Dominions 3: The Awakening/Terrain

Terrain plays a major role in Dominions. The type of terrain in a province dictates the amount of gold and resources that might be available there, it affects the (random) magic sites that may appear in the province as well as the likelihood and number of such sites, it affects the supplies that are available to passing armies, and it affects the performance of troops in battles that take place in the province.

Terrain Types
There can be many different terrain types in a given province. For instance, there can be both Mountains and Waste in a province, or even Farmlands and Waste. Some terrain types are mutually exclusive however, like Swamp and Sea.

Plains
The "Plains" terrain type is not actually listed in Dominions 3 like it was in the previous Dominions games. If a provinces has no other terrain type, it is assumed to be "Plains". There is a chance to find a magic site, especially a Astral site, in such a province.

Farmland
Farmland provinces are usually well populated and give you much gold and population (tax base, blood slaves). The chance of finding a magic site is very low in Farmland provinces.

Swamp
Units without the "Swamp Survival" ability get penalties for moving through swamp provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). Units with swamp survival fight better in swamps than other units (see table below). The chance to find a magic site in a swamp province is better than in a farmland province.

Waste
Units without the "Waste Survival" ability get penalties for moving through waste provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). The chance to find a magic site, especially a death site, is good.

Forest
Units without the "Forest Survival" ability get penalties for moving through forest provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). The chance to find a magic site, especially a nature site, is good. Some nature spells like Faery Trod or Beckoning work only in forest provinces.

Mountain
Mountain provinces are usually resource rich, but low populated. Making a castle in such a province is a good idea to produce high-resource units like knights. Units without the "Mountain Survival" ability get penalties for moving through mountain provinces (strategic movement reduced to 1, except flying units). The chance to find a magic site, especially a earth or fire site, is good.

Border Mountain
A few provinces might be rolling plains or forests, but on one border a towering chain of mountains rise over the landscape. Border mountains do not affect movement in the province in question, but units are unable to cross the mountains as they are considered too high and way too impractical to even try. Increased chances of magical sites.

Sea
A Sea province is a underwater province. Sea provinces can only entered by amphibious or aquatic units. A commander with the sailing ability can move over one sea province into another land province, but cannot enter the sea province. Usually, sea provinces give much gold and have a good chance to contain magic sites. The special site-searching spell Voice of Tiamat finds all elemental sites (Fire, Earth, Air, Water) in a underwater province. Only some spells work underwater and only some nations build castles or raise province defense in underwater provinces.

Deep Sea
see Sea above.

Coastal
Any land province neighboring a underwater province is a costal province. Some rituals like Lure of the Deeps affect only costal provinces.

Economic Effects
The terrain type in a province affects money, production, starting population as well as supply. The map-wide relative availability/scarcity of money, production, and supply are determined in the settings menu during game creation.

However changes in the Dominion scales as well as the current population during the game will also massively affect the economies of individual provinces. Essentially terrain type determines the "basic" economic possibilities of gold, production and supply, scales create a temporary "modifier" that adjust the basic economy up or down, and population determines a permanent "multipler" that will either grow or shrink the basic economy.

For example a profitable farmland province under high Order will hardly be affected by Productivity or Sloth scales, but can become a poor provider under Chaos, albeit only temporarily till the scales change again. On the other hand, Growth or Death scales will respectively increase or decrease the population, leaving a permanent impact even if the scales change later. A province with 0 population is effectively dead. It produces 0 gold and only 1-2 production points, offers minimal supply and will never grow again (unless there is a random event that new settlers migrate there). If a death scale becomes the predominant Dominion on the map, province ownership will slowly become economically irrelevant.

Tax and unrest is completely independent of terrain, but also has a huge inpact on gold. Taxation in a province is the only modifier that can be freely changed by the owner. But taxation affects unrest, so the players have heavy direct influence over unrest as well.

This table doesn't take into account natural nor conjured disasters nor the effects of pillaging and patrolling.

Site Likelihood
Magic sites are more likely to be found in some provinces and less likely to be found in others. Each site present in a province increases the likelihood of there being another, up to a maximum of 4 sites possible. Whether magic sites are plentiful or scarce is determined in the settings menu during game creation, with 40% considered "normal".

In general, Mountain and Forest terrain will contain more magic sites while Farmland will contain fewer.

Gem Types
Beyond the overall chance of finding a site of any kind in a province, the type of terrain in a province affects the likelihood of certain magic sites over other sites. For instance, you are more likely to find a site that provides Nature gems in a forest province than a Waste province.

These are types of gem sites that are associated with a particular terrain type, where P is primary and S is secondary.

Combat Effects
Certain terrain types will adversely affect units if they do not have a countering property. For instance, units without the Swamp Survival skill suffer from increased endurance penalties when fighting in Swampy terrain.