Turn-based 4X4X. eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate — a grand-strategy subgenre about building a civilization over a long arc. is not one design school. Civilization VII, Age of Wonders 4, Endless Legend 2, and Humankind all ask you to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate — but they split sharply on where the actual gameplay feel lives: the combat map, the empire spreadsheet, or the cultural identity you build along the way. This comparison breaks each game down by combat model, empire layer, and cultural/age systems, then ranks them for different player profiles.

What it covers: Civ VII vs AoW4 vs Endless Legend 2 vs Humankind, split by combat model, empire layer, and culture systems. Why it matters: 4X is not one design school — the gameplay feel lives in a different layer in each game. Who should pick this: Players picking their next turn-based empire game.

The four games at a glance

GameDeveloper / PublisherReleasedSettingCore identity
Civilization VIIFiraxis / 2KFeb 2025HistoricalAges-driven civilization switching
Age of Wonders 4Triumph Studios / ParadoxMay 2023FantasyTactical combat + magic-tome crafting
Endless Legend 2Amplitude / Hooded HorseSep 2025 (Early Access)Sci-fi fantasyAsymmetric factions + changing world
HumankindAmplitude / SegaAug 2021HistoricalCulture-per-era blending

Endless Legend 2 is still in Early Access as of writing — its systems, balance, and even factionfaction. An in-game group or nation players can align with or fight against, with its own goals and reputation system. roster (sixth faction, multiplayer, and custom factions are roadmap items) are subject to change, so check the current patch before buying.

Combat model

Civilization VII — streamlined, commander-led

Civ 7 keeps the one-unit-per-tile tradition but softens it with Commanders: special units that group and deploy military units, cutting down the carpet-of-doom micromanagement that plagued Civ 5/6. Armies attach to a commander, move as one, and deploy into adjacent tiles for battle. The result is fewer clicks to reposition a stack and cleaner front lines, though the combat itself remains abstract — no separate tactical battle screen, just resolution on the world map with positional bonuses, rivers, terrain, and unit counters doing the heavy lifting.

There is no manual tactical mode. If you want to fight the battle turn by turn on a dedicated grid, Civ 7 is the wrong pick.

Age of Wonders 4 — the tactical-combat king

AoW4 is the only game here with a fully featured tactical battle layer: when armies clash, you zoom into a hex-grid battlefield where you move individual units, use active hero abilities, exploit terrain and flanking, and manage a round-based action economy. Ranged units, cavalry charges, status effects, and morale all matter on the battle map.

This is the headline reason players choose AoW4 over the others. Combat is not a side activity — it is a core pillar with its own depth, and auto-resolve exists for when you do not care. If you enjoy miniature wargaming inside your 4X, this is the default answer.

Endless Legend 2 — tactical battles, but bounded

EL2 also has tactical battles — armies load into a battle instance where you command units, use hero active abilities, and exploit terrain effects. Amplitude has been explicit that these battles are designed to resolve in a few minutes so focus stays on the empire, not the war. There are no naval units; the oceans recede as the game progresses via Tidefall events, so the strategic map itself reshapes what ground combat even looks like.

Compared to AoW4, EL2’s combat is lighter and faster, leaning on faction asymmetry and hero abilities rather than a deep universal wargame. Early Access balance and AI are still being tuned.

Humankind — optional manual battles on the world map

Humankind resolves combat either by auto-resolve or by manual battle on an expanded hex grid laid over the world map tiles. You can position units, use terrain, and leverage era-specific unit counters. It is more hands-on than Civ 7 but less of a dedicated wargame than AoW4 — the battles happen in place, which keeps pacing tight but limits how much combat-depth the system can carry.

Notably, Humankind ties a lot of combat punch to unit-era advantages: a higher-era culture’s units tend to roll lower-era ones, which makes the cultural system (below) feel decisive in war.

Empire layer

Civilization VII — ages, towns, and influence

Civ 7’s empire layer is built around the Ages system. A match runs through Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern, each ending in a Crisis event that pressures your empire before the age transition. You found cities and towns (towns specialize and feed cities rather than producing everything themselves), and Influence is a spendable currency for diplomacy, endeavors, and age-specific projects.

The layer is clean and legible — yields are readable, the tech/civic trees are age-scoped so they do not sprawl across 600 turns, and the crisis mechanics force active decisions rather than passive snowballing. Players who want a tighter, less endless empire sim than Civ 6 generally prefer this structure.

Age of Wonders 4 — tomes, cities, and the pantheon

AoW4’s empire layer is fantasy-flavored and craft-driven. You build cities, claim province nodes, and research Tomes of Magic — tiered books of spells and units that define your empire’s culture, affinities (Order, Chaos, Nature, Materium, Shadow, Astral), and military roster. The tome system is the empire layer’s soul: two players with the “same” custom faction can diverge completely by pick order.

A meta Empire mode lets progression carry across runs via a pantheon and realm upgrades, layering light roguelite progression on top of the sandbox. If you like building a civilization’s identity as a crafting exercise, AoW4 rewards that more than any game here.

Endless Legend 2 — asymmetric factions and a living world

EL2 leans hardest into faction asymmetry. Each of the five Early Access factions (Kin of Sheredyn, Aspects, Last Lords, Tahuk, Necrophage) plays by meaningfully different rules — population types, district mechanics, victory paths, even how they treat minor factions. The Aspects are coral-robot diplomats; the Necrophage are warmongers who cannot play nice. This is the legacy of the original Endless Legend, which was famous for pushing faction differentiation beyond stat bonuses.

The world itself is a system: Tidefall events recede oceans to reveal new land, and Monsoons punish exploration windows. The empire layer is less “build a generic civ” and more “exploit a hostile, changing planet with a faction that breaks the rules.”

Humankind — territories, outposts, and fame

Humankind uses a territory system: you plant outposts to claim regions, then attach them to a city or expand them into new cities. It is a cleaner expansion model than classic city-spam and discourages the settler flood.

The defining empire-layer mechanic is the Fame star system. Each era has a menu of era stars (military, economic, scientific, expansion, agrarian, builder) earned by hitting thresholds, and the culture you pick next is gated by how many stars you have. Fame is the persistent scoreboard — it is also a victory condition — so the empire layer is constantly nudging you toward demonstrable achievements, not just yield accumulation.

Cultural / age systems

This is where the four games diverge most sharply, and it is the axis most buyers should weigh.

  • Civ 7 — civilization switching by age. Your civilization is tied to the age, not the whole match. At each age transition you pick a new civilization (with constraints based on your leader, prior civ, and historical/geographic paths). Leaders are decoupled from civs entirely. This models “civilizations evolve” rather than “Egypt stays Egypt for 6000 years.” Players who hated civ-stagnation in older Civs tend to like this; players who want to roleplay one unbroken empire from antiquity to modern find it jarring.

  • Humankind — culture per era. The closest cousin to Civ 7’s idea, but more granular: across roughly ten eras you pick one of ~60 cultures, blending their legacy traits, emblematic units, and emblematic districts into a single composite civilization. You are not “Egypt” — you are “Egyptian-then-Roman-then-Ottoman-etc.” The fame system rewards picking into your strengths each era. It is the most flexible cultural identity system of the four, at the cost of feeling less like a coherent single civ.

  • AoW 4 — crafted identity, not ages. There are no historical eras. Your “culture” is assembled at faction creation (race, body type, society trait, culture) and then evolved through tome picks. Identity is emergentemergent. Behavior that wasn't explicitly designed but arises from simpler rules interacting — player-run economies, cartels, surprise tactics. from build choices, not from an age rail. Players who want authorship over their civ’s flavor over scripted era progression should look here.

  • Endless Legend 2 — fixed asymmetric faction, changing world. No era-switching and no culture menu. You pick one faction at start and its identity is fixed — the dynamism comes from the world (Tidefall, Monsoons, narrative events) reshaping around you, not from reinventing your civ. This is the most “one-and-done identity” design of the four.

How to pick

You want deep tactical battles

Age of Wonders 4. It is the only game here with a battle layer worth playing for its own sake. Endless Legend 2 is a distant second and is still in Early Access.

You want a tight, modern historical 4X

Civilization VII. The ages system curates the match into three acts with crises, trimming the late-game bloat of Civ 6. Accept that you will switch civilizations, not play one uninterrupted empire.

You want to assemble a culture from parts across history

Humankind. The culture-per-era system plus fame stars is the most flexible identity builder, and territory/outpost expansion is the cleanest land-grab model here.

You want asymmetric factions and a world that changes under you

Endless Legend 2. Faction rules differ radically and the Tidefall/Monsoon systems make the map itself a threat and an opportunity. Buy knowing it is Early Access, with content still being added to the roadmap.

You want to craft a magic-fantasy empire from scratch

Age of Wonders 4. Tomes + faction creation give you more authorial control over your civ’s flavor than any era system, and the tactical combat backs it up.

Quick verdict by taste

If you value most…Pick
Tactical combat depthAge of Wonders 4
Curated historical ages with crisesCivilization VII
Blended culture identity + clean expansionHumankind
Asymmetric factions + dynamic worldEndless Legend 2
Magic/empire craftingAge of Wonders 4

None of these is strictly “best” — they are four different answers to what a turn-based 4X should center. Match the game to the layer you actually want to spend your turns in.

Sources & further reading

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