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

ā€œUsed to buy and sell resources, trade with other players by land, and research trade technologies. Required to send resources to other players. Enables you to see the line of sight of your allies.ā€
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 has been built.

Markets have a number of roles, particularly in team games: they enable the tribute of resources, they allow gold to be used to trade for other resources, and they can collect gold via trade using Trade Carts, which is especially important in later stages of team games. Finally, the Market is the place where trade-related technologies are researched to enhance these abilities, and building one also counts towards fulfilling the criteria to unlock the Castle Age. In summary, the Market is a rather important building, even though its importance may vary depending on the match. Furthermore, before a recent patch which enabled allied vision to be the default setting for multiplayer games, building one resulted in the player automatically gaining vision of all allied players' Line of Sight. This requirement can be enabled again in custom lobbies by turning off allied vision.

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 with other Markets is quadratically proportional to the distance. The farther away the target 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 closed Gate is opened after a short time upon their arrival. Often, Trade Carts are lost because of this since the new route they choose is likely to be dangerous.

Trading can also be established with neutral and hostile players' Markets too, thus emulating the real life practice of smuggling, even though this does not actually harm the opponent's economy. 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 notice and kill the Trade Carts.

Exchange of resources[]

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

The Market prices for each commodity are universal for all players. Commodities are sold or bought at 100 units 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 rates the players see for selling and buying are 70 and 130 respectively. 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 of a commodity each time 100 units of the commodity is 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 23 gold, the game will set the buy price to 23 gold.

The Saracens have the best Market in the game, as building one costs only 100 wood, and they have a commodity trading fee of only 5%. This also allows 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. The lines joining opposite corners through the centre of the map are optimal. Most players use an edge of the map as far away as possible from the enemy to try to keep the trade units alive, which yields about half the gold of the optimal route. The exact equation for gold received from trading is:

Aoe markets

Graph line stops at max from edge, not theoretical max

, where:

  • is the number of tiles along any edge of the map, and
  • is roughly the Euclidean distance between the Markets and can be calculated exactly as:
, where and are the distances between the Markets in either axis-aligned direction, measured from the center of each Market.

The 0.46 in front of the first expression for Trade Cart gold is actually calculated as 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
Dark Age ā†’ Feudal Age ā†’ Castle Age ā†’ Imperial Age
Trade Cart Caravan Guildsavailable
Coinage ā†’ Bankingavailable

Upgrades[]

Hit points Masonry aoe2de Masonry (+10%)
ArchitectureDE Architecture (+10%)
Armor Masonry aoe2de Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
ArchitectureDE Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
Line of Sight TownWatchDE Town Watch (+4)
TownPatrolDE Town Patrol (+4)
Conversion defense Devotion icon AoE2DE Devotion (+1 min, +1 max)
FaithDE Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
HeresyDE Heresy (die upon getting converted)
Construction speed TreadmillCraneDE Treadmill Crane (+20%)
Other GuildsDE Guilds (reduces commodity trading fee to 15%)
UniqueTechCastle-DE Grand Trunk Road (reduces commodity trading fee to 10%, Hindustanis only)

Civilization bonuses[]

Team bonuses[]

  • CivIcon-Bohemians Bohemians: Markets work 80% faster.
  • CivIcon-Georgians Georgians: Markets cost 25% fewer resources to repair.
  • CivIcon-Lithuanians Lithuanians: Researching Devotion, Faith, and Heresy is 20% faster.
  • CivIcon-Malians Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
  • CivIcon-Portuguese Portuguese: Market technologies and technologies that benefit Markets are researched 25% faster.

Changelog[]

AoE2-DLCicon-1 The Conquerors[]

AoE2-DLCicon-2 The Forgotten[]

AoE2-DLCicon-4 Rise of the Rajas[]

  • With patch 5.7, Cartography is now hidden, automatically researched for free when a Market is constructed. Cartography is no longer needed to get Caravan (change visible only in campaign scenarios).
  • With patch 5.8, Coinage and Banking are now available one age later (Feudal Age (Coinage)/Castle Age (Banking) ā†’ Castle Age/Imperial Age).

AoEIIDE icon Definitive Edition[]

AoE2Icon-DynastiesIndia Dynasties of India[]

AoE2Icon-ReturnRome Return of Rome[]

  • With update 87863, Grand Trunk Road now also reduces the trading fee to 10%.

AoE2Icon-MountainRoyals The Mountain Royals[]

Trivia[]

  • Without Guilds, the maximum cost for purchasing 100 of any commodity (resource) from the Market is 12,999 gold and the maximum selling price of 100 of any commodity 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 by holding the Shift key. 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 allowed them to buy 100 of a resource at 26/27 gold and sell it for 1 gold more than they bought it in the Definitive Edition. This was 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. This was fixed in Dynasties of India.
  • 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.
  • In the original game, the Market was one of only two buildings, along with the Dock, which could be selected and its information box viewed by the player, even when no longer in the player's Line of Sight. This was in order to provide information about its trade value.

History[]

ā€œAs 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.ā€
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings manual

Gallery[]

Buildings in Age of Empires II
Civilian buildings
EconomicTowncenter aoe2DE Town Center Ā· Dock aoe2de Dock Ā· Fish trap aoe2DE Fish Trap Ā· Mill aoe2de Mill Ā· FarmDE Farm Ā· Market aoe2DE Market Ā· Lumber camp aoe2de Lumber Camp Ā· Mining camp aoe2de Mining Camp Ā· Feitoria aoe2DE Feitoria Ā· Folwark Folwark Ā· Ao2de caravanserai icon Caravanserai Ā· AoE2 MuleCart Mule Cart
ResearchBlacksmith aoe2de Blacksmith Ā· University AoE2 DE University
ReligiousAoE2 FortifiedChurch Fortified Church Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Monastery
MiscellaneousHouse aoe2DE House Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Wonder
Military buildings
ProductionBarracks aoe2DE Barracks Ā· Archery range aoe2DE Archery Range Ā· Stable aoe2DE Stable Ā· Siege workshop aoe2DE Siege Workshop Ā· Dock aoe2de Dock
Fortified productionCastle aoe2DE Castle Ā· Harbor aoe2de Harbor Ā· Krepost icon updated Krepost Ā· Aoe2-icon-donjon Donjon
TowerTowncenter aoe2DE Town Center Ā· AoE2 FortifiedChurch Fortified Church Ā· Outpost aoe2de Outpost Ā· Watch Tower icon AoE2DE Watch Tower Ā· Guard Tower icon AoE2DE Guard Tower Ā· Keep icon AoE2DE Keep Ā· Bombard tower aoe2DE Bombard Tower
WallPalisade wall aoe2de Palisade Wall Ā· Palisade gate aoe2DE Palisade Gate Ā· Stone wall aoe2de Stone Wall Ā· Gate aoe2de Gate Ā· Fortified wall aoe2de Fortified Wall Ā· Gate aoe2de Fortified Gate
Scenario Editor buildings
AoE2-DLCicon-0 The Age of KingsBridge Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Cathedral Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Dome of the Rock Ā· Pyramid aoe2DE Great Pyramid Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Mosque Ā· Pavilion big icon AoE2DE Pavilion Ā· Pyramid aoe2DE Pyramid Ā· Accursed tower aoe2DE The Accursed Tower Ā· Accursed tower aoe2DE The Tower of Flies Ā· Market aoe2DE Trade Workshop Ā· Yurt thatch big aoe2DE Yurt
AoE2-DLCicon-1 The ConquerorsWonder aoe2DE Monument Ā· SeaGateDE Sea Gate Ā· Watch Tower icon AoE2DE Sea Tower Ā· Sea Wall icon AoE2DE Sea Wall
AoE2-DLCicon-2 The ForgottenAmphitheatre aoe2DE Amphitheatre Ā· Aqueduct aoe2DE Aqueduct Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Arch of Constantine Ā· Fortified wall aoe2de City Wall Ā· Amphitheatre aoe2DE Colosseum Ā· Keep icon AoE2DE Fire Tower Ā· Palisade wall aoe2de Fortified Palisade Wall Ā· Castle aoe2DE Fortress Ā· Castle aoe2DE Poenari Castle Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Quimper Cathedral Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Temple of Heaven Ā· Wooden Bridge
AoE2-DLCicon-3 The African KingdomsBarricade aoe2DE Barricade Ā· Fence aoe2DE Fence Ā· Accursed tower aoe2DE Fortified Tower Ā· 2de granary new icon Granary Ā· Hut small aoe2DE Hut Ā· Wondericon Palace (removed) Ā· Aoe2de storage icon new Storage Ā· Tent small aoe2DE Tent
AoE2-DLCicon-4 Rise of the RajasTent army small aoe2DE Army Tent Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Gol Gumbaz Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Sanchi Stupa
AoE2-DLCicon-5 The Last KhansWonder aoe2DE Aachen Cathedral Ā· Chain aoe2DE Chain Ā· Gate aoe2de City Gate Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Dormition Cathedral Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Rock Church Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Sankore Madrasah Ā· MonasteryAoe2DE Shrine Ā· Wonder aoe2DE Tower of London
Dawn of the Dukes icon Dawn of the DukesAoe2de pagan shrine icon Pagan Shrine
AoE2Icon-DynastiesIndia Dynasties of IndiaWonder aoe2DE Minaret of Jam
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