The first Humankind expansion, Together We Rule, will release sometime in fall 2022, developer Amplitude Studios has announced. It brings not just new civilisations to Sega’s 4X game, but an entire new layer of peaceful tactics by which to take over the world. The Humankind expansion places greater emphasis on diplomacy and espionage, and introduces the Congress of Humankind – the game’s equivalent of Civilization’s long-running World Congress feature, or the real-world United Nations – as well as six civs with a new ‘diplomatic’ affinity. You’ll also find secret agents, a new embassy quarter for your cities, and a diplomatic currency – and it comes alongside a free update that will add stealth mechanics for all players.
As you may expect, there’s one new diplomatic culture for each of the game’s historical eras:
- Sumerians (Ancient)
- Han Chinese (Classical)
- Bulgarians (Medieval)
- Swiss (Early modern)
- Scots (Industrial)
- Singaporeans (Contemporary)
Civs with the diplomatic affinity can create demilitarised zones on the map, imposing crippling penalties on armies that try to enter. They can also collect the new diplomatic currency – leverage – with any of their military units.
That’s important, since ordinarily, only the new ‘agent’ family of units can collect leverage. Agent units include envoys and spies, and can move into other civs’ territory without penalty. There they’ll have a variety of sabotage and espionage options, as well as collect leverage from nodes on the map, like curiosities. Leverage spawns whenever two civilisations interact, such as during battles, so it’ll often appear in spots that are hard to reach by other units.
You can take that leverage with you to the Congress of Humankind and use it as currency, of sorts, to influence other nations and pass global treaties. It’s especially helpful during times of war, as it can raise or lower your or your opponent’s war support and bring about a quicker end to the conflict. It also affects your international ‘sway’, dictating your influence over independent peoples, which are getting a rework in the free update.
The Congress of Humankind takes a mean across all civs’ ideological orientation to establish its official world ideology, and your civilisation will benefit by being closer to it. For example, if the world ideology favours collectivism, and you play along, you’ll benefit from shared resources and even technology, getting a significant advantage over other nations less closely aligned to the world ideology. The Congress is founded in the Industrial era whenever someone builds its headquarters, which arrive alongside the Palace of Versailles as a new Wonder.
While Together We Rule will cost you, all players will benefit from a free update to the base game. Alongside that rework to independent peoples, the big headline here is stealth mechanics. Military units will have a stealth value, while armies, city districts, and air patrols will have detection values – if your unit’s stealth value drops to zero due to enemy detection, it’ll become visible. Units like commandos and submarines will have high stealth, and military-minded players can use them to scout enemy territory or set up ambushes, springing into action once they declare war.
Of course, the same can happen to you as well, so bear that in mind.
If you can’t wait for Humankind’s expansion to drop, check out our picks for the best strategy games and, even better for your wallet, some of the best free games on PC to help pass the time.