 |
This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For other buildings with the same name, see Fortified Wall. |
| “ | Stone wall that is difficult to breach without siege weapons. Slows down your enemies and warns you of their approach. Cannot be converted by enemy Monks. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Fortified Wall is an upgrade to the Stone Wall in Age of Empires II that can be researched at the University once the Castle Age is reached. Upgrading from Stone Walls to Fortified Walls also upgrades Gates to Fortified Gates.
Availability chart[]
Tactics and placement[]
When Fortified Walls are built around the outside of a town, it makes the town very difficult to attack, as any attacking units will have to destroy a piece of the Wall before it can attack any of the other buildings, and it sends a warning to the town that their opponents are attacking. Compared to the Stone Wall, the Fortified Wall has +1,200 hit points, or an increase of 67%, as well as +4 
melee armor, +2 
pierce armor, and +8 anti-building armor. Given the upgrade's low cost (200 food, 100 wood), it is almost always worth getting the upgrade if available.
Fortified Walls are essential when performing a turtling strategy, as they help the player to gain some time to train own units and strengthen the fortification. Also, they provide defense for friendly ranged units and buildings that can attack the enemy units from behind the wall without taking any retaliation from non-ranged units.
Walls should be placed in strategic points or surround and protect the player's settlements, preferably at a little distance from important buildings like Town Centers to prevent enemy siege weapons to attack these buildings from behind the wall. When placing a wall, the player can take advantage of the terrain. For example, placing them next to forests and cliffs helps to enclose an area as well while precious stone is saved. The support of towers and Castles is highly valuable, especially in major choke points as the walls only serve as a blocking building and cannot attack. Placing Gates is also important to increase the efficiency of defensive structures, as the Gate allows friendly units to pass through the wall while impeding enemy units to enter the walled area.
Having units like archers and ranged siege weapons behind a wall can prove to be a highly efficient way to defend an important location as well. Also, the support of fast moving melee units like cavalry is worth noting, as the cavalry can manage to destroy enemy siege units that may destroy the walls.
If the player seeks a victory through a Wonder or Relics, Fortified Walls become a vital part of the defense, as they will help block access to the Wonder or the Monasteries holding Relics as well as the usual elements of a player settlement.
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Great Wall (+30%, Chinese only)
|
 Regeneration
|
Fortified Bastions (500 HP/min, Jurchens only)
|
| Build speed |  Treadmill Crane (+20%)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Hit points
|
 Byzantines (+30%/+40% in the Castle/Imperial Age)
|
| Damage resistance |  Georgians (-20% {-40% instead of -25%} on higher elevations)
|
| Resource cost |  Inca (-15% stone {they actually cost 4 stone})
|
| Build speed |  Romans (+5%) Spanish (+30%)
|
| Upgrading |  Chinese (-10%/-15% cost in the Castle/Imperial Age) Italians (-33% cost) Jurchens (-75% wood cost; +100% faster)
|
| Other | Romans (+5% repair speed)
|
| Team bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Resource cost |  Maya (-50% {rounded up to 3 stone per segment})
|
| Other | Georgians (repairing costs -25%)
|
Civilization bonuses[]
Chinese: Great Wall is 10%/15% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.- Italians: Treadmill Crane is 33% cheaper.
- Jurchens: Treadmill Crane costs -75% wood and is researched 100% faster.
Team bonuses[]
- Malians: Treadmill Crane is researched 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Fortified Walls are researched 25% faster.
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- Fortified Walls take 8 seconds to build.
- The Fortified Wall upgrade costs 200 food, 100 stone.
- Fortified Walls' foundations have 12/12 armor while under construction.
The Conquerors[]
- With patch 1.0b, Fortified Wall's 100 stone cost is replaced with 100 wood.
The Forgotten[]
- Fortified Walls take 10 seconds to build.
- Chinese: Great Wall introduced.
- Koreans: Fortified Walls are built 33% faster.
The African Kingdoms[]
Definitive Edition[]
- With update 42848, Fortified Walls' foundations have 0/0 armor while under construction.
- Koreans: Fortified Walls are no longer built faster.
History[]
| “ | The fortified wall was an upgrade of the stone wall accomplished by building fighting positions into the wall so that defenders could be more effective in repulsing assaults. Strong points and bastions allowed defenders to shoot at enemies at the base of wall, where they might otherwise be safe. The three lines of stone walls outside Constantinople were fortified with hundreds of towers, helping to make the defenses impregnable until the advent of cannon. | ” |
Trivia[]
- A piece of Fortified Wall has two appearances. The default appearance of a wall piece changes to a middle section wall piece if that piece is joined by another Fortified Wall piece/Fortified Gate on the opposite sides.
- The Mediterranean Fortified Wall in the Definitive Edition is based on Medieval Italian style merlon.
- The Eastern European Fortified Wall is based on medieval Russian fortifications like the Novgorod Detinets and kremlins in general. However, this was changed to a more generic Brick Gothic inspiration in the Definitive Edition.
Gallery[]
