โ | Automatically produces a gatherable Sheep every 120 seconds. Will eventually stop producing if too many Sheep are produced and not gathered. | โ |
—Age of Empires IV description |
The Pasture is a unique building in Age of Empires IV available to the Mongols* that periodically spawns Sheep. It replaces the Farm
Gameplay[]
By default, a Pasture produces one Sheep every 112 seconds. Once a Pasture is built, it immediately spawns one Sheep. Production from all Pastures stops when there are already 30 sheep.
A Pasture works faster if it is built within the influence of an Ovoo. The interval of spawning is 33% shorter, so it works 50% faster, producing a sheep every ~74 seconds.
Strategy[]
Due to their wood-efficiency and flexibility, it is often worth it to build them early instead of relying on natural resources. Even with map control and hunting, it is justifiable to build Pastures with extra wood in order to slowly accumulate Sheep for later stages.
Since the Sheep spawned can be sent to an ally, it is also possible to perform such a "Sheep-sling" strategy if it synergizes well. Since players can set the Sheep gather point to a small area, it can greatly benefit an ally with some area-limited bonus, like the Aachen Chapel or an Imperial Official supervising.
Number of Villagers[]
If fewer Villagers are gathering (compared to the balanced number), then the Sheep will slowly stack up and they can be gathered later, so no resources are lost. If more Villagers are gathering, then Sheep will slowly get eaten up, but as long as the Villagers are not idle, no resources are lost either. However, in order to avoid wasting wood on too many Pastures or risking a food shortage by building too few, it can be helpful to have in mind the break-even number of Pastures to build.
Early game[]
The Pasture spawns a Sheep every 116 seconds, so a maximum of 200 food can be gathered within every 116 seconds, or about 103 food per minute. For a non-upgraded Villager that gathers about 36 food/min, it supports almost 3 Villagers constantly gathering Sheep from it.
If the Pasture is built within influence of an Ovoo, it provides roughly 155 food/min, which is enough for sustaining 4.3 Villagers. This means that if players gather with 4 Villagers or fewer, the Sheep will stack up over time, and for 5 Villagers or more, the number of Sheep will decrease over time. Since it is better to have an abundance of Sheep rather than have Villagers go idle, it is better to round down.
As a rule of thumb, the following number of Villagers should be used per pasture to avoid idle time and maximize efficiency.
- 3 Villagers per Pasture and 4 Villagers per Pasture near an Ovoo.
- If any or all of the food gathering technologies have been researched, 2 Villagers per Pasture and 3 Villagers per Pasture near an Ovoo.
- If all three improved versions are researched, 1 Villager per Pasture and 2 Villagers per Pasture near an Ovoo.
Late game[]
For a typical 1v1 late game, assuming Horticulture and Fertilization are researched, and for a typical 50 Villagers on food, 22 Pastures are needed. If 12 Pastures fit around The White Stupa, 4 or 5 extra Pastures are needed. For every 2 gatherers, add one Pasture.
For a super-late team game, assuming every technology and their improvements are researched, and for a typical 50 Villagers on food, 12 Pastures around The White Stupa and 8 to 9 other Pastures are needed.
As a rule of thumb, players keep the balance if food gatherers are about twice as many as Pastures. Fewer Pastures are needed if some are built near an Ovoo.
Comparison to Farms[]
Pastures and Farms both provide infinite food by investing wood, but the way they function is fundamentally different. Since Farms need to be worked on in order to be useful, it is never optimal to build an idle Farm. In contrast, it is completely justifiable to build early Pastures without having to gather from spawned Sheep. Villagers can be tasked elsewhere while the Pastures slowly stack up Sheep. Sheep can later be gathered by more Villagers at the same time, providing more flexibility than Farms.
A Dark Age Pasture can support 3 gatherers costing 150 wood, which is more wood-efficient than 3 farmers, which would cost 225 wood. If the Pasture is built near an Ovoo, it can support 4.5 gatherers, which even makes them on par with 50% discounted English Farms in terms of wood-efficiency.
Another advantage of Pastures over Farms is the space efficiency. As their costs suggest, one Pasture is supposed to be worth more than one Farm, which means that there should be a smaller number of Pastures than Farms for comparable economy, not to mention that extra space is needed for drop-off buildings.
Since the Sheep spawn rate is not affected by upgrades, researching food gathering technologies will make Sheep run out quicker, and players probably have to add more Pastures. For Farms, there is no such concern. Therefore, the number of Pastures determines the effective maximum food gather rate, whereas the number of Farms determines the number of food gatherers.
Some civilizations have bonuses or unique buildings/technologies that may make their farmers work faster than Mongol Shepherds.
In conclusion, Pastures are more flexible, more wood-efficient and more space-efficient, whereas Farms are easy to keep the balance (one farmer per Farm), and farmers with some civilization bonuses may gather food faster.
Further statistics[]
As the Pasture is unique to the Mongols, only boosts that are available to them are shown in the following table:
Sheep spawn rate | Ovoo Influence (+50%) |
Hit points | Court Architects (+30% while packed) |
Other | (Can pack up and move) |
Changelog[]
- Originally, Pastures produced Sheep every 120 seconds. With Server-Side Patch 5.1.148.1, they produce Sheep every 140 seconds. With update 11.0.782, they produce Sheep every 116 seconds (to account for the smaller amount of food per Sheep). With patch 11.1.1201, they produce Sheep every 112 seconds.
- Originally, Pastures had a pack/unpack time of 5 seconds. With update 7.0.5861, this was reduced to 1 second.
Campaign version[]
Because the original four campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Pastures have different stats in The Mongol Empire.
- They only cost 100 wood
- They produce Sheep every 90 seconds, or every 60 seconds if under the influence of an Ovoo.