Age of Empires IV features two new launch civilizations, a newly revealed campaign, naval combat, and Joan of Arc.

The teams at both Relic and World's Edge have shared that players will have the choice of the English, Mongols, Chinese and Delhi Sultanate at launch, and two more civilizations have been revealed: the Abbasid Dynasty and the French.

The Abbasid Dynasty's focus on technology, powered by their unique landmark, the House of Wisdom, will allow players to choose unique upgrade opportunities. Their unique units include Camel Archers and Riders.

The French were revealed alongside the 100 Years War campaign, allowing players to place themselves in the battles fought between the English and French in the 14th and 15th centuries. The French thrive in trade, with the Chamber of Commerce and Royal Institute landmarks helping strengthen a player's late game. Royal Knights are one of the civilization's special units with a fearsome charge ability.

Making a heroic appearance in the trailer is French heroine and icon Joan of Arc. Teenage Joan rallied her country and led armies into battle against the occupying English.

Taking the battle to the water adds a whole new dimension to player strategy and adds new meaning to "sink or swim"!

With updated controls, intuitive UI and a fresh approach to the campaign, Age of Empires IV is the most accessible Age of Empires game yet while taking everything fans love about the franchise to the next level.

With Age of Empires IV launching less than a month ago, and World’s Edge/Relic Entertainment releasing the first patch earlier this week, it’s time to turn our attention to what’s next for the title!

Winter 2021 

On Monday, November 15, we launched Patch 7989 to introduce fixes to Xbox Account linking, an issue with Mongol Town Center behavior, performance impacts when panning the camera and some other tweaks. While this patch was smaller and more pointed, we’re happy to share that we’re putting the finishing touches on a larger patch we’ll look to share soon.

In Winter 2021, we’ll be introducing hundreds of balance changes (literally!), a variety of helpful bug fixes and a few key features we’ve seen requested by players. Our team has been hard at work preparing this update, and we’re appreciative to the community for lending your voice to the conversation.

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the goodness we’re queuing up for Winter 2021:  

• Make the choice to turn on and view in-game player scores! Based on community feedback, we’ve made the decision to implement in-game scores for those who wish to have them. We know that using this feature can change the way you choose to play the game, and so we want to empower you to make the choice for yourself – starting with our Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to enable in-game player score on a case-by-case basis for custom lobby multiplayer and skirmish matches.
• We’ve moved the Chinese Dynasty button and user interface to a less prominent position on the screen. You’ll now find it in the lower left-hand corner.
• The ability to view the map post-match is something you’ve asked for, and we’ve begun to make changes to allow you to do just that. Starting with the Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to pan across the map of a completed match after finishing up your game – we’ll be looking to fold in additional options to allow you to easily switch back and forth between the completed map view and post-game stats in Spring 2022.
• Refinements made to the in-game mini-map to improve readability are also coming in Winter 2021. Improvements include reducing the size of icons, ensuring the Wonder icon on the mini-map matches the icon displayed in the HUD, increasing the size of the Primary Town Center in comparison to other Landmarks, and adjusting the color of certain resources.

For balance and bug fixing, we’ve got loads of changes to share with you in our release notes when this update lands, but here are a handful of adjustments our balance team is particularly excited about: 

• French Hulk ship tweaked to no longer rule the high seas.
• Crossbowmen, Spearman and Elite Crossbowmen will pose a greater threat to Cavalry.
• Significantly reducing the cost of the Chinese civilization’s Repeater crossbow.
• Fix to HRE Prelate unit to allow them to continue inspiring after being pushed. 
• Mongol “Superior Mobility” adjusted to ensure the speed modifier is appropriately applied. Thanks to the community for calling this out! 
• Fix issued for the Rus civilization to eliminate infinite Relic duplication.  

Spring 2022 

Age of Empires IV, like other titles within this globally beloved franchise, offers many ways to engage — whether you’re a history buff, fan of building out sprawling empires and taking on the AI, or more competitive in nature. Coming in Spring 2022, we’ll be adding two new ways to enjoy Age of Empires IV. 

• User Generated Content and tools allow you to bring your ideas to life. Not a mod maker yourself? No worries, you’ll still be able to enjoy the work of others — sampling their vision for unique maps, modes, and more. This will provide just another way to truly make history your story in Age of Empires IV. 
• Spring 2022 will also see the start of Ranked Seasons. Ranked Seasons will span 12 weeks, allow players to compete head-to-head, climb the ranked ladder, and earn exclusive in-game rewards based on performance. We look forward to sharing more about Seasons in 2022, and if you’re looking to get some practices in ahead of time, we’d encourage you to brush up on your knowledge with the Art of War challenges, Campaign or play against AI and other players! 

We’ll also be finalizing some minor improvements to the post-game map in Spring 2022, introducing the Patrol move you’ve been asking for, as well as exploring the inclusion of other features and fixes based on player feedback.  

Looking Forward 

While we’re committed to bringing about the features and changes highlighted above, we’re also spending time with what our players are saying they want to see in Age of Empires IV in the future.

Your feedback will help us as we continue to plan for Spring 2022 and beyond. We’re actively looking into the feedback below:   

• Global Build Queue – We know this is a feature many of you have enjoyed in previous Age titles and would like to see in Age of Empires IV.  
• Improvements to the Unit Stat card – Based on your feedback, we’re looking into how we can better serve up the most meaningful stats at a glance.  
• Hotkey Improvements – We recognize that hotkeys are a big component in competitive play and are a topic our community cares a great deal about. This is a bigger change, and something we’re investigating from a few different angles, including a movement away from the grid system as well as implementing a few other options via hotkey selections.  
• Taunts and Cheats – Part of the Age Legacy, we’re exploring what these elements would look (and sound!) like in Age of Empires IV. 
• AI Difficulty – We’ve heard from you that AI difficulty could use some tuning, specifically making the Easy AI less aggressive and boosting the challenge of the Hard AI.  
• Waypoint Indicators – Another quality of life feature from previous Age titles, we know this is something many of you want to see returned to Age of Empires IV.  

Key Features:

• Stunning 4K visual fidelity
• Eight diverse civilizations, including the Mongols and Chinese, along with naval gameplay support
• Four campaigns with thirty-five missions spanning 500 years of history
• Cooperate or spectate with up to seven of your friends in PVP and PVE multiplayer modes
• Best-in-class game and platform services, including a World Editor in early 2022, tutorials and a story mode to help onboard new RTS players

Pre-orders are open. A Digital Deluxe Edition is available on Steam; it includes a digital copy of the game's epic soundtrack as well as other exclusive in-game items. Anyone who pre-orders Age of Empires IV will receive the upcoming DLC for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Dawn of the Dukes, when it launches in August.

Age of Empires IV is available on PC (Steam) for $59.99.