Shipwright is a technology in Age of Empires II available at the Dock upon reaching the Imperial Age. Once researched, it decreases the amount of wood required to build any Dock unit by 20%. With patch 1.0b, it also reduces the training time of ships by 35%, which results in an increase in the creation speed of ships by 54%. Unlike the similar technology Conscription, Shipwright does not make Docks work faster, hence technologies are not researched faster.
The Vikings have a civilization bonus making their warships 20% cheaper in the Imperial Age, partly compensating the fact that they cannot research Shipwright.
None of the four civilizations introduced in The Last Khans and neither of the two civilizations introduced in Dawn of the Dukes have access to Shipwright. Conversely, all three civilizations introduced in Dynasties of India have access to Shipwright.
During the beta, the Tatars had access to Shipwright.
Sometimes it is not cost-effective to research Shipwright, when the player plans to create only few ships. If in-game food costs the same as wood, there should be 4,000 wood spent to get 1,000 (food) for free because of the discount. This means that Shipwright will pay for itself after creating 25 Cannon Galleons or 72 Demolition Ships. Also, the technology does not affect gold cost. As a result, the main technology use is for faster ship creation speed.
History[]
ā
Men who built and designed ships were called shipwrights. Their value to sea coast communities increased as the demand for sea trade and war ships increased. Expert shipwrights built sturdier ships at a lower cost.