โ | The Military School can be assigned to produce one type of unit continuously at no cost, however they are produced at a slower rate. | โ |
—Age of Empires IV description |
The Military School is a unique military building available to the Ottomans in Age of Empires IV that can be built starting in the Dark Age. It automatically trains a chosen unit from a selection available to the civilization, but at 4.75x the training time.
Trainable units[]
- Spearman - base train time: 71 sec.
- Archer - base train time: 71 sec.
- Sipahi - base train time: 142 sec.
- Mehter - base train time: 133 sec.
- Man-at-Arms - base train time: 106 sec.
- Crossbowman - base train time: 106 sec.
After researching Timariots:
- Cavalry Archer - base train time: 160 sec.
After researching Advanced Academy:
The last two units effectively have a base train time of 170 and 114 seconds respectively due to the production speed increase from Advanced Academy.
These times can be decreased by building the Military School within the influence of a Blacksmith or University, selecting the Advanced Academy Imperial Council bonus, and building the Istanbul Observatory landmark.
Strategy[]
Because Military Schools spawn units for free, it can be viewed as if they are generating free resources which are then put into units. Thus, deciding when to build Military Schools is similar to deciding when to invest in economic upgrades or buildings - doing so as early as possible will maximize their economic benefit at the cost of slowing down an Age-up or military production. For example, against some civilizations and strategies, the Ottomans can afford to collect 50 stone and build a Military School immediately in the Dark Age, and then collect stone while Aging up to the Feudal Age to build another one as soon as possible. However, against a civilization like the English, which can pressure extremely early with Longbowmen, building a Military School will delay the Age-up and initial production of Sipahi enough that it may be a risky investment, so opting to build a Stable will be a better choice. Furthermore, the initial Dark Age production of Spearmen will be of little benefit since they cannot harass English Villagers effectively, and they can be easily defeated by the Longbowmen.
Deciding which unit to produce is a matter of which units synergize best with the available production buildings and player and enemy army compositions, as well as which units provide the most equivalent resources per minute. Equivalent resources per minute (rpm) can be calculated by dividing the cost of the unit by its training time. All units have the same equivalent rpm except for Mehters, which are more efficient than others by about 21%. While it may then seem obvious to just train the Mehter due to its relatively high value, players don't often have a need to continually produce Mehter from Military Schools, since it is more advantageous to try and have only one or two and keep them alive. Of the Feudal Age military units, all of them have the same equivalent rpm, but Sipahi production translates to the the highest food generation per minute. And since food is often the most limited resource in the early game, players often choose to toggle to Sipahis as soon as possible and produce Archers and other units from production buildings. On maps with little wood, such as Prairie, Archers may be the better choice, while against Feudal Knights, Spearmen may be needed. For reference, three Military Schools in the Feudal Age near Blacksmiths without any upgrades can generate about 240 resources per minute (for any combination of Archers, Spears or Sipahis), which is equivalent to ~5 Villagers. In late-game, when gold can be scarce, Janissaries are often the best choice due to their high gold cost and also due to their strong synergy with Great Bombards and Sipahi.
Further statistics[]
Hit points | Court Architects (+30%) |
Work Rate | Advanced Academy (+25%) Blacksmith/University Influence (+20%/30%/40% in Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age, or +100% with Istanbul Observatory |
Build Limit | Military Campus (+1) |
Unit Types | Advanced Academy (enables Lancers and Janissaries to be trained) |
Changelog[]
- With update 10.0.576, the base Military School training time was increased from 4.5x to 5x standard. With update 11.0.782, this was decreased to 4.75x.
- With update 12.0.1974, the base production speeds of Janissaries and Lancers were reduced by around 25% and 28% respectively to bring their effective resources per minute in line with other units. Additionally, Cavalry Archers were added to the Military School.