. And so it becomes a wasteful war of attrition to the point that, for the most part, if you simply accrue espionage points and build a reasonably cheap Spy in every other city, no rival spy will be able to get through to do any damage save for a few times throughout the game. A concentrated effort against a specific city might work, but I've never had the AI try it. As for offense, it just seems to be a lot of trouble for very little benefit since once you spend all of your Espionage points it's open season for EVERY AI to come at you. It's basically a major implementation of something that largely has minimal impact unless you devote your entire energies to it, which at that point means that you've lost. The only good thing is that it does present you with more opportunities to damage your rivals without going to war, which in Civ IV is expensive.

The other major component of this expansion, the corporations, are the biggest disappointment. It's not that they aren't useful--they are--but that they're so complicated to master it's hardly worth it. Corporations basically generate income and grant bonuses based on the excess resources you have--for instance, producing extra food for every Rice unit you have. Every corporation you found requires a significant investment: a great person and two technologies and an expenditure of gold. And every corporation you found costs additional money, the building of an executive unit, and a maintenance fee is subtracted monthly from your coffers. That's expensive. In return, the corporate HQ gets five gold, and a bonus based on resources--in the example above you would get .5 unit of food for every rice unit you have.

The problem is that it's pretty difficult to assess the benefits properly with all these caveats. All of these factors may or may not end up being a net benefit to you, and since they occur late in the game the accrued value is difficult to peg. It seems like the entire concept is too clever by half--it seems like a simple religion-like corporation expansion-for-money exchange would have been must easier. As it stands, it's hard to develop an effective strategy. The articles written by the designers, for instance, state that founding corporations in other civilization's cities is a nice tactic, since while they get the resource bonus, they also pay the maintenance fee while you get the money from the HQ. While true, the setup cost for opening the branch is so ridiculously high (due to distance from the HQ and being a rival) it hardly seems like by the end of the game turns you would be ahead, especially when you count in the bonuses you're giving the other player. Right now, the costs rarely seem to outweigh the benefits, and even if you judiciously decide the branches it's so difficult to do an assessment in most cases you'll never bother to expand to more than two or three cities. The only benefit are the ones that provide strategic resources (such as the Ethanol corporation if you have no Oil), and even then you just found it for strategic, not monetary, purposes. If you patch it up--run Free Market to get reduced maintenance, and have a boatload of excess resources of a certain type for a specific corporation you happen to have the correct Great Person for--corporations can be useful. But as a general rule they hardly seem worth the time and effort.

All in all, the game is a net positive, but not by much. It seems like Espionage and Corporations just kind of got caught up in a designer's fancy and ended up being a bit of a mess. A patch might clean things up, but I doubt it. The other additions, such as buildings and units and the like, are all pretty much universally beneficial and add much to the game. While I'd recommend this to players of Civilization IV, I would also caution to set expectations a bit lower than normal.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/07