Fishing Boat (Age of Empires)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires. For other uses, see Fishing Boat.

Fishing Boat
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires
Type	Fishing Boat
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Stone Age
Training
Trained at	Dock
Wood	50
Training time	40 seconds (base) , 26 seconds 23 seconds 20 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	45
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Speed	1.4
Line of Sight	6
Unit evolution
Upgrades to	Fishing Ship
Upgrade cost	50 food, 100 wood
Upgrade time	51 seconds (base) 30 seconds 25 seconds

“	Provides food by gathering fish and depositing them at the Dock. The cargo capacity of a Fishing Boat is greater than the carrying capacity of a villager.	”
—In-game description in the Definitive Edition

The Fishing Boat is an economic unit in Age of Empires that gathers food from fishing spots. It has no offensive capability, can be built from the Stone Age as soon as the game begins, and like all boats, it is twice as resistant to conversions as regular units.

It can be upgraded at the Dock in the Bronze Age.

Gameplay

During the Stone and Tool Ages, when the player has a single Town Center to produce Villagers (and must pause even this while advancing to the next age), Docks provide the only opportunity to increase the production of new civilian units. An efficient early economy can comprise Villagers chopping wood to train more ships, and Fishing Boats gathering food to train more Villagers. Note, however, that ships gather fish far slower than Villagers do: an average 0.4 food per second compared to 0.6 for shore-fishing Villagers.

Fishing vessels in Age of Empires are only used for gathering natural sources of fish, and as these are a finite resource, the boats will have to make increasingly lengthy trips to find fish, and will eventually run out altogether. While sources of fish are still close to the shore, it may be more economical to build additional Docks to reduce the boats' travel time, but when the fishing starts reaching out into deeper water, it will yield more average food-per-minute to upgrade to the faster-moving Fishing Ships. Note also that as the vessels stray further looking for fish, they are more likely to be preyed on by enemy combat units.

When no sources of fish remain in the same body of water as the fishing fleet, the ships no longer have any use and can be thrown away: either on scouting missions, or to draw enemy fire away from warships, or simply deleted to make population room for other units.

Upgrades

Fishing Boats can be upgraded to a Fishing Ship upon reaching the Bronze Age which are faster, more durable, and can carry more food.

Civilization bonuses

• Greeks: Fishing Boats have +20% speed.
• Macedonians: Fishing Boats have +2 Line of Sight and are four times more resistant to conversion.
• Minoans: Fishing Boats cost -15%/-20%/-25%/-30% in the Stone/Tool/Bronze/Iron Age.
• Yamato: Fishing Boats have +10%/+15%/+20%/+25% hit points in the Stone/Tool/Bronze/Iron Age and work 20% faster.

Team bonuses

• Palmyrans: Upgrading Fishing Boats to Fishing Ships and researching technologies that benefit Fishing Boats is 30% faster.

Changelog

Age of Empires

• Fishing Boats take 30 seconds to upgrade.
• Minoans: Fishing Boats cost -30%.
• Yamato: Fishing Boats have +33% hit points.

Definitive Edition

• Fishing Boats take 51 seconds to upgrade to Fishing Ships.
• Yamato: Upon release, Fishing Boats have +25% hit points. With update 38862, they have +20% hit points.

Return of Rome

• Yamato: Fishing Boats work 20% faster.
• Palmyrans (team bonus): Technologies benefiting Fishing Boats are researched 30% faster.
• Minoans: With update 99311, Fishing Boats cost -15%/-20%/-25%/-30% in the Stone/Tool/Bronze/Iron Age.
• Yamato: With update 99311, Fishing Boats have +10%/+15%/+20%/+25% hit points in the Stone/Tool/Bronze/Iron Age.

History

“	The Fishing Boat represents a small, primitive vessel for use by one or a few fishermen. The first boats were probably dugout canoes, made from a single large log. These were excavated by fire and adze. Despite the passage of time and great technological advances in all areas, there are more log-hull boats in use today than of any other single type.	”
—The Age of Empires manual

Gallery

Fishing Boats in the Definitive Edition.

A group of Fishings Boats in the original game.

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