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Civilization bonus

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Tech bonus prev aoe2DE

In-game, the civilization bonuses are shown in the civilization's technology tree.

A civilization bonus is an innate bonus in that applies to a player's civilization from the start of each game. Civilization bonuses are fixed. Thus, they cannot be lost or changed. They are featured in Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, and Age of Empires IV. Together with a civilization's individual technology tree, these bonuses are what makes every civilization special and determines its nature.

In Full Tech Tree games, all civilization bonuses are lost.

In Age of Mythology, civilizations have starkly different systems of economy, construction, hero acquisition, favor mechanics, and many other traits that are shared between a civilization's major gods. The major gods add on their own bonuses and options of minor gods which further diversify the civilization, so much so that each major god is usually considered a separate civilization.

In Age of Empires III, civilizations distinguish themselves through different sets of units, buildings, improvements, and Home City Cards rather than through individual bonuses.

Every civilization has two to six bonuses affecting only the civilization itself, and one additional team bonus (only in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II) that affects the civilization as well as all allies. A civilization bonus and another civilization's team bonus can stack, e.g. if the Malians are allied with the Vikings, their Docks only cost 109 wood (150 base cost - 15% civilization bonus - 15% Viking team bonus = 109).

The list does not contain unique units, unique technologies, unique buildings, or any technology tree information, all of which can be found at the respective civilization's page.

Age of Empires[]

Assyrians[]

Babylonians[]

Carthaginians[]

Choson[]

Egyptians[]

Greeks[]

Hittites[]

Lac Viet[]

Macedonians[]

Minoans[]

  • Ships cost -15%/-20%/-25%/-30% in the Stone/Tool/Bronze/Iron Age.
  • Improved Bowman-line +1/+2 range in the Bronze/Iron Age.
  • Farmers work 10% faster.*
  • Team bonus: Docks cost -20%.

Palmyrans[]

Persians[]

Phoenicians[]

Romans[]

Shang[]

Sumerians[]

Yamato[]

Age of Empires II[]

Armenians[]

Aztecs[]

Bengalis[]

Berbers[]

  • Villagers move 5% faster in Dark Age, 10% faster starting in Feudal Age.
  • Stable units are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
  • Ships move 10% faster.
  • Team bonus: Genitours are available at the Archery Range starting in the Castle Age.

Bohemians[]

Britons[]

Bulgarians[]

Burgundians[]

Burmese[]

Byzantines[]

Celts[]

  • Infantry units move 5%/10%/15%/20% faster in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
  • Lumberjacks work 15% faster.
  • Siege weapons fire 25% faster.
  • Non-Celt[note 11] herdable animals can be converted regardless of units next to them.
  • Team bonus: Siege Workshops work 20% faster.

Chinese[]

Cumans[]

Dravidians[]

Ethiopians[]

Franks[]

Georgians[]

Goths[]

Gurjaras[]

Hindustanis[]

Huns[]

Inca[]

Italians[]

Japanese[]

Khmer[]

  • No buildings are required to advance to the next age or to unlock other buildings.
  • Battle Elephants move 10% faster.
  • Farmers don't carry food but rather add it directly to the stockpile without any drop-off, but work 5% slower.
  • Villagers (and Kings) can garrison in Houses.
  • Team bonus: Scorpions have +1 range.

Koreans[]

Lithuanians[]

Magyars[]

Malay[]

Malians[]

Maya[]

  • Start the game with an Eagle Scout.
  • Start the game with +1 Villager, but with -50 food.
  • Resources last 15% longer.[note 22]
  • Foot archers (except Skirmishers) are 10%/20%/30% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
  • Team bonus: Walls and gates (both Palisade and Stone) are 50% cheaper.

Mongols[]

  • Cavalry archers fire 25% faster.
  • Scout Cavalry-line and Steppe Lancers +20/30% hit points in the Castle/Imperial Age.[note 23]
  • Hunters work 40% faster.
  • Team bonus: The Scout Cavalry line has +2 Line of Sight.

Persians[]

Poles[]

Portuguese[]

  • All units cost –20% gold.
  • All ships have +10% hit points.
  • Foragers generate wood in addition to food (0.33 wood per food).
  • Team bonus: All technologies (excluding Age ups) research 25% faster.

Romans[]

Saracens[]

Sicilians[]

Slavs[]

Spanish[]

Tatars[]

Teutons[]

Turks[]

Vietnamese[]

Vikings[]

  • Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart free.
  • Warships cost -15%/-15%/-20% in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
  • Infantry have +20% hit points starting from the Feudal Age.
  • Team bonus: Docks are 15% cheaper.

Age of Mythology[]

Major god bonuses are listed on their own as well as the civilization's page. The following only lists civilization bonuses:

Greeks[]

Egyptians[]

Norse[]

  • Worker units: Gatherer, Dwarf.
    • Dwarves gather gold 20% quicker, but food and wood 20% slower. Civilians can be converted into Berserks for a cost.
  • Resource drop-off site is Ox Cart, a mobile unit.
  • Start with a Berserk, an Ox Cart, and three Gatherers.
  • Start with 200 food, 150 wood, 100 gold.
  • Civilians can construct and repair only Houses, Farms, and Ox Carts.
  • Foot soldiers (infantry and humanoid heroes) construct and repair all other buildings. They can also build and repair Houses.
  • Favor is generated by units dealing damage to other units and buildings, and passively from Hersirs and Godis.
  • Several buildings are cheaper, but have less hit points (-10% wood cost and hit points).
  • Docks are constructed in 25 seconds and Temples in 30 seconds.
  • Medium, Heavy, and Champion Cavalry are researched 50% faster due to Great Halls working faster.

Atlanteans[]

  • Worker: Citizen.
    • Compared to other villagers, Citizens are stronger, do not require drop sites, and can be turned into Heroes, but are also costlier and move slower.
  • Start with two Citizens and three Oracles (spawning at the 5, 10, and 15 second mark), and 275 food, 250 wood, 75 gold.
  • Oracles and Oracle Heroes generate favor depending on the sum of the areas under their vision.
  • Can transform any human unit to its hero counterpart for a price.
  • Houses replaced by Manors, which have a lower build limit, but provide more population space and allow two foot units to garrison for safety.
  • Economic technologies are researched at the Economic Guild.
  • Each Farm costs 150 wood and has +200 hit points.
  • Medium Cavalry free, Heavy Cavalry and Champion Cavalry discounted by 25%.
  • Docks cost 125 wood.

Chinese (Immortal Pillars)[]

Chinese (Tale of the Dragon)[]

Age of Empires IV[]

Civilization bonuses are summarized on the main Age of Empires IV Civilization page.

Main article: Civilization (Age of Empires IV)

Chronicles[]

Achaemenids[]

  • Shipyards work 15% faster (-13.04% time taken).
  • Town Centers can be individually upgraded to be more powerful starting in the Civic Age.
  • Elite War Chariot takes 35 less seconds to research. Other Stable technologies research 50% faster (-33% time taken).[note 36]
  • Team bonus: Houses are built 100% faster (-50% time taken).

Athenians[]

  • Policy style can be changed between Economic, Naval, and Military at the Town Center.
    • The player starts with the Economic Policy activated (not mentioned in-game).
    • Changing Policy becomes progressively more expensive, up to a maximum of 150 gold.
  • Lumberjacks generate 1 food for every 9.75 wood.
  • Hoplites move 15% faster.
  • Team bonus: Shipyard technologies research 50% faster (-33.33% time taken).

Spartans[]

  • A Polemarch is spawned for free in both the Civic Age and Classical Age.
  • Villagers and Fishing Ships drop off 10% more food.
  • The Elite Hoplite upgrade is available in the Classical Age.
  • Team bonus: Barracks technologies (except the Paragon upgrade) research 50% faster (-33.33% time taken). Paragon is researched in 61.67 seconds.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ As of DE CU11, the bonus actually makes every second blow of Short Swordsmen line commence twice as fast, as if the rate of fire (RoF) was 0.75 seconds instead of 1.5 seconds like a generic Short Swordsman; however, every first attack's RoF is set to normal 1.5 sec. It also counts in the attack delay (AD) of a Short Swordsman (0.75 sec., unchanged for Romans), so the first two blows of the initial attack (after the AD) are dealt with RoF of 0.75 sec. Thus, Roman Short Swordsman, after reaching its target (the animation of the attack has just started), deals damage with the following cooldowns (every "→" means the damage is dealt): 0.75 sec. delay because of AD → 0.75 sec. delay due to increased RoF mitigating AD → 0.75 sec. because of increased RoF bonus → 1.5 sec. generic delay → 0.75 sec. → 1.5 sec. → 0.75 sec, which combines for 5.25 sec.; generic civilization would have 8.25 sec. instead. This lead to a slightly higher actual bonus RoF for the first blows.
  2. ↑ This means that:
    • Double-Bit Axe and Bow Saw provide +28% boost instead of +20%.
    • All mining upgrades provide +21% boost instead of +15%.
  3. ↑ Hence, the Militia, Man-at-Arms, and Condottiero are excluded
  4. ↑ This is internally handled by the units, instead of the buildings. This means that this bonus applies to any buildings converted by the Aztecs, but not any buildings converted from the Aztecs (the opposite of standard behavior).
  5. ↑ "Bonus damage" is incoming damage of all armor classes except for melee or pierce damage. For more details, see Armor class (Age of Empires II).
  6. ↑ Minimum conversion interval increased by +3, and maximum conversion interval increased by +1. For more details, see conversion.
  7. ↑ Essentially, Bohemian spear units deal +25% attack vs mounted units. For more details, see Armor class (Age of Empires II).
  8. ↑ Man-at-Arms, Long Swordsman, and Two-Handed Swordsman upgrades are free.
  9. ↑ The affected technologies are:
  10. ↑ The bonus modifies all existing attack classes of the unit (e.g. Hand Cannoneer receives ×1.25 attack multiplier towards its pierce damage, anti-infantry damage, and anti-spearman damage). For more details, see Armor class (Age of Empires II).
  11. ↑ While commonly quoted as "enemy", the ability to convert herdable animals also works on allied and neutral players too. The ability does not work on other Celt players irrespective of their diplomatic stance. The ability is called "Dominant Line of Sight" behind the scenes.
  12. ↑ The bonus is applied after Farm technologies, so a Farm with Horse Collar researched starts with food.
  13. ↑ For any additional Town Centers built in the Feudal Age, the construction time is increased by 80% (2:30 → 4:30 minutes construction time); this includes the situation where the player has lost their starting Town Center. The debuff is removed instantly upon reaching the Castle Age, even for a Town Center whose foundation was laid in the Feudal Age.
  14. ↑ Similar to the Roman bonus, it includes constructing and repairing.
  15. ↑ The influence zone is a square, with the maximum distance being a chess-board distance of 8 tiles measured from all edges of the Fortified Church.
  16. ↑ The bonus works by allowing Docks to garrison ships. Docks naturally have 10 garrison space to allow newly created units to remain garrisoned by default. Among ships, only Fishing Ships have the permission (see Tasks in Genie Editor) to garrison. Combining all these and the standard rules for garrison, Gurjara Docks can garrison max 10 Fishing Ships of their allies.
  17. ↑
    Gurjara sheep food generation graph

    Cumulative food generation rates for various numbers of Sheep stored in Mills, before and after update 66692

    The formula used for this is:
    Food generated per minute , where
    Total Food of livestock stored across all Mills
    Natural Logarithm function
  18. ↑ The following units are considered light cavalry units: Scout Cavalry line, Magyar Huszar, Steppe Lancer, and Shrivamsha Rider.
  19. ↑ Their accuracy against units is raised from 15% to 50%.
  20. ↑ Villagers have +30 attack bonus against the Predator Animal armor class, which ensures that they can kill any 25 HP predator in one strike, even when attacking from downhill.
  21. ↑ This bonus has three implications:
    • Gold miners and Oyster gatherers work 10% faster.
    • Gold Mines and Oysters have +10% gold.
    • Gold miners and Oyster gatherers have +10% carry capacity.
  22. ↑ Due to the way this bonus works (lowered work rates are multiplied by higher resource gains), farming is ~2.5% / 5.5% / 2.5% slower with no upgrades / Wheelbarrow / Hand Cart, respectively (slightly lower difference with Heavy Plow researched) Source: Reddit – 'Some updated & completed Farming Workrate Values for the tail end of 2017'.
  23. ↑ The bonus is applied before Bloodlines, so a Mongol Light Cavalry has hit points without Bloodlines and hit points with Bloodlines in the Imperial Age.
  24. ↑ The Saracen team bonus displays +2 in the technology tree, even though it gives +3 attack against the standard building armor class. This is by design, since the description is meant to tell players about the effect in practice, not the value in the data files. Archers typically do a minimum damage of 1 against buildings. The +3 attack bonus against buildings results in an additional 2 damage being dealt to buildings; hence the +2 in the technology tree.
    However, in some cases the extra damage is indeed +3, such as against buildings with low pierce armor (Outposts, palisades, and Gates). For example, a Feudal Age Saracen Archer (4 pierce damage) attacking an Outpost (0 pierce armor) deals 7 damage instead of 4.
    The Saracen team bonus affects Skirmishers and Slingers because they are in the same unit class as the Archer-line. It does not affect Hand Cannoneers, because they have their own unit class.
  25. ↑ Requires a Town Center to be built first.
  26. ↑ Requires a Town Center to be built first, which means it does not apply to the first Town Center on Nomadic starts.
  27. ↑ "Bonus damage" is incoming damage of all armor classes except for melee or pierce damage. It is also applied to Gaia damage, i.e. reduces the bonus damage of Wild Boars versus cavalry. "Land military units" excludes Monks. The bonus does not apply to hill bonus/cliff damage.
    • The bonus is applied to units and is thus preserved for other civilizations upon conversion. Conversely, if a Sicilian Monk converts a non-Sicilian unit, the latter will not receive the bonus damage reduction.
    • In practical cases, the bonus applies to (foot and mounted) archers, infantry, and cavalry. Note that while Petards are affected, normal Petards do not take any bonus damage to begin with. The bonus also applies to Flaming Camels and all Hand Cannoneers in scenario editor.
  28. ↑ For a total of 344 food after Horse Collar, 625 food after Heavy Plow, and 1019 food after Crop Rotation.
  29. ↑ Ballistics-like effect without the need to research the technology
  30. ↑ At 7 tiles per second instead of the regular 3.5 (unmentioned in the tech tree).
  31. ↑ Applies to Hand Cannoneers, Bombard Cannons, and Cannon Galleons. Does not apply to Conquistadors, but they have a base reload time of 2.9, the same as a Spanish Hand Cannoneer.
  32. ↑ Technically Villagers can extract +57% food assuming no rotting, but considering gathering by five to six Villagers and standard rotting rates, the average food collected is +50% over normal.
  33. ↑ Buildings are also affected.
  34. ↑ The bonus only applies to the primary projectiles of projectile units. As such, it does not affect Town Centers and only applies to the first projectile of other defensive structures and Mercenary Kipchaks. In a broader context, it applies to all projectiles of (converted) Organ Guns and Dromons, since all of their projectiles are primary.
  35. ↑ Since update 47820, the 50% cost reduction only applies to the Bombard Tower technology and the Elite Cannon Galleon upgrade. It also applied to the Cannon Galleon technology before it was removed from the game with update 47820 and to Hand Cannon and the Bombard Cannon technologies before they were removed in The Conquerors. It does not apply to Artillery or the Elite Janissary upgrade.
  36. ↑ The effect on the Elite War Chariot upgrade is a reduction by 35 seconds resulting in 15 seconds (233.33% faster), rather than the expected reduction by 16.5 seconds which would have resulted in 33.5 seconds (50% faster). Due to not being described in the in-game civilization bonus as such, this is likely a bug.
  37. ↑
    • The effect on the Paragon upgrade is a reduction by 23.33 seconds resulting in 61.67 seconds (37.83% faster), rather than the expected reduction by 28.33 seconds which would have resulted in 56.67 seconds (50% faster). Due to not being described in the in-game team bonus as such, this is likely a bug.
    • The interaction of this team bonus with the bonuses of civilizations such as Bulgarians, Slavs, etc. which grant certain Barracks technologies or upgrades for free is buggy. Those technologies are still free, but no longer instantly researched upon attaining the requisite Age. The player needs to research them manually at the Barracks and they require the default research time.
Gameplay elements in the Age of Empires series
Genie Engine-exclusive
Frame delay · Full Tech Tree · Team bonus
Age of EmpiresRuins · Discovery
Age of Empires IIProjectile duplication
Bang Engine-exclusive
Autoqueue · Multiplier
Age of MythologyGod (Major · Minor) · God power · Settlement (Settlement Victory) · Weight class
Age of Empires IIIAge-up methods (Politician/Tribal Council/Wonder/Federal State/Alliance) · Banner army · Consulate · Damage Cap · Home City · Home City Card · Inspiring Flag · Minor civilization · Promotion · Revolution · Target Lock · Trade Monopoly · Trade Route · Treasure
Age of Empires IV-exclusive
GenericInfluence · Landmark · Point of Interest · Sacred Site · Variant civilization
Civilization-uniqueBounty · Dynasty · Golden Age · Imperial Council (Vizier Point) · Commanderie
If a gameplay element has different pages across games, like civilization, the individual pages are linked in brackets.
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