Cities on Impassable Terrain

[Patine]

I've got a question. In ToT, if a city is built on impassable terrain, is it unenterable and uncapturable by units unable to enter impassable terrain? I'm actually hoping so, for a trick I'd like to do, but does anyone know for sure?

[Boco]

Just tested it to be sure. No, unless they have the override, units cannot enter cities on impassable terrain. Seems analogous to land units being unable to enter cities on ocean terrain.

[Patine]

Thanks, Boco! That's just what I was hoping for. It allows for certain possibilities, scenwise...

[Timor_Leste]

Originally posted by Patine
Thanks, Boco! That's just what I was hoping for. It allows for certain possibilities, scenwise...

Something else to think about: at some point, change the impassable terrain so the square can be entered. You could do that for a few select cities, or the whole nation.

[Boco]

Then you encounter a phenomenom on which I rely heavily. When you use ChangeTerrain on a city square, you raze the city and eliminate all its supported units. It's a very handy device to 'withdraw' units.

But...you could always use a batch file to change rules.txt files at some point during the game. A change in the impassable/normal toggle in @TERRAINx is updated immediately upon loading a SAV file. I'm fairly sure it's also true for changing the override in @UNITS_ADVANCED.

You're onto a nifty trick here.

One related question that I'll test later this week: can you use CreateUnit to generate units without the override in an impassable square? I suspect not.

[Timor_Leste]

Originally posted by Boco
You're onto a nifty trick here.

One related question that I'll test later this week: can you use CreateUnit to generate units without the override in an impassable square? I suspect not.

Just when I think I'm figuring this out... That seems like an illogical cause-effect relationship.

So, have you had a chance to test this idea?

[Palaiologos]

Originally posted by Boco
Just tested it to be sure. No, unless they have the override, units cannot enter cities on impassable terrain. Seems analogous to land units being unable to enter cities on ocean terrain.

Yes but can they attack units inside cities on imp.terrain?
Normally they shouldn't.

Can't be arsed to check it myself.

[Mercator]

Hmmm, some more thoughts...

Can a city on impassible terrain build units without the override? I suppose you can build them but once they leave the city, they can't enter again?

Or what if the city is next to Ocean? Can ships still enter it (in case the impassable flag really only affects land units)? And ships carrying units?

How about having some sort of castle terrain type? Engineers could transform a city's terrain into a castle, making the city impenetrable to any unit except air units or units with the override, say, siege or gunpowder units in a medieval setting.

[Timor_Leste]

Originally posted by Mercator
Hmmm, some more thoughts...

Can a city on impassible terrain build units without the override? I suppose you can build them but once they leave the city, they can't enter again?

Or what if the city is next to Ocean? Can ships still enter it (in case the impassable flag really only affects land units)? And ships carrying units?

How about having some sort of castle terrain type? Engineers could transform a city's terrain into a castle, making the city impenetrable to any unit except air units or units with the override, say, siege or gunpowder units in a medieval setting.

All very good questions! I think I'm about to be converted!

[Mercator]

I just checked and found some answers:

Originally posted by Mercator
Can a city on impassible terrain build units without the override? I suppose you can build them but once they leave the city, they can't enter again?

Yes.

Or what if the city is next to Ocean? Can ships still enter it (in case the impassable flag really only affects land units)? And ships carrying units?

No.

[Patine]

This is all really good stuff, and I can see many uses for this set of qualities of impassable terrain (several of which have been mentioned on this thread)!