Old World Behind the Throne

Old World - Behind the Throne is an add-on for Old World that brings court politics, rivalries and personal ambition into the game. You can use opulence projects to move closer to victory, while new characters and mechanics create opportunities—and threats—within your empire.

Court intrigue

The add-on includes more than 350 events centered on court politics, intrigue and personal ambition. New historical characters take roles as advisors, viziers, aristocrats and courtiers, each with their own ambitions, desires and drives. Rising stars can change allegiances, become rivals or threaten the throne; you can try to manage them or put an end to their schemes.

The new characters include Alcibiades, an Athenian statesman and political double-crosser; Enlil-nadin-shumi, a usurper of the throne of Babylon; Harpagus, Kingmaker of Akkad; Bardaisan, an Assyrian scientist, scholar and philosopher; Mago the Author, a Carthaginian writer on agriculture; and Avicenna, a philosopher from Persia.

New mechanics

Rising Stars are powerful non-leader characters who accumulate experience and trigger events with positive or negative effects. They can present opportunities as well as dangers, and you have ways to deal with them if they become troublesome.

Stress & Revelry tracks the toll that thwarted ambitions, jealous lovers, raging barbarians and other pressures can take on a ruler. Your ruler can turn to hedonistic pursuits to escape that stress.

With The Grand Vizier, you can delegate the details of city management to viziers, whose personalities shape how they govern. Wise viziers focus on culture, courageous ones recruit military units faster, and disciplined ones create specialists and special projects faster. A trusted vizier may also become a threat to your throne.

New Political Eras bring empire-wide challenges, including civil wars, grand reforms, and periods of corruption and decadence.

Projects and improvements

Estates are expensive improvements that provide a variety of benefits. They make the Opulence project available, letting you use wealth to generate additional victory points. Slums support faster population growth but carry a risk of rebellion.