Fortified Gate (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 Fortified Gate.

Fortified Gate
Building information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II
Type	Defensive structure
Civilization	See table
Age	Castle Age
Use	Shuts enemy units out Lets friendly units through
Construction
Stone	30
Build time	70 seconds
Statistics
Size	4×1 tiles
Hit points	4,000
Melee armor	6 0 (foundation)
Pierce armor	6 0 (foundation)
Armor classes	Building (+20) Standard building Stone defense Wall and gate
Line of Sight	6
Building evolution
Upgrades from	Gate

“	Can be built into existing walls to allow movement of friendly units. Can be locked and unlocked. Cannot be converted by enemy Monks.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Fortified Gate is an upgrade to the regular Gate in Age of Empires II. It is upgraded at the University with the Fortified Wall technology. It can be built on existing walls to have an opportunity to let friendly units through, while keeping enemies out.

Availability chart

Available	Unavailable
Armenians Aztecs Bengalis Berbers Bohemians Britons Burgundians Burmese Byzantines Celts Chinese Dravidians Ethiopians Franks Georgians Gurjaras Hindustanis Inca Italians Japanese Jurchens Khitans Khmer Koreans Lithuanians Malians Maya Mongols Poles Portuguese Romans Saracens Shu Slavs Spanish Tatars Teutons Turks Vietnamese Vikings Wei	Bulgarians Cumans Goths Huns Magyars Malay Persians Sicilians Wu

Tactics and placement

Fortified Gates open automatically if a friendly unit approaches to let them through, and only close again if no unit stands right under the Fortified Gate. So, if friendly units (most notably Trade Carts) cause the Fortified Gate to open, enemy units can also pass or keep the Fortified Gate open on purpose. To prevent that, Fortified Gates can be locked so they will not open, even to friendly units. Since update 99311, they can also be locked while being built. They can be unlocked again at any time. If they are placed over a wall piece or wall foundation, they will still get constructed.

Compared to the regular Gate, the Fortified Gate has an additional 1,250 hit points, or an increase of 45%, which proportionally is less than what the Fortified Wall receives (+67% hit points), and also does not receive the armor increases of the Fortified Wall.

Fortified Gates, like Town Centers, require more resources to repair than they need to be constructed. They require 45 stone to be repaired fully, one and half times their construction cost.

Further statistics

Technologies
Hit points	Great Wall (+30%, Chinese only)
Movement speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)

Civilization bonuses
Hit points	Byzantines (+30%/+40% in Castle/Imperial Age)
Movement speed	Spanish (+30%)
Resource cost	Inca (-15%)
Other	Chinese (upgrading from Gate is 10%/15% cheaper in Castle/Imperial Age)

Team bonuses
Resource cost	Maya (-50%)
Other	Georgians (repairing is 25% cheaper) Malians (upgrading from Gate is 80% faster) Portuguese (upgrading from Gate is 25% faster)

Civilization bonuses

• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Fortified Gates are 10%/15% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Italians: Treadmill Crane is 33% cheaper.
• Jurchens: Treadmill Crane costs -75% wood and is 100% faster.
• Spanish: Researching technologies which affect Fortified Gates gives +20 gold.

Team bonuses

• Malians: Researching Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
• Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Fortified Gates are researched 25% faster.

History

“

Gates were built into walls to allow access to a fortification. Because gates could be the most vulnerable part of a defensive position, extra care was taken to make them strong. A common type of gate was the portcullis, a heavy metal grid that was raised by a winch. The portcullis was in place by grooves in the stonework of the gateway and by its own weight. A long narrow passage, open from above, was usually placed behind the portcullis. Attackers who managed to get past the gate would then remain vulnerable to fire from soldiers in the narrow passage.

”

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Fortified Gates foundations have same armor while under construction as well as fully constructed.

The Forgotten

• Chinese: Great Wall introduced.
• Koreans: Fortified Gates are built 33% faster.

Definitive Edition

• Fortified Gates foundations have 0/0 armor while under construction.
• Fixed the issue with side parts of diagonal gates being walkable during construction.
• Fortified Gates can now be rotated using Ctrl + scroll wheel.
• Koreans: Fortified Gates are no longer built 33% faster.

The Mountain Royals

• With update 99311, Fortified Gates are lockable while they are being constructed.

Trivia

• All of the Fortified Gate variations are of the portcullis type.
• Gates are the only constructible buildings without a square layout.
• Unlike all other generic upgraded forms of buildings, the Fortified Gate does not appear in the technology tree. This is also true for the (non-automatic) unique upgrade of the Dock, Harbor.

Gallery

All Fortified Wall Gates in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Fortified Wall Gates in the HD Edition

All original Fortified Wall Gates in the Definitive Edition

All expansional Fortified Wall Gates in the Definitive Edition