Sacred Cow

Sacred Cow
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties
Type	Herded animal Cattle
Civilization(s)	Indians
Training
Trained at	Sacred Field
Cost	125 Food
Train time	15 seconds
Train limit	20
Statistics
Hit points	20
Speed	4.0
Line of Sight	9
Resource amount	50-500 food ()
Fatten rate	0.25/s 0.5/s at Livestock Market 1.0/s at Livestock Pen, Farm, Village, Hacienda
Gatherers	8
Resource generation
Auto gather	0.12/s XP ()
Requires	Indians only

“	Herd animal. Generates experience points. Increased experience points generation when tasked to a Sacred Field.	”
—In-game description (the next two sentences are also used by other Indian livestock)

The Sacred Cow is a herdable animal in Age of Empires III that is unique to the Indians and can be trained at the Sacred Field.

Indian Villagers cannot gather food from herdable animals like Sacred Cows, which generate XP instead. This rate can be increased by tasking them to Sacred Fields.

Sacred Cows can be captured by non-Indian players, in which case they will behave like regular Cows.

Gathering rates

Resource	Source	Gathering rate
		per second	per minute
All resources	Shrine	0.1425	8.55
Food	Hacienda	0.166667	10.00002
Wood		0.25	15
Coin		0.113334	6.80004
XP	Sacred Field	0.21	12.6
Influence	Livestock Market	0.08 0.3 (fattened)	4.8 18 (fattened)

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Nothing
Improvements
Fatten rate	Navajo Shepherds (+100% auto gather; +30% from Livestock Pens, Farms, Villages, Livestock Markets, and Haciendas) Large Scale Gathering (+50% from Farms; Native Americans only) Selective Breeding (+25% from Livestock Pens, Farms, Villages, Livestock Markets, and Haciendas) Punjabi New Year (+10% from Livestock Pens, Farms, Villages, Livestock Markets, and Haciendas)
XP generation rate	Navajo Shepherds (+30%) Punjabi New Year (+10%) Ritual Bovine (+10% from Sacred Fields)
Shrine resource generation rate	Navajo Shepherds (+35%) Punjabi New Year (+10%)
Influence generation rate	Transhumance (+0.15)
Hit points	Gadaa System (+5%; Ethiopians only) Tar Kilns (+5%)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+2; before the Definitive Edition)
Train time	Immigrants (-10%)
Other	Cow Loans (fattened herded animal sold at Livestock Markets spawns an unfattened one; Africans only) Royal Banquet (sells for 50% of its food as influence; Africans only) Día de Muertos (+5 XP for every lost; Mexicans only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Sacred Cow

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Purple	Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

• Definitive Edition
• The Asian Dynasties

All

Card	Description	Age
Stockyards	Herded animals fatten 30% faster when tasked to Livestock Pens, Farms, Villages, and Haciendas

• "Stockyards" is available to Europeans (except the Dutch and Portuguese), Federal Americans, the Chinese and Haudenosaunee.

British

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Wool Staple Ports	Herded animals fatten 20% faster and 20% faster when tasked to Villages, Livestock Pens, Haciendas, Farms, and Livestock Markets; Indian herded animals generate +20% XP; Japanese herded animals generate +25% resources/XP when tasked to Shrines

Chinese

Card	Description	Age
Western Reforms	All units get +8% hit points and damage

Hausa

Card	Description	Age
Habbanaya	Exchanges all cattle for 70% the influence received from selling them otherwise, and spawns unfattened ones in their place
Moroccan Leather	Cattle gives 50 influence when harvested; sheep or goat gives 30 influence when harvested
Kilishi Jerky	Cattle get +100 food capacity; sheep or goat get +60 food capacity

Indians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	All units get +5% hit points and damage
Foreign Trading Companies	Gives a trickle of 0.75 export/s; banner army cost -15% export; Indian units cost +2.5% (Hindu Villagers, Fishing Boats, and Sacred Cows cost +5% instead); +1 Hindu Villager
Goraksha	Herded animals generate +80% XP; Sacred Cows cost -25 food; +1 Hindu Villager
Grazing	Camels generate 0.05 food/s; elephants and Brahmins generate 0.1 wood/s; Sacred Cows generate 0.075 coin/s; +1 Hindu Villager

Maltese

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Knights of the Round Table	Delivers 1 Hospitaller for each Town Center and Command Post build; all units get +2% hit points

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Mariachi	For the next 30 seconds, military buildings work 400% faster and units get +10% speed
Colegio de San Nicolás	Delivers Large Collection of Books (500 XP); units get +4 and buildings (except Walls) get +8 Line of Sight; sees what enemies can see for 20 seconds

• "Colegio de San Nicolás" is available upon selecting the Michoacán Federal State.

All

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Stockyards	Herded animals fatten 30% faster when tasked to Livestock Pens, Farms, and Villages		1

• "Stockyards" is available to Europeans (except the Dutch and Portuguese), the Chinese and Iroquois.

British

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Wool Staple Ports	Herded animals fatten 20% faster and 20% faster when tasked to Villages, Livestock Pens, and Farms; Indian herded animals generate +20% XP; Japanese herded animals generate +25% resources/XP when tasked to Shrines		10

Chinese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Western Reforms	All units get +8% hit points and damage		40

Indians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	All units get +5% hit points and damage		25
Goraksha	Herded animals generate +80% XP; Sacred Cows cost -25 food; +1 Villager		1

Spanish

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Inquisition	All units get +10 Line of Sight		10

Trivia

• The Sacred Cow is a reference to the fact that Hinduism considers cattle (cows and bulls) as sacred animals. For this reason, their meat isn't eaten by Hindus, but their milk is often used in religious rituals. Also, it is generally considered that killing a cattle, whether intentionally or accidentally, counts as a mortal sin in Hinduism – almost equal to a murder (as the Sacred Field's in-game history section states).
  • Because of this, cows often roam free in busy streets of major cities in modern-day India such as Delhi and Mumbai; there is a common misconception that if one blocks a road, traffic builds up or people move around it, although in reality this is rarely the case.

Gallery