Age of Wonders 4: The Silver Seas is out now, and for once the blue part of the map is where the money is. Triumph Studios’ new expansion lets the Mercantile culture found cities on the open water, with Sharkkin warbands and four sea-soaked tomes along for the ride. It costs $24.99 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and GOG carries it at the same price, so you can keep it DRM-free next to the base game.
Mercantile Cities Float on Open Water
Paradox calls the Mercantile a culture that “always gets more out of a deal than the other side,” and the rules back it up. They found cities on ocean and land, run Trade Routes with any Free City that isn’t hostile, and split into two organizations:
- The Cartel (Shadow and Chaos) runs camouflaged Smuggling Routes that reach even hostile cities, and its Leverage makes flanking attacks hit harder.
- The Barony (Shadow and Materium) builds larger Outposts, gets extra Trade Routes per vassal and puts Bounties on targets for its Bounty Hunters.
Sharkkin, Aqualon and Four New Tomes
Two new Forms join the faction builder. The Aqualon are near-human with an alien, aquatic look, and the Sharkkin are the toothy bruisers that stand next to Orcs and Ogres. The four tomes cover the whole pirate fantasy: Hydromancy bends currents, the Tome of the Damned drags the drowned back up, Piracy sends in Swashbucklers and Powder Keg Diplomacy, and Eternal Ice freezes the sea solid with an Ancient Hoarfrost Manta.
Out on the map, the Bond of Free Captains dwelling houses pirate captains with their own moods, from Bloodthirsty to Heroic. Win their loyalty and you get their loot, tech and crews. Cross them and they raid your Trade Routes.
Manta Update 1.017 Fixes the Sea for Everyone
You don’t need the expansion for the biggest systems change. The free Manta Update (game version 1.017.001) rebuilds water for every owner:
- Embarking now costs a flat 20 Movement Points instead of a unit’s whole turn.
- Outposts can be founded on water provinces.
- Summons, resurrections and teleports finally work at sea.
- A new Trade Routes system links your cities to Outposts, Free Cities and other empires.
- Magic Fighters get a Sword and Staff loadout, and a new Chilled status stacks five times before it freezes a target.
Free on Steam and Xbox From November 5 at 10:00am PST
Paradox is opening the doors for newcomers: Age of Wonders 4 is free to play on Steam and Xbox from November 5 at 10:00am PST until November 9 at 10:00am PST. If the free weekend sells you on it, the base game was 50% off on GOG ($24.99) and 60% off on Steam ($19.99) as of November 4. The Silver Seas is also part of Expansion Pass 4 ($49.99), which adds two more expansions in 2027.
A 35 GB Install and a GTX 670 Floor
| Field | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 Home 64-bit (version 21H1) | Windows 10 Home 64-bit or Windows 11 (latest) |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X | Intel Core i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (2 GB), AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2 GB), Intel Arc A380 (6 GB), Intel Iris Xe G7 or AMD Radeon Vega 8 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (8 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB) |
| DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
| Storage | 35 GB | More than 35 GB |
Those are the base game’s published specs on Steam, targeting 1080p at 30fps on the minimum tier and 1080p at 60fps on recommended. Strategy fans who spent this week drawing walker routes in Theos: Cities of Myth now have a sea to conquer too, and a free weekend to try it.