Harbor


 * For the Age of Empires III home city building, see Harbor

The Harboris an improved version of the Dock unique to the Malay that can be obtained through the research of Thalassocracy unique technology in the Castle at Castle age. This building has the same purpose as its precursor but in addittion they have attack, more armor and more hitpoints.

Tactics and Placement
Like its predecessor the Dock, this building serve for both economic and naval warfare as it produce all kinds of vessels while also being a drop site for the Fishing Ships and Trade Cogs. They must be used depending the kind of map of the game, also as this building have attack and a bigger amount of hitpoints than the dock, it may be used as part of a fortification with the advantage that this building costs wood.

When playing in maps like Archipelago and Islands having this improvement is crucial for Malay players as the harbors helps to secure the coastline while at the same time they will protect to some extent the malay fishing ships and fish traps that in the case of Malay are a vital part of their economy specially in this kind of maps.

In maps like Coastal, Baltic and Continental among others with important water bodies but in where the settlements aren't separated by islands, the use of harbors can make a huge difference as they can protect the shore along with castles and towers and helps their navy to support better in many situations while still be important for protecting the fishing ships with and fish traps.

In cases like Rivers, Highland and others maps that features rivers and or lakes, having this improvement will aid to perform a turtling strategy as rivers and lakes act as a barrier for land troops while they also like its predecessor can spam a navy that can patrol those bodies of water.

It is important to not leave alone the harbors, even with their attack and improved stamina they can be outranged by many naval unit so is advisable to support them with siege units on the shore and other kind of fortified buildings such as towers or castles, also having a navy defending the harbors helps to defend the shore.

When playing on a team game Harbors are also highly valuable as the naval trade routes can be secured a bit more easily as they provide coverfire to trade cogs that approach so when playing on a team game in a water map with the malays is preferable for the other players to trade with their malay ally instead of trading with other allies.

The Harbor like its predecessor may only be built in shallow water or on shallows, next to the coast.

Technologies and units
The Malay can't access to Heavy demolition Ship, however if a Harbor is converted by an enemy monk they will have this improvement available in the Harbor if they have access to them in their tech tree. This also applies to naval unique units other civilizations have. Units Unique Units
 * Fishing Ship
 * Transport Ship
 * Trade Cog
 * Galley - War Galley - Galleon
 * Fire Galley - Fire Ship - Fast Fire Ship
 * Demolition Raft - Demolition Ship - Heavy Demolition Ship
 * Cannon Galleon - Elite Cannon Galleon
 * Longboat - Elite Longboat
 * Turtle Ship - Elite Turtle Ship
 * Caravel - Elite Caravel
 * Technologies
 * Careening
 * Dry Dock
 * Shipwright
 * Gillnets

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Vikings: Harbors cost 15% less.
 * A team Containing Malay: Harbors have +100% line of sight.