Paradox Interactive and Triumph Studios released The Silver Seas, an expansion for the turn-based strategy game Age of Wonders 4, on November 3, 2026. It is on Steam and other storefronts for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S at $24.99, £20.99 or €24.99. Age of Wonders 4 itself is free to play on Steam and Xbox from November 5 through the weekend.
The game is a 4X, which is a strategy game about exploring a map, expanding an empire and beating rivals one turn at a time. Age of Wonders 4 splits that work between a world map and separate battles. Water has been the thin part of that map, going by how much of this release goes to improving it.
What the Mercantile culture does with a coastline
The headline addition is the Mercantile culture, a culture being the ruleset your people play by. Game director Tom Bird wrote on Xbox Wire that it “allows you to place cities at sea,” and that those cities can become floating fortresses. Mercantile empires pick one of two subcultures. The Cartel runs camouflaged smuggling routes and turns stolen leverage into an edge in battle. The Barony is a class of trade princes who place bounties on enemies. Bird says they “import whatever their empire needs” too.
Neither the release nor Bird's post says how a sea city differs from a land city in output or defence. I would want those numbers before calling this a new economy. On paper, it turns open ocean into ground you can settle.
The rest of the expansion builds around the sea. Forms, which set how your people look and fight, gain the near-human Aqualon and the toothy Sharkkin. Four new tomes, the spell books an empire works through, cover moving water, plundering rivals, summoning the damned and freezing the ocean. The map gets a pirate dwelling with a choice of captains, each with their own benefits and demands, plus sea wildlife that includes electric crabs.
What the free Manta Update gives players who skip the expansion
Not all of this costs $24.99. The Manta Update, out the same day for every Age of Wonders 4 player, improves water play on the world map and in combat. It also adds a new trade system, new Form Traits and new pantheon options, along with bug fixes and balance changes.
Age of Wonders 4 came out on May 2, 2023, and four expansions came before this one: Empires & Ashes, Eldritch Realms, Giant Kings and Archon Prophecy. The Silver Seas is the first expansion in Expansion Pass 4, with Court of the Archfey due in Q1 2027 and Forge of the Firstborn in Q2 2027. Paradox, which notes that it "doesn't usually support piracy," plans to keep this game afloat well into 2027.
The free weekend covers the base game, and the release does not say the expansion is included. Try the Manta Update first, then decide whether sea cities are worth $24.99.
