Movement

Movement allows you to move your units to another location. How far a unit can move each turn on the strategic map depends on Movement Points, Terrain, Roads, and Movement Ablities. A unit's Movement Point maximum also matters during combat.

Attacking units which use a retreat hex during a battle lose their remaining movement points on the strategic map.

Terrain Types

This page only regards the movement based factors of terrain types. For other uses, see Terrains

The amount of Movement points a unit spends to enter an adjacent hex on the strategic map is determined by summing the base Movement cost of the target hex's Climate with its Terrain Feature modifier. Some unit Abilities can reduce the Movement cost on certain terrain types.

The base Movement cost of any Climate is 4  :

• 4 Subterranian
• 4 Arctic
• 4 Blight
• 4 Temperate
• 4 Tropical
• 4 Volcanic
• 4 Water (only possible when Frozen)

This cost is modified by the Terrain Feature. These modifiers have the following magnitude:

• +10 (Coastal) Mountains
• +2 Dirt Cavern Walls (When Tunneling)
• +2 Wetlands
• +2 Dense Vegetation
• +0 Barrens
• +0 Fertile Plains
• +0 Lava Pool (Occurs only on Volcanic) (Impassable by without Lava Walking)
• +0 Frozen (Occurs only on Water) (Impassable by and )
• +0 Water (Impassable by without or Embarking)

Roads

Roads will change the hex's movement cost to 3 (and 3 ) regardless of terrain type. They can be placed with a Builder for 5 Gold per hex. The Empire Upgrade Advanced Logistics reduces cost further to 2 (2 ). Roads follow further rules:

• Roads cannot be built on water, mountains, or cavern walls
• Building roads through Dense Vegetation costs an additional 5 Gold per hex, and transforms the terrain into Barrens

Bridges

Builders can build bridges on water for 60 Gold if the following requirements are met:

• The water is only 1 hex wide
• The builder can enter the hex (usually requires Basic Seafaring and 12 , see below)
• Both ends of the bridge are clear of mountains, cavern walls, and impassable tiles
• The water hex is not blocked (by units or when Frozen)
• It is impossible to build a bridge right next to another bridge

To construct the bridge, select the "Build a Road" option on the builder, and order it to move onto a water tile that meets the above conditions.

An Arch Druid using The Wild Hunt (or the hero Lardo the Builder equipped with Floating or Flying) can construct bridges over lava in the same way.

For movement, Bridges count as Roads.

Movement Abilities

Movement Abilities define or modify the way a unit moves.

The Basic Movement abilities are:

• Walking enables units to walk on dry land.
• Lava Walking enables Walking units to walk on Lava Pools.
• Swimming  enables units to move over water without Embarking, at the cost of 3 .
• Seafaring enables units to move over water, at the cost of 3 .
• Floating enables units to move over all hexes except cavern walls at the cost of 4 (water costs 3 ), traverse Mountains at the cost of 6 , and float over obstacles such as city walls in combat (like Pass Wall). Floating units benefit fully from roads. Overrides other forms of movement except for flying.
• Flying  enables units to move over all hexes except cavern walls at the cost of 3 , traverse Mountains at the cost of 5 , fly over obstacles such as city walls in combat (like Pass Wall), and ignore all attacks of opportunity except for those at the location of take-off. Flying units do not benefit from roads. Overrides all other forms of movement. Lesser Flying does not affect movement on the strategic map.

The following abilities modify Movement cost over certain terrain types:

• Improved Mountaineering reduces Movement cost of (Coastal) Mountains by 12
  (does not stack with Mountaineering) (only reduces Mountains to 4 )
• Mountaineering reduces Movement cost of (Coastal) Mountains by 8
• Wetland Walking reduces Movement cost of Wetlands by 2
• Forestry reduces Movement cost of Dense Vegetation by 2
• Cave Crawling reduces Movement cost of Subterranean by 1
• Barrens Running reduces Movement cost of Barrens by 1
• Plains Running reduces Movement cost of Fertile Plains by 1
• Arctic Walking reduces Movement cost of Arctic by 1

Movement benefits from many of the Movement Abilities, while Movement does not.

The minimum Movement costs possible are:

• / = 2 ( Cave Crawling/ Arctic Walking + Barrens Running/ Plains Running)
• / = 3 on Mountains ( Arctic Walking + Improved Mountaineering)
• / = 3 (no abilities modify water)
• = 3 (abilities do not affect Movement)

The following abilities have a special effect:

• Tunneling allows units to traverse through Dirt Cavern Walls, transforming them to Barrens
• Tree Crusher will remove any Dense Vegetation the unit moves through, returning a small amount of gold and transforming the terrain to Barrens

Embarking

Units with Walking but without Swimming can Embark after Basic Seafaring is researched.

• Embarking requires 12 and sets remaining movement to 0
• Fast Embark reduces Movement cost of Embarking to 1 (total)
• Disembarking always requires 6 plus the cost of the target hex; any remaining becomes
• Frigate transports (from Basic Seafaring) have 21 Movement
• Galleon transports (after Advanced Seafaring) have 27 Movement
• Ironclad transports (after Produce Ironclad Warship as Dreadnought) have 33 Movement

Combat Map

A unit's movement in tactical combat is based on its maximum Movement Points. Each hex costs:

• 6 by default
• 5 if the unit has Flying or Lesser Flying
• 5 if the unit has Athletics
• 4 if the unit has Athletics AND Flying / Lesser Flying

For example, each combat round a unit might reach:

• 4 hexes with 28
• 5 hexes with 32
• 6 hexes with 30 + Flying
• 6 hexes with 36
• 7 hexes with 36 + Athletics
• 7 hexes with 30 + Athletics + Lesser Flying
• 11 hexes with 33 + Athletics + Flying + Sprint
• 29 hexes with 40 + Athletics + Flying + Haste + Sprint + Shadow Step

Actions are handled by dividing a unit's maximum movement range into thirds, mostly rounded down. More movement allows for dramatically more and better actions compared to a slower unit starting from the same position.

Retreating on the tactical map will cause a unit to lose all of its remaining movement points on the strategic map, unless that unit has Guerilla Tactics (via Partisan) and has not retreated yet on that turn.