[TOT] How do you terraform terrain in TOT Fantasy?

[Afterburner]

I am playing a Fantasy game in Test of Time. I am playing the Mermen.

When the game started, I had an overworld settler and an underwater settler. So I started my empire underwater and never built a city on the surface. Expanded my domain uncontested in the undersea realm and now have a powerful empire of 20 cities.

Problem is, I need to terraform some terrain. I have a few cities that have no irrigated city tiles at all because the path to irrigation is blocked by coral reefs.

But I can't figure out how.

I noticed that when I accidentally hit "o" with my settler units, I would get the message that I needed a Dwarf to do that. So I finally built a city on the surface just so I could build a Skald, and then I sent the Skald over to bribe a barbarian Dwarf.

Only, I can't take the Dwarf underwater. I get the "Inhospitable or blocked" message when I try.

If you look in the Civilopedia, all of the underwater terrain types have an entry for "terraforms into". According to the Civilopedia, coral reef transforms into sea floor, sea beds transform into coral reef, trenches transform into smokers, and so on.

But if I can't get a dwarf down there to terraform those things, how do I terraform?

 

[Afterburner]

Turns out you can get a dwarf underwater if you have the Astral Portal that lets you teleport between cities on another plane.

I was actually surprised. I tried it but figured it wouldn't work. But now I got a d0rf underwater and all is good.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I am playing a Fantasy game in Test of Time. I am playing the Mermen.

When the game started, I had an overworld settler and an underwater settler. So I started my empire underwater and never built a city on the surface. Expanded my domain uncontested in the undersea realm and now have a powerful empire of 20 cities.

Problem is, I need to terraform some terrain. I have a few cities that have no irrigated city tiles at all because the path to irrigation is blocked by coral reefs.

But I can't figure out how.

I noticed that when I accidentally hit "o" with my settler units, I would get the message that I needed a Dwarf to do that. So I finally built a city on the surface just so I could build a Skald, and then I sent the Skald over to bribe a barbarian Dwarf.

Only, I can't take the Dwarf underwater. I get the "Inhospitable or blocked" message when I try.

If you look in the Civilopedia, all of the underwater terrain types have an entry for "terraforms into". According to the Civilopedia, coral reef transforms into sea floor, sea beds transform into coral reef, trenches transform into smokers, and so on.

But if I can't get a dwarf down there to terraform those things, how do I terraform?

Turns out you can get a dwarf underwater if you have the Astral Portal that lets you teleport between cities on another plane.

I was actually surprised. I tried it but figured it wouldn't work. But now I got a d0rf underwater and all is good.

I discovered that trick a long time ago. You can also teleport a Dwarf up to the Clouds to do terraforming (it has weird results on the Magic Clouds) and it's a lot faster to build roads, rail lines, and clean up pollution.

Terraforming the ocean floor takes a looooong time, though, so you should bribe as many Dwarves as possible, and make sure you have enough Wizards on hand to protect them from those disgusting barbarian creatures (can't remember the name, but they're not easy to kill).

Fun fact: If you play the Buteo, you can teleport birds to the Underworld and you can have birds in the underwater realm. Just bribe a Kraken, have the bird unit stop its turn on the Kraken, and then take the Kraken underwater. The bird will go with it. This is very useful for exploring, as they can cross impassible terrain that ground units can't cross.

Another fun thing about teleporting in the fantasy world... you can teleport Shield Boats to the Underground realm so you can travel to and build cities on the "islands" (you might need to take a Dwarf to terraform, first). This is very useful if the Dragon is off somewhere inaccessible. Shield Boats are also useful in the Cloud world, to take trade goods from city to city.