Blacksmith

"Used to improve infantry, archers, cavalry, towers, Town Centers, Castles, and Viking Longboats."

- Age of Empires II description

The Blacksmith is a research building in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Feudal Age is reached. The Blacksmith provides technologies to improve the attack and armor of infantry, cavalry, and archers. Defensive structures and some naval vessels also benefit from the archers' attack upgrades.

Tactics and Placement
As a building incapable of attacking or producing units, the placement of a Blacksmith must not be given much thought. All it needs to do is provide researches and optimally stand until it's done doing so. Once all necessary technologies have been researched, the Blacksmith is a completely useless building and can freely be deleted. Having a Blacksmith is prerequisite to get access to the Siege Workshop. Losing the Blacksmith does not lose the access to the Siege Workshop. In some rare cases, having two Blacksmiths can be of help if time is of essence. But generally speaking, the Blacksmith researches fast enough to make a second one redundant.

Blacksmith upgrades are of key importance in any stage of the game and should be researched as soon as possible. Generally speaking it makes more sense to upgrade the armor of melee units before their attack because that improves their fighting capabilities against ranged units as they live longer and can close the gap easier. For ranged units, it's the other way around, they should have the highest possible damage output in order to prevent melee units from reaching them at all.

Feudal Age

 * Paddedarcherarmor.jpg Padded Archer Armor
 * Fletching.jpg Fletching
 * Forging.jpg Forging
 * Scalemailarmor.jpg Scale Mail Armor
 * Scalebardingarmor.jpg Scale Barding Armor

Castle Age

 * Leatherarcherarmor.jpg Leather Archer Armor
 * Bodkinarrow.jpg Bodkin Arrow
 * Ironcasting.jpg Iron Casting
 * Chainmailarmor.jpg Chain Mail Armor
 * Chainbardingarmor.jpg Chain Barding Armor

Imperial Age

 * Ringarcherarmor.jpg Ring Archer Armor
 * Bracer.jpg Bracer
 * Blastfurnace.jpg Blast Furnace
 * Platemailarmor.jpg Plate Mail Armor
 * Platebardingarmor.jpg Plate Barding Armor

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


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

Civilization Bonuses

 * Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
 * Byzantines: Blacksmiths have +20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch is free.
 * Chinese: Technologies that benefit Blacksmiths are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Blacksmith technologies are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Malians: Blacksmiths are 15% cheaper.
 * Persians: Researching Town Watch and Town Patrol is 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
 * Spanish: Blacksmiths are built 30% faster. Blacksmith technologies don´t cost gold.

Team Bonuses

 * A team containing Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.

The Age of Kings

 * Blacksmiths always have 2100 HP.

The Conquerors

 * Heresy introduced.

The Forgotten

 * Blacksmith HP staggered: 1800/2100/2100 in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.

History
''Iron-working technology had been learned by the barbarian tribes of Europe prior to the fall of Rome and was carried forward into the Dark Ages. Iron working was done at the blacksmith, named partially for the black iron worked there and for the black soot that covered the workers each day. At the blacksmith iron was forged and hammered into tools, weapons shields, and armor. The ability to make superior weapons and armor became a highly prized and well-rewarded skill. Blacksmiths, armorers, and weapon makers moved into the rising middle class.''