| “ | Korean unique ship. Slow and ironclad. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Turtle Ship is the second unique unit of the Koreans in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. It can be trained at the Dock once the Castle Age is reached. It is a heavily armored gunpowder warship. Since it is a ranged unit with blast damage, it also causes friendly fire. Hence, it is a double-edged sword in close combat.
Turtle Ships can be upgraded to Elite Turtle Ships in the Imperial Age.
Tactics[]
The Turtle Ship resembles a Cannon Galleon as a gunpowder naval unit. However, the range, minimum range, and durability differences of the two differentiate the two units concerning their role. The Cannon Galleon is an anti-building unit that loses easily to any other naval unit, whereas the Turtle Ship is a heavily armored ship excelling against other warships.
Turtle Ships are very heavily armored, with the non-elite Turtle Ship possessing +8 defense against anti-ship attack bonuses that other ships and towers typically deal against ships. The Elite Turtle Ship even has +11 defense against anti-ship attack bonuses, making it especially formidable. This bonus defense nullifies all the bonus attack that ships (War Galleys, Fire Ships), and towers without Heated Shot deal against ships. As a result, Galleons and Fast Fire Ships take around five times as long to kill Turtle Ships as Galleons.
Turtle Ship damage output is nearly twice that of the Galleon against other Galleons, and five times better against Fast Fire Ships.
The Turtle Ship's main weaknesses are its short range (though still better than Fire Ships) and slow speed. Galleons can hit-and-run, Demolition Ships can outmaneuver them (especially with the large hitboxes of Turtle Ships), and Fire Ships can deal heavy amounts of damage. Their cost is also a drawback, costing 69% more wood and 500% more gold than the Galleon.
The best choice against Turtle Ships is to mass Fast Fire Ships, since they are cheaper and faster while dealing comparable damage. The Koreans also lack the Demolition Ship line entirely, so they lack a hard counter to Fire Ships. Bombard Cannons and Monks from inland are also good choices against Turtle Ships. Demolition Ships can also deal a lot of damage to massed Turtle Ships, but are not a suitable counter in large numbers.
The player must not fall into the trap of creating only Turtle Ships, as that can prove to be a costly mistake. To use them properly, Turtle Ships must be paired with other ships, mainly Galleons, which have a long range and hinder the enemy's hit-and-run tactics. The role of the Turtle Ship in the navy is to soak up a lot of damage while dealing a considerable amount of damage to enemy vessels. Therefore, they should be used in the frontline.
Comparison with other warships[]
Since all units benefit from different technologies, the comparison is messy.
 Galley line
|
 Turtle Ship line
|
 Fire Galley line
| |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | 72 wood, 30 gold | 152 wood, 180 gold | 60 wood, 45 gold |
| Creation time | 36 | 50 | 36 |
| Attack speed | 3 | 6 | 0.25 |
| Other properties | Has a blast attack of 100% effect in 0.5 tiles | Projectiles track moving targets naturally | |
 Castle Age
|
 War Galley
|
Turtle Ship
|
 Fire Ship
|
| Research cost and time |
230 food, 100 gold 50 seconds |
none | 230 food, 100 gold 50 seconds |
| Hit points | 135 | 200 | 120 |
| Attack | 7+2 pierce +9 vs Ship |
50 melee | 1 melee 2 pierce +3 vs Ship |
| Other attack bonuses | +7 vs Building +4 vs Ram |
None | +2 vs Building |
| Armor Melee/Pierce/Ship |
0/6/0 | 6/5/8 | 0/6/6 |
| Movement speed | 1.43 | 1.05 | 1.35 |
| Range | 6+2 | 6 | 2.5 |
 Imperial Age
|
 Galleon
|
 Elite Turtle Ship
|
 Fast Fire Ship
|
| Research cost and time |
400 food, 315 wood 60 seconds |
650 food, 500 gold 65 seconds |
280 wood, 250 gold 50 seconds |
| Hit points | 165 | 300 | 140 |
| Attack | 8+4 pierce +11 vs Ship |
50 melee | 1 melee 3 pierce +4 vs Ship |
| Other attack bonuses | +8 vs Building +4 vs Ram |
None | +3 vs Building |
| Armor Melee/Pierce/Ship |
0/8/0 | 8/6/11 | 0/8/9 |
| Movement speed | 1.43 | 1.05 | 1.43 |
| Range | 7+3 | 7+1 | 2.5 |
Further statistics[]
As Turtle Ships are unique to the Koreans, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Ships at close distance, buildings on the shoreline, units on the shoreline or shallows |
| Weak vs. | Bombard Cannons, Monks, Castles, towers, Condottieri (in the shallows) |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Range
|
 Siege Engineers (+1) Shinkichon (+1)
|
| Additional projectiles | Shinkichon (+2 rockets)
|
| Armor |  Careening (+0/+1)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
|
 Movement speed
|
 Dry Dock (+15%)
|
| Resource cost |  Shipwright (-20% wood)
|
| Creation speed | Shipwright (+54%)
|
| Team bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Conversion resistance |  Teutons (+3 min, +1 max)
|
| Creation speed |  Turks (+25%)
|
| Upgrading |  Portuguese (+25% faster)
|
Team bonuses[]
Lithuanians: Researching Devotion and Faith is 20% faster.- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Turtle Ships are researched 25% faster.
Changelog[]
The Conquerors[]
- Turtle Ships cost 200 wood, 200 gold.
- Turtle Ships are affected by Ballistics.
- Turtle Ships have 5 pierce armor and Elite Turtle Ships have 6 pierce armor.
- With patch 1.0b, their model was updated (see gallery).
The Forgotten[]
The African Kingdoms[]
- Training Turtle Ships no longer requires a Castle.
- With patch 4.8, Turtle Ships are created 20% faster when allied with the Turks.
Definitive Edition[]
- Turtle Ships cost -15% wood (180 wood → 153 wood) thanks to a new Korean civilization bonus.
- With update 39284, the base wood cost was increased to 190 wood and the wood discount was increased to 20%, hence the wood cost after the discount is 152 wood.
- With update 42848, Panokseon was embedded in the Elite Turtle Ship upgrade, which means that the Elite Turtle Ship's speed is 1.035 (from 0.9), and the technology is no longer available for research.
Dynasties of India[]
- With update 81058, Elite Turtle Ships have 7 range.
Return of Rome[]
- With update 87863, Turtle Ships benefit from Siege Engineers.
The Mountain Royals[]
- With update 99311, Turtle Ships receive the attack ground ability.
Victors and Vanquished[]
- With update 125283,
Chronicles: Battle for Greece[]
- With update 141935:
- The Turtle Ship's attack has been overhauled:
- It now fires two volleys of rockets in-between its cannon shots.
- The projectile speed of its cannons is reduced from 7.8 → 6.
- They are no longer affected by Ballistics.
- Turtle Ships have 7 pierce armor and Elite Turtle Ships have 8 pierce armor. The Turtle Ship Armor class has been renamed to Heavy Warship. Elite Turtle Ships no longer have a Turtle Ship armor of 1, but 0, making them more vulnerable to Fast Fire Ships. Their general ship armor was also decreased from +11 → +10.
- The Turtle Ship's attack has been overhauled:
Heroes[]
There is one hero in the game with the appearance of an Elite Turtle Ship:
History[]
| “ | Under attack by samurai Japan in 1592, the fate of Korea and perhaps China depended on breaking the invader's supply lines at sea across the Straits of Korea. Korean admiral Yi Sun-Shin won two great naval victories off southern Korea with the aid of Turtle Ships, the first armored warships in history. These oarpowered ships had a low profile and mounted a battery of cannons on their broadside. Their sides and top were rounded and shaped like a flat turtle shell. They were not well suited for use on the high sea but quite useful in coastal waters where waters were relatively calm. The Japanese ships were at a great disadvantage in combat against them. Most missile fire glanced off their rounded armor. They offered no openings for enemy boarding parties. Unarmored enemy ships were quickly disabled by their cannon. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II: The Conquerors manual | ||
Trivia[]
- Before the Definitive Edition, the Turtle Ship was one of only three unit lines in the game without any innate attack bonus (the others being the Boyar and Knight line).
- With 300 hit points and 8 melee armor, the Elite Turtle Ship has the highest hit points and melee armor among all ships.
- The Turtle Ship is the only gunpowder unit to be affected by Ballistics (not counting similar technologies, like the Portuguese Arquebus). It is also the only unit which deals melee damage at a range to be affected by Ballistics.
- Before the Definitive Edition, the Turtle Ship's icon is based on its original appearance (before version 1.0b).
- Unlike their game counterpart, real Turtle Ships were not slow due to their combined use of oars and sails (the latter not depicted in the game). Admiral Yi Sun-Shin even invented the "blast and ram" tactic, which consisted on the Turtle Ships using their speed to charge enemy ships, firing cannon up close (multiplying damage) to weaken the structure, then ramming the weakened part to destroy it.
- In real life, the dragon head at the front was designed to release sulfur smoke and camouflage the ship, as well as to scare and poison enemy crews. However, because the Koreans had no siphons capable of directing the smoke, this feature could only be used when winds were favorable.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
