Farm (Age of Empires II)

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

Farm
Building information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Economic
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Dark Age
Use	Provide food
Construction
Requires	Mill
Wood	60
Construction time	15 seconds
Statistics
Size	3×3 tiles
Hit points	480
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor classes	Building Standard building
Line of Sight	1

“	A renewable source of food. Provides a limited amount of food before it goes fallow and must be rebuilt.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Farm is an economic building in Age of Empires II. It provides 175 food. With all farming upgrades researched, a Farm provides 550 food in the Imperial Age.

Tactics and placement

Farms may only be gathered from by one Villager at a time. Farms are very weak and do not hinder movements of friendly or enemy troops. If a Farm is not currently being tended, another player's Villager can capture it by simply starting to gather from it themselves. Farms can be automatically reseeded if they are queued in the Mill.

Ideally, eight Farms should be built around Town Centers and Mills like this

Farms should always be placed right next to Town Centers or Mills in order to keep the walking distances of the Villagers as short as possible. Villagers mostly walk around on the left side of a Farm, therefore placing Farms to the right side of the Town Center or Mill first is slightly more efficient, as it reduces walking time.

Farms that are built before upgrades (e.g. Horse Collar) are researched do not gain the food bonus. If the research is completed while a Farm is being built, the food bonus applies to that Farm.

Farms have an inherent work rate of 0.4 food per second. This means they will produce 0.4 food per second upon being seeded and will add it up in their "storage", from which Villagers can gather food. This becomes essential if the farm is worked non-stop after being seeded, as typically Villagers' work rate exceeds Farms' work rate after Hand Cart is researched (Aztecs and to a lesser degree Khmer hit this farm-rate cap upon researching Wheelbarrow). This ultimately results into similar food production (0.4 food per second per farmer) for all civilizations (except for Slavs) in a Post-Imperial scenario, even though, for example, Mayans have their farmers' work rate reduced to 81% of a generic civilization. Slavs' farms have their work rate multiplied by ×1.1 in addition to their Villagers' work rate multiplied by ×1.18 which allows them to have ~10% higher farming rates in most circumstances.

Comparison to the Fish Trap

Farmers gather relatively faster from Farms than Fishing Ships gather from Fish Traps, however up until the late Imperial Age they are less effective cost-wise (also considering that Fishing Ships themselves cost wood). The actual gathering speed between them may vary due to traffic between gatherers and actual Farm/Fish Trap placement.

Building	Overall food provided	Food generated per wood
Farm	175	2.92
Farm + Horse Collar	250	4.17
Farm + Heavy Plow	375	6.25
Farm + Crop Rotation	550	9.17
Fish Trap	715	7.15
Fish Trap + Fishing Ship	715	4.09

Farm (re-)seed time

Basic farm re-seed time is 15 seconds (×1.0 game speed). Treadmill Crane, Spanish civilization bonus and Incas speed up the re-seeding process, but the latter is applied in a different manner compared with the first two.

Build rate bonus	If no Inca ally	If Inca ally
None	15	8
Treadmill Crane	12.5	6.67
Spanish civ bonus	11.5	6.15

In comparison, Fish Traps have a construction/'re-seed' time of 40 seconds. It is modified (decreased to 32 seconds) with Gillnets and is also affected by the Japanese civilization bonus (both stack multiplicatively together, up to ~26.7 sec construction time for Japanese in the Imperial Age).

Further statistics

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Upgrades
Food Quantity	Horse Collar (+75)  Heavy Plow (+125)  Crop Rotation (+175)
Construction speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)

Civilization bonuses

• Byzantines: Farms have +10%/+20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Farms are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Franks: Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, and Crop Rotation are free.
• Japanese: Mills are 50% cheaper.
• Khmer: Farms do not require a Mill and farmers do not require dropsites.
• Mayans: The food on Farms lasts 15% longer.
• Slavs: Farmers work 10% faster.
• Spanish: Farms are built 30% faster.
• Teutons: Farms are 40% cheaper.
• Vietnamese: Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, and Crop Rotation do not cost wood (since patch 35584).

Team bonuses

• A team containing Chinese: Farms provide +45 food.
• A team containing Incas: Farms are built 100% faster.

Changelog

Age of Kings

• Teutons: Farms cost -33%(40 wood).

The Conquerors

• Mayans: The food on Farms lasts 20% longer.

The Forgotten

• Mayans: The food on Farms now lasts 15% longer.
• Slavs: Farmers intended to work 15% faster.

The African Kingdoms

• Malians: Initially, Farms are 15% cheaper. With patch 4.8, the wood bonus no longer applies to Farms.
• Slavs: Farmers correctly work 15-18% faster.

Rise of the Rajas

• Farms built on the mangrove shallow automatically become Rice Farms, which have identical stats.
• Vietnamese: Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, and Crop Rotation cost the usual amount of resources.

Definitive Edition

• Slavs: Farmers work 10% faster.
• Khmer: Since update 34699, Farmers no longer require a drop-off site and stockpile food instantly.
• Teutons: Since update 35584, Farms cost -40% (36 wood).
• Vietnamese: Since update 35584, Horse Collar, Heavy Plow, and Crop Rotation do not cost wood.

Trivia

• The default Farm appears to be growing potato. However, this is appropriate only for the Incas and anachronistic for the other civilizations as potatoes were only introduced to Europe in late 16th century and became widespread around the 18th century. Cabbage might be another plant actually being used, which would make more sense as it was known to mankind much sooner than potatoes and is also planted by seeds (Villagers can be seen throwing seeds while starting a new Farm).
• Farms are the only buildings visible to opponents when their foundations are placed (at 1 HP). This makes them prone to enemy attacks, and any single attack at this point destroys them, which is a loss of 60 wood for the player.
• The Mayans with a Chinese ally extract most food out of a farm, that is (565 + 45) * 1.15 food = 701-702 food after all Mill upgrades are researched, which makes it quite comparable to Non-Mayan Fish Traps.
• The Teutons with a Chinese ally have the most cost effective Farms, producing 16.944 food/wood after all Mill upgrades are researched.
• Byzantine Farms have the highest HP amongst all Farms, because Farms are not affected by Masonry/Architecture, but are affected by their civilization bonus.

History

“

The technology of farming was carried forward into the Middle Ages and improved. Northern European soils were often rich glacial deposits hidden under dense forests. Over the course of the Middle Ages, much of this land was cleared and converted into farms. Key technology improvements in farming were the improved horse harness, the heavy plow, and crop rotation. The new horse harness did not choke the animal and increased pulling power. The heavy plow could cut into the dense soils. Farms in Europe were largely communal affairs where each family received the produce of several rows in the field. The production of some rows went directly to the local lord as his rent.

”

Gallery

Farms should be built as close as possible to Mills or Town Centers

When built on mangrove shallows, Farms automatically become Rice Farms, which are identical to normal Farms.

Farms arranged for Mills in the closest possible proximity

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