Market (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For similar buildings in other games of the series, see Market.

Market
Building information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Economic
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Feudal Age
Use	Exchange and send resources Trade with Trade Carts Research trade improvements
Construction
Requires	Mill
Wood	175
Construction time	60 seconds
Statistics
Size	4×4 tiles
Hit points	1,800 2,100 2,100
Melee armor	1 2 3
Pierce armor	8 9 10
Armor classes	Building Standard building
Line of Sight	6

“	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 act in a number of roles, particularly in team games. As soon as the first Market is built, the player automatically sees all allied players' Line of Sight. Secondly, they enable the tribute of resources. Thirdly, gold can be used as a currency traded for other resources. Fourth, they can collect gold via trade with Trade Carts, especially important in later stages of team games. Finally, the Market is the place where trade-related technologies are researched to enhance these abilities, as well as potentially fulfilling the criteria to unlock the Castle Age. In summary, the Market is a rather important building overall, even though its importance may vary depending on the match.

Tactics and placement

Trading

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

The equation for gold received while trading at other Markets is quadratic depending on distance. 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

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. Commodities are sold or bought 100 at a time. Each commodity (food, wood, stone) has a "fair" (and invisible) exchange price, but 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 3 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. If buying a resource would cost less than 25 gold, the game will set the buy price to 25 gold.

The Saracens have the best Market in the game at only 75 wood, and a commodity trading fee of only 5%. This also can allow them to reach the Castle Age sooner than other civilizations and perform a Monk rush.

Trade Cart gold

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. However, players must take into consideration the population limit and the cost of the unit that they want to make. The exact equation for gold received from trading is:

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

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 and can be calculated exactly as:

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

Clicking on the icon links to the corresponding page.

Blue: Units

Green: Technologies

	→		→		→
					→

Further statistics

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

• Burgundians: Caravan is available in the Feudal Age, and Guilds is available in the Castle Age. Both cost 50% less food.
• Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
• Byzantines: Markets have +20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch and Town Patrol are free.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Markets and Market technologies are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Italians: Researching Masonry, Architecture and Treadmill Crane is 33% cheaper.
• 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.
• Portuguese: Trade Carts cost 20% less gold. Market technologies and technologies that benefit Markets are researched 30% faster.
• Saracens: Market trade cost is only 5%. Markets cost 75 wood.
• Spanish: Markets are built 30% faster.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Bohemians: Markets work 80% faster.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Faith and Heresy is 20% faster.
• A team containing Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

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

The Conquerors

• Heresy introduced.
• Caravan introduced.

The Forgotten

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

Rise of the Rajas

• With patch 5.7, Cartography was removed from the game.
• With patch 5.8, Coinage now becomes available in the Castle Age, and Banking in the Imperial Age.

Definitive Edition

• Saracens: Markets cost reduced from 100 wood to 75 wood.

Trivia

• 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.
• Players can buy or sell in quantities of 500 at a time, this works the same as clicking 5 times.
• The Native American Market in the Imperial Age has a double-headed serpent on its entrance which shows its Aztec influence.
• The Saracens' reduced commodity trading fee allows them to buy 100 of a resource at 26/27 gold and sell it for 1 gold more than they bought it. This is probably an unintended result of the "fair" price now changing by 3 per transaction, as this would not be the case if it still changed by 2 like in The Conquerors.
• The "fair" price can have any integer value between 20 and 9.999, since 20 is one less than a multiple of 3, 9.999 is a multiple of 3, and the starting values of 100 and 130 are one more than a multiple of 3.
• The price shown in commodity trading can be slightly different than the price that is actually used for the transaction due to rounding errors.

History

“

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

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

All original game Feudal Age Markets in the Definitive Edition

All expansion Feudal Age Markets in the Definitive Edition

All original game Castle Age Markets in the Definitive Edition

All expansion Castle Age Markets in the Definitive Edition

All original game Imperial Age Markets in the Definitive Edition

All expansion Imperial Age Markets in the Definitive Edition

Spritesheet for the Market; the Feitoria is also included

Video overview