A resource is a special commodity that gives bonus yields (such as food or production) to its tile. It may also have an effect across the empire or on cities which have access to it, most notably increased happiness.
The number of resources and complexity of the resource system has steadily increased with each new entry in the Civilization franchise. Some resources such as Peat, Pig, and Rubber have appeared in only one game; others such as Crab, Copper, Sugar, and Stone have been in different resource categories depending on which game is involved.
From Civilization III onward, there are three types of tile resources, some with additional effects apart from increased yield:
- Strategic resources, which are required to build certain units and buildings.
- Luxury resources (sometimes called luxuries), which increase happiness.
- Bonus resources, which simply improve tile yield without other effects.
Civilization
Sid Meier's Civilization includes only 10 distinct resources.
Civilization II
Civilization II includes double the number of resources as its predecessor (20).
Civilization III
Civilization IV
Civilization IV introduces terrain features (removing Oases from the list of resources) and the separate tile improvement system for resources (adding a number of improvements that were later standardized into Pastures, Plantations, Camps, Quarries, and Fishing Boats), as well as resources that don't appear on tiles (i.e., Hit Movies, Hit Musicals, and Hit Singles).
Civilization V
Civilization V reforms the "Hit" resources into Great Works and removes them from the resource system. The concept of unique resources is still present, but instead of being generated by wonders they become associated with special abilities of city-states or civilizations (specifically, Indonesia).
Civilization VI
Civilization VI makes several unique resources available through 
Great People (specifically, Great Merchants) instead. It also treats 
Antiquity Sites and 
Shipwrecks as a fully integrated part of the resource system. In this game, the number of possible luxury resources is large enough that the number which can actually appear on the map is limited to 24 on Large and Huge maps.
Civilization: Beyond Earth
Civilization Revolution
Civilization Revolution 2
CivWorld
Sid Meier's Colonization
FreeCol
Civilization IV: Colonization
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Other games
Resource is not present in (or the article has not been created for) the following games :
| Game | Article |
|---|---|
| Freeciv | Resource (Freeciv) |
| Civilization: Call to Power | Resource (CTP1) |
| Call to Power II | Resource (CTP2) |
| C-evo | Resource (C-evo) |
| Starships | Resource (Starships) |
