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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For the unit in Age of Empires III, see Merchant (Age of Empires III). |
The Merchant is an untrainable unit in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. It appears in some campaigns and is available in the Scenario Editor.
Overview[]
Merchants seem to be a "decoration" unit, as they only serve the purpose of briefly-appearing characters in campaigns, often as quest givers. Prior to the Definitive Edition, the role of merchants, traders and other mercantile roles were fulfilled by renamed Petards, Shahs and sometimes other units like Trade Carts. These roles are fulfilled by a dedicated Merchant unit instead, since its introduction.
Much like Kings, they have no attack or function whatsoever, being only limited to walking around, and their appearance and icon changes depending on the civilization they are part of. Merchants also run somewhat faster than most standard infantry units, and have above-average Line of Sight.
The infobox uses the following shorthands for icons assigned to the different architecture sets:
- Eu - European (East, Central, West, South)
- As - East Asian
- NA - Native American
- Af - African
- SEA - Southeast Asian
- ME - Middle Eastern
- CA - Central Asian
- In - Indian
Campaign appearances[]
- Hand of a Princess: There is a Merchant next to the Lal Kot Wonder.
- Ruins of Empires: Swahili Merchants are next to their Markets in the mainland interior.
- A Son's Blood: There are a couple of Gujarati Merchants next to their Markets in the west.
- Djeriba Gold: A Merchant in the southeast will offer to reveal locations of interest if provided with 4 Camels. He will also build a Market if provided with wood.
- Path of Exile: A Ferryman in the south is a Merchant who offers a Transport ship in exchange for gold.
- The Pasunda Bubat Tragedy: One Merchant is in the Indian trader camp, offering his Elephants for sale.
Bukhara: Merchants belonging to Khorasan are stationed at Caravanserai along the Silk Road.
- Event Scenarios
- The Siege: Mayor-General Lomellino leads Genoese Galata to the north.
- The Cleansing of Paris: Guild Leaders are Merchants who give quests to John, requiring him to free the Lumber Camps, lift the blockade of the Seine River, and free the local butchers.
- In the Shadow of the Throne: Lithuanian Noble Pagans are represented as Merchants. Rescuing them is an objective if Jogaila aligns with the Pagans.
- The Matter of the Crown: Several Merchants reside within Krakow and in the southern village by the Markets. Another Merchant is a Siege Engineer building Trebuchets.
- Star of the Poles: A Merchant is located next to a Marketplace outside of Lviv. There are also some Merchants in Terebovl.
- The Siege of Vilnius: A Nobleman represented by a Merchant greets the starting Polish army outside Vilnius. There are also several Merchants in Vilnius, next to a Market.
- The Last Timurids: A Merchant is an Elephant Breeder who sells his Siege Elephants to Babur.
- Into India: The Indian City States have numerous Merchants stationed by their Markets and Trade Workshops. Killing them provides a small amount of gold.
- Sacred Waters: Merchants can be found next to Markets at several of the local villages.
- Bloody Crestwaves: The imprisoned Byzantine Shipbuilder is a renamed Merchant. He will provide sight over Byzantine fleet's forces if saved from his prison.
- Road to Royalty: Tabriz' nobles are renamed Merchants. Capturing them will weaken the garrison in Tabriz.
- The Protectorate: A Merchant is stationed next to the Market in Shirvan.
- Constantine XI: Mayor-General Lomellino of the Genoese Galata offers help if the Ottomans' camp to the north under Zaganos Pasha is cleared out.
- Drake: The Spanish Donkeys laden with gold that Drake can capture are actually heavily modified Merchants with models switched to Donkeys.
- Fetih: Mayor-General Lomellino leads Genoese Galata to the north. The Ottomans can either bribe the Genoese or sack the colony for resources.
- Komnenos: The Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I is a modified Merchant. Alexios needs to overthrow him by killing his bodyguards in order to take over the Byzantine Empire.
- Nobunaga: Merchants are unique to the Mori clan and can be trained at the Criminal Network for 50 food. They act as slow-moving scout units with a large Line of Sight that are ignored by enemy units.
- Shimazu: Merchants fulfill the same role as in Nobunaga, with the only difference being that they are trained at the Market, replacing the Trade Cart. There are also some normal Merchants in Korea.
- Temujin: A Merchant appears briefly alongside a King, coming to negotiate with Ong Khan of the Kereyids during the initial flyover of Mongolia.
- The Battle of Guandu: There are five modified Merchants renamed as Commanders, each one inside a Castle in Yuan Shao's base. Killing all of them is a key objective to win the scenario.
- A Voyage of Discovery: Merchants belonging to one of the Friendly Tribes (Achaemenids) can be seen at a village located at the western end of the Persian Gulf. Upon arriving there, Perdiccas "negotiates" the acquisition of Frankincense (one of the obtainable "Treasures" in the scenario) from them in exchange for ship's biscuits.
Trivia[]
- While there is a "Merchant" in the Blood for Blood scenario of the Kotyan Khan campaign, it is actually a renamed Francesco Sforza.
- In Wonder of the World, Roger II's advisors, Robert of Selby and Muhammed-al-Idrisi, while not appearing in the scenario, are represented by Merchant portraits during dialogue.
- Originally, the Chronicles civilizations reused the European Merchant model and icon. They were given a new Merchant skin with update 158041. Like the King, their Merchant has no voice lines.
Gallery[]
A group of European Merchants
Merchant models (based on Architecture): European (blue); Far East Asian and South East Asian (red); African (Cyan); Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and South Asian (Green); Native American (yellow)
Merchant views for all civilizations added in Chronicles, since Alexander the Great
Merchant (right of the Condottiero) with a Mardi Gras Masquerade Mask seen in main menu background added by the event Carnival 2022
