This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For the building in other games in the series, see Castle. |
ā | Used 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 (+10%) Architecture (+10%) Hoardings (+21%) |
Attack | Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1) Heated Shot (+4 against ships and Fishing Ships) Svan Towers (+2, Georgians only) Citadels (+4 base, +3 against rams, +3 against infantry, Persians only) |
Range | Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Murder Holes (eliminates minimum range) Crenellations (+3, Teutons only) |
Accuracy | Ballistics (hit moving targets) |
Additional projectiles | Crenellations (Garrisoned infantry fire arrows, Teutons only) |
Armor | Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor) Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor) |
Damage resistance | Citadels (-25% bonus damage, Persians) |
Attack speed | Stronghold (+33%, Celts only) |
Line of Sight | Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4) |
Resource cost | Detinets (+260 wood, -260 stone, Slavs only) |
Build speed | Treadmill Crane (+20%) |
Work rate | Conscription (+33%) Kasbah (+25% for allies, Berbers only) |
Healing | Herbal Medicine (garrisoned units heal 6x faster) |
Ability | Stronghold (allied infantry regenerate 30 hit points/min in 18 tiles square, Celts only) |
Other | Cuman Mercenaries (allies can train train 5 Elite Kipchaks for free per Castle, Cumans only) |
Civilization bonuses | |
---|---|
Hit points | Byzantines (+30%/+40% in Castle/Imperial Age) |
Attack | Tatars (+20% damage {+50% instead of +25%} from elevations, primary projectile only) |
Damage resistance | Georgians (-20% {-40% instead of -25%} on higher elevations) |
Resource cost | Franks (-15%/-25% in Castle/Imperial Age) Incas (-15%) |
Creation speed | Aztecs (+11%) |
Build speed | Romans (+5%) Sicilians (+50%) Spanish (+30%) |
Other | Romans (repaired +5% faster) |
Team bonuses | |
---|---|
Other | Georgians (repairing costs -25%) |
Supplementary[]
- Civilization bonuses
- Bulgarians: Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer cost -50% food.
- Burmese: Researching Herbal Medicine is 50% cheaper.
- Byzantines: Town Watch and Town Patrol are free.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Castles and Castle technologies are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Italians: University technologies that benefit Castles are 33% cheaper.
- Persians: Researching Town Watch and Town Patrol is 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Spanish: Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer cost no gold. Researching technologies that benefit Castles provides 20 gold each.
- Teutons: Murder Holes and Herbal Medicine are free.
- Turks: Chemistry is free.
- Vietnamese: Conscription is free.
- Team bonuses
- Bulgarians: Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer are researched 80% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Herbal Medicine is 20% faster.
- Malians: University technologies that benefit Castles are researched 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Castles and Castle technologies are researched 25% faster.
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 |
---|---|---|
Villager | 20 | 14 (9 extra) |
Archer | 20 | 12 (7 extra) |
Crossbowman | 20 | 14 (9 extra) |
Arbalester / Cavalry Archer | 20 | 15 (10 extra) |
Hand Cannoneer | 20 | 21 (16 extra)[note 1] |
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
Trainable units and technologies[]
Clicking on the icon leads to the corresponding page.
- Blue: Units
- Green: Technologies
- Purple: Unique units
Availability grid[]
= Available | |
= Unavailable |
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- Castles have 10 Line of Sight.
- Castles take 150 seconds to build.
- Franks: Castles are 25% cheaper.
The Conquerors[]
- Herbal Medicine introduced.
- Teutons: Crenellations introduced.
- With patch 1.0b, Castles take 200 seconds to build.
The Forgotten[]
- Castles have 11 Line of Sight.
- Chemistry now affects Castles.
- Celts: Stronghold introduced.
- Koreans: Castles are now built 33% faster.
- Persians: Boiling Oil introduced, which grants primary projectiles of Castles +9 attack vs rams.
Definitive Edition[]
- Koreans no longer build Castles faster.
- Persians: Boiling Oil replaced by Kamandaran.
- Portuguese: with update 42848, Castle technologies are researched 30% faster.
- Teutons: Herbal Medicine is free.
Dynasties of India[]
- Slavs: Detinets introduced.
- 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.
- Sicilians: With update 81058, Castles are built 50% faster.
Return of Rome[]
- Franks: With update 93001, Castles are 15%/25% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
The Mountain Royals[]
- Persians: With update 95810, Citadels introduced.
Victors and Vanquished[]
- With update 107882, the Flaming Camel no longer requires Timurid Siegecraft to be trained at Castles, but now becomes instantly available at the Siege Workshop when reaching the Imperial Age.
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 pre-release Central Asian Castle resembles the Citadel of Ghazni. It is specifically derived from the "Arabic Castles" in the game Knights of Honor.
- 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 KarlŔtejn Castle.
- The Polish Castle is based on the BÄdzin 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 | The 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[]
- 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]