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This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For the similar building in other games of the series, see Town Center. |
| “ | Used to create villagers, deposit resources (food, wood, stone, gold), advance to next age, and improve buildings, villagers. Units can garrison inside for protection. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Town Center is a key economic building in Age of Empires II that becomes available for construction upon reaching the Castle Age. It trains and improves Villagers, advances through Ages, and serves as a drop off point for all resources. Each Town Center also provides five population.
In regular random map games, every player starts the game with a Town Center. Until the Castle Age is reached, no more Town Centers can be built unless the only Town Center is destroyed, in which case the player may build one new Town Center. If the player has no starting Town Center (e.g. on Nomad), one Town Center can be built (and rebuild if destroyed) before the Castle Age.
Up to 15 Villagers can garrison in Town Centers for shelter from attacks. By doing so, they give the Town Center an attack (arrow fire). This way, players can survive and fend off early attacks. Archers can also garrison in Town Centers to give it an attack. Any non-mounted unit can heal its HP if garrisoned. This is especially useful before the Castle Age when there are no Monasteries and Monks.
Town Centers cannot be converted.
Tactics and placement
The Town Center is the most frequently used building in the game (it even has a unique hotkey: pressing the H key cycles between all of a player's Town Centers), and it starts as the nucleus of every player's settlement and the only way to produce Villagers that will become the backbone of every player's empire. The Town Center is also a strong defensive building and through garrisoning, it also serves as a way to protect a player from some enemy attacks. Losing Town Centers hinder the economy of the player, even in the late-game, so they are often the target of attacks.
Once the Castle Age is reached, building more Town Centers is critical. These allow the player to increase Villager production and accelerate their entire economy. Town Centers should be built close to freely available resources to allow Villagers to be quickly garrisoned. Preferable locations would be near gold or stone, because these resources are scarce and Miners are often target of harassment attacks. Town Centers have a lot of building armor, but it is not impossible to kill one with a large mass of high damage units (such as Knights). Town Centers benefit a lot from University technologies, especially Treadmill Crane.
There is a game mode called Sudden Death in which the players are limited to their starting Town Center. If the player loses it they are automatically defeated, so when playing Sudden Death, players must defend their Town Center at all cost.
Town Center rush
The Town Center rush strategy was very popular in the earliest times of Age of Empires II, before The Conquerors made it nearly unviable due to balance changes. It revolves itself around deleting the own Town Center at the game start and rebuilding it close to the enemy's. That way, it could function as a tower and drastically hamper the targeted player's economy early on. To successfully employ that tactic, the Teutons were the only civilization in question, because their Town Centers got +5 range and +2 attack (changed to LOS in Conquerors). With that bonus, the Town Center could be placed so that it could attack the enemy's TC without being in their range to be attacked itself. That led to many hosts adding 'No Teutons' in the lobby description, and kicking players choosing the Teutons. That was very unfortunate for those favoring the Teutons for other of their qualities. Persian players can still employ a similar tactic, as their Town Centers have double hit points, but at the risk of losing Villagers in the process. And the Cumans in the Definitive Edition can perform a double Town Center rush, since they can make an additional one in the Feudal Age, but it takes time, and also has the risk of losing Villagers in the process.
Repairing
Repairing a Town Center doesn't cost any stone but twice the wood building a new one requires. So repairing an almost destroyed Town Center costs almost 550 wood compared to 275 wood and 100 stone for building a new one. That's very different from usual repairing costs which are simply half the building costs. Although it does not require stone, the stone pile must not be empty, otherwise the villagers will not start repairing.
Trainable units and technologies
Clicking on the icon links to the corresponding page.
- Blue: Units
- Green: Technologies
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Further statistics
| Building strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Short-ranged weak units (with garrison only) |
| Weak vs. | Long-ranged units, Tarkans, Huskarls, War Elephants, Rams |
| Upgrades | |
| Hit points |  Masonry (+10%) Architecture (+10%)
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| Attack |  Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Chemistry (+1) Tigui (enables Town Centers to shoot arrows without garrison, Malians only)
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| Range | Hill Forts (+3 range, Lithuanians only)
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| Accuracy |  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
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| Armor | Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor) Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
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| Line of Sight |  Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4)
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| Construction speed |  Treadmill Crane (+20%)
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| Other |  Herbal Medicine (garrisoned units heal faster) Crenellations (Teutons only, enables garrisoned infantry to shoot arrows)
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Civilization bonuses
- Britons: Town Centers cost -50% wood from the Castle Age on.
- Bulgarians: Town Centers cost -50% stone.
- Byzantines: Town Centers have +10%/+20%/+30%/+40% HP in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch is free. Advancing to the Imperial Age is 33% cheaper.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Town Centers and Town Center technologies (except Age advance) are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Town Centers support +5 population and have +5 Line of Sight.
- Cumans: A second Town Center is available in the Feudal Age.
- Incas: Town Centers cost 15% less stone.
- Malay: Advancing in Age is +80% faster.
- Malians: Town Centers cost 15% less wood.
- Persians: Town Centers have +100% HP and work +5%/10%/15%/20% faster in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Spanish: Town Centers are built 30% faster.
- Teutons: Town Centers can garrison 25 units.
- Vikings: Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart are free.
Team bonuses
- A team containing Malians: University technologies that benefit Town Centers are researched 80% faster.
Changelog
The Age of Kings
The Conquerors
- Town Centers cost 275 wood and 100 stone.
- Teutons: Town Centers have +2 attack and +5 Line of Sight (LOS).
The Forgotten
- Town Centers now benefit from the Chemistry technology.
- Chinese: Town Centers have +5 LOS (moved from Teutons).
- Teutons: Town Centers can garrison 25 units instead of having +2 attack and +5 LOS.
The African Kingdoms
- Camels moved out of the ship armor class, and the Town Centers lose their attack bonus against them, only having +1 attack against them.
Rise of the Rajas
Definitive Edition
- Persians: Town Centers work +5% faster in the Dark Age.
- Lithuanians: Hill Forts technology introduced.
History
| “ | All villages and towns had an administrative center that was the seat of governmental power and leadership. During the Dark Ages this might have been the local leader's home. Later it might have been the town hall or local lord's manor house. The town center was often the place where important supplies were stored, especially food surpluses. The destruction of the town center usually meant the loss of the town's governmental infrastructure. If this could not be restored, the town or village ceased to function. | ” |
Gallery
Template:Buildings AoE2