Ships (Age of Empires II)

Naval Vessels, also referred to as boats or ships, are the only units in Age of Empires II that can move across water. They can also pass shallow water, but can never move on land. As water is a natural and impenetrable barrier for all units but naval vessels, they are of crucial importance on maps with a lot of water, e.g. Islands, Coastal, or Baltic.

General Information
All naval vessels move quite fast, possess high pierce armor, and high HP. Hence, almost all military vessels are quite capable of battling land units on the shoreline for they can hit-and-run melee units and kill ranged units with their ranged attack and good resistance against arrow fire. But they struggle against siege weapons and also have problems dealing with Monks. Naval vessels all have an attack bonus against buildings, which makes them good raiding units to clear shorelines, but defensive structures deal bonus damage against ships as well, so they should only be attacked if they can be outranged.

All naval vessels are trained at the Dock and cost wood and gold. The both Dark Age vessels, the Fishing Ship and the Transport Ship, only cost wood.

List of Naval Vessels
Marked with yellow background are unique units.

Technologies
Listed below are all technologies that benefit naval vessels:

Civilizations
The best naval civilizations are probably the Berbers, Byzantines, Italians, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vikings.

The Byzantines and Spanish are the only civilizations to have access to all naval units and technologies.

Civilization Bonuses
The following civilizations have bonuses that specifically benefit naval units:
 * Berbers: Ships move +10% faster.
 * Byzantines: Fire Ships attack 20% faster.
 * Chinese: Demolition Ships have +50% HP.
 * Italians: Dock technologies are 50% cheaper. Fishing Ships have +2 LOS.
 * Japanese: Fishing Ships have double HP, +2 pierce armor, and work +5%/+10%/+15%/+20% faster in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Persians: Docks have double HP and work +10%/+15%/+20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Portuguese: Ships have +10% HP.
 * Saracens: Transport Ships have double HP and +5 transport capacity. Galleys attack +20% faster.
 * Spanish: Cannon Galleons benefit from Ballistics.
 * Vikings: War ships are -10%/-15%/-20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.

Team Bonuses
The following civilizations have bonuses that specifically benefit naval units:
 * Japanese: Galleys have +50% LOS.
 * Spanish: Trade Cogs generate +33% more gold.
 * Vikings: Docks cost.

Trivia

 * Naval vessels are the only units to show their origin, like buildings do. Every architecture style has a corresponding sail for their naval vessels (see gallery).