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 10
(does not stack withMountaineering) (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.