| “ | An abandoned or unclaimed village. Build a Town Center on top of a Settlement to claim it. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Settlement is a gameplay element in Age of Mythology. Unlike in other games of the Age of Empires series, Town Centers cannot be placed anywhere on land and must be built on abandoned Settlement locations. This limits the areas in which Villagers can be trained, function as points for territory control (as most Settlements spawn/are placed near resources), and also negates any effort to rush with Town Centers.
In Supremacy game mode (default), when a team has built Town Centers on all Settlements, a 2 minute counter starts upon whose end the team wins by Settlement Victory. The countdown vanishes if a Town Center is lost before the timer is done.
Overview[]
Each and every random map in Age of Mythology (except Tiny) features a variable number of Settlements across the land. Players must scout as much as possible to search for a convenient site to construct a Town Center, that can allow them to project power to distant sites (in essence, to increase their map control), as apart from their defensive value, they are the only buildings that can train Villagers. Walls cannot be placed too close to unclaimed Settlements.
In the original Age of Mythology, Villagers can lay foundations on these abandoned villages from the Heroic Age, and start building a Town Center. From The Titans onwards, Town Centers can be built in the Classical Age, though Atlantean Citizens can build them even earlier, from the Archaic Age. In Retold, the Atlanteans lose this particular bonus. This restriction only applies to additional Town Centers, and players can rebuild their starting Town Center in earlier Ages if lost, or when playing on Nomad, as players do not begin with a Town Center constructed.
In versions before Retold, Town Centers are even more important in the Atlanteans' case, as they also provide favor.
In Retold, Village Centers can be placed at any place where most buildings can be constructed, uncoupled from the restriction of Settlements unlike Town Centers, thus allowing expanding the player's economy faster without necessarily securing Settlements. On the other hand, they have several drawbacks and limitations compared to Town Centers.
Trivia[]
- During development, Settlements were not required to construct additional Town Centers; additional Town Centers were built (after the first) in the original third (and last) Olympic Age. Instead, a similar system called Fertile Fields existed, which were locations required to build farms (also required to increase population).
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