Paper Money is a technology in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas that is unique to the Vietnamese and can be researched at the Castle once the Imperial Age is reached. As soon as it is researched, the Lumberjacks will generate gold.
Strategy[]
Previous to Dynasties of India Paper Money gave each allied player 500 gold. As such, Paper Money should be researched as soon as possible if playing in a team game. The effect of Paper Money logically increased with the number of allies the player had, as every ally receives the gold. For example, a team with three players earns 1,500 gold in exchange for 500 food and 300 wood, which is a great boost.
Comparatively, in single games, Paper Money was a good option after the Market price for food and wood has bottomed out. In this senario selling 500 food and 300 wood at the Market with Guilds would result in only 136 gold, making this technology effectively generate an extra 364 gold after 60 seconds (388 gold without Guilds).
With Dynasties of India, Paper Money now gives lumberjacks the ability to generate gold and also now only applies to the player that researched it. The gold generation is slow, so unless the player has a lot of lumberjacks, this technology may have to be left alone. In theory, this extra gold may aid the player to delay the trash wars.
The gold generated is approximately 1 gold for every 68 seconds of woodcutting time (which means no gold is generated when walking to and from the Lumber Camp). Also, wood upgrades don't affect the generation rate, and they may even be considered bad, since they reduce woodcutting time. Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart, on the other hand, increase the total generation rate for the same reason. For reference, 10 post-Imperial Vietnamese lumberjacks generate 7 gold in the time it takes them to reach maximum carry capacity. In practice, 24 lumberjacks generate gold in about the same rate as a Relic.
Changelog[]
Rise of the Rajas[]
- Paper Money costs 800 food, 200 gold, and takes 40 seconds to research. It gives the player and their allies 500 gold.
Definitive Edition[]
Dynasties of India[]
Trivia[]
- The Paper Money technology is likely based on Ho Quy Ly's monetary reform in the 1400s, where he replaced metal coins with paper money as the mean of transaction.
- Despite its reference, Paper Money itself is a Chinese invention, so it would be more accurate to call the in-game technology, "Monetary Reform".
- The Paper Money former effect of giving the whole team extra resources is similar to several Home City resource crate team cards in Age of Empires III.
Video overview[]
Note that this overview is outdated as it measures the worth of this technology based on the Rise of the Rajas cost, not the latest expansion for the Definitive Edition.
