The "home city" is an attribute of units in earlier Civilization games and spinoff titles which links them to the city that created them. Depending on the civilization's government, a city can support a number of units for free, but additional units incur maintenance costs in the form of diverted Production output.[note 1] Home cities also determine the trade route established by trade units.
When a city is captured by a rival, all supported units are instantly destroyed; subverting a city through espionage can retain supported units for the new controller.
Units created outside of cities (e.g., by goody huts) determine their home city by the nearest settlement:[note 2] if the player has no cities, or the closest city is controlled by a rival civ, no home city is assigned (NONE) and the unit will incur no maintenance.
Home cities are reassigned by stationing the unit in the desired host city and selecting the appropriate order ("Set Home City"/"Support From This City" or equivalent).
Home cities do not feature in Civilization III and later games.
Notes[]
- ↑ Freeciv supports alternative maintenance rules that replace Production with Gold, similar to Civilization III and later titles.
- ↑ With some variation between games: in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, units gained from supply pods are never assigned a home base.