Turtle Ship

Turtle Ship
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: The Conquerors
Type	Ship Gunpowder unit Siege weapon
Civilization	Koreans
Age	Castle Age
Training
Trained at	Dock
Wood	152
Gold	180
Training time	50 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	200, 300 (Elite)
Melee attack	50
Blast radius	0.5 [100% effect]
Reload time	6
Attack delay	0
Range	6, 7 (Elite)
Accuracy	100%
Projectile speed	7.8
Melee armor	6, 8 (Elite)
Pierce armor	5, 6 (Elite)
Armor class	Ship (+8, +11 (Elite)) Turtle Ship (+1 (Elite)) Gunpowder unit Unique unit
Speed	0.9, 1.035 (Elite)
Line of Sight	8
Ability	Can attack ground
Unit evolution
Upgrades to	Elite Turtle Ship
Upgrade cost	1,000 food, 800 gold
Upgrade time	65 seconds

“	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.

Turtle Ships can be upgraded to Elite Turtle Ships in the Imperial Age.

Since it a ranged unit with blast damage, it also causes friendly fire. Hence, it is a double-edged sword in close combat.

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 the Fire Ship

	Turtle Ship	Fire Ship
Research Costs	none	230 food, 100 gold, 50 seconds
Cost	152 wood, 180 gold	60 wood, 45 gold
Hit Points	200	120
Creation Time	50	36
Attack	50 melee	1 melee 2 pierce +3 vs Ship
Other Attack Bonuses	None	+2 vs Building
Armor Melee/Pierce/Ship	6/5/8	0/6/6
Movement Speed	0.9	1.35
Attack Speed	6	0.25
Range	6	2.49
Other properties	Has a blast attack of 100% effect in 0.5 tiles	Projectiles track moving targets naturally

Comparison with the Fast Fire Ship

	Elite Turtle Ship	Fast Fire Ship
Research Costs	1,000 food, 800 gold, 65 seconds	280 wood, 250 gold, 50 seconds
Cost	152 wood, 180 gold	60 wood, 45 gold
Hit Points	300	140
Creation Time	50	36
Attack	50 melee	1 melee 3 pierce +4 vs Ship
Other Attack Bonuses	None	+3 vs Building
Armor Melee/Pierce/Ship	8/6/11	0/8/9
Movement Speed	1.035	1.43
Attack Speed	6	0.25
Range	7+1	2.49
Other properties	Has a blast attack of 100% effect in 0.5 tiles	Projectiles track moving targets naturally

Further statistics

As Turtle Ships are unique to the Koreans, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:

Unit 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)
Upgrades
Accuracy	Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Armor	Careening (+0/+1)
Range	Siege Engineers (+1)
Speed	Dry Dock (+15%) Panokseon (+15%) (before update 42848)
Conversion defense	Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
Creation speed	Shipwright (+54%)
Train cost	Shipwright (-20% wood)
Upgrades	Elite Turtle Ship

Civilization bonuses

• Koreans: Turtle Ships cost -20% wood.

Team bonuses

• Lithuanians: Researching Devotion and Faith is 20% faster.
• Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Turtle Ships are researched 25% faster.
• Teutons: Turtle Ships are more resistant to conversion.
• Turks: Turtle Ships are created 25% faster.

Changelog

The Conquerors

• Turtle Ships cost 200 wood, 200 gold
• With patch 1.0b, their model was updated (see gallery).

The Forgotten

• Turtle Ships cost 180 wood, 180 gold.
• Panokseon introduced.

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 61321, Turtle Ships are now resistant to armor-ignoring attacks similarly to buildings.
• 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.

Heroes

There is one hero in the game with the appearance of a Turtle Ship:

• Admiral Yi Sun-Shin

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 four units in the game without any innate attack bonus (the others being the Militia, the Boyar, and the Knight line).
• With 300 HP 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.
• Also in real life, the dragon head at the front was designed to release sulfur smoke and camouflage the ship, scare, and poison enemy crews. However, because the Koreans had no siphons capable of directing the smoke, this feature could only be used when paired with favorable winds.

Gallery

Unit sprite in the Definitive Edition

Another sprite in the Definitive Edition

Turtle Ship in the HD Edition and Definitive Edition

A group of Turtle Ships in the HD Edition

Turtle Ships win a fight against an enemy fleet with minimal losses

The original Turtle Ship appearance (before version 1.0b)

In-game scenario artwork of a Turtle Ship

Artwork depicting Turtle Ships confronting a Japanese Atakebune

A Samurai impaled on the spikes of a Turtle Ship

A Turtle Ship painting in the 16th century

A to-scale recreation of a Turtle Ship in front of the Korean Naval Academy

A closeup of the original Turtle Ship render

Videos

ELITE TURTLE SHIP vs EVERY BATTLE SHIP (Total Resources) - AoE II- DE