Villager (Age of Empires II)

"Gathers wood, food, stone, gold. Builds and repairs buildings. Also repairs ships, siege weapons."

- Age of Empires II description

The Villager is a civilian unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Town Center. Villagers are the backbone of every civilizations' economy, performing key tasks such as resource gathering and building construction. The only unit to be either male or female, a newly created Villager is randomly assigned gender at the Town Center.

All civilizations, except for the Chinese and Mayans (who start with six and four Villagers, respectively), begin a standard game with three Villagers. While they perform ineffectively in combat conditions and cease their tasks when attacked, a few can be useful when positioned in the rear of an army, enabling them to repair damaged siege weapons or construct military buildings to reinforce an army. Spanish Villagers with Supremacy receive a strong boost to their combat stats, making them viable for combat in the early Imperial Age.

Tasks
Villagers may be assigned with different tasks. Accordingly, their titles will change to the corresponding task they are currently completing.
 * Villager - attacks enemy units or structures or wild animals
 * Builder - constructs buildings
 * Farmer - gathers food from a Farm
 * Fisherman - gathers food from fish schools near the shore
 * Forager - gathers food from bushes
 * Lumberjack - gathers wood from trees
 * Miner - gathers gold or stone from mines
 * Shepherd - herds herdables near a Town Center or Mill, and gathers food from them
 * Hunter - kills and gathers food from non-herdable animals
 * Repairer - repairs buildings, ships and siege units

Gathering rates
Villagers gather resources from different sources at a different speed. The table below shows all gathering rates in descending order.

Note that the actual gathering rate of Farmers is lower due to the necessity of walking around on the Farm. The walking time is time in which the Villager is technically idle and does not gather. Taking the walking time into account, the average gathering rate of Farmers is 0.44 food/second (with Hand Cart; without Wheelbarrow it is 0.4). Also taking into account that Farmers need additional walking time to get to the gathering spots on the Farms (and back), their net food production is practically even lower.

Buildings
Villagers can construct the following buildings:

Dark Age= Multiple Villagers can be used to construct a building faster. If t is the time required for one Villager to construct a building, and n is the number of Villagers used, the building time will be $$\tfrac{3t}{n+2}$$. This means the first Villager works three times as fast as any additional one and that it is more efficient to split Builders up when constructing multiple buildings, unless a key building has to be constructed quickly (e.g. a Castle or a Town Center).
 * (unavailable to the Huns)
 * -|Feudal Age=
 * (unavailable to the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas)
 * (unavailable to the Goths)
 * (unavailable to the Goths)
 * -|Castle Age=
 * (unavailable to the Goths and Huns)
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (if the player currently doesn't own a Town Center, one Town Center may be built in earlier Ages already)
 * (Malay only)
 * -|Imperial Age=
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (Portuguese only)
 * (unavailable to the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas)
 * (unavailable to the Goths)
 * (unavailable to the Goths)
 * -|Castle Age=
 * (unavailable to the Goths and Huns)
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (if the player currently doesn't own a Town Center, one Town Center may be built in earlier Ages already)
 * (Malay only)
 * -|Imperial Age=
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (Portuguese only)
 * (Malay only)
 * -|Imperial Age=
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (unavailable to several civilizations)
 * (Portuguese only)
 * (Portuguese only)

Repairing
Villagers can repair buildings, siege weapons, and ships. Doing so saves resources, although for buildings it may be a lot slower than constructing a new one. Villagers can repair from two tiles away - This is mainly meant to make repairing ships on the shore easier, but it also makes it possible to repair a unit or tower that has been fully walled, e.g. a tower.

Costs
Repairing a building or unit from 1 hit point to full health costs half of the originally required resources. The costs are deducted from the resource stockpile as the repair progresses, instead of being paid at the start and repairing partly will cost the appropriate amount (So repairing only half of the HP costs 25% of the original cost). Discounts also apply, e.g. a Franks player will only pay to fully repair a Castle. If a player runs out of resources during a repair, the Villagers stop repairing and remain idle until they are retasked. Upgrades that increase the hit points of buildings do not affect repair costs.

The Town Center is an exception to the cost rule: It costs and no stone to repair fully, but the stone stockpile can't be empty or the Villagers won't be able to start repairing, even though no stone is consumed in the actual repair. Discounts for Town Centers do not apply to repairing.

Since The African Kingdoms, there is an exception to the exception: During the Dark Age, Town Centers cost the normal amount of wood and stone to repair.

Speed
For buildings, the first Villager will repair 750 hit points per minute, and any additional Villager will add 375 HP/minute to that (and thus will be only half as fast). This is the same regardless of the type of building, any upgrades or the original amount of hit points. Treadmill Crane does not affect the repair speed.

In most cases, constructing new building will be faster than repairing and may be preferable despite the higher cost (e.g. when replacing a damaged wall section).

Siege weapons and ships are repaired at 25% of the speed of buildings, so 187.5 HP/minute for the first and 93.75 HP/minute for any additional Villager.

Civilization bonuses

 * Aztecs: Villagers carry +5.
 * Berbers: Villagers move 10% faster.
 * Britons: Shepherds work 25% faster.
 * Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
 * Celts: Lumberjacks work 15% faster. Villagers can convert herdables even if enemy units are next to them.
 * Chinese: Technologies that benefit Villagers are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Start with +3 Villagers, but with -200 food and -50 wood.
 * Franks: Foragers work 25% faster.
 * Goths: Villagers have +5 attack against Wild Boars and wild Elephants and carry +15 meat.
 * Incas: Villagers benefit from Blacksmith infantry upgrades.
 * Indians: Villagers are cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Fishermen work 15% faster and carry +15 food.
 * Khmer: Villagers can garrison in Houses.
 * Koreans: Villagers have Line of Sight. Villagers gather stone 20% faster. Fortifications are built.
 * Magyars: Villagers kill wild animals with one strike.
 * Mayans: Start with +1 Villager, but with -50 food. Natural resources last 15% longer.
 * Mongols: Hunters work 50% faster.
 * Persians: Villagers are created 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Slavs: Farmers work 15% faster.
 * Spanish: Builders work 30% faster.
 * Turks: Gold Miners work faster.
 * Vikings: Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart are free.

Team bonuses

 * A team containing Incas: Farms are built 50% faster.
 * A team containing Teutons: Villagers are more resistant to conversion.

The Age of Kings

 * Villagers have +3 attack against stone defense.
 * Turks: Gold Miners work 15% faster.

The Conquerors

 * Villagers now have +6 attack against stone defense.
 * Heresy introduced.
 * Koreans: Initially, Villagers have +2 Line of Sight. With patch 1.0c, Villagers have +3 LOS.
 * Mayans: Natural resources last 20% longer.

The Forgotten

 * Villagers can now be garrisoned in Rams.
 * Indians: Villagers are 5%/10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Mayans: Natural resources now last 15% longer.
 * Koreans: Villagers now build fortifications 25% faster.

The African Kingdoms

 * Indians: Villagers are now 10%/15%/20%/25% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Turks: Gold Miners now work 20% faster.

Trivia

 * Villagers are the only unit in the game to be either male or female.
 * The Villager is one of only three trainable units to have two different designs, the other being the Monk and the Trade Cart.
 * Male and female Villagers use different weapons when they fight or gather. Male Villagers use a poniard while female Villagers use a knife.
 * The female Villager is one of only two regular female units in the game, the other one being the Gbeto.
 * With just 25 base hit points, the Villager is the weakest of all units.

History
"The great percentage of people in the Middle Ages were peasants, serfs, and lowly villagers who gathered the food and did most of the work. They supported a relatively small class of religious leaders and nobleman who controlled the wealth and power of the community. The life of the peasant and serf was hard but improved as feudalism gave way to social systems that allowed the workers to retain more of their produce. Many peasants moved into the middle class of the growing cities. Those who remained on the farms saw their production and wealth increase thanks to specialization and many technological improvements in agriculture."