Civilization II · Terrain
Forest
1 food · move 2 · def +50%
The early empire's shield supply, and a wall your defenders can stand behind. Keep the Pheasant and Silk squares; clear the rest once you need food more than hammers.
What it does
Yields 1 food and 2 shields with a +50% defense bonus. Irrigating a Forest clears it to Plains (5 turns); Engineers transform it to Grassland. It cannot be mined.
Key details
- Yield
- 1 food, 2 shields, 0 trade
- Movement cost
- 2
- Defense bonus
- +50%
- Irrigation
- Clears to Plains (5 turns)
- Transforms to
- Grassland
- Special resources
- Pheasant — 3/2/0 · Silk — 1/2/3
About terrain in Civilization II
Every land square is one of eleven terrain types, and a river can run across any of them. Each type has a yield in food, shields and trade, a movement cost and a defense multiplier. Settlers irrigate, mine and build roads; Engineers — unlocked by Explosives — go further and transform one terrain type into another entirely, which is how a swamp becomes farmland and a mountain becomes hills.
Strategy — A river is the best thing that can happen to a city site in Civilization II: +1 trade on the square, a 50% defense bonus, and the water access irrigation needs without a lake or coast nearby. After that, look for hills — a city built on one is mined and irrigated for free and doubles every defender standing in it.
