Missile units are a special type of offensive unit in Civilization II that is removed from play after completing its attack. Missile attacks use an abbreviated combat animation that resolves within two hits, and only log as casualties if they fail to destroy their target. Enemy missile strikes notify the player with a popup message denoting the city nearest the attack.
In standard game rules, missiles are air units with high attack and/or firepower but no durability. In addition to normal basing locations (cities, airbases and carriers), up to 20 can be transported by units flagged as submarines.
The SAM Missile Battery and SDI Defense each double the defense strength of units in their host city against missile strikes. Units flagged as AEGIS Cruisers provide a fivefold defense.
Modding[]
Missile units are designated by the 13th flag in Rules.txt. Units of any domain can be missiles, and will use the unique attack sound MISSILE.WAV, but anti-missile defenses and submarines' unique transport ability only apply to air units. Nuclear weapons do not technically need the missile flag as nuclear combat supersedes the mechanic, but this provides the "destroyed after attacking" description in the Civilopedia, and disables the unit's default attack sound (which will otherwise play alongside NUKEXPLO.WAV).
The missile attack popup is defined at @MISSILEATTACK in Game.txt. In the original Civilization II, the text identifies the specific unit type; in Test of Time, this is changed to a generic description, although the unit-type variable can still be used.
References[]
- Knighttime (2 November 2021). "Civilization II Combat Guide, v2.0 updates". Civilization Fanatics' Center. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
See also[]
- Missile unit in other games