Maintenance or upkeep is a game mechanic in Civilization II modeling the operating costs required for city improvements and units to function. Maintenance is automatically paid at the start of the player's turn; if expenses exceed income (or support exceeds production), improvements will be sold and units disbanded.
City maintenance[]
Most city improvements incur a persistent upkeep cost. At the beginning of the player's turn, maintenance expenses are subtracted from the empire's gross Tax income. If net taxes are positive, the surplus is added to the treasury; if negative, the treasury pays the difference. Revenue and expenses are detailed in the Trade Advisor screen (F5) and tax settings (Shift+T); the former also tallies the number and upkeep of each improvement type.
If maintenance costs exceed available funds, city improvements are automatically sold to generate liquidity. Improvements are liquidated quasi-randomly, with more valuable improvements sold to pay off larger deficits. Unlike manual selling, a city can liquidate multiple improvements during the update phase.
Adam Smith's Trading Co. is a Wonder that waives the maintenance for improvements costing 1. Fundamentalism also waives upkeep on Temples, Cathedrals, and Colosseums.
Unlike Civilization III, Wonders that provide an improvement's effect (such as the Pyramids for granaries) do not waive the maintenance cost of existing improvements; these must be manually sold to reduce overhead.
Unit support[]
Units are maintained with city production, referred to as support: most units with a Defense strength of 1 or higher require 1 Shield per turn from their home city, excepting trade and espionage units. Certain governments provide each city with a fixed quantity of "free" units that will not incur support.
If a city's net production is negative at the start of the turn, supported units will be randomly disbanded until net Shields are 0 or higher, prioritizing those stationed outside the home city. Units stationed in a city do not reimburse their Shield value as they would if manually disbanded.
Units without a home city (NONE) do not incur support costs of any kind.
Workers[]
Worker units also require Food support, independent of production allowances. A city facing famine will disband workers ahead of sacrificing citizens. The specific food upkeep varies based on government: Anarchy, Despotism, and Monarchy require 1, while Communism, Fundamentalism, Republic, and Democracy require 2.
Modding[]
Improvement maintenance is defined at the third parameter of the relevant line in the @IMPROVE section of Rules.txt. Wonders can also be assigned upkeep costs, although this is not used in the base game. Note that Barracks maintenance increases by 1 each if the player possesses Gunpowder and/or Mobile Warfare.
Unit maintenance is largely hard-coded. Food upkeep is defined on Lines 6 and 7 under the @COSMIC section of Rules.txt for "early" and "late" governments, respectively; free Shield support for Monarchy, Communism, and Fundamentalism are defined on Lines 14–16, respectively. Units with a Defense strength of 0 do not require production support, nor do any units with the Trade or Espionage role.
See also[]
- Maintenance in other games