Food

Food is a primary resource players must collect in all titles of the Age of Empires series, including Age of Mythology.

Players must constantly be gathering food for creating units, researching technologies, sending shipments, and advancing their empire through all the Ages.

Hunting
Other than gathering berries, hunting Animals and Wild Game is the first way that a player can go about gathering food. During the early parts of the game, hunting is by far the best way to acquire food for one's settlement as the gather rates are faster than any other source of food. Animals can be found in groups all through the maps, when one is shot, the others will run in the opposite direction.

This can be useful, because with enough patience, one can use his/her units to herd them closer to the Storage pit or Town Center in Age of Empires or the Mill in Age of Empires II. The major downside of Animals is that they are non-sustainable and players will do a lot of traveling to get to find them.

There are animals in the game that can not be hunted such as Birds or Turtles as well as animals such as Wolves who can be killed but do not provide Food. It is important to note that in all Age of Empires games, the Food content of an animal deteriorates over time; thus, ideally animals should be collected by either a large amount of villagers, (extract all the food at once) or by three or four villagers spaced out so at least one is gathering, one is dropping food off at a Food drop off point, and another is returning from dropping off Food. For Age of Empires III, this is not necessary however because villagers do not need to drop off resources. There is still a deterioration factor.

Gathering
Forage bushes are typically scattered throughout the map in clumps at the start of the game. These are used early on since they produce food at a high rate and are relatively accessible, allowing a boost for budding civilizations. The advantages of Forage Bushes over hunting is that they are fixed in one location throughout the game and the Food does not deplete over time, making gathering Food more efficient. These food sources usually do not last very long because they are not very common and do not replenish once each bush is consumed.

Farming
In Age of Empires, Farms can be built by villagers only after the player builds a Market starting from the Tool Age. They contain a limited quantity of food.

Farms in Age of Empires II are similar to those in Age of Empires, except that the player must first build a Mill, and that they can be replanted by right clicking, (or through the use of queue in The Conquerors) and that they no longer obstruct unit movement nor that multiple Villagers can farm a single Farm.

Farms in Age of Mythology are different from the Age of Empires and Age of Empires II Farms because they have infinite food.

Farms in Age of Empires III are replaced by Mills (only for the European civilizations) which is different than other Food related buildings in the Age of Empires series. Instead of producing only a limited supply of food, they produce infinite food at a rate determined by the number of gatherers, with as many as ten working on one Mill. In WarChiefs, the Native American tribes can build Farms, which are inexhaustible and function as both a Mill and Livestock Pen. For The Asian Dynasties, Rice Paddies are available which can be tasked to generate food or coin.

Farms are critical to a player, especially in long games, since many initial sources of food are exhausted before the end of the game. They take up space, though, and require wood to build, so other sources of food tend to be more effective while they last.

Markets
Gold can be traded for Food. Food can be obtained this way in all versions except for Age of Empires. This is because Age of Empires Markets do not support a resource exchange.

Fishing
Fishing boats, Caravels, Villagers can usually gather fish if there is a significant amount of water on the map. Fishing is arguably the best form of food collection, along with Farms, because boats are cheap, cost only wood, and they don't waste Villagers. Task the food-collecting Villagers to trees instead.

Fishing is most effective in Age of Mythology because fishing spots contain an infinite amount of Food.

Herding (Age of Empires II onwards)
Age of Empires II introduced Sheep as a domestic animal with more types on later games. They could be found anywhere on the map as Gaia/"Mother Nature" units and when come to contact with a playable unit, their collars turns into the color of the player's chosen color and could be controlled, but if they get contacted with enemy unit, they immediately turn into enemy player's control but can be taken back by the same means.

When tasking a Villager on a domestic animal, he will herd them to the Town Center or the nearest Food drop site and slaughter them one by one and starts gathering meat of them similar to a hunted animal.

List of the herdable animals:
 * Sheep (Age of Empires II onwards)
 * Turkeys (The Conquerors, found on Meso-American maps)
 * Cow (The Forgotten, Age of Empires III and Age of Mythology)
 * Pig (Age of Mythology only)
 * Goat (Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III (The Asian Dynasties, Chinese only))
 * Llama (Age of Empires III, and  Age of Empires II: The Forgotten)

Fish Traps (Age of Empires II only)
Similar to farms, they are built by only Fishing Ships. Each Fish Trap contains 715 food and are built by using. They will eventually run out of Food over time and must be rebuilt again in order to continue to provide more Food. They are superior to farms in that fishing boats can gather from them (freeing villagers to gather other resources); however, farms with many high-end upgrades can exceed their Food production rate.

Factory (Age of Empires III only)
Factories can be set to produce an infinite supply of Food, as well as Wood and Coin. They also have the ability to produce various types of canons until the pop cap it reached. It is available once the player obtains a "Factory" card from their Home City. Factories are available for construction only during or after the Industrial Age.

Other methods
Building Trading Posts (Age of Empires III) is another way to obtain Food, and produce around 100 units in a selected resource for free each time a Travois, Carriage or Train makes a full loop around a trade route.

Age of Empires III also offers the option of Home City shipment cards as a means to get extra Food. Once selected, Food arrives in the form of Crates to the Shipment Point which by default is Town Center. Villagers must work on them to unpack them to the food supply.

Civilization differences:
 * Every Civilization can ship 300 Food card infinitely in the Discovery Age.
 * Every Civilization may ship both 600 Food and 700 Food cards in the Colonial Age.
 * Every Civilization except the Ottomans may ship 1000 Food card in the Fortress Age.
 * The Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Russians may ship 1600 Food card in the Industrial Age.
 * The Ottomans may ship and share TEAM Silk Road card which will increase all the food, wood and coin shipping containers above from 100 to 130 among allied players as well.
 * Every Shipment Card can be unlocked among the New World Trading cards in the consequent order as listed below.
 * TEAM Silk Road however requires 1000 Coin to be unlocked.

Cheats to obtain Food

 * Age of Empires:  Pepperoni Pizza +
 * Age of Empires II: Cheese Steak Jimmy's + (+  since The Forgotten)
 * Age of Empires III: Medium Rare Please +
 * Age of Mythology: JUNK FOOD NIGHT +