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This article is about the building in Age of Empires IV. For the building in other games of the series, see Market. |
| “ | Allows the buying and selling of resources and produces the Trader. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Market is a building in Age of Empires IV available starting in the Feudal Age. It allows the exchange of one resource for another and also trains Traders.
Gameplay[]
Markets are used both to expand an economy through producing Traders as part of a trade route and to balance an economy through resource trading. Most units and technologies require a balanced ratio of different resources, such food and wood, or wood and gold. Accumulating too much of (also called 'floating') one single resource is inefficient because it will not be possible to use that resource up before running out of other required resources. The floated resources cannot be used to benefit the player and effectively result in wasted villager gather time. A player with a balanced economy can outproduce and outgrow a player that is floating resources. There are some exceptions where a single resource can be spent relatively quickly, but these are rare. If in the situation where they are floating one resource, a player can 'rebalance' their economy by selling food, wood, or stone at the Market for gold, or using gold to buy any other resources. The exchange will often be worse than 1 to 1, but it may still be more efficient than doing nothing with the resources. Resources can be bought and sold in batches of 100 or 500.
Resource prices[]
At the start of the game, 100 food/wood sells for 70 gold, and costs 130 gold, whereas 100 stone sells for 90 gold and costs 170 gold. Each time a player buys 100 of a resource, the price of that resource goes up by +4 gold, up to a maximum of 1,000 gold. Additionally, the return for selling 100 of that resource increases by +2 gold, up to a maximum of 500 gold. Conversely, selling 100 of a resource decreases the return by -2 gold, down to a minimum of 10 gold, and also decreases the price for 100 of that resource by -4 gold, down to a minimum of 18 gold. Market prices are "global" for all players, so any transaction by one player affects the costs/returns for all other players. Furthermore, costs and returns automatically increase or decrease by 4 gold/2 gold respectively every 30 seconds until reaching the starting price.
The global resource prices can lead to situations where a player can use the Market strategically to gain advantages over their opponent. For example, on a map with little stone, a player may try to be the first to buy stone for defensive buildings, driving up prices and making it more expensive for their opponent to do so. Alternatively, if a player knows that they are facing a civilization that can often float resources (such as the Holy Roman Empire or Malians with gold) they can keep an eye on the Market to try and take advantage of favorable rates. Note that Rus players who build The Golden Gate can get around this, as since they gain one "100 for 150" favorable resource trade each minute that is unaffected by Market prices.
Trainable units[]
Generic units[]
Trader (all except Knights Templar)
Unique units[]
- Venetian Trader ( Knights Templar, unlock with Republic of Venice)
Available technologies[]
- Merchant Guilds ( French and Jeanne d'Arc only)
- Lettre de Change ( Knights Templar)
- Stone Commerce ( Mongols)
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Court Architects (+30%)
|
| Armor |  Slate and Stone Construction (+5 fire armor,  Holy Roman Empire and  Order of the Dragon)
|
| Line of Sight |  Gion Festival (+2 tiles,  Japanese)
|
| Resource cost |  Fertile Crescent (-30%,  Abbasid Dynasty)
|
| Ability |  Lettre de Change (Unlocks Pilgrim Loan ability)
|
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
 Regeneration
|
 Emergency Repairs (150 hp/s for 20 seconds, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon)
|
| Armor |  House of Wisdom Influence (+5 fire armor, Abbasid Dynasty and  Ayyubids)
|
| Damage resistance | Elzbach Palace Influence (-25%, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon)  Praesidium Influence (-5% per Cistern water level,  Byzantines)
|
| Ability | Town Center Influence (Grants Emergency Repairs, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon) Ovoo Influence (Can train two units at a time and research improved technologies for an additional cost of stone,  Mongols)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Resource cost |  Zhu Xi's Legacy (-30% in  Song Dynasty)
|
| Build speed |  Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy (+100%) Order of the Dragon (+25%)
|
| Other | Byzantines (Generate +32 stone when built) Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy (Generates taxes from creating Traders) French and  Jeanne d'Arc (Market technologies cost -30%) Knights Templar (Resource prices change by only 1 gold when buying/selling with  Republic of Venice Mongols (Can pack up and move)
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Changelog[]
- Originally, Markets took 30 seconds to build. With the Season Three Update, they take 20 seconds to build.
- Merchant Guilds was added to the French Market with update 7.0.5861.
- With update 11.0.782, the ability to buy and sell resources in batches of 500 was added.
Campaign version[]
Because the original four campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Markets still take 30 seconds to build in these campaigns.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
The English, French/Jeanne d'Arc, Holy Roman Empire/Order of the Dragon and Rus markets feature a market cross based on the one from Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire.
