Taking over the replayability, one mod at a time

BtS Mod Cons: Best overall mod quality in the series so far. Addition of some of the best community mods, reworked for BtS.

BtS Mod Cons: Some of the mods will have slower performance than the core game.

BtS Mod Tips: Don't expect to just be playing Civ4 with slight changes. Most of the mods contain radical changes to the game.

In my reviews of Civ4 and Warlords, I have abstained from commenting the mods. With BtS, however, I feel obliged to write a few paragraphs on the subject, as the average quality of BtS mods far exceeds what we’re used to.

BtS mods are fairly diverse, each bringing something different to the game. Some of them were developed by well-known community modders, others are in-house Firaxis creations. I would divide the BtS mod into two tiers, quality-wise.

In the top tier, you have The Road to War, Rhye’s and Fall of Civilizations, Fall from Heaven: Age of Ice, Final Frontier and NextWar also makes it in. In the bottom tier, you have Defense, Charlemagne and Broken Star. Then there is Afterworld, which stands on its own – in every imaginable way.

The Road to War is a World War 2 mod by Dale Kent. WW2 is tried and true, and there have been lots of WW2 mods for Civ games. With that, it might seem that RtW would not manage to bring anything special to the mix, however, it does. The best part of RtW is how it combines its three play modes. There’s a Historical mode (events, such as war declarations, happen when they historically did, period), which is the ultimate WW2 simulation experience you can have in Civ4. Then there is a Random Historical mode (events happen at approximately the correct historical times), which has a nice element of surprise. And then there is the Free Play mode, which puts no limitations whatsoever – you can play Italy and invade Germany in 1937 if you want to.

What sets RtW apart from other WW2 mods is its replayability. It’s fun to play through in the Historical mode at least twice (once with a major Axis power and once with a major Allied power), and there is a lot you can try in the Free Play mode. Add to that the fact that RtW has separate European and Pacific theatre scenarios as well as unique features such as Russian Winter and Factory bombing, and RtW truly is a very replayable mod. Add-on packs for the mod will be posted at the mod’s official webpage, http://rtw.apolyton.net

Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization is one of the most popular Civ4 mods adapted for BtS, developed by Gabriele Trovato, also known as Rhye. RFC is the ultimate mod for historical gameplay. With it, Civ4 really becomes about rewriting history. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the mod (which would be a shame), it features a thoroughly researched world map with historical starting locations and times, as well as historical events. RFC adds a bunch of Wonders, concepts such as empire stability and its perhaps most distinct feature is Unique Historical Victories. Each civilization has its own Historical Victory condition, which it needs to accomplish to win the game. For example, Arabs would need to control 3 Holy Cities, control Egypt, Spain and Carthage and spread Islam to 40% of the world. Russia, on the other hand, needs to colonize Siberia, build the Apollo Program and never lose a city – of course, historical objectives are also timed.

Fall from Heaven: Age of Ice is almost the opposite of Rhye’s and Fall. FFH is a fantasy modification with magic, hero units and all fantasy attributes, including a well-developed story, developed by a team led by Derek “Kael” Paxton. Age of Ice is remarkable visually, with excellent implementation of mythical creatures and, of course, Mulcarn, the god of winter. In the mod, you embark on a search for Godslayer, a mythical blade capable of defeating Mulcarn. Age of Ice is not a RPG, however, as it still has cities, promotions and most aspects of Civ. Among the most remarkable features of FFH is climate, which actually plays an active role in the game. For example, if a lake freezes over it may allow a new attack path.

Final Frontier is, essentially, Civ in space. Developed by Jon Shafer from Firaxis, it feels considerably different from standard Civ4 as well. There are only so many places you can colonize (solar systems), space is littered with dangerous anomalies and massive Starbases need to be constructed in space before you can gather resources. The story follows several splinter groups of humanity after contact with Earth is lost. As you research technologies, quotes from FF universe characters, such as Admiral Aadesh Dama, are presented, and the story unravels. While allowing several ways of winning, warfare is probably the most fun in Final Frontier. There is a considerable coolness factor to leading spaceships into battle, and warfare is powerful in FF. While the mod has a somewhat weaker AI than the core game, it is visually beautiful and has enough differences from Civ4 to make it a high-quality mod.

NextWar is Paul Murphy’s scenario that starts in modern times and continues into the future. The world is split between three major civilizations and Earth’s resources are being depleted (they actually disappear from the map). As resources are becoming thinner, you’ll be able to unleash modern and futuristic weapons of destruction (including Cyborgs and suitcase nukes) against the other two civilizations. While NextWar doesn’t differ from Civ4 as much as some of the other mods, and is also smaller in its scope, it has good balance and walks a very fine line between having a familiar world (Earth map, real cities, etc.) and bringing sci-fi into it (Giant Death Robots!). In addition, NextWar can be used as an addon to the standard game, brining the futuristic technologies and units from it into the main game, which should serve those who want a future era well. These factors definitely warrant it a place in the higher tier.

Charlemagne, Broken Star and Defense are all worth trying out but, in my opinion, each of them lacks something, be it replayability, general polish or balance. Don’t let that discourage you, though – these are indeed worth trying and would look quite good in vanilla Civ4 or Warlords. It’s just that, with the high quality of some of the other BtS mods, some have to be second-tier.

BtS also includes Crossroads of the World, a Middle-East medieval scenario, and Gods of Old, a mythic Mesopotamia scenario. I have not played either of these for more than a bit ad therefore cannot voice any opinion.

And finally, there is Afterworld, by Tim McCracken. Afterworld is an excellent example of how much Civ4 can be changed through modding. It doesn’t have civilizations, cities, technologies, diplomacy or anything at all that is normal to Civ. It’s a tactical game where you lead a squad of Gravebringers to fight hostile humanoid robots and their planet and retrieve certain data from there. Afterworld doesn’t feel like Civ4 at all – if anything, it feels more like X-COM. The mod also features a pretty heavy story with a good amount of dialogue. You may like it or you may not, but at any rate, Afterworld is like a small game bundled with BtS, not at all like Civ4.