Civilization Wiki

Roads and railroads allow units to move longer distances within a turn by reducing the movement costs of terrain.

When a unit is within hostile cultural borders, roads and railroads have no effect unless the unit has the Commando promotion. When the civilization has an Open Borders agreement allowing their units right of passage, they may freely take advantage of roads and railroads.

Roads[]

BackArrowGreen Back to the Tile improvements in Civ4


Roads can be built after discovering The Wheel. With roads, all spaces cost 1/2 Movement Movement points (MP) to enter from other road tiles. After discovering Engineering, the cost goes down to 1/3 Movement4 MP. In practice, this means that a unit with just one movement point can move three tiles using roads. Similarly, units with two movement points can move six tiles.

Railroads[]

BackArrowGreen Back to the Tile improvements in Civ4


To build railroads, the civilization first needs to discover the Railroad technology and have an access to Coal Coal or Oil Oil. Railroads are similar to roads, but they reduce the number of Movement Movement points needed to enter a tile from another railroad tile to 1/10 Movement4 MP.

Railroads also give a bonus of 1 Hammer (Civ4) to tiles with a Mine, a Lumbermill, or a Quarry.

See also[]

Civilization IV Improvements [edit]
Camp Cottage (Hamlet Village Town) Farm Fishing Boats Forest PreserveB Fort Lumbermill Mine Offshore Platform Pasture Plantation Quarry Roads and railroads Watermill Well Whaling Boats Windmill Winery Workshop
B Added in Beyond the Sword