Villager (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the Villager in Age of Empires II. For the Villager in other games of the series, see Villager.

Villager
Unit information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Civilian
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Dark Age
Training
Trained at	File:Town-center-logo.jpg Town Center
Food	50
Statistics
Hit points	25
Attack	3 melee
Attack bonus	+6 vs Stone defense +3 vs Building
Rate of Fire	2.0
Range	0
Melee armor	0
Ranged armor	0
Speed	0.8
Line of Sight	4
Ability	Gather resources Construct buildings Repair buildings, ships, siege weapons

“	Gathers wood, food, stone, gold. Builds and repairs buildings. Also repairs ships, siege weapons.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Villager is an economic unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Town Center. Villagers are the backbone of every civilizations' economy, performing key tasks such as resource gathering and building construction. The only unit to be either male or female, a newly created Villager is randomly assigned gender at the Town Center.

All civilizations, except for the Chinese and Mayans (who start with six and four Villagers, respectively), begin a standard game with three Villagers. While they perform ineffectively in combat conditions and cease their tasks when attacked, a few can be useful when positioned in the rear of an army, enabling them to repair damaged siege weapons or construct military buildings to reinforce an army. Spanish Villagers with Supremacy receive a strong boost to their combat stats, making them viable for combat in the early Imperial Age.

Tasks

Villagers may be assigned with different tasks. Accordingly, their titles and icons will change to the corresponding task they are currently completing.

Icons	Title	Task
	Villager	Attacks enemy units, structures, wild animals or is simply idle.
	Builder	Constructs buildings.
	Farmer	Gathers food from a farm.
	Fisherman	Gathers food from fish schools near the shore.
	Forager	Gathers food from berry bushes.
	Lumberjack	Gathers wood from trees.
	Miner	Gathers gold or stone from mines.
	Shepherd	Herds herdables near a Town Center or Mill, and gathers food from them.
	Hunter	Kills and gathers food from non-herdable animals.
	Repairer	Repairs buildings, ships and siege units.

Gathering rates

Villagers gather resources from different sources at a different speed. The table below shows all gathering rates in descending order.

Villager type	Resource	Gathering rate (resources/second)
Farmer	Food	0.53*
Fisherman	Food	0.43
Hunter	Food	0.41
Lumberjack	Wood	0.39
Gold Miner	Gold	0.38
Stone Miner	Stone	0.36
Shepherd	Food	0.33
Forager	Food	0.31

Villagers gathering food from a Wild Boar in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

* Note that the listed Farm gather rate is only while harvesting; Farmers also spend a substantial amount of time walking about the Farm, during which no food is collected, lowering the net collection rate substantially. This also does not account for travel time to and from the nearest Mill or Town Center, further lowering the collection rate. Together, these two factors lower the default Farm collection rate, even when optimally placed, to around 0.32/second.

Despite the listed gather rate, Farms seem to have a hidden maximum production rate of 0.44 food per second. While Villagers can collect at the listed 0.53 for brief periods of time, over the long term, they will average a collection rate of 0.44, even if modified in the Scenario Editor to move instantly. This has the side effect of making the Hand Cart upgrade less effective than it should be, improving gather rates by only a few percent.

Buildings

Villagers can construct the following buildings:

• Dark Age
• Feudal Age
• Castle Age
• Imperial Age

• House (unavailable to the Huns)
• Mill
• Farm
• Mining Camp
• Lumber Camp
• Dock
• Barracks
• Outpost
• Palisade Wall
• Palisade Gate

Archery Range

Blacksmith

Market

Stable (unavailable to the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas)

Watch Tower

Gate (unavailable to the Cumans and Goths)

Stone Wall (unavailable to the Cumans and Goths)

Castle

Siege Workshop

Guard Tower (unavailable to the Cumans, Goths, and Huns)

Fortified Wall (unavailable to several civilizations)

Monastery

University

Town Center (if the player currently does not own a Town Center, one Town Center may be built in earlier Ages already)

Harbor (Malay only)

Krepost (Bulgarians only)

Wonder

Keep (unavailable to several civilizations)

Bombard Tower (unavailable to several civilizations)

Feitoria (Portuguese only)

A Villager building a Blacksmith.

Multiple Villagers can be used to construct a building faster. If t is the time required for one Villager to construct a building, and n is the number of Villagers used, the building time will be

$\tfrac{3t}{n+2}$ . This means the first Villager works three times as fast as any additional one and that it is more efficient to split Builders up when constructing multiple buildings, unless a key building has to be constructed quickly (e.g. a Castle or a Town Center).

Repairing

Villagers can repair buildings, siege weapons, and ships. Doing so saves resources, although for buildings it may be a lot slower than constructing a new one. Villagers can repair from two tiles away - This is mainly meant to make repairing ships on the shore easier, but it also makes it possible to repair a unit or tower that has been fully walled, e.g. a tower.

Costs

Repairing a building or unit from 1 hit point to full health costs half of the originally required resources. The costs are deducted from the resource stockpile as the repair progresses, instead of being paid at the start and repairing partly will cost the appropriate amount (so repairing only half of the HP costs 25% of the original cost). Discounts also apply, e.g. a Franks player will only pay 244 stone to fully repair a Castle. If a player runs out of resources during a repair, the Villagers stop repairing and remain idle until they are retasked. Upgrades that increase the hit points of buildings do not affect repair costs.

The Town Center is an exception to the cost rule: It costs 550 wood and no stone to repair fully, but the stone stockpile can't be empty or the Villagers won't be able to start repairing, even though no stone is consumed in the actual repair. Discounts for Town Centers do not apply to repairing.

Since The African Kingdoms, there is an exception to the exception: During the Dark Age, Town Centers cost the normal amount of wood and stone to repair.

Speed

For buildings, the first Villager will repair 750 hit points per minute, and any additional Villager will add 375 HP/minute to that (and thus will be only half as fast). This is the same regardless of the type of building, any upgrades or the original amount of hit points. Treadmill Crane does not affect the repair speed.

In most cases, constructing new building will be faster than repairing and may be preferable despite the higher cost (e.g. when replacing a damaged wall section).

Siege weapons and ships are repaired at 25% of the speed of buildings, so 187.5 HP/minute for the first and 93.75 HP/minute for any additional Villager.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Most buildings, Skirmishers (in small numbers), rams, Trebuchets
Weak vs.	Almost everything
Upgrades
Carry capacity	Wheelbarrow (+3) Hand Cart (+7) Heavy Plow (+1, Farmers only)
Gathering speed	For wood: Double-Bit Axe (+20%) Bow Saw (+20%) Two-Man Saw (+10%) For stone: Stone Mining (+15%) Stone Shaft Mining (+15%) For gold: Gold Mining (+15%) Gold Shaft Mining (+15%) Sultans (+10%, Indians only)
Hit points	Loom (+15) Supremacy (+40, Spanish only)
Attack	Sappers (+15 attack against buildings and fortifications) Forging (+1, Incas only) Iron Casting (+1, Incas only) Blast Furnace (+2, Incas only) Supremacy (+6, Spanish only)
Armor	Loom (+1/+2) Scale Mail Armor (+1/+1, Incas only) Chain Mail Armor (+1/+1, Incas only) Plate Mail Armor (+1/+2, Incas only) Supremacy (+2/+2, Spanish only)
Speed	Wheelbarrow (+10%) Hand Cart (+10%)
Conversion defense	Faith Heresy
Other	Treadmill Crane (+20% construction speed)

Civilization bonuses

• Aztecs: Villagers carry +3 resources.
• Berbers: Villagers move 10% faster.
• Britons: Shepherds work 25% faster.
• Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
• Celts: Lumberjacks work 15% faster. Villagers can convert herdables even if enemy units are next to them.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Villagers are 10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Start with +3 Villagers, but with -200 food and -50 wood.
• Franks: Foragers work 25% faster.
• Goths: Villagers have +5 attack against Wild Boars, Elephants, and Rhinoceroses and carry +15 meat.
• Incas: Villagers benefit from Blacksmith infantry upgrades.
• Indians: Villagers are 10%/15%/20%/25% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Fishermen work 10% faster.
• Khmer: Villagers can garrison in Houses. Farmers do not need to drop off their food, but work 5% slower; the food from farms automatically adds to the player's stockpile.
• Koreans: Villagers have +3 Line of Sight. Villagers gather stone 20% faster.
• Magyars: Villagers kill wild animals with one strike.
• Mayans: Start with +1 Villager, but with -50 food. Natural resources last 15% longer.
• Mongols: Hunters work 40% faster.
• Persians: Villagers are created 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Villagers are researched 30% faster.
• Slavs: Farmers work 10% faster.
• Spanish: Builders work 30% faster.
• Tatars: Shepherds obtain +50% food from herdables. Villagers deal +25% damage when attacking from higher elevation.
• Turks: Gold Miners work 20% faster.
• Vikings: Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart are free.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Incas: Farms are built 50% faster.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Heresy and Faith is 20% faster.
• A team containing Teutons: Villagers are more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Villagers have +3 attack against stone defense.
• Mongols: Hunters work 50% faster.
• Turks: Gold Miners work 15% faster.

The Conquerors

• Villagers now have +6 attack against stone defense.
• Heresy introduced.
• Aztecs: Villagers carry +5 resources.
• Koreans: Initially, Villagers have +2 Line of Sight. With patch 1.0b, Villagers have +3 LOS.
• Mayans: Natural resources last 20% longer.

The Forgotten

• Villagers can now be garrisoned in rams.
• Indians: Villagers are 5%/10%/15%/20% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Fishermen work 15% faster and carry +15 food.
• Mayans: Natural resources now last 15% longer.
• Koreans: Villagers now build fortifications 33% faster.
• Slavs: Farmers work 15% faster.

The African Kingdoms

• Indians: Villagers are now 10%/15%/20%/25% cheaper in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Turks: Gold Miners now work 20% faster.

Rise of The Rajas

• Koreans: With patch 5.8, towers are now built 5% faster.

Definitive Edition

• Khmer: With update 34699, Farmers no longer need to drop off their food, it automatically adds to the player's stockpile. This bonus also applies in Full Tech Tree games. With update 35584, the bonus no longer applies in Full Tech Tree games. With update 36906, farmers work 3% slower. With update 42848, farmers work 5% slower.
• Koreans: Villagers no longer build fortifications faster.
• Mongols: With update 35584, Hunters work 40% faster.
• Slavs: Farmers now work 10% faster.
• Indians: With update 36906, Fishermen work 10% faster instead of 15% and no longer carry +15 food..
• With update 36906, Fishermen now can drop their food on Docks.
• Persians: With update 36906, Villagers in the Dark Age are no longer created 5% faster.
• Portuguese: With update 42848, technologies are researched 30% faster.
• With update 37650, male and female Villagers have the same length of attack animation of 1.275 seconds (tweaked from 1.05 and 1.5 seconds, respectively).
• Aztecs: with update 42848, Villagers carry +3 resources.

Trivia

• Villagers was the only unit in the game to be either male or female. With the release of the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Lords of the West, however, this exclusivity was shared with the Flemish Militia.
• The Villager is one of only four trainable units to have two different designs, the other being the Monk, the Trade Cart, and the Flemish Militia.
• Male and female Villagers use different weapons when they fight or gather. Male Villagers use a poniard while female Villagers use a knife. Male Villagers use a makhaira sword in the Definitive Edition.
• The female Villager is one of only two regular female units in the game, the other one being the Gbeto.
• With just 25 base hit points, the Villager is the weakest of all units.
• When garrisoned inside a building, a Villager will add 5 damage worth of arrows to the building's attack.

History

“

The great percentage of people in the Middle Ages were peasants, serfs, and lowly villagers who gathered the food and did most of the work. They supported a relatively small class of religious leaders and nobleman who controlled the wealth and power of the community. The life of the peasant and serf was hard but improved as feudalism gave way to social systems that allowed the workers to retain more of their produce. Many peasants moved into the middle class of the growing cities. Those who remained on the farms saw their production and wealth increase thanks to specialization and many technological improvements in agriculture.

”

Gallery

Villager sprites from Definitive Edition, involving many tasks.

A group of female Villagers.

A group of male Villagers.

Villagers performing various tasks.

Spanish Villagers with Supremacy defeat a fully upgraded Frankish Paladin with minimal losses.

Female Villager 3D model.

A render of the female Villager model.

A render of the male Villager model.