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This article is about the building in Age of Empires IV. For the building in other games in the series, see Outpost. |
| “ | Offers extensive line of sight and detects units stealth or disguises. Can be upgraded with weaponry and fortifications. Attacks while garrisoned. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Outpost is a defensive structure in Age of Empires IV. It possesses extensive Line of Sight. The Malian Outpost is called Toll Outpost, which is statistically identical to the generic Outpost, except for the former's Taxation Aura. The Rus have the Wooden Fortress instead of the Outpost.
Unlike the Town Center and the Keep, the Outpost cannot attack by default. Garrisoning Villagers, infantry, or cavalry, or researching emplacements, adds projectiles.
Abilities and influences[]
Network of Castles (passive, English only): Attack speed of units within a 12.5 tile radius is increased by +20% when enemy units are nearby. This can be upgraded to +30% after researching Network of Citadels.- Yam (passive, Mongols only): The movement speed of all cavalry and Traders is increased by 15% while within a 12.5 tile radius. After researching Yam Network (or building the Deer Stones), this bonus is applied to all units except siege units. Researching Improved Yam Network allows Traders to regenerate one hit point every two seconds while in the aura.
- Extra Materials (passive, Chinese only, requires unlock): Automatically repair damaged walls and gates within a 4-tile radius. A single section is repaired at a time for 20 hit points per second.
- Taxation Aura (passive, Malians only): Passing Traders and Trade Ships within a 10 tile radius are taxed, generating up to 8% of their carried gold immediately as bonus gold (and wood for Trade Ships). Each Trader or Trade Ship can only be taxed 5 times on each trip and the amount of tax collected depends on the distance of the tax collection point from the previous one. Although the tooltip states that Toll Outposts placed within the range of another one do not generate tax, this is not true; they still generate a smaller amount of tax. Although the exact formula is unknown, it appears that to consistently generate the maximum amount of possible tax, the auras of two Toll Outposts should not overlap at all. The time between taxations is irrelevant, and it is possible to still generate the maximum tax from two Toll Outposts in short succession if their auras don't overlap and the trade unit passes through the periphery of their auras one after the other.
- Note: Whether intended or not, the home Market and target Trade Post or Market affect the tax amount from the initial Toll Outpost, so its aura should also not overlap with the Market or Trade Post.
Tactics[]
Vision[]
Players should not forget to use Outposts for vision as well as a static defense, just because they are usually used to fire arrows from. This is especially important in the late game, where the cost of such Outposts are more affordable. Especially for planning flanking attacks on slow moving armies, ideally with Horsemen. This can massively help punish things like the opponent making a push to neutralise a Sacred Site.
Long distance hunting[]
One of the most important uses of Outposts is to allow safe hunting of Deer. This allows a great saving of resources compared to Farms, and Deer have a faster base gather rate. Considering both require a Mill (which can be reused for Farms in the case of hunting Deer), the saving in wood from 5 Farms (the same required Villagers as can garrison in the Outpost) is around 275 wood, including the higher construction time of the Outpost around 255 wood. This is more resources than Wheelbarrow, Horticulture, Survival Techniques, or Double Broadax cost, allowing players to easily get important technologies earlier. Alternatively, military buildings could be built with the saved wood.
Even for the English, Outpost into Deer costs around 67.5 wood less, including construction time. The English gathering from Farms is faster than normal, though English gathering from Deer is also faster than normal, due to their attacks having higher damage, killing the Deer faster.
Players could add more Villagers than 5 to gather the Deer or Boar, as the Outpost provides vision for an early retreat and arrow-fire to deter enemy units.
This tactic also has the major benefit of being able to use the Outpost built for it for other things. It continues to provide vision for early responses to enemy attacks, it can be upgraded with emplacements to improve defence, it can fire garrison arrows upon enemy units, and it can garrison units for their safety, including the farmers which will eventually be around the Mill.
The Mongols and English also get influences on their Outposts, which makes them valuable to keep around. The English get an especially powerful bonus for their military, which is valuable enough to justify their construction even without an economic bonus. Considering English Villagers are generally more powerful in combat, they can also go to the more exposed locations of forward Outposts used for this tactic more easily to gather from them and can occasionally aid in the fight if there. This state of affairs could result in the English player collecting Deer from their opponent's Deer herds instead of their own, especially as the English usually plays pretty aggressive.
Wild Boar have a higher base gathering rate than Deer, making them favorable, though they can attack back. This can be countered by using military units, especially the starting Scout, to draw the Boar's aggression before the Villagers kill it, or even using a lot of army units to kill the Boar.
A major benefit of this tactic is that is does not allow the opponent to get value from destroying Farms, especially with siege engines. One major note is on maps with little or no Sheep, it can easily be justified to use the starting Scout to lure in Deer instead of building an Outpost and Mill.
Defense[]
Outposts provide a reasonable value for defense. For example, an Outpost with a Springald Emplacement costs 275 total resources dealing 10.30 damage/second. This is equal to 2.29 Crossbowmen dealing 12.94 damage/second, or 3.44 Veteran Archers dealing 14.80 damage/second.
Outposts have high defensive stats, especially if the Fortify Outpost Emplacement is used. Players could also wall in their Outpost to make it even more durable. They could either only partially wall it in, forcing an awkward, time-consuming detour to attack it, or use a gate if they also want units to be able to garrison in it. This means they can be used to put the opponent in a Catch-22, where their units can either attack the Outpost and make it into a tank for the units, thus letting them attack for free, or attack the units and make the Outpost into a consistent damage dealer. This strategy works best with ranged units micro-ing backwards to be more efficient and extend the fight, tank-y units like Men-at-Arms and Siege Towers, deliberately building many buildings nearby to slow down troops and force battles in choke points, for example, by building many Houses or walls nearby, and running away with units often just to make enemy units waste time chasing them. This is because it drags out the fight for the Outposts to deal more damage.
Outposts get more valuable as the game goes on, as they do not cost population space. They can also help deal with raids, meaning less units need to be sent away from other areas to deal with raiding units.
Offense[]
Outposts can be used offensively as well as defensively. One of the most important offensive uses for Outposts is in tower rushing. This is usually done to deny the opponent's gold. This is an especially common strategy for the Mongols. Outposts can also deny enemy wood lines if they have them in range, which can often end up in the Outpost being relatively safe, as it is shielded by the trees.
Forward Outposts can be built for their influences for the English and the Mongols. This is more common from the English, though the Mongols could do this as well, mainly for the utility of cavalry having an easier time sniping Monks and siege units going in the area later.
Outposts can also be used offensively later in the game to threaten a Sacred Site victory by protecting them or by making a forward position easier to hold. They can also give vision, making it easier to avoid and snipe enemy siege weapons, especially with Springalds.
Outposts can be used to allow allied units to dodge enemy attacks with bonus damage against them by garrisoning inside, then going out when the units are distracted or when reinforcing troops arrive. However, they are generally worse at this than Battering Rams, as they have much less garrison space.
Additionally, the Outposts made for vision can be upgraded with emplacements if their location becomes critical later or just to be annoying by attacking nearby enemy units to distract the opponent.
Toll Outpost[]
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Available technologies[]
Generic emplacements[]
- Arrowslits - All civilizations except the Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy
- Springald Emplacement - All civilizations except the Byzantines
- Cannon Emplacement
- Fortify Outpost - All civilizations except the Mongols
Unique emplacements[]
- Handcannon Slits ( Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy) - replaces Arrowslits
- Mangonel Emplacement ( Byzantines) - replaces Springald Emplacement
- Javelin Emplacement ( Malians) - replaces Arrowslits once the Saharan Trade Network is built
Unique technologies[]
- (Improved) Yam Network ( Mongols)
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Court Architects (+30%) Reinforced Defenses (+25%,  Holy Roman Empire and  Order of the Dragon) Pax Mongolica (+300,  Mongols)
|
| Attack |  Steeled Arrow (+1) Balanced Projectiles (+1) Platecutter Point (+1) Extensive Fortifications (Garrison arrows +1, +2 vs heavy,  Ottomans)
|
| Armor |  Slow-Burning Defenses (+10 fire armor,  Delhi Sultanate) Slate and Stone Construction (+5 fire armor, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon) Pax Mongolica (+3 fire armor, Mongols)
|
| Line of Sight |  Gion Festival (+2 tiles,  Japanese)
|
| Resource cost | Extensive Fortifications (-20%, Ottomans)
|
| Ability |  Extra Materials (unlocks the Extra Materials enhancement,  Chinese) Network of Citadels (increases Network of Castles bonus to +30%,  English) Yam Network (Yam Aura now affects all non-siege units, Mongols)
|
| Emplacements | |
|---|---|
| Hit points
|
 Fortify Outpost (+1,000, all except the Mongols)
|
 Range
|
 Arrowslits (+1)
|
| Additional projectiles | One of:
|
| Armor | Fortify Outpost (+5 fire armor, all except the Mongols)
|
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
 Regeneration
|
 Emergency Repairs (150 HP/s for 20 seconds, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon)
|
| Range
|
 Divine Defense (+1 tile,  Zhu Xi's Legacy)
|
| Armor |  House of Wisdom Influence (+5 fire armor,  Abbasid Dynasty and  Ayyubids)
|
| Damage resistance | Elzbach Palace Influence (-33%, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon)  Praesidium Influence (-5% per Cistern water level,  Byzantines) Supervision (+35%, requires Military Affairs Bureau Zhu Xi's Legacy)
|
| Research speed |  Dialecticus Influence (+30% per Cistern water level, Byzantines)
|
 Work rate
|
Supervision (+150% for Chinese; +150% for Zhu Xi's Legacy or +300% with Regional Inspection
|
| Ability | Town Center Influence (grants Emergency Repairs, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon) Saharan Trade Network (generate an additional 50% of the taxed gold as food)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Attack | Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon (+25% with garrisoned Relic)
|
| Range
|
Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon (+20% with garrisoned Relic)
|
| Armor | Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon (+25% with garrisoned Relic)
|
| Line of Sight | Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon (+20%, additional +20% with garrisoned Relic)
|
| Build speed | Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy (+50%)
|
Changelog[]
- Originally, Outposts had 1,000 hit points, took 45 seconds to build, and had a garrison attack rate of 1.12. With patch 20249, they have 750 hit points, take 60 seconds to build, and have a garrison attack rate of 1.88.
- Originally, Outpost arrows dealt +25 damage vs Ships. With update 24916, this was reduced do +10.
- Chinese:
- With patch 20249, Outposts took 45 seconds to be built. With Server-Side Patch 5.1.148.1, this was corrected to 40 seconds to properly reflect their 50% build speed increase.
- English:
- With Season Four update 6.0.878, the Network of Castles attack speed bonus provided by Outposts was reduced from 20% to 15%.
- Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon:
- Originally, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon Outposts had 25% extra Line of Sight. With patch 11.1.1201, this was reduced to 20%.
- Malians:
- Originally, the Toll Outpost collected 10% gold of trade income. With an unknown patch,[When?] it was reduced to 8%.
- Originally, the had a cooldown of 7.5 seconds and generated the maximum amount of tax every time. With an unknown patch,[When?] the functionality was switched to its current form.
- With update 12.0.1974, Toll Outposts can research Javelin Emplacements instead of Arrowslits after the Saharan Trade Network is built.
- Mongols:
- Originally, Mongol Outposts cost 70 wood. With patch 10257, they cost 100 wood.
- Originally, the Mongol Yam aura was maintained for 20 seconds after leaving the Outpost aura radius. With patch 11963, it was reduced to 10 seconds. With patch 14681, it was removed entirely.
- With patch 8.2.218, the Mongols received the Pax Mongolica upgrade, which is essentially a significantly weaker Fortify Outpost emplacement that applies to all Outposts at once in the Imperial Age.
- Zhu Xi's Legacy:
- With patch 9.2.628, Outposts no longer benefit from the Song Dynasty bonus.
Campaign version[]
Because the original four campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Outposts have the following main differences in those campaigns
- They have 1,500 hit points.
- Their garrison arrows do 10 damage at 9 tiles of range every 3.38 seconds, but they can only garrison 3 units
- Mongol Outposts cost only 70 wood and contain the following Mongol unique technologies
Gallery[]
Civilization differences[]
When Outposts are upgraded with Fortify Outpost, or Pax Mongolica for the Mongols, their design changes. The following images show the regular Outpost at the top-left, and the upgraded variant at the bottom-right.
