Gold

Gold is one of the four primary resources the player must collect in Age of Empires, Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology. In Age of Empires III, it is replaced by the Coin resource. Gold is used for creating most units and upgrades and is a precious resource which becomes more important as the game progresses.

Mining
In all the games in the series that have gold as a resource, a small number of gold mines are usually found around the map. These can be mined by villagers to generate gold.

Trade
Trade Boats and Merchant Ships can be created at the dock. These can be tasked to visit other players' docks where they will convert food, wood, or stone to gold.

Trade
Trade Carts travel between your market and the market of another player to generate gold. The farther the distance between the two markets, the more gold is generated.

Trade Cogs travel between your dock and the dock of another player to generate gold. The farther the distance between the two docks, the more gold is generated.

Unlike in Age of Empires, trade does not require resources to be spent, aside from the initial cost of the trade cart or trade cog.

The Spanish team bonus increases the amount of gold returned by trade units by 33%.

Market
The Market allows the player to sell food, wood or stone for gold. However, this includes a 30% fee, and each time a resource is sold, the price of that resource will be lowered for all players. For many civilizations the 30% fee can be reduced to 15% by researching Guilds. The Saracens have a reduction of the trading fee to 5% as one of their civilization bonuses.

Relics
Relics can be picked up by monks and put into a player's monastery, where they will slowly generate gold. The Aztec team bonus increases relic gold generation by 33%.

Caravans
Caravans can be built at the market and sent to any allied Town Center. When they return they supply gold; the further away the town center, the more gold they obtain.

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
Unless allied players have set up trade, gold will inevitably run out before food or wood. Gold is required to create the game's most powerful units, such as paladins, siege weapons, and Unique Units, so a player with gold available to them will have a huge advantage over a player without.

The three unit lines which cost no gold are known as "trash units". When fully upgraded, these are the halberdier, the hussar, and the elite skirmisher. They form the bulk of players' armies when gold is scarce late game.

Whether gold is available in the late game can have a huge impact on the viability of certain civilizations: for example, the Turks have very weak trash units, and so are extremely dependent on gold in order to be strong in the late game. The Byzantines, however, excel at trash wars due to their cheaper trash.

Cheats to obtain Gold

 * Age of Empires: Coinage +
 * Age of Empires II: Robin Hood +
 * Age of Mythology: Atm of Erebus +