Each map is dotted with multiple strong holds. In DW4: Empire each territory now has a stronghold system. The conquering of territories has been improved on. Most items can only be used once per turn, after your turn ends they become inactive and you must wait a set number of turns before you can reuse them, but you can select political policy that negates this function. The items in the game are on turn based system as well. Depending on the territory you have conquered your units will gain certain advantages the will bolster their level asides from just stats and will also help in the acquiring of items. As your character gain levels their weapon and skills will level up as well. These skills affect your troops in combat as well as the strength of your army. Depending on the skill it can either make your battles easier or harder. These decisions will directly affect your army.Įach general/ lieutenants has a special skill. Whether it’s adding more soldiers or listening to your peasants to gain a favorable reputation. Where do these policies come from? At the start of each battle your generals will give their input into how they feel the empire should be ruled and which political policy should implemented. Within those categories you have 50 policies you can choose from. There are a total of 7 Political categories. Here is where the strategy comes in, the addition of the Political Policy gives this game more depth, in previous DW titles your soldiers would just replenish after a battle, now the policy you choose will control whether you replenish your ranks or not. To get more lieutenants you must hire them from the lands you conquered or search for them using your political policies. You start out with 3 generals and as you progress through the game and conquer more land you are allowed to add more generals and lieutenants to your military. Each ruler has a set of generals to command your troops. There a number of other rulers already occupying different regions of the map. In the empire mode you choose a region and ruler and begin your conquest in hopes of establishing and empire. The new element to the game play is the turn based empire mode. Where you choose a character and just fight your way through wave after wave of enemies. The actual battle system is the same as the previous games, real time weapon melee combat. Who wouldn’t want to have a massive army of sword wielding, karate chopping soldiers to do your bidding? I am not sure of the historical accuracy but I do have to say ancient china rocked. The game does allow you to choose a historic or fictional campaign. Let’s get to it.Īs far as I can tell the story element hasn’t changed much from game to game, based in ancient china, battling warlords and emperors. It wasn’t till I start playing that I realized this wasn’t more of the same. DW4: Empires at first glance looked exactly like its predecessors. Today I received a copy of Dynasty Warriors 4: Empires, not being an avid player of the series, I wondered what they had changed in this version. Buy 'DYNASTY WARRIORS 4: Empires': PlayStation 2