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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 Gold (currency) (Civ2) 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 1Gold (currency) (Civ2). Fundamentalism 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 (Civ2) 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 Shield (Civ2) Shields are 0 or higher, prioritizing those stationed outside the home city. Units stationed in a city do not reimburse their Shield (Civ2) 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 (Civ2) 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 Anarchy, Despotism Despotism, and Monarchy Monarchy require 1Food (Civ2), while Communism Communism, Fundamentalism Fundamentalism, Republic Republic, and Democracy Democracy require 2Food (Civ2).

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 1Gold (currency) (Civ2) each if the player possesses Gunpowder and/or Mobile Warfare.

Unit maintenance is largely hard-coded. Food (Civ2) Food upkeep is defined on Lines 6 and 7 under the @COSMIC section of Rules.txt for "early" and "late" governments, respectively; free Shield (Civ2) 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[]

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