Palisade Wall (Age of Empires II)

“	Wooden Wall that is cheap and easy to build. Slows down your enemies and warns you of their approach.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Palisade Wall is a wall in Age of Empires II. It is rather fragile but cheap and useful for early defense and tactical maneuvers.

Tactics and placement

Palisade Walls are helpful to perform a turtling strategy in the early game or to counter a Militia rush. Later on, they must be replaced with the much more effective Stone Walls. Also, Palisade Walls do not cost any stone, which can greatly help the player getting the first Castle or more Town Centers up quickly.

Many rushing tactics can be improved if the player sends some Villagers to support the rush and builds Palisade Walls around critically important resources (like the gold), blocking them from the enemy Villagers. If the player performs a tower rush, Palisade Walls can become a useful tool to complement it by surrounding and protecting the rushing towers as they have minimum range before Murder Holes are researched that can be exploited by Feudal Age melee units such as Men-at-Arms. Palisade Walls may also be used to surround opponent's military buildings, such as Barracks, Archery Ranges, Stables or Siege Workshops, in order to prevent those buildings from releasing their units outside.

If used cleverly against a careless opponent, Palisade Walls can make a very good field fortification, capable of buying a few seconds of time to prevent the enemy from reaching fragile units. As Goths and Cumans don't have access to Stone Walls they may be forced to use Palisade Walls in some circumstances as a cheap replacement. In the case of other civilizations they can be used as a Stone Wall replacement if the player has a shortage on stone and needs to block out an area from the opponents quickly.

Palisade Walls can also greatly help in battles when the opponent mainly uses melee units and the own army mostly consists of ranged units. Some Walls as distraction and blockages can win deciding seconds in battles.

On densely forested maps, most prominently Black Forest, narrow paths divide the teams. Therefore, players often try to build Palisade Walls in the narrow points very early on the game, sometimes driving the early game into a "walling war".

Further statistics

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything except Monks
Upgrades
Hit points	Great Wall (+30%, Chinese only)
Construction speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)

Civilization bonuses

Byzantines: Palisade Walls have +10%/+20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
Chinese: Technologies that benefit Palisade Walls are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
Italians: Treadmill Crane is 33% cheaper.
Portuguese: Researching Treadmill Crane is 30% faster.
Spanish: Palisade Walls are built 30% faster.

Team bonuses

A team containing Malians: Researching Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
A team containing Mayans: Palisade Walls are 50% cheaper.
A team containing Cumans: Palisade Walls have +50% more hit points.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

Palisade Walls take 5 seconds to build.
Palisade Walls have 2 pierce armor.
Palisade Walls have 250 HP regardless of the age.

The Conquerors

Palisade Walls now have 5 pierce armor.

The Forgotten

Palisade Walls now take 6 seconds to build.
Palisade Gate introduced.
Chinese: Great Wall introduced.
Koreans: Palisade Walls are now built 33% faster.

Definitive Edition

Koreans no longer build Palisade Walls faster.
With update 42848, walls take 7 seconds to build.
With update 42848, walls have 0 armor until fully constructed.
With update 44725, Palisade Walls now have 150 HP before the Feudal Age.

History

“

Barbarian tribes were migrating across Europe during the Dark Ages, being displaced by other migrations from the East and searching for land to settle. Warrior bands roamed the landscape seeking plunder. In these turbulent times, defensive precautions were taken. Villages were fortified with palisades --- walls built of wood. Although stone walls were preferable, wood was abundant and easy to use, and a palisade could be erected in a fraction of the time a stone wall would take. At night the villagers would bring all their livestock, goods, and tools inside the palisade for protection.

”

Gallery

Template:Buildings AoE2