Civilization II · Terrain
Mountains
0 food · move 3 · def +200%
A wall and a mine. Nothing grows here and units crawl across it, but a defender on a mountain fights at triple strength — and a Gold vein is worth six trade a turn.
What it does
Yields 1 shield and no food. Mining adds 1 more shield (10 turns). The +200% defense bonus is the largest in the game. Engineers can transform Mountains into Hills.
Key details
- Yield
- 0 food, 1 shield, 0 trade
- Movement cost
- 3
- Defense bonus
- +200%
- Mining
- +1 shield (10 turns)
- Transforms to
- Hills
- Special resources
- Gold — 0/1/6 · Iron — 0/4/0
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.
