# Civ IV multiplayer compatibility question **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 4, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civ-iv-multiplayer-compatibility-question/444008 "2008-04-04T23:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2008, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civ-iv-multiplayer-compatibility-question/444008/1 "2008-04-04T23:56:08Z")
I’ve recently rediscovered Civ IV. I bought it when it first came out and played a little. At that time I was still bitter about the grand but ultimately failed experiment that was Civ III. Civ IV is far better, but I couldn’t get into it at first because my Civ II strategies were so ingrained and I couldn’t make the adjustment. Fast forward to a few days ago. A couple of friends of mine were talking about Civ IV, and we decided to set up a play by email game. So far we’ve only played a few turns; in the meantime, I’ve been playing a couple of single player games on Noble. I won the space race last night, and then started looking up threads here and elsewhere about the expansions. So here’s my question: My friends and I all have the base game (one of them has the Mac version). If I were to install the Beyond the Sword expansion, would I still be able to play against them without forcing them to install it also? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2008, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civ-iv-multiplayer-compatibility-question/444008/2 "2008-04-05T15:41:55Z")
[QUOTE=sturmhauke] I’ve recently rediscovered Civ IV. I bought it when it first came out and played a little. At that time I was still bitter about the grand but ultimately failed experiment that was Civ III. Civ IV is far better, but I couldn’t get into it at first because my Civ II strategies were so ingrained and I couldn’t make the adjustment. Fast forward to a few days ago. A couple of friends of mine were talking about Civ IV, and we decided to set up a play by email game. So far we’ve only played a few turns; in the meantime, I’ve been playing a couple of single player games on Noble. I won the space race last night, and then started looking up threads here and elsewhere about the expansions. So here’s my question: My friends and I all have the base game (one of them has the Mac version). If I were to install the Beyond the Sword expansion, would I still be able to play against them without forcing them to install it also? [/QUOTE] [Civfanatics.com](http://Civfanatics.com) is a magnificent resource for all Civ questions. Just from my own experience, these ways to play live games have all worked for me (everyone is on PCs): - I teach Civ4 (both Basic and Warlords) at School, using a LAN - I play Civ4 (Basic, Warlords and BeyondtheSword) at home on my network using IP addresses - I play Civ4 (both Basic and Warlords) across the Internet - we all use the same version Even if you install Beyond the Sword, can’t you still run Warlords when playing others who also use it?