| “ | Gathers Wood, Food, Stone, and Gold. Builds and repairs buildings and can repair siege engines and naval units. Gathers resources +28% quicker and builds +20% faster than regular Villagers. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Gilded Villager is a civilian unit in Age of Empires IV: The Sultans Ascend, available to the Order of the Dragon, replacing the regular Villager. It can be trained at the Town Center starting in the Dark Age. Gilded Villagers are the backbone of the civilization's economy, performing key tasks such as resource gathering and building construction.
Gilded Villagers are 28% more efficient gathering resources and they construct buildings in 20% less time (that is, they have a 25% faster build speed) Additionally, like the Villagers of the Holy Roman Empire. they can also carry 40% more resources. The higher efficiency comes at a cost - Gilded Villagers cost 20% more resources and take 20% more time to be trained. However, unlike other gilded units, they do not cost extra population.
Gilded Villagers have +30% hit points, +1 melee attack, and +2 torch attack compared to regular Villagers.
Resource gathering[]
The primary role of Gilded Villagers is to gather food, wood, gold, and stone from various sources on the map and drop these resources off at a resource drop-off site, such as a Town Center, Mill, Lumber Camp, Mining Camp, and various landmarks and other unique buildings. The gather rate for each resource varies and can be found on the Gather rates and bonuses page. They have a default carry capacity of 12 for all resources except for hunted meat, of which they can carry 30.
Attack behavior[]
Gilded Villagers have several different weapons that they use for different functions. They use bows to hunt deer and attack wolves from range, they use spears to hunt boar and attack wolves close-up, they use knives to attack enemy units, and they throw torches to attack enemy buildings and siege weapons. In contrast to other units, the Gilded Villager's torch attack does not increase while advancing through the ages.
Building construction[]
Gilded Villagers are also used to construct buildings and landmarks to Age up. Every building has a base build time. This is the time it takes for a single regular Villager to construct it. Additional (Gilded) Villagers can be tasked to construct the building to increase the build speed by 33% per (Gilded) Villager. This creates diminishing returns where each additional (Gilded) Villager added contributes less and less to the improvement in build time. Choosing the number of (Gilded) Villager to build a landmark, especially when advancing to the Feudal Age, where each (Gilded) Villager has a proportionally larger impact on a player's economy, is an important part of game strategy. Choosing too many (Gilded) Villagers will significantly reduce resources gathered with little improvement in build time and may put the player at an economic disadvantage in the next Age. Conversely, choosing too few (Gilded) Villager may delay important military or economic technology from the next Age too much and put the player at a tempo disadvantage.
Overall, build time follows this kind of law, and is shown with example times below for landmark construction.
| Number of Villagers | Construction time % |
Dark Age landmark seconds |
Feudal Age landmark seconds |
Castle Age landmark seconds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 regular | 100% | 190 | 220 | 250 |
| 1 Gilded | 80% | 152 | 176 | 200 |
| 2 Gilded | 60% | 114 | 132 | 150 |
| 3 Gilded | 48% | 91 | 106 | 120 |
| 4 Gilded | 40% | 76 | 88 | 100 |
| 5 Gilded | 34.3% | 65 | 75 | 86 |
| 6 Gilded | 30% | 57 | 66 | 75 |
| 7 Gilded | 26.7% | 51 | 59 | 67 |
| 8 Gilded | 24% | 46 | 53 | 60 |
| 9 Gilded | 21.8% | 41 | 48 | 55 |
| 10 Gilded | 20% | 38 | 44 | 50 |
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Hit points |  Textiles (+25)
|
| Movement speed |  Wheelbarrow (+15%)
|
| Melee attack |  Bloomery (+1) Decarbonization (+1) Damascus Steel (+1)
|
| Ranged attack |  Steeled Arrow (+1) Balanced Projectiles (+1) Platecutter Point (+1)
|
| Armor |  Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged)
|
| Gather rate: All Food except hunted meat and fish |  Horticulture (+15%) Fertilization (+15%) Precision Cross-Breeding (+15%)
|
| Gather rate: Hunted Meat |  Survival Techniques (+15%)
|
| Gather rate: Wood |  Double Broadax (+15%) Lumber Preservation (+15%) Crosscut Saw (+15%)
|
| Gather rate: Gold/Stone |  Specialized Pick (+15%) Shaft Mining (+15%)
|
| Carry capacity | Wheelbarrow (+5) Crosscut Saw (+5 wood)
|
| Resource drop-off amount |  Cupellation (+15% gold/stone)
|
| Other |  Forestry (Trees chopped down twice as fast)
|
| Aura enhancements | |
| Range |  Wall Defense (+1)
|
| Damage resistance | Wall Defense (-25% ranged, -50% siege)
|
| Gather rate: All |  Aachen Chapel (+15%)
|
Dialogue lines[]
Changelog[]
- Originally, Gilded Villagers gathered 25% faster. With patch 9.2.628, they gather 28% faster
- Gilded Villagers were originally called Dragon Villagers. They were stealthily renamed in an unknown update.
- Originally, Gilded Villagers trained in 24 seconds. With patch 11.1.1201, they train in 23 seconds.
Gallery[]
.jpg "HRE Villagers through the ages (magnified).jpg (2.13 MB)")
