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| ā | Portuguese unique unit. Boat effective vs. large fleets because each shot damages multiple units. | ā |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Caravel is the second unique unit of the Portuguese in Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms. It can be trained at the Dock once the Castle Age is reached. It is a warship that fires bolts like a Scorpion that can damage multiple enemies.
Caravels can be upgraded to Elite Caravels in the Imperial Age.
Contents
Tactics[edit | edit source]
Caravels deal damage in a straight line with every hit, allowing them to injure and even kill clusters of units on the shoreline, or sink masses of enemy ships in naval combat.
Stat-wise, Caravels are generally superior to War Galleys in most departments except ship-to-ship damage. They will generally lose to War Galleys in one-on-one combat, and an Elite Caravel will be defeated by a Galleon, but a large fleet of them will defeat an armada of those counterparts due to the nature of their projectiles.
A Caravel is slightly more expensive than a War Galley, but it does not need to be upgraded and is available instantly once the Castle Age is reached. Building both Caravels and War Galleys/Galleons in the late game is a good idea only if the player's economy allows it, but doing so will give the player a very effective anti-ship armada at their disposal, with Galleons acting as the main naval force and Caravels acting as a tank unit.
Further statistics[edit | edit source]
As Caravels are unique to the Portuguese, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Transport Ships, Fishing Ships, buildings in the shoreline, melee units in the shoreline, Cannon Galleons, units in dense formation |
| Weak vs. | Fire Ships, Turtle Ships, Longboats, towers, Castles, Mangonels, Bombard Cannons |
| Upgrades | |
| Attack |  Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1)
|
| Range | Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1)
|
| Accuracy |  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
|
| Armor |  Careening (+0/+1) Carrack (+1/+1)
|
| Speed |  Dry Dock (+15%)
|
| Conversion defense |  Faith Heresy
|
| Upgrades |  Elite Caravel
|
Civilization bonuses[edit | edit source]
- Portuguese: Caravels have +10% HP. Caravels cost 20% less gold.
Team bonuses[edit | edit source]
- A team containing Malians: Researching Chemistry and Ballistics is 80% faster.
- A team containing Teutons: Caravels are more resistant to conversion.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Caravels deal bonus damage against the cheat unit Saboteur because it is in the same unit class as ships.
- The Caravel is the only unique naval unit that loses against the Galley-line in one-on-one combat.
- If a Caravel fights against melee units, the bolt will fire backwards, as if it is being deflected by a unit's sword.
- The Caravel model in the game is actually a mixture of different ships. The sail model is the sail of square-rigged caravel, a type of different ship with a galleon hull, while the hull model in the game is from a carrack.
History[edit | edit source]
A caravel is a light sailing ship widely used by the Portuguese during the early modern period for long voyages. Apparently developed by the Portuguese for exploring the coast of Africa, the caravel's chief excellence lay in its capacity for reaching remarkable speed and sailing to windward. Nina and Pinta, two of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus during his historic voyage to the New World in 1492, were caravels.[1]
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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