Terrain Civilization 1

Terrain Types Civ1

There are 12 Terrain Types in MicroProse's turn-based strategy game of 1991, Civilization 1. Terrain type governs the nature of the squares aka tiles that make up Civ1 worlds.

In Civ games, terrain and its resources should be first and foremost in the mind. Terrain is the backbone of civilizations. Especially Rivers. Civilizations were built around river drainage basins: The Cradle of Civilization (Nile, Tigris, Euphrates).

• Arctic
• Desert
• Forest
• Grassland (and Grassland Shield)
• Hills
• Jungle
• Mountains
• Ocean
• Plains
• River
• Swamp
• Tundra

In keeping with the Cradle, Rivers are one of the best terrain types because they facilitate population growth, trade and research. In addition, they often (but not always) connect to coastlines (for naval power).

Click the image and mouse-wheel up and down to compare images:

Settlers can transform some terrain types. For example, Forest squares can be transformed into Plains (deforestation).

For a one-point Trade bonus (Trade +1), always build roads on irrigated Plains, Grassland and Desert squares. Bridge Building is required to build roads on River squares. Railroads should link cities and should be built in catchment squares for +1 to Trade as well as 50% increase in Food and Shield Production.

Mines should be built on Hill and Mountain squares.

Special Resources Civ1

• Coal
• Fish
• Game
• Gems
• Gold
• Horses
• Oasis
• Oil
• Seals

In addition, there are 9 special resources that can appear on certain terrain type squares (random). Thus, there is a total of 22 different types of terrain squares in Civ1. Not all resources can appear on all terrain-type squares.

Special resource squares can never spawn adjacent to other special resource squares; there is at least a two-square gap between special resources squares. Grassland Shield squares can be adjacent and often appear in clumps, but GS is not technically a special resource. And Rivers are rarely surrounded by GS (though River squares can be GS squares as well).

A dense clump of Grassland Shield with a smattering of Hills holding Coal deposits can be as useful as densely packed river squares: one is build-focused and the other is trade-focused, but both are Food-focused and thus cause settlements to grow rapidly into megacities.

Forests are generally more useful as early game production-boosters. Later, they are best cleared and converted to irrigated plains (unless they contain a special resource).

Since they give fledgling settlements strong boosts, the best special resource types are Fish, Coal, Oases, Game and Horses. If a city's catchment area aka production radius includes such squares, it receives a big advantage.

• Oases yield the most Food possible in a single square, but are usually found in desert regions (not good)
• Gold yields the most trade in a single square but is usually found in mountainous regions (not good)
• Coal yields the most production in a single square but is usually found in hilly regions (not good)

That is what makes River and Grassland Shield catchments great: you don't get optimal output on single squares, but you get the optimal overall ouput as well as rapid population growth that also results in the largest cities.

Via mounted scouts and naval vessels, it is advised to appraise a region when planning efficient civ expansion since one booming city is not enough. For example, a River system surrounded by Grassland, some Forest and some Hills is a prime candidate for civ-building; that is, a good mix of Food, Shield and Trade Production. If there are some gold and gem deposits around as well, great.

Ideally, you want to build cities on squares that yield an instant Food surplus. Because the more surplus the city has, the faster it grows. And as it grows, farmers and miners can work more of its catchment squares.

And since workers cannot be moved on and off city-base squares (only city catchment squares), the Settler should found the city on Grassland Shield with good catchment and expansion potential (Forest, Hills and more Grassland Shield -- around Rivers).

Starting off with a two-point surplus is good. Say, a city founded on Grassland Shield with Fish off its coast. Then you want Granary and Monarchy ASAP to speed city leveling and gain +1-2 surplus for 3-4 total (at that point).

Such a city is going to boom early and may become a military powerhouse or a glittering culture center in the future. But in order to keep the city growing -- that is, in order to keep it in a state of food surplus -- you will need to irrigate its catchment (which should also be mined and mobilized by roads and railroads).

If playing Emperor difficulty, it is also a good idea to have Settlers from established cities prepare terrain before founding new ones. In this way, the city receives an immediate boost. Indeed, it may not be possible to settle and grow in certain regions without first having laid down catchment groundwork.

Specialists are also mandatory on Emperor difficulty due to the bonus Scientists aka "Einsteins" confer on Advances discovery rate. Again, the surplus is what enables the city to rapidly grow in population units.

Catchments Civilization 1

A Civilization city catchment can also be referred to as a city's production radius. Catchments consist of 21 squares all of which can eventually be "worked" by the city's population in order to yield food, trade and production. As can be seen above, the 21 squares consist of 3 central rows of 5 squares each and 1 top and bottom row of 3 squares each. Therefore, you can measure the catchment on the playing field before founding the city.

Specialists do not work catchments: an entertainer, taxman or scientist replaces a worker of a catchment square and functions independently to generate happiness, tax revenue or research respectively. That is, Specialists take away from catchment production in order to calm populations or increase cash-flow or Advances discovery rate.

When a city increases by one population unit, one more square of its catchment can be worked.

Examples of strong river catchments:

Next up we have two non-river starter catchments that are nevertheless quite workable. The square in the middle of the catchment is the city square; the city founded on Grassland Shield (which is differentiated from Grassland by having a stone in its center). A starter city has one population unit. Therefore, we may only allocate one catchment square to be worked in addition to the center square (which is auto-worked). But as the city grows in population units we can work more of its squares. Eventually, we can work all of its squares.

Left: A catchment consisting of three fish (very rare), one Gold deposit and five Grassland Shield. This settlement will grow fast and be rich and productive. It will also become a King-tier naval power. 

Right: A catchment consisting of two Gold deposits (rare) and four Grassland Shield. This settlement will also grow fast and become quite rich, but its catchment has some poor squares.

 

Note that city squares aka center squares are auto-irrigated and -roaded upon their founding. That is, irrigating and roading squares before founding cities on them does not increase the center square's yield. Note also that Hill center squares can be mined post-founding; e.g, the City of Gold:

The irrigation command also doubles as clearing squares. Take for example the catchment below. We want the catchment to snare four special resources, but the square we must found the city on is an undesirable Jungle square. And no workable square in the catchment yields innate trade, which would cripple our initial research. Therefore, we "irrigate" the Jungle square (clear it) first in order to reveal Grassland Shield beneath. As you can see by comparing the left and right images, we now have a prime center square in addition to a prime catchment.

(The square that formerly yielded just 1 Food now yields 2 Food, 1 Shield and 1 Trade. This settlement grew into a 35th level megacity.)

As cities grow and build, Settlers move about their catchments to irrigate plains and grassland, clear forests, build mines on hills, and build roads and railroads that increase output and movement rate.

Catchment squares dictate the potential and purpose of cities; that is, what a city can or should be. 

• Without Hills for mining (Shield Production), the city is a subpar war machine since it can't roll out buildings, Wonders and military units at a rapid rate.
• Without a River or terrain resources such as Gold, the city is subpar at trade.
• Without Plains and Grassland squares, the city can't irrigate to feed its population.
• A city without coastline can never be a naval power.

And so on.

The overall point is: the square upon which the city is based, its catchment and its regional location are important. Especially in the early game.

Barbarian Pillaging of Catchments

Assuming city walls and garrisoned units (the basics of defense), barbarian invasions and guerrilla uprisings are not so much a threat to city centers as they are their catchments, since pillaged catchments can greatly disrupt cities, penalizing their progress by centuries. Defend city catchments, not just their center squares. If the barbarian horde makes landfall near your undefended catchment, send out a welcoming committee to meet it at your border. If you don't or can't do that, prepare to pay dearly due to pillaged squares.

As a rule, rival units that camp in catchments should be deemed loiterers and rival units that fortify within catchments should be deemed squatters. Indeed, consider it an Act of War if a foreign unit fortifies on one of your catchment squares since by doing so they render the square unproductive (in addition to the obvious threat posed).

Civilization 1 catchment progression (agrarian): natural state / irrigated / roaded / railroaded.

Even without any special resources, river squares or coastline, the above settlement quickly grew into a megacity due to its fertile catchment.

Civilization 1 largest cities (super-catchments):

The agrarian Zulu megacity of Zimbabwe reached 40th level by 1900 A.D. It was 37th level in 1800 A.D. and 34th level in 1700 A.D. This city was so strong that it annexed a rival city in Europe without a military unit or diplomat. The city just came under Zulu control without the Zulus exploring beyond Zimbabwe's borders.

Earth Map Civilization 1

As it pertains to the Civilization 1 Earth map, the Russians have the best expansion potential but the Aztecs and Zulus can build the biggest and richest cities in the world (in Central Africa and South America after clearing the jungle squares around the Congo and Amazon rivers). However, the Earth map is not recommended since you will never get mega-rivers and other interesting random terrain rolls. The Earth map is also inaccurate as regards geography and natural resources.

City Spam Civilization 1

A way to powergame the original or pre-patched Civ1 is to spam low level, close-proximity cities while remaining in Despotism (the default politic). The civ is switched to 100% Research/Science mode for Wheel (Chariot) and Navigation (Sailing Ship) acquisition.

Then, the Civ sweeps over land and sea with Chariots and Sailing Ships, wiping out or annexing rival cities as they go by virtue of sheer numbers. By employing this super-cheap strategy, it is possible to win Emperor-difficulty Civ games within minutes, depending on lay of the land, Barb-spawns, no. of rival civs and rival-civ proximity.

On the Earth map, the optimal city-spam civ choice is again Russia. Settle on a grassland shield square around forested rivers and then expand your civ south, west and east across more forests and grassland shield; that is, found cities on shield production catchments that can generate fast-moving ground units and naval fleets in quick order.

You should be able to wipe out rival civs in Eurasia and Africa with Chariot spam alone, though you will have to build Sailing Ships to transport your Chariots to islands and other continents, such as the New World (The Americas) and Australia.

A single 4th level Despotic city can yield 9 points of Trade/Research. And it doesn't need to construct buildings to keep its citizens content because its population units are capped at 4. Most cities will just build zero-upkeep Barracks.

Under non-Despotic governments (Monarchy, Republic, Communism, Democracy) one can still slow or freeze city population unit increases (city growth) by assigning specialists or working shield production squares instead of food production squares (thereby generating no food surplus).

cf. Civ2 Terrain --- SMAC Terraforming.

Back to: Civ1 Guide.