Transport Ship (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For the unit in Age of Mythology, see Transport Ship (Age of Mythology).

Transport Ship
Unit information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Naval vessel
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Dark Age
Training
Trained at	Dock
Wood	125
Statistics
Hit points	100
Melee armor	4
Ranged armor	8
Armor class	Ship
Speed	1.45
Garrison	5
Line of Sight	5

“	Used to move your units across water.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Transport Ship is a naval vessel in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Dock. It can transport units, but cannot attack other units. The Transport Ship enables land units to be moved across water, and is useful for conducting sneak attacks or rescuing units from a lost situation. With few hit points, it possesses decent pierce armor, but if sunk, all units aboard are lost. Therefore, it is advisable to protect Transports with military vessels like Galleys or Fire Ships.

The initial transport capacity of Transport Ships is 5. It can be increased to 10 and 20 by researching the technologies Careening and Dry Dock, respectively. Saracen Transport Ships have a bonus of +5 transport capacity.

Tactics

Available from the Dark Age (since The Forgotten), Transport Ships can aid in overseas raids and reconnaissance. They also make effective dummies through deception; players can have several Transport Ships garrison an inexpensive unit and encourage opponents to pursue them. This will drive the enemies main force away from a player's intended target and improve any offensive maneuver.

Transport Ships are essential in maps with large bodies of water like Archipelago and Islands since there is no other way to transport units between islands or through the sea.

If a Transport Ship with units garrisoned in it is converted, the units inside it will not be converted. The player must destroy the Transport to kill the enemy units inside. Another tactic that involves converting enemy Transport Ships is to take advantage of it and hold their population of people inside, as that population can't be used by the enemy at that moment. In free for all games when this happens some players move the converted Transport Ship with enemy units inside to the location of a common enemy for both players in order to take advantage of the current diplomacy.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Upgrades
Armor	Careening (+0/+1) Carrack (+1/+1, Portuguese only)
Speed	Dry Dock (+15%)
Conversion defense	Faith Heresy
Creation speed	Shipwright (+54%)
Train cost	Shipwright (-20%)
Capacity	Careening (+5) Dry Dock (+10)

Civilization bonuses

• Berbers: Transport Ships move 10% faster.
• Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
• Celts: Transport Ships can convert herdables even if enemy units are next to them.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Transport Ships are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Italians: Researching Careening, Dry Dock, and Shipwright is 50% cheaper.
• Persians: Transport Ships are created 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Careening is researched 15%/20% faster in the Castle/Imperial Age. Researching Dry Dock is 20% faster.
• Portuguese: Transport Ships have +10% HP.
• Saracens: Transport Ships have +100% HP and +5 transport capacity.
• Vikings: Transport Ships are 10%/10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Teutons: Transport Ships are more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Transport Ships are available from the Feudal Age on.
• Shipwright reduces the wood cost by 20%.
• Vikings: Transport Ships are 20% cheaper.

The Conquerors

• With patch 1.0c, Shipwright also decreases train time by 35% now.
• Heresy introduced.

The Forgotten

• Transport Ships are already available in the Dark Age.
• Vikings: Transport Ships are now 10%/10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.

The African Kingdoms

• Transport Ships can now load herdables.

Notes

• Garrisoned archers cannot fire out of Transport Ships.
• If a Transport Ship loaded with a Monk carrying a Relic is sunk, the Relic will automatically teleport back to the Monk's position before it garrisoned into the Transport Ship.
• Due to a scripting bug, units garrisoned in transport ships are treated as though they are still on the land they garrisoned from until they are ungarrisoned. This means that if a script plays, such a timed destruction to a certain area of the map, and the units departing from that area don't ungarrison themselves before that time, they will instantly die after making landfall.

History

“

Trading ships of all kinds were requisitioned when armies were moved overseas. Such ships were usually modified into transports to better accommodate troops, horses, livestock, siege equipment, and supplies. England was invaded on several occasions during the Middle Ages, including the early Saxon/Angle/Jute invasions, numerous Norse invasions (the Danes ruled much of England temporarily), and the later Norman invasion of 1066. The Normans also invaded Sicily and southern Italy. Many of the Crusades involved sea movement from France to the Holy Land. The English brought armies into France several times during the Hundred Year’s War.

”

Gallery

A group of Transport Ships

All Transport Ships in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Transport Ships introduced in the HD expansions