The Academy is the equivalent of University in Age of Empires II. The only difference between the two is that Academies (for Chronicles civilizations) do not get access to any equivalent of Bombard Tower, since gunpowder units are not present in Chronicles.
As a building incapable of attacking or producing units, the placement of a Academy must not be given much thought. All it needs to do is provide researches and optimally stand until it is done doing so. Once all necessary technologies have been researched, the Academy is a completely useless building and can freely be deleted (unless it is walling out an area of importance, in which case it should be replaced).
As the Academy provides essential technologies for defensive structures and missile-firing units, it should be built as soon as enough wood is available, especially when a turtling strategy is chosen or the player goes heavy on ranged units. Target Practice (Classical Age) and Flaming Arrows (Imperial Age) are the most important technologies here available for all civilizations and as such, their research should be prioritized. Murder Holes is also critical for defense and is available to all.
Since most Academy technologies are very situational, players (including the AI ones) hardly ever build more than one per game.
Technologies[]
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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.