Market (Age of Empires II)

"Used to buy and sell resources, trade with other players by land, and research trade improvements."

—Age of Empires II description

The Market is an economic building in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Feudal Age is reached and a Mill is built.

Markets enable trade with Trade Carts, making them extremely important in later stages of team games.

Markets can also be used to research trade-related technologies, and to trade gold for other resources.

Tactics and placement Edit

Trading Edit

Markets make an essential part on economy especially in team games as they provide an unlimited source of gold, through trading.

The equation for gold received while trading at other Markets is quadratic. The farther away the Market is, the more gold the Trade Carts return. The productivity increases with the distance, so it is always worth it to build Markets far away from other Markets even though the Trade Carts take longer to reach their destination.

When trading with allies, is important to know which Markets are better defended to prevent losing trade units. It is also recommended to protect trade routes with military units or defensive structures. If Trade Carts must travel through a wall, it is important to remember to keep the Gate open at all times to avoid losing Trade Carts, because when they reach a closed Gate, they will take another way to reach their destination even if the Gate is opened a short time after they reached it. Often, Trade Carts are lost because of that since the route they then choose is likely to be dangerous.

Trading can also be established with neutral and hostile players' Markets too, emulating thus the real life practice of smuggling. While this can be surprisingly efficient when trading with defeated players (especially in campaign scenarios), it is ill-advised when the player in question is still active, as they might kill the Trade Carts.

Exchange of resources Edit

Markets are also important because a player can exchange its resources to balance its economy. This can greatly help to jump through Ages or to overcome a temporary shortage of a particular resource.

The Market prices for each commodity are universal for all players. Each commodity (food, wood, stone) has a "fair" (and invisible) exchange price, but the the players cannot exchange their resources at the "fair" price because there is a 30% commodity trading fee. At the beginning of each game, the "fair" price for food and wood is 100, but because of the fee, the actual prices the players see are 70 and 130. Stone, however, begins at a "fair" price of 130, which leads to a starting rate of 91/169. The game simulates supply and demand by adding or subtracting 2 to the "fair" price each time 100 commodity resources are traded. The minimum and maximum "fair" prices for any commodity are 20 and 9,999, respectively. This means that to "bottom out" the price of a commodity beginning at the starting price, the player needs to sell 4,000 of food/wood or 5,500 stone (obtaining 1,708 or 2,926 gold). Researching Guilds cuts the commodity trading fee in half (15%), but can only be done in the Imperial age and is not available to all civilizations.

The Saracens have a great trading bonus because it is easier for them to build a market, as it cost 75 less wood, and their commodity trading fee is only 5%. This also can allow them to reach the Castle Age sooner than other civilizations and perform a Monk rush.

Trade Cart gold Edit

Trade routes should always be made as long as possible, as the increase in gold for Markets placed further apart is greater than the increase in time taken for a Trade Cart to complete the journey. The exact equation for gold received from trading is:

$ \text{Trade Cart gold} = 0.46 \times d \times \left ( \frac{d}{\text{map size}} + 0.3 \right ) = \frac{0.46}{\text{map size}} d ^ 2 + 0.138 d $

where $ \text{map size} $ is the number of tiles along any edge of the map, and $ d $ is roughly the Euclidean distance between the Markets, or exactly:

$ d = \max \left \{ 0.1, \sqrt{ \left ( \max \left \{ 0, \left \vert \Delta x \right \vert - 5 \right \} \right ) ^ 2 + \left ( \max \left \{ 0, \left \vert \Delta y \right \vert - 5 \right \} \right ) ^2 } \right \} $

where $ \Delta x $ and $ \Delta y $ are the distances between the Markets in either axis-aligned direction, measured from the center of each Market.

Note that the 0.46 in front of the first expression for Trade Cart gold is actually calculated as $ 2 \times 0.345 \div 1.5 $ by the game, where 2 is a constant, and the other two terms depend on the Trade Cart speed and whether the player has a Spanish ally - but can in general also be treated as constants.

Trainable units and technologies Edit

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Further statistics Edit

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Upgrades
Hit points	Masonry (+10%)  Architecture (+10%)
Armor	Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor)  Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+4)  Town Patrol (+4)
Conversion defense	Faith  Heresy
Construction speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)
Other	Guilds (reduces commodity trading fee to 15%)

Civilization bonuses Edit

• Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
• Byzantines: Markets have +20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch is free.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Markets are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Khmer: Markets don't require a Mill.
• Malians: Markets are 15% cheaper.
• Persians: Researching Town Watch and Town Patrol is 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Saracens: Market trade cost is only 5%. Markets are 43% cheaper.
• Spanish: Markets are built 30% faster.

Team bonuses Edit

• A team containing Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.

Changelog Edit

The Age of Kings Edit

• Markets always have 2,100 HP.
• Coinage is available in the Feudal Age, and Banking becomes available in the Castle Age.

The Conquerors Edit

• Heresy introduced.
• Caravan introduced.

The Forgotten Edit

• Market HP staggered: 1,800/2,100/2,100 in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Saracens: Markets now are 43% cheaper.

Rise of the Rajas Edit

• With patch 5.8, Coinage now becomes available in the Castle Age, and Banking in the Imperial Age.

Trivia Edit

• The maximum cost for purchasing 100 of any resource from the Market is 12,999 gold and the maximum selling price of 100 of any resource is 6,999 gold. These values can be reached by buying 330,000 of any resource other than stone, assuming that the player has enough gold to make these purchases.

History Edit

"As the Dark Ages gave way to better economic conditions, the exchange of produce and craft goods increased. Towns of all sizes set aside an area for a market where farmers and tradesmen could set up stalls for selling their merchandise. One or more days each week were designated market days and became the social highlight of the typical workweek. The market was also a place for the exchange of ideas, entertainment (bards, acrobats, musicians), and the spreading of news."

Gallery Edit

All Feudal Age Markets in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Feudal Age Markets introduced in the HD expansions

All Castle Age Markets in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Castle Age Markets introduced in the HD expansions

All Imperial Age Markets in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Imperial Age Markets introduced in the HD expansions

Spritesheet for the Market; the Feitoria is also included

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Video overview Edit