Age of Wonders 4 Just Let You Build Cities on the Ocean, and Players Asked for Sharks So They Got Sharks

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Age of Wonders 4 is going to sea. Triumph Studios and Paradox Interactive released The Silver Seas today, November 3, 2026, and game director Tom Bird broke it all down in a new Xbox Wire post. The short version: you can now put cities on the water, turn them into floating fortresses and run a pirate empire.

If you’re new here, Age of Wonders 4 is a fantasy 4X strategy game: you build an empire, research magic and fight turn-based tactical battles, on Xbox Series X|S, PC and other consoles.

What you need to know

• What it is: The Silver Seas, a paid expansion for Age of Wonders 4. The base game is required and sold separately.
• Release date: Out now, November 3, 2026.
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG, per GameSpec), plus other consoles.
• Price on Steam: $24.99 on its own, per its Steam listing.
• The bundle route: It’s also part of Expansion Pass 4 ($49.99 suggested retail, on sale since October 1), which includes the instant Singer of Storms pack, The Silver Seas, Court of the Archfey (Q1 2027) and Forge of the Firstborn (Q2 2027), per Paradox and the Xbox Store listing.
• Free for everyone: The Manta Update landed the same day and adds trade routes for all players, paid DLC or not.

What’s in The Silver Seas

Per Paradox’s announcement and the Xbox Wire post:

• New Mercantile culture. Place cities on land and at sea, and turn sea cities into floating fortresses. It comes in two flavors:
  • The Cartel: grows through smuggling and secrecy, running camouflaged smuggling routes.
  • The Barony: rich trade princes who place bounties on enemies and import what their empire needs.
• Two new Forms: the near-human Aqualon and the toothy, battle-hungry Sharkkin.
• Four new Tomes: water and ice magic, including the power to plunder rivals, summon the souls of the damned and freeze the ocean.
• New world map content: a pirate dwelling with different captains, each with their own personality, benefits, demands and stories, plus new aquatic events, Landmarks, Ancient Wonders, sea Infestations and a new Magic Material.
• New wildlife units: from electric crabs to schools of frenzied fish.
• Extras: new music, a new interface skin and new realm options. And yes, Triumph wrote a sea shanty.

The free Manta Update

Everyone who owns Age of Wonders 4 gets the Manta Update today, per After Strategy and the patch notes summarized by PatchTLDR. The headline features:

• Trade routes. Cities can connect to Free Cities, outposts and other empires’ cities for income. A route to a Free City grants its full output, local resources included, plus +100 relation.
• Free Trade Agreements let empires build routes to each other’s cities for 20% of the target city’s gold and mana income.
• Better naval play. Embarking now costs a flat 20 movement points, embarked units lose their defense and resistance penalties, aquatic and embarked units get +2 vision, and outposts can be founded on water.
• Outposts no longer cost 10 gold upkeep.
• Tougher fair fights: the AI loses its gold and mana income multipliers on Normal and above.

PC players have been able to try Manta early on a Steam beta branch since October 9. Console players get the whole package today.

In the devs’ words

Bird says the game’s long tail is the story. “Age of Wonders 4 is entering its fourth year and kicking off its fourth set of expansions, it’s officially the longest-running title in the franchise in terms of ongoing support,” he wrote on Xbox Wire.

He also credited players directly: “we have enough great suggestions and ideas from all of you that we can make entire expansions themed around your requests, which is what The Silver Seas is all about.”

Reader poll

Which Silver Seas pirate life is calling you?

Vote and see what other Xbox fans think.

Which Silver Seas pirate life is calling you?

The Cartel, smuggle everythingThe Barony, bounties on everyoneSharkkin, obviouslyJust here for free trade routes

Vote

Like having a say? Get OnPoint Weekly or argue it out on Discord.

And on the sharks: “every time we’ve asked players what sort of new people we ought to add to the game, there has always been a healthy portion of ‘Sharks!’ in the responses.”

OnPoint’s take: This is the kind of support strategy fans dream about. A game in its fourth year getting a full expansion built off community requests, plus a free update that fixes how water plays for everyone, is a W for Xbox and PC players who stuck with it. Strategy games on console used to be an afterthought, and here’s a 4X getting the same-day treatment on Series X|S as on Steam. If you bounced off Age of Wonders 4 before, the free trade routes alone make this a good week to jump back in.

Image: Triumph Studios / Paradox Interactive via Xbox Wire, OnPoint 4 Gamers graphic

Sources

• Xbox Wire: The Silver Seas and How We “Ship” New Features for Age of Wonders 4 (Tom Bird, Nov 3, 2026)
• Xbox Wire on X
• Paradox Interactive press release (Oct 1, 2026)
• Xbox Store: Age of Wonders 4 Expansion Pass 4
• Steam: Age of Wonders 4: The Silver Seas
• GameSpec: The Silver Seas date, features and stores
• After Strategy: The Silver Seas and the Manta Update
• PatchTLDR: Age of Wonders 4 Manta Update patch notes