User Guide

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CIVILIZATION TO
CIVILIZATION II
HIT POINTS & FIREPOWER
Hit points are graphically indicated by the colored strength bar across the top of each unit’s
shield. Both the length of the strength bar and the color are significant. As a unit loses hit
points in an attack, its strength bar gets shorter. In addition, when the unit is reduced to
approximately two-thirds of its full strength, the strength bar changes from green to yellow.
When a unit’s hit points are reduced to around one-third of its full strength, the bar changes
from yellow to red.
Hit points represent a unit’s relative durability in combat situations. Ancient and
unarmed units generally have ten hit points. Units with firearms have 20, and units with
steel armor have 30. Battleships, with their extraordinarily thick armor, are unique in
having 40 hit points. A unit with ten hit points can be hit ten times before being destroyed.
This does not necessarily mean that ten units each hit it one time. Units also have a new
statistic, firepower, which indicates the number of points of damage that unit does each
time it successfully scores a hit.
These new statistics widen the gap between primitive technologies and modern
weaponry. A Musketeers unit with a strength of three attacking Pikemen of strength two has
an “effective strength” of far greater than three, simply because its increased hit points (20,
representing its firearms) allow it to sustain twice as much damage as the Pikemen. A
veteran Phalanx unit might still damage a Battleship, but the chance of utterly demolishing
it is negligible.
RESTORATION
The new stats also bring with them the need for restoration. When combat was all-or-nothing,
defeated units were always destroyed, and victorious units emerged unscathed. Now, victory
is not always without cost. A damaged unit might suffer curtailed movement points and is
vulnerable to counterattacks by further enemy units. So how do you regain full strength?
A damaged unit can partially restore itself by skipping its entire turn — pressing the
z
). Units repair faster when they remain in cities for a full turn. If the city they occupy
has certain improvements, they can heal even more rapidly. Along with its former capacity
for turning out veteran units, a Barracks can repair ground units. The new Port Facility city
improvement can repair naval units, and the new Airport city improvement can repair air
units — in all three cases, the damaged unit is restored to full strength in a single turn.
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