Units

Every Civilization 4 unit has one Strength value, a number of moves and often bonuses against other unit types, in 11 categories from recon and melee to armored and air. Strength runs from 1 or 2 for the first units to 40 for Modern Armor and the Battleship, and Firaxis counted 89 units in the base game.

Every unit in Civilization 4 has a single combat Strength, a movement allowance and, usually, special abilities such as a bonus against one kind of unit: the Civilization 4 manual (pp. 32-33) puts early strengths at 1 to 6 and modern ones at up to 40, with movement from 1 to 8. Units belong to 11 categories (civilian, recon, archery, mounted, melee, siege, naval, gunpowder, armored, air and helicopter), and the category decides which bonuses and promotions apply. Firaxis's feature comparison counted 89 units in the base game, against 46 in Civilization 3, and each civilization replaces one of them with a unique unit.

3D close-up of three armored knights on black horses with red surcoats and shields, a small church with a cross at left, pine trees, and a crenellated wall winding across the green land behind. — Gameplay on 2K's Beyond the Sword page: three mounted knights in red with shields stand on a hill near a church, with a long stone wall behind them. Firaxis Games and 2K

Quick facts

Categories	11: civilian, recon, archery, mounted, melee, siege, naval, gunpowder, armored, air, helicopter
Units in the base game	89 by Firaxis's count
Strength	1 to 6 for early units, up to 40 for modern ones
Movement	1 to 8
Attacks per turn	1, unless a unit has Blitz
Starting units	Usually a Settler and a Warrior or Scout
Added by Warlords	Trebuchet, Trireme, Great General
Added by Beyond the Sword	14 units for everyone, plus Corporate Executives

Sources: Civilization 4 manual, pp. 32-40; Firaxis's feature comparison; Warlords manual, pp. 10, 15, 33; Beyond the Sword manual, pp. 25-26.

Strength, bonuses and counters

Civilization 4 merged the old attack and defense values into one Strength so that units could carry situational modifiers instead, Soren Johnson writes in his afterword to the manual (p. 182): archers are stronger defending a city or a hill, spearmen against mounted units, horse archers when attacking catapults. The aim was combined arms, since "focusing solely on any one specific unit" leaves a weakness an opponent can exploit. GameSpot's review of October 2005 noted that the new system avoids the old "spearman beats tank" result.

The counters follow from the bonuses in the tables below. Spearmen and Pikemen get +100% against mounted units; Axemen, Macemen and Crossbowmen +50% against melee units; Horse Archers +50% attacking catapults; Machine Guns +50% against gunpowder units; Gunships +100% against armored units. Siege units are the counter to a large stack rather than to one unit type, as the Combat page explains. Promotions add more: Formation against mounted units, Shock against melee, Cover against archery, Pinch against gunpowder.

Most units need a resource as well as a technology: Copper or Iron for Spearmen and Axemen, Iron for Swordsmen, Horses for most mounted units, Oil for tanks and aircraft, Aluminum for Modern Armor and jets, Uranium for ICBMs. A city needs access to the resource, through its trade network, to build the unit.

Melee, archery and recon units

Unit	Strength / Moves / Cost	Tech; resource	Notes
Warrior	2 / 1 / 15	none	+25% city defense
Spearman	4 / 1 / 35	Hunting; Copper or Iron	+100% vs mounted
Axeman	5 / 1 / 35	Bronze Working; Copper or Iron	+50% vs melee
Swordsman	6 / 1 / 40	Iron Working; Iron	+10% city attack
Maceman	8 / 1 / 70	Civil Service, Machinery; Copper or Iron	+50% vs melee
Pikeman	6 / 1 / 60	Engineering; Iron	+100% vs mounted
Archer	3 / 1 / 25	Archery	1 first strike; +50% city defense; +25% hills defense
Longbowman	6 / 1 / 50	Feudalism, Archery	1 first strike; +25% city and hills defense
Crossbowman	6 / 1 / 60	Machinery, Archery; Iron	1 first strike; +50% vs melee
Scout	1 / 2 / 15	Hunting	Defends only; better results from tribal villages; +100% vs animals
Explorer	4 / 2 / 40	Compass	Ignores terrain costs; starts with Guerilla I and Woodsman I

Mounted units

Unit	Strength / Moves / Cost	Tech; resource	Notes
Chariot	4 / 2 / 25	The Wheel; Horses	+50% attacking Axemen and 10% withdraw since the Warlords-era patches (the chart prints 20%)
Horse Archer	6 / 2 / 50	Horseback Riding, Archery; Horses	Immune to first strikes; +50% attacking catapults; -10% attacking cities; 20% withdraw
War Elephant	8 / 1 / 60	Construction; Ivory	+50% vs mounted
Knight	10 / 2 / 90	Guilds, Horseback Riding; Iron, Horses	Immune to first strikes
Cavalry	15 / 2 / 120	Military Tradition, Gunpowder, Horseback Riding; Horses (Beyond the Sword: Rifling too)	30% withdraw; +50% attacking cannons

Mounted units do not get defensive bonuses from terrain or cities and cannot fortify, the manual says of the Chariot (p. 34), and their withdrawal chance lets them escape a losing attack against non-mounted units, never a defense.

Siege units

Unit	Strength / Moves / Cost	Tech; resource	Notes
Catapult	5 / 1 / 40	Construction	Collateral damage; bombard -15% per turn; 25% withdraw
Trebuchet	4 / 1 / 60	Engineering	+100% city attack; bombard -25% per turn
Cannon	12 / 1 / 100	Steel; Iron	Collateral damage; bombard -20% per turn
Artillery	18 / 1 / 150	Artillery	+50% vs siege; bombard -25% per turn
Machine Gun	18 / 1 / 125	Railroad	Defends only; 1 first strike; +50% vs gunpowder

Gunpowder, armored and helicopter units

Unit	Strength / Moves / Cost	Tech; resource	Notes
Musketman	9 / 1 / 80	Gunpowder	none
Grenadier	12 / 1 / 100	Chemistry (Beyond the Sword: Military Science)	+50% attacking Riflemen
Rifleman	14 / 1 / 110	Rifling	+25% vs mounted
Infantry	20 / 1 / 140	Assembly Line, Rifling	+25% vs gunpowder
Marine	24 / 1 / 160	Industrialism, Rifling	Amphibious; +50% attacking Machine Guns and Artillery
SAM Infantry	18 / 1 / 150	Rocketry	40% intercept; +50% vs helicopters
Mechanized Infantry	32 / 2 / 200	Robotics, Rifling	Starts with March; 20% intercept
Tank	28 / 2 / 180	Industrialism, Rifling; Oil	Starts with Blitz
Modern Armor	40 / 2 / 240	Composites, Flight, Computers; Oil, Aluminum	1 first strike; starts with Blitz
Gunship	24 / 4 / 160	Rocketry, Flight; Oil	+100% vs armored; 25% withdraw

Source for the unit tables on this page: Warlords manual, reference charts pp. 119-128 and pp. 103-104 (the rules after patch 1.61), with Beyond the Sword's changes from the Beyond the Sword manual, pp. 45-46; costs in hammers.

3D close view of green military vehicles with guns and launch tubes on a rail-crossed plain, three soldiers in tan uniforms in the middle, a wind turbine at left and a city with sailing ships at the top. — Gameplay from the Beyond the Sword Steam page: self-propelled guns and missile launchers on tracked vehicles with three soldiers carrying a rocket launcher, near a city and a wind turbine. Firaxis Games and 2K

Musketmen and every later unit get nothing from Walls and Castles, only from a city's culture defense, per the Civilization 4 manual (p. 49). Gunships pay one move per land tile whatever the terrain and can kill units in a city but never capture it (p. 128).

Naval units

Unit	Strength / Moves / Cost	Tech; resource	Notes
Galley	2 / 2 / 50	Sailing	Carries 2; coast only
Trireme	2 / 2 / 50	Sailing, Bronze Working (Beyond the Sword: Metal Casting)	Coast only; +50% vs Galleys
Caravel	3 / 3 / 60	Optics	Carries 1 specialist unit; may enter rival territory
Galleon	4 / 4 / 80	Astronomy	Carries 3
Frigate	8 / 4 / 90	Astronomy, Chemistry	Bombard -10% per turn
Ironclad	12 / 2 / 100	Steel, Steam Power; Iron, Coal	Coast only; bombard -10% per turn
Transport	16 / 5 / 125	Combustion; Oil or Uranium	Carries 4
Destroyer	30 / 8 / 200	Combustion; Oil or Uranium	Sees submarines; 30% intercept
Submarine	24 / 6 / 150	Radio, Combustion; Oil or Uranium	Invisible to most units; 50% withdraw
Battleship	40 / 6 / 225	Industrialism; Oil or Uranium	Collateral damage; bombard -20% per turn
Carrier	16 / 5 / 175	Flight; Oil or Uranium	Carries 3 fighters

Naval units fight only other naval units, though some bombard coastal cities, and a sunk transport takes its cargo with it, per the Civilization 4 manual (pp. 123-125). Land units attacking from a boat fight at -50% Strength unless they have the Amphibious promotion. Caravels and Submarines carry one Scout, Explorer, Missionary, Spy or Great Person and may enter rival territory without war. A Drydock (Steel) builds ships 50% faster and gives them 4 experience points.

Air units and nukes

Unit	Strength / Range / Cost	Tech; resource	Notes
Fighter	12 / 6 / 100	Flight; Oil	50% intercept (40% in the base manual)
Jet Fighter	24 / 10 / 150	Composites, Flight; Oil, Aluminum	70% intercept (60% in the base manual)
Bomber	16 / 8 / 140	Radio, Flight; Oil	Collateral damage; -50% vs naval; bombard -15% per turn
Stealth Bomber	20 / 12 / 200	Composites, Flight, Robotics; Oil, Aluminum	50% chance to evade interception
ICBM	0 / unlimited / 400	Rocketry, Fission; Uranium	Needs the Manhattan Project

Aircraft fly missions within their range (air strike, reconnaissance, bombing, interception) and rebase between your own or allied cities, per the Civilization 4 manual (pp. 129-130). In Beyond the Sword a city holds at most 4 air units, or 8 with an Airport, which also gives air units 3 experience points, and Fighters and Jet Fighters intercept every time at full health, per the Beyond the Sword manual (pp. 23, 45). The nuclear rules are on National Wonders and Projects.

Civilian and special units

Unit	Moves / Cost	Tech	Notes
Settler	2 / 100	none	Founds a city; a captured Settler becomes a Worker
Worker	2 / 60	none	Builds improvements; can be captured
Work Boat	2 / 30	Fishing	Builds fishing boats, whaling boats, offshore platforms
Missionary	2 / 40	none	Spreads a religion
Spy	2 / 80	Communism and Scotland Yard (base game)	Invisible; sabotage and theft missions

Source: Warlords manual, reference charts pp. 119-128; capture rule from the Civilization 4 manual, p. 42.

Civilian units have Strength 0 and cannot fight. In Beyond the Sword, Spies need only Writing and start with the Commando promotion; see Espionage. Great People are units too, as are Warlords' Great Generals, which appear as your units earn experience.

What Warlords and Beyond the Sword added

Warlords added two units for every civilization, the Trebuchet and the Trireme, plus the Great General, per the Warlords manual (pp. 10, 15, 33). Its patch changes also made Marines and SAM Infantry upgrade to Mechanized Infantry, let Gunships move faster on rail lines and removed the Spy's upkeep (p. 103).

Beyond the Sword added 14 units for everyone: the Airship, Anti-Tank Infantry, Attack Submarine, Cuirassier, Great Spy, Guided Missile, Missile Cruiser, Mobile Artillery, Mobile SAM, Paratrooper, Privateer, Ship of the Line, Stealth Destroyer and Tactical Nuke, plus each corporation's Executives, per the Beyond the Sword manual (pp. 25-26), which lists them without their statistics (the Civilopedia has those). GameSpot reported on May 25, 2007 that Paratroopers can drop on any square. Beyond the Sword also capped what siege units can do to a stack and gave some mounted units a flank attack against siege, as the Combat page explains.

Upgrades

An obsolete unit can be upgraded to its successor, which normally costs gold: the Warlords manual (p. 11) lists free upgrades, with all experience kept, as one of the two benefits of a unit led by a Great General's Warlord. Experience changes how players treat their units: with promotions, Johnson writes in the manual's afterword (p. 183), "players start to think twice before throwing high-ranked troops into the breach". The War Guide covers putting an army together.

Frequently asked questions

What is the strongest unit in Civ 4? Modern Armor and the Battleship share the top Strength of 40 among the base game's units, per the Warlords manual's charts (pp. 119-128); Modern Armor needs Composites, Flight, Computers, Oil and Aluminum.

What counters mounted units in Civ 4? Spearmen and Pikemen get +100% Strength against mounted units in Civilization 4, per the Warlords manual's charts; the Formation promotion adds +25% against them.

How many units are in Civ 4? Firaxis's feature comparison counted 89 units in Civilization 4 before Warlords and Beyond the Sword added more.

What do siege units do in Civ 4? Civ 4's siege units bombard city defenses (a Catapult by 15% a turn, a Trebuchet or Artillery by 25%) and deal collateral damage to several units in a stack, per the Warlords manual's charts.

Can naval units attack land units in Civ 4? No: in Civilization 4 naval units fight only other naval units, though some can bombard coastal cities' defenses, per the manual (p. 123).

How many attacks can a unit make per turn in Civ 4? One: most Civ 4 units attack once per turn, and the Blitz promotion allows more, while a defender can fight any number of attacks, per the manual (p. 40).