Terrain
Appearance
Terrain
The world map is a network of nodes (districts) connected by edges. Every district sits on one terrain type, shown as Terrain: ... in the district panel.
Terrain types
- Plains
- Forest
- Hills
- Mountain
- Desert
- Swamp
- Tundra
- Urban
- Water
What terrain does
- Defender bonus: each terrain scales the defender's combat power in battles fought on it. Attacking into favourable terrain is costlier than holding it.
- Move cost: each terrain has a move cost multiplier that is part of the cost of the edges leading into it, so routes through hard terrain take longer.
- Land and water: land units move only across land nodes and naval units only across water nodes. A route that would cross the wrong kind of terrain is shortened at the last compatible node ("Route shortened: impassable terrain"); a destination of the wrong kind is refused ("Blocked by incompatible terrain"). Air units fly over both, within their air range.