Units

Pioneer

The Pioneer is the game's settlement unit: it is the only unit that founds cities. It was not built to fight, but unlike the Scout it can attack — its attack is 1.

Its two jobs

1. Lifting the fog. Its vision is 5, and at the start of the match it is your only scout in the field. The unit that carries exploration on is the Scout — it sees further, walks further and does not touch your city cap (Fog of war).
2. Founding cities. On plains or forest, at least 4 hexes from every city on the map — neutral Neutral villages count for that distance too, even though they are not yours. Founding consumes it (Cities and population).

In combat

Its attack is 1 and its defense 1 — its attack is lower than any combat unit's (only the Scout is more fragile), and an Raider takes it down in one blow. Sending a Pioneer out unescorted does not cost you the production you paid; it costs you all the income of the city you never founded.

Letting a wounded Pioneer wait inside your own territory does help: it recovers 2 HP per turn, or 4 if fortified (The turn cycle). But fighting is not the Pioneer's job — and since there is no healing outside your territory, a Pioneer wounded on the road stays wounded. Not walking it into the fog unescorted is still the best protection.

Its cost

A Pioneer's cost rises as your empire grows. While you hold a single city its base cost is 3 production; every further city you own adds 1 production. The cost does not freeze when the Pioneer enters the queue: if your city count changes, the remaining cost and the rush price of a queued Pioneer change too — losing a city makes it cheaper, founding one while it is queued makes it dearer.

Tip

The rising cost does not replace the city cap; both apply. The cost makes the road to the cap more expensive; once the cap is full (base 6, or 7 with the Expansionist line dynasty) no Pioneer can found a city whatever it cost, and there is no reason to build one — the AI opponent plays by exactly that rule, zeroing its Pioneer weight when the cap is reached.

There is a reason in the other direction too: with no Horse pasture or Iron deposit inside your territory, the Raider and the Siege cannot enter a queue at all — and the most direct way to a missing resource is a new city that brings it into your territory. The AI opponent plays by that rule as well: it raises the Pioneer's value while a strategic resource is missing (The AI opponent).

The numbers on this page are read from the game’s balance tables.