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This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For the building in Age of Mythology, see Stone Wall (Age of Mythology). |
| “ | Stronger than Palisade Wall but more expensive. Slows down your enemies so you have a chance to fend them off. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Stone Wall is a wall in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Feudal Age is reached. Stone Walls are much stronger than Palisade Walls and a good defense in the Feudal Age, but become comparatively weak in later stages of the game.
Stone Walls are available to all civilizations except for the Goths and the Cumans.
Tactics and placement
When Stone Walls are built around the outside of a town, it makes the town very difficult to attack, as any attacking units will have to destroy a piece of the Wall before it can attack any of the other buildings, and it offers a warning to the town that their opponents are attacking. Stone Walls are usually upgraded to Fortified Wall as soon as possible.
Stone Walls are essential when performing a turtling strategy, as they help the player to gain some time to train own units and strengthen the fortification. Also, they provide defense for friendly ranged units and buildings that can attack the enemy units from behind the Wall without taking any retaliation from unranged units.
Walls should be placed in strategic points or surround and protect the player's settlements, preferable at a little distance from important buildings like Town Centers to prevent enemy siege weapons to attack these buildings from behind the Wall. When placing a Wall, the player can take advantage of the terrain. For example, placing them next to forests and cliffs helps to enclose an area as well while precious stone is saved. The support of towers and Castles is highly valuable especially in major choke points as the Walls only serve as a blocking building and cannot attack. Placing Gates is also important to increase the efficiency of defensive structures as the Gate allows to friendly units to pass through the Wall while impeding enemy units to enter the walled area.
Having units like archers and ranged siege weapons behind a Wall can prove to be a highly efficient way to defend an important location as well, also the support of fast moving melee units like cavalry is worth noting as the cavalry can manage to destroy enemy siege units that may destroy the Walls.
Further statistics
| Building strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Nothing |
| Weak vs. | Everything except Monks |
| Upgrades | |
| Hit points |  Great Wall (+30%, Chinese only)
|
| Construction speed |  Treadmill Crane (+20%)
|
| Upgrades | File:Fortified-wall-research.jpg Fortified Wall |
Civilization bonuses
- Byzantines: Stone Walls have +20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Stone Walls are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
- Incas: Stone Walls are 15% cheaper (they actually cost 4 stone, 2 if teamed with Mayans).
- Spanish: Stone Walls are built 30% faster.
Team bonuses
- A team containing Malians: Upgrading to Fortified Wall and researching Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
- A team containing Mayans: Stone Walls are 50% cheaper (rounded up to 3 stone per segment).
Changelog
The Age of Kings
- Stone Walls have 1,800 HP from the Feudal Age on.
- Stone Walls take 8 seconds to build.
- The upgrade to the Fortified Wall costs 200F/100S.
The Conquerors
- The upgrade to the Fortified Wall now costs 200F/100W.
The Forgotten
- Stone Wall HP staggered: 900/1,800/1,800 in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Stone Walls now take 10 seconds to build.
- Chinese: Great Wall introduced.
- Koreans: Stone Walls are now built 33% faster.
Definitive Edition
- Koreans no longer build Stone Walls faster.
History
| “ | Larger and more advanced civilizations upgraded their defenses to stone walls when they could. A well-built stone wall offered protection against raiders because it could be broken down only by a determined effort. To capture a walled town or castle might require a long siege or a battering by powerful siege engines. Stone walls were expensive and time-consuming to build but worth the cost when guarding valuable locations. One famous set of stone walls from the Middle Ages were those guarding the land approaches to Constantinople. These walls withstood intermittent assault over a period of a thousand years. They were partly responsible for deflecting barbarian tribes from the north and east toward Rome, even though Constantinople may have been a more attractive prize. The other famous stone wall of the Middle Ages was the Great Wall of China. Originally constructed in ancient times, it was extended and rebuilt in places by several dynasties. The frontier of China was so long that the Great Wall could not be defended sufficiently to be a shield. It did serve to provide warning of Mongol attack. Most importantly, it slowed the advance and withdrawal of raiders across the frontier, giving the imperial armies a chance to intercept. | ” |
Gallery
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