User Guide

to perform special actions, “action icons” appear in the “Unit
Action Box” on the Main Screen.
[Rollover] an action icon to see what it does. Below is a list of
the military unit actions you’re likely to run into in the early
stages of the game. (Worker and Settler actions appear in later
sections.)
Flashing Action Icons
If an action icon is flashing, the computer is telling you that
action is particularly useful. For example, the “fortify” action
will flash if an archer is in an empty city. (But remember that
the computer doesn’t know about your strategic situation –
that archer may very well be more needed elsewhere.)
Early Unit Action List
Remember that not all units can perform all of the listed
actions. If a unit can perform an action, that action will appear
in the “Action Box” on the Main Screen.
Delete the Unit: Remove the unit from play.
Go To Mode: Order the unit to move to a square.
All Units Go To: Order all units in the square to
move to a square.
All Units of the Same Type Go To: Order all units
of the same type in the square to move to a square.
Explore: Order the unit to explore unexplored por-
tions of the map.The unit will stop exploring when it
can no longer reach any unexplored spaces.
Skip Turn: Order the unit to do nothing for the
remainder of the current turn.
Fortify: The unit “digs in” to better resist attack.The
unit gains a 5% defensive bonus per turn, to a maxi-
mum bonus of 25%. The unit will remain fortified
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until you give it new orders. (Some units – notably mounted
units – cannot fortify.)
Sleep: The unit goes inactive. It remains where it is
until you activate it.This action is used by units that are
ineligible for the “fortify” action.
Sentry: The unit remains inactive until an enemy unit
enters an adjacent square.
Pillage: The unit destroys an improvement in the
space it occupies. If there is more than one improve-
ment in the space, the unit will destroy the most valu-
able. (In other words it would take two actions to destroy both
a farm and a road in a space.)
Promotions: If a unit has earned a promotion, icons
for all available promotions will appear in the unit’s
action box. See “Promotions” for more details.
Fortify/Sleep Until Healed: An injured unit will
fortify or sleep until it has regained all of its combat
strength; then it will reactivate.
UNIT MAINTENANCE COSTS
Depending upon the size of your civilization and the civics
you are employing, you may have to pay “maintenance costs”
each turn to support some or all of your units. If you are run-
ning low on cash you may want to disband units to reduce this
cost. Check out the “Financial Advisor” screen ([click] on the
button on the Main Screen or press [F2]) to see how much
your units are costing you.
COMBAT
There are several different kinds of combat in Civilization IV:
standard combat, bombardment, and bombing. Bombing will
not occur very early in the game; for now we’ll concentrate on
standard combat and bombardment.
Standard combat occurs when a unit attempts to enter a space
occupied by a hostile unit. When this occurs the computer
compares the combat strengths of the two opponents (modi-
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