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This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For the building in other games in the series, see Castle.

ā€œUsed to create your unique unit, build Trebuchets, and improve villagers and buildings.ā€
Age of Empires II description

The Castle is a defensive structure and military building in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Castle Age is reached. It is an important building in later stages of the game, through being a powerful fortification and by providing access to unique technologies, unique units, and Trebuchets.

Castles also support 20 population and cannot be converted.

When playing Regicide games, each player starts with an additional Castle near their Town Center and Treason is available instead of Spies.

Further statistics[]

Strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs. Ships, archers, Monks, frail melee units
Weak vs. Rams, Armored Elephants, Trebuchets, Bombard Cannons, Tarkans, Huskarls, War Elephants, Cannon Galleons
Conditional matchups Massed heavy melee units in the Imperial Age, like Paladins and Champions
Technologies
Hit points Masonry aoe2de Masonry (+10%)
ArchitectureDE Architecture (+10%)
HoardingsDE Hoardings (+21%)
Attack FletchingDE Fletching (+1)
BodkinArrowDE Bodkin Arrow (+1)
BracerDE Bracer (+1)
ChemistryDE Chemistry (+1)
HeatedShotDE Heated Shot (+4 against ships and Fishing Ships)
UniqueTechCastle-DE Svan Towers (+2, Georgians only)
UniqueTechImperialDE Citadels (+4 base, +3 against rams, +3 against infantry, Persians only)
Range FletchingDE Fletching (+1)
BodkinArrowDE Bodkin Arrow (+1)
BracerDE Bracer (+1)
MurderHolesDE Murder Holes (eliminates minimum range)
UniqueTechImperialDE Crenellations (+3, Teutons only)
Accuracy BallisticsDE Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Additional projectiles UniqueTechImperialDE Crenellations (Garrisoned infantry fire arrows, Teutons only)
Armor Masonry aoe2de Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
ArchitectureDE Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
Damage resistance UniqueTechImperialDE Citadels (-25% bonus damage, Persians)
Attack speed UniqueTechCastle-DE Stronghold (+33%, Celts only)
Line of Sight TownWatchDE Town Watch (+4)
TownPatrolDE Town Patrol (+4)
Resource cost UniqueTechCastle-DE Detinets (+260 wood, -260 stone, Slavs only)
Build speed TreadmillCraneDE Treadmill Crane (+20%)
Work rate ConscriptionDE Conscription (+33%)
UniqueTechCastle-DE Kasbah (+25% for allies, Berbers only)
Healing HerbalDE Herbal Medicine (garrisoned units heal 6x faster)
Ability UniqueTechCastle-DE Stronghold (allied infantry regenerate 30 hit points/min in 18 tiles square, Celts only)
Other UniqueTechImperialDE Cuman Mercenaries (allies can train train 5 Elite Kipchaks for free per Castle, Cumans only)
Civilization bonuses
Hit points CivIcon-Byzantines Byzantines (+30%/+40% in Castle/Imperial Age)
Attack CivIcon-Tatars Tatars (+20% damage {+50% instead of +25%} from elevations, primary projectile only)
Damage resistance CivIcon-Georgians Georgians (-20% {-40% instead of -25%} on higher elevations)
Resource cost CivIcon-Franks Franks (-15%/-25% in Castle/Imperial Age)
CivIcon-Incas Incas (-15%)
Creation speed CivIcon-Aztecs Aztecs (+11%)
Build speed CivIcon-Romans Romans (+5%)
CivIcon-Sicilians Sicilians (+50%)
CivIcon-Spanish Spanish (+30%)
Other CivIcon-Romans Romans (repaired +5% faster)
Team bonuses
Other CivIcon-Georgians Georgians (repairing costs -25%)

Supplementary[]

Civilization bonuses
Team bonuses

The only civilizations that can fully upgrade their Castle (getting Architecture, Hoardings, and Bracer, excluding Heated Shot and Treadmill) are the Britons, Burgundians, Georgians, Gurjaras, Italians, Khmer, Lithuanians, Mayans, Spanish, Turks, and Vikings.

Tactics and placement[]

The Castle is the most versatile defensive building in the game. Its combination of high damage output and incredible durability makes it the centerpoint of a player's defense, as it can deter almost any unit from approaching it. Its high garrison space also aids it in this regard, making raiding nigh impossible around a Castle. As great as it is in a player's base, it is just as effective at securing a strategic position on the map, whether it be a chokepoint, contested resource (such as the Gold pile on Gold Rush), or the area outside of an opponent's base.

A more offensive use of a Castle is a Castle drop, which involves placing Castles near or in the enemy's base, a daunting task given the Castle's offensive presence. However, the Castle's very long build time (200 seconds) makes this very risky. This is also compounded with another major weakness of the Castle: its cost. 650 stone is a very heavy price; even losing one Castle can be a major setback.

Long-ranged siege units are the greatest threat for castles. Fortunately, the Castle can create Trebuchets, granting a great counter to enemy Trebuchets and Castles. This dynamic can lead to "Trebuchet Wars" when two Castles of opposing sides are close to each other, where each side tries to amass Trebuchets to take down the other side's Trebuchets and Castles.

If running for a Relic or Wonder victory, Castles can become very useful to build up the defense of the Wonder or the Monasteries holding Relics, but the support of other structures such as Walls and Towers is also required. The player must also have sufficient numbers of troops (especially cavalry) to counter enemy siege units. In Regicide games, the Castle is a safe (yet obvious) place for the King.

Attack and range damage[]

An empty Castle is able to fire five arrows at a time, with a base damage of 11 each. Garrisoning either Villagers or archers adds additional arrows to the Castle's fire, up to maximum of 21. One base arrow and 20 additional arrows are fired. The Castle inherently already has 4 "power" which is listed in the attack with parenthesis. Not all garrisoned units add the same number of arrows, their value is generally dependent on two factors: attack and Rate of Fire. The more damage output the garrisoned units have, the higher the number of arrows fired.

For a Teuton player with Crenellations researched, garrisoned infantry add arrows as if they were Villagers. Hence, fully garrisoning infantry enables the Castle to fire 7 extra arrows.

The following table shows the maximum number of arrows a Castle can fire, when it is garrisoned with units of the same type:

Unit type Number of units required Number of arrows fired
MaleVillDEFEMALEVILLDE Villager 20 14 (9 extra)
Archer aoe2DE Archer 20 12 (7 extra)
Crossbowman aoe2DE Crossbowman 20 14 (9 extra)
Arbalester aoe2DE Arbalester / Cavalryarcher aoe2DE Cavalry Archer 20 15 (10 extra)
Hand cannoneer aoe2DE Hand Cannoneer 20 21 (16 extra)[note 1]

Strengths and weaknesses[]

Trainable units and technologies[]

Clicking on the icon leads to the corresponding page.

Blue: Units
Green: Technologies
Purple: Unique units
Castle
Dark Age
ā†’
Feudal Age
ā†’
Castle Age
ā†’
Imperial Age
Unique unit
ā†’
Elite unique unit
Petard Trebuchetavailable
Unique technology 1 Unique technology 2
Hoardingsavailable
Sappersavailable
Conscription
Spies

Changelog[]

AoE2-DLCicon-0 The Age of Kings[]

  • Castles have 10 Line of Sight.
  • Castles take 150 seconds to build.
  • CivIcon-Franks Franks: Castles are 25% cheaper.

AoE2-DLCicon-1 The Conquerors[]

AoE2-DLCicon-2 The Forgotten[]

AoEIIDE icon Definitive Edition[]

AoE2Icon-DynastiesIndia Dynasties of India[]

  • CivIcon-Slavs Slavs: Detinets introduced.
  • CivIcon-Celts Celts: With update 81058, Stronghold effect is 33% attack speed to Castles. Additionally, it now heals allied infantry near Castles by 30 HP per minute.
  • CivIcon-Sicilians Sicilians: With update 81058, Castles are built 50% faster.

AoE2Icon-ReturnRome Return of Rome[]

AoE2Icon-MountainRoyals The Mountain Royals[]

Aoe2 hb Victors and Vanquished[]

Variations[]

Each architecture set has a unique design for the Castle, and the civilizations introduced in the expansions for the Definitive Edition also have unique Castles:

  • The Western European Castle resembles the front gate of Bodiam Castle in England.
  • The Central European Castle has a blocky design with four tall towers and two shorter ones with a bridge in between, bearing a distinct (but unexpected) resemblance to Rochester Castle in England.
  • The Eastern European Castle resembles the Malbork Castle in Poland.
  • The Mediterranean Castle in the HD Edition seems based on Torrechiara Castle in Parma, Italy. In the Definitive Edition, the new design looks like FĆ©nis Castle.
  • The East Asian Castle is very similar to the main Keep of Japan's Osaka Castle.
  • The Native American Castle resembles the Mayan temples in Palenque, Mexico.
  • The Middle Eastern Castle resembles a simplified version of the Castel Nuovo in Naples, Italy, but with decorative elements from the gates and round towers at Saladin's Cairo Citadel. The merlons are Moorish style, like those in the Almoravid Qubba.
  • The Indian/Dravidian Castle appears to be based on the Kumbhalgarh Fort in Rajasthan, though the official site claims inspiration from Golconda Fort in Hyderabad and fortresses in Karnataka.[1]
  • The African Castle resembles Almoravid adobe architecture like the Koubba and AĆÆt Benhaddou in Morocco.
  • The Southeast Asian Castle resembles the Khmer temples in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
  • The Central Asian Castle has some architecture similarities to the Herat Citadel in Afghanistan, particularly with the round towers and wall elements.
  • The Burgundian Castle is based on Flemish castles such as the Beersel Castle.
  • The Sicilian Castle is based on the Castello Ursino in Catania, Sicily.
  • The Bohemian Castle is based on the KarlÅ”tejn Castle.
  • The Polish Castle is based on the Będzin Castle.
  • The Gurjara Castle is based on the Gwalior Fort.
  • The Bengali Castle is based on Lalbagh Fort.
  • The Roman Castle is based on Roman Castrum forts.
  • The Armenian Castle is based on Yılankale Hill Fort (name in Turkish, in Armenian: Levonkla).
  • The Georgian Castle is based on Akhaltsikhe Castle.

Trivia[]

  • The Castle is the most expensive military building in the game.
  • The East Asian Castle costs the same stone as other Castles, even though it seems to be made more of wood than stone.
  • The Aztecs lack every HP and armor upgrade for their Castles (Hoardings, Masonry, and Architecture), arguably giving them the worst Castles out of all civilizations. Fortunately, they do not rely as much on their unique unit as other civilizations.
  • The Teutons with Crenellations (+3 range and garrisoned infantry fire arrows) have the strongest Castles in-game.
  • The Huns have the most useless Castle, since both their unique technologies are very situational. Additionally, their Tarkans are also not very useful in most cases. They also lack every HP upgrade except Masonry, making their Castle extremely weak. As a result, the main usage for them is researching Conscription and making Trebuchets.
  • The Slavs with Detinets have the cheapest Castles in-game in terms of stone cost, needing 390 stone, while the Franks need 488 stone.
  • The Native American Castle resembles a sacrificial temple from the Palenque archaeological site, even though Palenque itself contains a fortified palace (thus the name Palenque, an old Spanish word for fortress). Tall pyramid temples like this were occasionally used as improvised strongholds (the most notable example being the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in the 1521 siege), but an entrance at the bottom of the stairs as depicted would defeat such purpose.
  • Due to an oversight, the Hindustanis Castle has the same snow and garrison flag locations as the Middle Eastern Castle, which the Indians had before Rise of the Rajas. This makes snow and flags look like they float on the air.
  • The achievement "Castle of Doubt" can be unlocked if the player loses an unfinished Castle that is at least 95% complete. This one is based on a popular meme highly known among the competitive scene as "Daut Castles", originating from a unsuccessful attempt to nearly complete construction of a castle made by Darko "Daut" Dautovic, a popular Age of Empires II player. It can be found on YouTube. Because of this, unfinished forward castles are widely called "Daut Castles".
  • In the alpha version, the Castles were longer and cost more stone and wood.
  • Since Lords of the West, Castles of new civilizations have unique architecture for every civilization independent of the architecture set of other buildings, just like Wonders. Before this, only the Indians had a unique architecture set for their Castle, but due to having a unique architecture set in general.

History[]

ā€œThe first castles appeared in Europe in the ninth century as an improvement of the local lord's stronghold. Castles were tactically defensive but strategically offensive. Because they were so difficult to capture if adequately defended, they provided a secure base from which a mobile force of warriors could extend political control. A local lord installed himself inside with a professional force of fighting men to serve him. Castles spread across Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries in response to weak central authority and barbarian raids from the north and east. Kings spent the rest of the Middle Ages trying to take back control of castles raised by local lords. The development of dependable mobile heavy artillery in the fifteenth century finally made castles obsolete.ā€
Age of Empires II manual

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Notes[]

  1. ā†‘ Starting in the HD Edition. 18-20 (and in some rare cases as low as 16, but never any lower than) in the original release. Oddly depends on a random number partially dependent on the civilization.[Citation Needed]

References[]

Buildings in Age of Empires II
Civilian buildings
EconomicTowncenter aoe2DE Town Center Ā· Dock aoe2de Dock Ā· Fish trap aoe2DE Fish Trap Ā· Mill aoe2de Mill Ā· FarmDE Farm Ā· Market aoe2DE Market Ā· Lumber camp aoe2de Lumber Camp Ā· Mining camp aoe2de Mining Camp Ā· Feitoria aoe2DE Feitoria Ā· Folwark Folwark Ā· Ao2de caravanserai icon Caravanserai Ā· AoE2 MuleCart Mule Cart
ResearchBlacksmith aoe2de Blacksmith Ā· University AoE2 DE University
ReligiousAoE2 FortifiedChurch Fortified Church Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Monastery
MiscellaneousHouse aoe2DE House Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Wonder
Military buildings
ProductionBarracks aoe2DE Barracks Ā· Archery range aoe2DE Archery Range Ā· Stable aoe2DE Stable Ā· Siege workshop aoe2DE Siege Workshop Ā· Dock aoe2de Dock
Fortified productionCastle aoe2DE Castle Ā· Harbor aoe2de Harbor Ā· Krepost icon updated Krepost Ā· Aoe2-icon-donjon Donjon
TowerTowncenter aoe2DE Town Center Ā· AoE2 FortifiedChurch Fortified Church Ā· Outpost aoe2de Outpost Ā· Watch Tower icon AoE2DE Watch Tower Ā· Guard Tower icon AoE2DE Guard Tower Ā· Keep icon AoE2DE Keep Ā· Bombard tower aoe2DE Bombard Tower
WallPalisade wall aoe2de Palisade Wall Ā· Palisade gate aoe2DE Palisade Gate Ā· Stone wall aoe2de Stone Wall Ā· Gate aoe2de Gate Ā· Fortified wall aoe2de Fortified Wall Ā· Gate aoe2de Fortified Gate
Scenario Editor buildings
AoE2-DLCicon-0 The Age of KingsBridge Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Cathedral Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Dome of the Rock Ā· Pyramid aoe2DE Great Pyramid Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Mosque Ā· Pavilion big icon AoE2DE Pavilion Ā· Pyramid aoe2DE Pyramid Ā· Accursed tower aoe2DE The Accursed Tower Ā· Accursed tower aoe2DE The Tower of Flies Ā· Market aoe2DE Trade Workshop Ā· Yurt thatch big aoe2DE Yurt
AoE2-DLCicon-1 The ConquerorsWonder aoe2DE Monument Ā· SeaGateDE Sea Gate Ā· Watch Tower icon AoE2DE Sea Tower Ā· Sea Wall icon AoE2DE Sea Wall
AoE2-DLCicon-2 The ForgottenAmphitheatre aoe2DE Amphitheatre Ā· Aqueduct aoe2DE Aqueduct Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Arch of Constantine Ā· Fortified wall aoe2de City Wall Ā· Amphitheatre aoe2DE Colosseum Ā· Keep icon AoE2DE Fire Tower Ā· Palisade wall aoe2de Fortified Palisade Wall Ā· Castle aoe2DE Fortress Ā· Castle aoe2DE Poenari Castle Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Quimper Cathedral Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Temple of Heaven Ā· Wooden Bridge
AoE2-DLCicon-3 The African KingdomsBarricade aoe2DE Barricade Ā· Fence aoe2DE Fence Ā· Accursed tower aoe2DE Fortified Tower Ā· 2de granary new icon Granary Ā· Hut small aoe2DE Hut Ā· Wondericon Palace (removed) Ā· Aoe2de storage icon new Storage Ā· Tent small aoe2DE Tent
AoE2-DLCicon-4 Rise of the RajasTent army small aoe2DE Army Tent Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Gol Gumbaz Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Sanchi Stupa
AoE2-DLCicon-5 The Last KhansWonder aoe2DE Aachen Cathedral Ā· Chain aoe2DE Chain Ā· Gate aoe2de City Gate Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Dormition Cathedral Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Rock Church Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Sankore Madrasah Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Shrine Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Tower of London
Dawn of the Dukes icon Dawn of the DukesAoe2de pagan shrine icon Pagan Shrine
AoE2Icon-DynastiesIndia Dynasties of IndiaWonder aoe2DE Minaret of Jam
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