Are mountain tiles of any value?

[hyperion]

Besides forming a natural barrier against enemies, is there any reason to want one? I mean should I buy those, what will I do with them?

[Lemurian1972]

1) They have high appeal, great for National Parks.
2) Ski Resorts
3) Tunnels
4) Machu Picchu Wonder
5) Playing as Pachacuti mountains can be worked for food and production.

[Dray Prescot]

They also give bonuses to some adjacent Districts, i.e. Campus and Holy Site, but you do not need to own them to get those bonuses. The high appeal is very useful for tourism and in particular, to get a lot of Housing out of Neighborhood Districts, up to 6 Housing for Breathtaking Appeal, but again you do not need to own them for that.

The only things that need ownership for Mountain tiles are those listed by @Lemurian1972.

You should try playing the Inca, they are a very interesting Civ and their Mountain passes that their Builders can build are very useful: ANY and ALL Passes in the SAME Mountain Range are essentially the same location, i.e. you can come in one one of them and leave from any other Pass in the same Mountain Range for a total of 2 movements. Their Terrace Farms are very nice also, not only do the Terrace Farms get their Food Production increased by 2 Food, but any adjacent Mountain Tiles get 1 Food Productions as well for EACH adjacent Terrace Farm. So a Mountain Tile with 3 adjacent Terrace Farms will produce 3 Food and 2 Production when owned and worked by a population point.

Late in the game, Tunnels in the same Mountain Range, work similarly.

The Machu Picchu Wonder is very useful for any non Inca Civ.

[hyperion]

Thanks, everyone. I didn't even know about tunnels. I assume I'm not even close to the tech level to see those yet...

[weraptor]

They are only available in the GS dlc.

[gimmethegepgun]

Yeah, if you aren't playing GS then the only thing you get out of actually having them in your territory is the ability to put them in a national park, and to see/expand your borders to tiles adjacent to it.