Trade Boat

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires. For the unit in Age of Empires II, see Trade Cog.

Trade Boat
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires
Type	Civilian ship
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Bronze Age*
Training
Trained at	Dock
Wood	75
Gold	60
Training time	50 seconds (base) 29 seconds 25 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	120
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Speed	2
Line of Sight	4
Ability	Trade
Upgrades to
Upgrades to	Merchant Ship
Upgrade cost	200 food, 75 wood
Upgrade time	102 seconds (base) 51 seconds

“	Used to trade with Docks of other civilizations to exchange resources for gold.	”
—In-game description in the Definitive Edition

The Trade Boat is the basic trading vessel in Age of Empires. It is a civilian ship available to all civilizations at the Dock starting in the Bronze Age*. They can also be upgraded to Merchant Ships which provide greater speed and durability.

Tactics

Like all civilian ships, Trade Boats are unarmed and unarmored and as such need protecting. Boats are twice as resistant to conversions as regular units.

Ability

Return of Rome

They can trade between the player's with any other player's Docks, generating resources on each trip upon returning to the player's Dock, similar to Trade Cog in Age of Empires II.

Before Return of Rome

Its function is for early trade to develop, generating gold in exchange for any of the other three resources, by forming trade routes between two players' Docks. A player will trade 20 of their selected resource for 20 goods (depicted as clay pots in the selected Dock or Trade Boat's UI panel) at any allied, neutral or enemy Dock.

The default traded/sold resource is wood, which can also be set to food or stone. The targeted Dock has an inventory which starts at 0 and slowly increases to a limit of 100. The assigned trade boat will take 20 goods from the targeted Dock's inventory. If the Dock has less than 20 goods, the Trade Boat will wait at the Dock while it produces more, and then return to the player's Dock when it obtains 20. When the Trade Boat returns to its home Dock it will deposit the goods, and the player will receive an amount of gold based on the distance between the two Docks. This amount can also be noted at the target Dock (which can be selected even when it is outside the player's Line of Sight i.e. in the Fog of War), where it is mentioned to the left of 20, below the goods meter; this amount ranges from 7 to 75.

Civilization bonuses

• Greeks: Trade Boats have +20% speed.
• Macedonians: Trade Boats have +2 Line of Sight and are four times more resistant to conversion.
• Minoans: Trade Boats cost -25%/-30% in the Bronze/Iron Age.
• Palmyrans: Trade Boats provide +20% gold per trip.
• Yamato: Trade Boats have +20%/+25% hit points in the Bronze/Iron Age.

Team bonuses

• Palmyrans: Upgrading Trade Boats to Merchant Ships is 30% faster.

Changelog

Age of Empires

• Trade Boats can be trained in the Stone Age and cost 100 wood.
• Trade Boats have 200 hit points and take 60 seconds to upgrade.
• Minoans: Trade Boats cost -30%.
• Palmyrans: Trade Boats provide twice as much gold per trip.
• Yamato: Trade Boats have +30% hit points.

Definitive Edition

• Trade Boats have 120 hit points and take 102 seconds to upgrade.
• Yamato: Upon release, Trade Boats have +25% hit points. With update 38862, they have +20% hit points.

Return of Rome

• Trade Boats now do not require goods and resources to generate gold.
• Trade Boats can be trained in the Bronze Age and cost 75 wood, 60 gold.
• Palmyrans: Trade Boats provide 20% more gold per trip.
• Palmyrans (team bonus): Technologies benefiting Trade Boats are researched 30% faster.
• Minoans: With update 99311, Trade Boats cost -25%/-30% in the Bronze/Iron Age.
• Yamato: With update 99311, Trade Boats have +20%/+25% hit points in the Bronze/Iron Age.

History

“	Small boats were used by Stone Age peoples for trading across rivers, lakes, and oceans. We know, for example, that tool stone found on Aegean Islands was brought to the mainland and other islands by traders long before large seagoing boats existed. Primitive trading boats were usually dugout canoes, papyrus bundles, or hide boats with a limited cargo capacity. They probably carried only limited quantities of valuable trade goods, such as carvings, ivory, furs, tool stone, decorative minerals, and amber. Large bulk cargoes could not be carried profitably in small trading boats.	”
—The Age of Empires manual

Gallery

Trade Boats in the Definitive Edition.

A group of Trade Boats in the original game.

Trade Boat idle sprite in Return of Rome

Tech tree

	➞		➞			➞
		➞
					➞
			➞			➞
					➞
								Requires Catapult Trireme	➞
								Requires War Galley