Archery Range (Age of Empires II)

"Used to create and improve archers."

- Age of Empires II description

The Archery Range is a military building in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Feudal Age is reached and a Barracks is built. It trains and improves archers.

Tactics and Placement
The Archery Range is an essential building if the player has an archer-based civilization or if the player needs to have decent counter the enemy archers as the Skirmisher is trained there. If a player is intending to perform a turtling strategy that requires the use of ranged units they should build several Archery Ranges within fortifications, as they can produce the required basic types of archers, also considering that archers garrisoned in Towers and Castles allow them to fire more arrows.

Like the Barracks, placing the Archery Ranges near to an enemy settlement helps to cut off walking distances for the troops as they can be created near the opponent allowing them to attack more effectively, also considering that foot archers have slow movement speed.

Trainable Units and Technologies
Clicking on the icon links to the corresponding page.

Blue: Units

Green: Technologies

Purple: Unique Units

Availability Grid
The following table shows the availability of the units and technologies for every civilization. Unique units and units that are available to all civilizations are not shown in the table. An 'X' in the last column indicates that all units and technologies are available.


 * [[File:Available.png]] = Available
 * [[File:Unavailable.png]] = Unavailable

Civilization Bonuses

 * Aztecs: Archery Range units are created 15% faster.
 * Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
 * Byzantines: Archery Ranges have +20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch is free.
 * Chinese: Technologies that benefit Archery Ranges are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Archery Range technologies are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Khmer: Archery Ranges don't require a Barracks.
 * Malians: Archery Ranges are 15% cheaper.
 * Mayans: Archery Range units are 10%/20%/30% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Persians: Researching Town Watch and Town Patrol is 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Spanish: Archery Ranges are built 30% faster.
 * Vietnamese: Conscription is free.

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Berbers: Genitours/Elite Genitours are available at the Archery Range in the Castle/Imperial Age.
 * A team containing Britons: Archery Ranges work 20% faster.
 * A team containing Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
 * A team containing Slavs: Archery Ranges provide +5 population.
 * A team containing Vietnamese: Imperial Skirmishers are available at the Archery Range in the Imperial Age.

The Conquerors

 * Thumb Ring introduced.
 * Parthian Tactics introduced.
 * Heresy introduced.

History
"Missile weapons like the bow carried over the Middle Ages from ancient times in most areas of the world. Northern Europe was an exception for many centuries because the dense forests of the region nullified the range advantage of bows. Throwing weapons like axes, javelins, and knives were more popular there. As the forests were cleared, use of the bow spread. Training with missile weapons took place at the archery range. The training of bowmen was especially favored in England, where every town had an archery range and competitions were held each week to encourage practice. From its large pool of archers, England could easily recruit several thousand expert longbowmen for armies going to France. As crossbows and early firearms came into use, men were trained to operate these weapons at a modified archery range."