| “ | Trade Ships generate Gold and Wood when assigned to a trade route with a Coastal Trade Post or another player's Dock. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Trade Ship is a civilian ship in Age of Empires IV trained at the Dock. Trade Ships generate equal amounts of gold and wood when assigned to trade with a Coastal Trade Post or another player's Dock. Once assigned to trade, the Trade Ship makes repeated trips between its Dock and the trade target.
Tactics[]
Similar to Traders, Trade Ships provide an alternate method to increase the player's economy. Theoretically, Trade Ships pay back their cost much faster than Traders. With their faster speed and ability to bring back wood as well as gold, they have 3x the return of Traders and thus pay back 66% faster on an equal-distance trade route. In practice, however, Trade Ships can be very situational. Firstly, they are created at the Dock and thus have to compete with both Fishing Boats and military ships. Secondly, Coastal Trade Posts can often be in much more random and central locations, resulting in shorter and - more importantly - harder-to-defend trade routes. Rarely are there generations with an easily-defendable trade route along a map edge behind the player. Consequently, any player that focuses on building Trade Ships will lose control of the water to a player that makes military ships instead. Therefore, in 1 vs 1s, Trade Ships are more often created once a player has already secured control of the water. In these situations, especially in the mid-to-late game, Trade Ships pay off extremely quickly and can provide the critical economic advantage necessary to finish off an opponent on land.
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
| Armor |  Armored Caravans (+3 fire/ranged,  Abbasid Dynasty) Copper Plating (+2 fire/ranged,  Japanese)
|
| Regeneration |  Gion Festival (to max hit points every 3 minutes, Japanese)
|
| Trade return: Gold |  Spice Roads (+30%, Abbasid Dynasty) Trade Bags (+40%,  Ottomans)
|
| Trade return: tertiary resource |
 Grand Bazaar (+33% food or wood, Abbasid Dynasty) Stone Commerce (+10% stone,  Mongols) Stone Commerce Improved: (+20% stone, Mongols)
|
| Resource generation |  Merchant Guilds (Generates 1 gold every 6 seconds,  French and  Jeanne d'Arc)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Academy (+33%); Improved: (+53%, Mongols)
|
| Ability |  Adaptable Hulls (+50% transformation speed, removes 25 wood conversion penalty,  Rus)
|
| Civilization Bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Trade return: Gold | French and Jeanne d'Arc (+20%) Mongols (+10% with 15+ active traders)
|
| Trade return: tertiary resource |
 Byzantines (+20% Olive Oil) French and Jeanne d'Arc (+20% base wood, can switch gold return for equal amount of food or extra wood) Mongols (+10% food/wood with 5+/10+ active traders)
|
| Cost |  English and  House of Lancaster (-10%) Zhu Xi's Legacy (-10% in  Yuan Dynasty)
|
| Creation speed |  Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy (+10%)
|
| Movement speed | Ottomans: (+10%)
|
| Ability | Rus (can transform into any other type of ship)
|
Dialogue lines[]
Trade Ships use the same dialogue lines as Fishing Boats.
- Main article: Fishing Boat (Age of Empires IV)#Dialogue lines
- Dialogue lines for Rus Trade Ships: Lodya Fishing Boat/Dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- With update 8324, Lodya Trade Ships now incur a 50% movement speed penalty upon switching roles.
- Originally, French Trade Ships return +20% Gold. With Season Two Update 17718, French Trade Ship return +20% of all resources.
- With the Season Two Update, Trade Ships no longer return additional Gold. Instead, they return +100% of the trade value as Wood.
- With the Season Two Update, Abbasid Dynasty Traders and Trade Ships will now correctly return 25% secondary resources after researching Grand Bazaar.
- Originally, Trade Ships cost 300 wood (200 wood for the Lodya), needed 60 seconds to be created, and had 300 hit points. With the Season Three Update, they cost 100 wood, need 30 seconds to be created, and have 225 HP, but return -40% resources from trade routes.
- Season Three Update also fixed a bug where trade ships were receiving armor upgrades from the Blacksmith.
- Previously, Trade Ships would pick up gold at a foreign Trade Post or Dock, and drop off the gold at their home Dock. With the Season Five Update, Trade Ships now generate half the gold they would have received previously from a standard trip each time they touch both their home Dock and the foreign Trade Post or Dock (receiving the same amount of gold over the entire trip, but in two allotments).
Gallery[]
