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A road in Civilization V
Game Info
Basic transport infrastructure. Requires The Wheel.
- Constructed on:
- All land tiles except mountains and Natural Wonders; may pass through tiles containing other improvements
- Effect:
- Increased movement speed for units
- Provides a
City Connection City Connection when connecting to the civilization's capital - Allows crossing of rivers without losing MPs after researching Engineering
- Additional movement speed increase after researching Machinery
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Strategy
In Civilization V the roads work a little differently than they do in other games of the franchise. They are still constructed by Workers and allow units to move larger distances within a turn by negating the movement costs of terrain. However, now they have an upkeep cost: roads within your territory cost 1 
Gold Gold per tile per turn.
If a road is within a city's borders, the owner of the city pays for the maintenance of the road, regardless of which player built it. This allows for a potent exploit: sign an open borders treaty with an opponent, then build roads on every hex possible within his or her cultural borders. This will severely weaken your opponent's economy, since the player will lose 1 Gold Gold per turn per road hex. Running out of gold will slow your opponent's scientific progress and force military units to disband, making it difficult for the opponent to discover new technologies and maintain a defensive army without strengthening his or her economy first. Moreover, building roads gives no diplomatic penalty with AI players, who may even propose to extend the open borders treaty.
The effect is twice as potent with railroads, thanks to their doubled maintenance cost. It can, however, be reduced by the Wagon Trains Social Policy from the Commerce tree, which halves maintenance costs for roads and railroads if the player picks it.
Historical Info
A road is a path between places suitable for wheeled traffic. The Romans were famous for the quality of their roads, and in fact many are still in use today - albeit with repairs and improvements made since.