Water is very important to any civilization and can be found in many forms.
Fresh water[]
Fresh water is very important for your growth and you should always try to secure access to some for your cities. A city is considered to have access to fresh water if it is settled next to it. Mousing over a tile with tooltips enabled will tell you if it has fresh water.
Fresh water allows you to do the following:
- Cities settled next to any fresh water source may construct a Garden. They may also build Water Mills and Hydro Plants if the source is a River.
- Farms built near fresh water will yield 1 additional
Food with Civil Service. Farms without fresh water don't get that bonus until Fertilizer is researched. - Allows you to build Farms on Hills and Tundra if fresh water is present.
Traversing water[]
Many water tiles can only be traversed by ships or embarked units.
Sources of water[]
| Name | Type | Fresh water | Ground movement |
|---|---|---|---|
 Coast
|
Terrain | No | No |
 Ocean
|
Terrain | No | No |
 Lakes
|
Terrain | Yes | No |
 Oasis
|
Feature | Yes | Yes |
 Rivers
|
Feature | Yes | Yes* |
* Traversing a river usually costs all remaining movement points, unless a bridge is present.
See also[]
- Water in other games