Civilization II · Terrain
Plains
1 food · move 1 · def +0%
The balanced tile: a little food, a little production, and no reason to improve it in only one direction. Wheat and Buffalo squares are worth planning a city around.
What it does
Yields 1 food and 1 shield. Irrigation adds 1 food (5 turns) and a road adds 1 trade. Mining plants a Forest instead (15 turns); Engineers can transform Plains into Grassland.
Key details
- Yield
- 1 food, 1 shield, 0 trade
- Movement cost
- 1
- Defense bonus
- +0%
- Irrigation
- +1 food (5 turns)
- Mining
- Plants Forest (15 turns)
- Transforms to
- Grassland
- Special resources
- Buffalo — 1/3/0 · Wheat — 3/1/0
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.
