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โ€œ 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 AoE4 InfluenceBuff Ovoo Influence (+50%)
Hit points AoE4 CourtArchitects Court Architects (+30% while packed)
Other AoE4 PackUp (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.

Gallery[]

Buildings in Age of Empires IV
Common/Generic
Economic AoE4 Farm Farm ยท AoE4 House House ยท AoE4 LumberCamp Lumber Camp ยท AoE4 Market Market ยท AoE4 Mill Mill ยท AoE4 MiningCamp Mining Camp ยท AoE4 TownCenter Town Center ยท AoE4 TradePost/AoE4 CoastalTradePost Trade Post
Military AoE4 ArcheryRange Archery Range ยท AoE4 Barracks Barracks ยท AoE4 Dock Dock ยท AoE4 SiegeWorkshop Siege Workshop ยท AoE4 Stable Stable
Technology AoE4 Blacksmith Blacksmith ยท AoE4 University University/Madrasa
Defense AoE4 Keep Keep ยท AoE4 Outpost Outpost (AoE4 TollOutpost Toll Outpost) ยท AoE4 PalisadeGate Palisade Gate ยท AoE4 PalisadeWall Palisade Wall ยท AoE4 StoneWall Stone Wall ยท AoE4 StoneWallGate Stone Wall Gate ยท AoE4 StoneWallTower Stone Wall Tower
Religious AoE4 Monastery Monastery ยท AoE4 Mosque Mosque ยท AoE4 Monastery Prayer Tent
Victory Wonder ยท Sacred Site
Unique
Byzantines AoE4 Byzantines AoE4 Aqueduct Aqueduct ยท AoE4 Cistern Cistern ยท AoE4 MercenaryHouse Mercenary House ยท AoE4 OliveGrove Olive Grove
Chinese AoE4 Chinese
Zhu Xis Legacy AoE4 Zhu Xi's Legacy
AoE4 Village Village ยท AoE4 Granary Granary ยท AoE4 Pagoda Pagoda
English AoE4 English AoE4 SetupCamp Campfire
Japanese AoE4 Japanese AoE4 BuddhistTemple Buddhist Temple ยท AoE4 Keep Castle ยท AoE4 Farmhouse Farmhouse ยท AoE4 Forge Forge ยท AoE4 ShintoShrine Shinto Shrine
Malians AoE4 Malians AoE4 CattleRanch Cattle Ranch ยท AoE4 PitMine Pit Mine
Mongols AoE4 Mongols AoE4 Ger Ger ยท AoE4 Ovoo Ovoo ยท AoE4 Pasture Pasture
Ottomans AoE4 Ottomans AoE4 MilitarySchool Military School
Rus AoE4 Rus AoE4 HuntingCabin Hunting Cabin ยท AoE4 WoodenFortress Wooden Fortress ยท AoE4 PalisadeGate Fortified Palisade Gate ยท AoE4 PalisadeWall Fortified Palisade Wall
Landmarks
Abbasid Dynasty AoE4 Abbasid Dynasty
Ayyubids AoE4 Ayyubids
AoE4 HouseOfWisdom House of Wisdom
Byzantines AoE4 Byzantines AoE4 GrandWinery Grand Winery ยท AoE4 ImperialHippodrome Imperial Hippodrome ยท AoE4 GoldenHornTower Golden Horn Tower ยท AoE4 CisternoftheFirstHill Cistern of the First Hill ยท AoE4 ForeignEngineeringCompany Foreign Engineering Company ยท AoE4 PalatineSchool Palatine School
Chinese AoE4 Chinese AoE4 ImperialAcademy Imperial Academy ยท AoE4 BarbicanOfTheSun Barbican of the Sun ยท AoE4 AstronomicalClocktower Astronomical Clocktower ยท AoE4 ImperialPalace Imperial Palace ยท AoE4 GreatWallGatehouse Great Wall Gatehouse ยท AoE4 SpiritWay Spirit Way
Delhi Sultanate AoE4 Delhi Sultanate AoE4 DomeOfTheFaith Dome of the Faith ยท AoE4 TowerOfVictory Tower of Victory ยท AoE4 CompoundOfTheDefender Compound of the Defender ยท AoE4 HouseOfLearning House of Learning ยท AoE4 HisarAcademy Hisar Academy ยท AoE4 PalaceOfTheSultan Palace of the Sultan
English AoE4 English AoE4 AbbeyOfKings Abbey of Kings ยท AoE4 CouncilHall Council Hall ยท AoE4 KingsPalace King's Palace ยท AoE4 TheWhiteTower The White Tower ยท AoE4 BerkshirePalace Berkshire Palace ยท AoE4 WynguardPalace Wynguard Palace
French AoE4 French
Jeanne d Arc AoE4 Jeanne d'Arc
AoE4 ChamberOfCommerce Chamber of Commerce ยท AoE4 SchoolOfCavalry School of Cavalry ยท AoE4 GuildHall Guild Hall ยท AoE4 RoyalInstitute Royal Institute ยท AoE4 CollegeOfArtillery College of Artillery ยท AoE4 RedPalace Red Palace
HRE AoE4 Holy Roman Empire
Order of the Dragon AoE4 Order of the Dragon
AoE4 AachenChapel Aachen Chapel ยท AoE4 MeinwerkPalace Meinwerk Palace ยท AoE4 BurgravePalace Burgrave Palace ยท AoE4 RegnitzCathedral Regnitz Cathedral ยท AoE4 ElzbachPalace Elzbach Palace ยท AoE4 PalaceOfSwabia Palace of Swabia
Japanese AoE4 Japanese AoE4 KokaTownship Koka Township ยท AoE4 KuraStorehouse Kura Storehouse ยท AoE4 FloatingGate Floating Gate ยท AoE4 TempleofEquality Temple of Equality ยท AoE4 CastleoftheCrow Castle of the Crow ยท AoE4 TanegashimaGunsmith Tanegashima Gunsmith
Malians AoE4 Malians AoE4 SaharanTradeNetwork Saharan Trade Network ยท AoE4 MansaQuarry Mansa Quarry ยท AoE4 GrandFulaniCorral Grand Fulani Corral ยท AoE4 FarimbaGarrison Farimba Garrison ยท AoE4 FortOfTheHuntress Fort of the Huntress ยท AoE4 GriotBara Griot Bara
Mongols AoE4 Mongols AoE4 DeerStones Deer Stones ยท AoE4 TheSilverTree The Silver Tree ยท AoE4 Kurultai Kurultai ยท AoE4 SteppeRedoubt Steppe Redoubt ยท AoE4 KhaganatePalace Khaganate Palace ยท AoE4 TheWhiteStupa The White Stupa
Ottomans AoE4 Ottomans AoE4 TwinMinaretMedrese Twin Minaret Medrese ยท AoE4 SultanhaniTradeNetwork Sultanhani Trade Network ยท AoE4 InstanbulImperialPalace Istanbul Imperial Palace ยท AoE4 MehmedImperialArmory Mehmed Imperial Armory ยท AoE4 IstanbulObservatory Istanbul Observatory ยท AoE4 SeaGateCastle Sea Gate Castle
Rus AoE4 Rus AoE4 Kremlin Kremlin ยท AoE4 TheGoldenGate The Golden Gate ยท AoE4 AbbeyOfTheTrinity Abbey of the Trinity ยท AoE4 HighTradeHouse High Trade House ยท AoE4 HighArmory High Armory ยท AoE4 SpasskayaTower Spasskaya Tower
Zhu Xis Legacy AoE4 Zhu Xi's Legacy AoE4 MeditationGardens Meditation Gardens ยท AoE4 JiangnanTower Jiangnan Tower ยท AoE4 MountLuAcademy Mount Lu Academy ยท AoE4 ShaolinMonastery Shaolin Monastery ยท AoE4 ZhuXisLibrary Zhu Xi's Library ยท AoE4 TempleoftheSun Temple of the Sun
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