Stone Wall (Age of Empires II)

Stone Walls are a type of strong defensive structure found in Age of Empires II. Almost every civilization can build it, with the only exception being the Goths (who can only build Palisade Wall, and cannot even construct gates). They are available upon upgrading to the Feudal Age from the Town Center.

The Stone Wall can be upgraded to Fortified Wall at the University.

Tactics and Placement
When they are built around the outside of a town, it makes the town very difficult to attack, as any attacking units would have to destroy the wall before attacking any of the other buildings and it offers a warning to the town that their opponents are attacking. Several players in Age of Empires II use Stone Wall in their defenses; however it is usually upgraded to Fortified Wall by the time the opponents get round to attacking them.

Stone Walls are essential when performing a turtling strategy, basically they help  the player to gain some time against enemy troops as the walls blocks critical important areas from the opponents becoming a distraction for their troops while providing defense for friendly ranged units and buildings that can attack the opponents from behind the walls without taking any retaliation from melee units.

Walls should be placed  in strategic points that surrounds and protects the player's settlements or if in a team game in points that may help to defend the team. When placing the player can take in many cases the advantages of the terrain for example placing them next to forests and cliffs ( that may block an opponent) will help the player to enclose an area as they will require less Stone Wall tiles. The support of Towers and Castles is highly valuable  specially in mayor choke points as the walls only serves as a blocking building and can´t attack, placing gates is also required to increase the efficiency of wall defensive structures as the gate allows to friendly units to pass through the wall  while impeding enemy units to enter the walled area.

Having units like archers and ranged siege weapons behind the wall can prove to be a highly efficient way to defend an important location as well, also the support of fast moving melee units like cavalry is worth noting as the cavalry can manage to destroy the opponent siege units that may destroy the walls.

Although highly efective during the Feudal Age and Castle Age, in the Imperial Age Trebuchets, Cannon Galleons , Bombard Cannons and Bombard Towers are capable of firing over them while siege rams become devastating against them,  but even in Imperial age they are still capable to stop and block non siege units. It is a good idea to build walls a fair distance away from important buildings like the town center.

Civilization Bonuses

 * Byzantines: Stone Walls have 10%/20%/30%/40% more Hit Points in Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial age, Town Watch upgrade is free.
 * Spanish: Stone Walls are built 30% faster.
 * Chinese : Technologies that benefits Stone Walls are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in Feudal/Castle/Imperial age.
 * Incas: 15% stone discount on buildings applies to Stone Walls.

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Mayans: Stone walls cost 50% less.

The Forgotten Changes

 * Stone walls take +3 seconds to build
 * Stone walls -50% HP in feudal age
 * Koreans : Build Stone Walls and other defensive structures 25% faster.

History
''Larger and more advanced civilizations upgraded their defenses to stone walls when they could. A well-built stone wall offered protection against raiders because it could be broken down only by a determined effort. To capture a walled town or castle might require a long siege or a battering by powerful siege engines. Stone walls were expensive and time-consuming to build but worth the cost when guarding valuable locations. One famous set of stone walls from the Middle Ages were those guarding the land approaches to Constantinople. These walls withstood intermittent assault over a period of a thousand years. They were partly responsible for deflecting barbarian tribes from the north and east toward Rome, even though Constantinople may have been a more attractive prize. The other famous stone wall of the Middle Ages was the Great Wall of China. Originally constructed in ancient times, it was extended and rebuilt in places by several dynasties. The frontier of China was so long that the Great Wall could not be defended sufficiently to be a shield. It did serve to provide warning of Mongol attack. Most importantly, it slowed the advance and withdrawal of raiders across the frontier, giving the imperial armies a chance to intercept.''