Terrain is a mechanic in Rise of Nations, which can affect the mobility and entrenchment of your land units. There are four types of terrain: flat, Hilly, Semi-Mountainous, and Mountainous. It is possible to view the types of terrains in any area by hovering the cursor on it or by opening the Terrain and identifying the colors. White means the terrain is flat, green means the terrain is hilly, yellow is semi-mountainous, and red is mountainous. Terrain cannot affect naval and aerial units, as they cannot move in land.
Mountainous terrain slows units down the most, followed by semi-mountainous, hilly, and flat, respectively. Terrain can slow down an invasion of any nation, and allow an enemy to make a comeback, or mount a defense in bad terrain. Conversely, bad terrain in a country can help defend better. For example, invading Iran and Ethiopia can be nearly impossible with a lack of good developed and researched units, because nearly no part of it is flat. It is advised to learn to use terrain to your advantage, and to try to avoid it when invading. Then a terrain map mode can be very useful.
Terrain vs Biome[]
Contrary to popular belief, terrain and biome are not the same! Terrain is the physical features of the land, hilly or mountainous for example, while Biomes are the climatic features of the area, Arctic for example.
General Movement Speed Decrease[]
- Flat: No Effect
- Hilly: 30% Slower
- Semi-Mountainous: 50% Slower
- Mountainous: 80% Slower
Velocity of Certain Units[]
It was tested on undeveloped and unresearched units as they can give boosts to mobility, strength and health.
(Infantry), Anti-Aircraft and Artillery[]
Default infantry goes approximately 30 kilometers per second on flat terrain. That means, if one day is one second, then infantry units without any technology upgraded reaches 30 kilometers each day. Hilly terrain is more challenging and takes 14 seconds to reach 220 kilometers. That means their speed is 16 kilometers per game-day. Semi-mountainous terrain equals 12 km/day, and mountainous terrain makes you the slowest, so 6.5 km/day. Thus, it gives a huge advantage for mainly mountainous nations, like Ethiopia, Iran, Peru, or Chile and a huge boost to defending, as entrenchment rises depending on type of terrain.
- Flat terrain: 30 km/day
- Hilly terrain: 16 km/day
- Semi-mountainous terrain: 12 km/day
- Mountainous terrain: approx. 7 km/day
Tanks[]
Tanks are mainly popular for its overpowered strength in early-game stage and its speed and more health by default, but in mountains they aren't as effective as infantry. It's not recommended using tanks in semi-mountainous and mountainous terrain, but they are very fast in hilly and flat terrain.
- Flat terrain: 44 km/day
- Hilly terrain: approx. 31 km/day
- Semi-mountainous terrain: 21 km/day
- Mountainous terrain: approx. 5½ km/day
Visit main article: Entrenchment