Wild Boar

The Wild Boar is a huntable animal in Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology, and Age of Empires IV, and a Treasure guardian in Age of Empires III.

Age of Empires

Wild Boar
Animal
Introduced in	Age of Empires: Return of Rome
Hit points	45
Melee attack	7
Attack bonuses	+3 vs Mounted units
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Collision size	0.5
Maximum food	300
Decay rate	0.4 food/second
Recommended no. of gatherers	5-10
Behavior	Fights back when attacked

Boars were introduced to Age of Empires in its own client since Return of Rome.

Age of Empires II

Wild Boar
Animal
Introduced in	Age of Empires II
Hit points	75
Melee attack	7
Attack bonuses	+3 vs Cavalry +4 vs Eagle Scouts +8 vs Camels
Rate of Fire	2
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Armor class	Hunted Predator Animals
Speed	Walking: 0.8 Running: 0.96
Line of Sight	4
Collision size	0.5
Maximum food	340
Decay rate	0.4 food/second
Recommended no. of gatherers	5-10
Behavior	Fights back when attacked

A Villager leading a Boar closer to a Town Center.

The Wild Boar is a huntable but dangerous animal. Like all aggressive huntables, it only attacks when it is attacked. It has 75 hit points and 7 attack, so it is far more difficult to kill than Deer. It is essential that Villagers take it on in groups, as a single Villager cannot handle a Boar. If Boars are killed by military units the food they hold is lost, so it is important to assign Villagers with that task.

Also, Boars deal 3 bonus damage against cavalry, 4 against shock infantry and 8 against camels (since Dynasties of India), so luring them to the Town Center with scouts can even be dangerous for them. However, military units can be used to significantly reduce a Boar's hit points (but not kill it), so that Villagers can finish the Boar more easily. The Wild Boar provides 300 food, more than most huntable animals. It is recommended to gather from the Boar as soon as the player has enough Villagers to do so. Boars are a fast source of free food. Boars are so profitable that it is recommended to gather any the player can find, even in the Imperial Age.

A Boar moves at a speed of 1 while attacking and 0.8 while roaming, compared to 1.2 for a Dark Age Scout Cavalry, 1.1 for an Eagle Scout, and 0.8 for a Villager.

The Javelina is an American version of the Boar, identical in all but name.

A powerful variant of the Wild Boar appears in the Attila the Hun campaign, known as the Iron Boar. It has 350 hit points, and it cannot be hunted by Villagers except in the Definitive Edition.

Strategies

1. Lure - A common strategy to kill a Boar is to have one Villager lure it to the Town Center by shooting it once, and then run to the Town Center, where at least four other Villagers are waiting and kill the Boar. It is advisable to research Loom for luring a Boar. Without Loom, a Villager is killed in four hits. With Loom, a Villager is killed in seven hits. The player can use their other Villagers, starting scout unit, and even livestock like Sheep to interrupt the Boar's path to protect the luring Villager.
2. Advanced Lure - As above, but weaken the Boar with the Town Center on its way in. If a Town Center arrow kills the Boar, it will yield no food, so ungarrison to finish it off. Use 3 Town Center shots with 4 Villagers or 2 Town Center shots with 4/5 Villagers. Beware: Garrisoning the injured luring Villager in this case can make the Town Center shoot again, killing the Boar and losing all its food, so players should only do it when the Boar has enough hit points to survive.
3. Mill - Another strategy involves building a Mill near a large group of huntables (Boars and Deer) or near Berry Bushes. Then the player must team up on the Boar with at least five Villagers. The player must be careful since this is the most dangerous strategy as the player cannot garrison the Villager who is being attacked by the Boar. In some cases, the Boar will still have to be lured to the Mill.
4. Box Wall - Building a Palisade Wall around the Boar or even the attacking Villager can mess up the Boar's AI and one Villager can safely kill the Boar single-handed. This strategy isn't common, but it is good for early safe gathering of a Boar. The Wall doesn't have to be fully constructed just more than 1% to block the Boar's path.
5. Lame - When luring an enemy Boar in any form, this is known as "laming". It is banned in some competitions, but fairly common in ranked play. If a military unit is doing the luring, it must hit the Boar twice, or the Boar will stop following after a short distance. When the scout is used, be careful to avoid going out of Line of Sight of the Boar, or again, it will stop following and return to its original spot.

Trivia

• During development, it was considered to give Wild Boars the ability to feed on Farms and Berry Bushes, reducing the food they could make for the player.
• The fifth Design Document of Ensemble Studios (dated 17 July 1998) suggested replacing the Wild Boar with a Bear.
• In The Age of Kings, the Wild Boar has the siege armor class and thus receives bonus damage from certain units such as rams or Mangudai.
• The Wild Boar's original range extended from Ireland to Japan and from North Africa to Java to southern Scandinavia and Siberia, thus covering all maps in the game except American and African maps.
• Like its domestic descendant, the Pig, the Wild Boar is considered unclean and forbidden to eat according to Muslim dietary laws (Haram), but the outwardly Muslim factions in the game (e.g. Saracens) receive no penalty for hunting boars. On the other hand, it took centuries for these laws to be universally accepted. Some Berbers in remote mountain areas, for example, argued that Pig and Wild Boar were different animals and continued to hunt, eat, and even make lucky charms from the 2nd into the 20th century. The Wild Boar was also commonly hunted in Muslim Spain.
• Wild Boar hunting was considered very dangerous before the invention of firearms, due to the animal's ability to charge and gore with its tusks, and its thick hide and muscles being able to stop arrows. A common hunting method in Europe was to chase the boar with dogs and horses, tire it out, and then kill it from a short distance with either javelins or a special three-pointed pike called Boar Spear.

Age of Mythology

Boar
Animal
Introduced in	Age of Mythology
Hit points	90
Population	3
Hack attack	12
Hack armor	20%
Pierce armor	30%
Speed	5.00
Maximum food	300
Recommended no. of gatherers	5
Behavior	Fights back when attacked

• Retold
• Original

“	Villagers can hunt wild animals for Food. Boars will attack hunters.	”
—In-game description

“	This animal can be hunted, but fights back.	”
—In-game description

A pair of Boars in Retold

The Boar in Age of Mythology fights back against hunters, but not that well, and is not very difficult to take down. It is generally found in the grassy areas in Greece.

During the Fall of the Trident campaign, Arkantos and his friend Ajax are transformed into boars by the sorceress Circe, and are only turned back by a blessing from Zeus.

History

“	Scientific name -- Sus Scrofa Size -- 150-300 lbs. for males Diet -- roots, bulbs, nuts, small animals, carrion The European wild boar feeds on roots, bulbs, tubers, nuts, turnips, corn and potatoes. They will sometimes eat larvae, small animals and carrion. The domestic pig is a direct descendant of the boar, and like pigs, boars wallow in mud to keep cool. Boar herds usually consist of sows. Males are solitary or found in small groups, except during the breeding season. Sows generally have one litter per year of 5-10 piglets, and are dedicated mothers. Sows are generally more aggressive than the males except during the rut. All adult boars are dangerous because of their large size and tusks, but generally won't attack unless provoked.	”
—In-game help section

Age of Empires III

Wild Boar
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean
Type	Guardian
Statistics
Hit points	250
Speed	7.0
Line of Sight	9
Kill XP	15
Resource bounty	15 food
Hand attack
Damage	14 Hand
Rate of Fire	1.5

“	Sus scrofa	”
—In-game short description

The Wild Boar is a Treasure guardian introduced in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - Knights of the Mediterranean whose visual appearance is identical to a Warthog. However, it is a much stronger guardian, with greater hit points, attack and resistances. When killed, it has the unique mechanic of granting the player 15 food, on top of its XP bounty. Due to this, the Treasures guarded by Wild Boars may often appear as lower value than expected.

Changelog

Knights of the Mediterranean

• With update 14.43676, Wild Boar damage was changed from 12 to 14, and food bounty was changed from 35 to 15.

Age of Empires IV

Huntable Boar
Animal
Introduced in	Age of Empires IV
Hit points	150
Melee attack	15
Rate of Fire	1.12
Melee armor	4
Pierce armor	4
Speed	0.8
Maximum food	2,200
Recommended no. of gatherers	8
Behavior	Fights back when attacked

“	Use a group of units to hunt the Boar. They are dangerous animals and can easily kill a lone Villager or Scout if provoked, but provide a significant amount of Food. Some civilizations are not able to gather Food from Boars.	”
—Age of Empires IV description for Huntable Boar

The Huntable Boar is a huntable but dangerous animal. It provides 2,200 food and has a gather rate of 0.9 food per second, or 54 food per minute, the fastest of all land food sources.

Unlike the previous games in the series, the Wild Boar in Age of Empires IV is very difficult to hunt in the early ages. Unupgraded Scouts' and Villagers' ranged attacks only deal 1 damage to Wild Boar, because of its pierce armor. Villagers' hand attack deals 8 damage to a Boar, but it can kill a Villager in 4 hits, or 5 hits with the Textiles upgrade. After being provoked, the Boar will attack the nearest unit next to it, regardless of who attacked it. This behavior can be used strategically to prevent units from being killed by the Boar. By attacking the Boar with multiple units and moving attacked units back when their health is low, the Boar will switch targets, keeping those units alive. The behavior can also be exploited against opponents by provoking a Boar that is closer to enemy units than the player's own (sometimes called 'pulling the Boar'). When a Boar is lured far enough away from its spawn zone, it stops chasing and returns back to its spawn point, regenerating its hit points rapidly. This makes it harder to hunt with kiting tactics.

Islamic civilizations, namely the Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, Delhi Sultanate, Malians, and Ottomans, cannot gather food from Boars in-game due to religious restrictions. Their units can attack the Boar, however, and if they kill it, the carcass becomes invisible and impossible to interact with or build over, though it can still be selected to view its food value. Thus, although they cannot gather from it themselves, it can be worth it for them to kill the Boar to prevent their opponents from gathering from it. For all other civilizations, although the Boar presents an attractive target due to its very fast gather rate and large food amount, because of the danger it poses, it is inadvisable to hunt it with fewer than eight Villagers, which is also the maximum number that can gather from it simultaneously. Even with this number, low-health Villagers will need to be pulled back to prevent one from dying. Since the Boar is also often in contested areas far from the Capital Town Center, moving Villagers to hunt it presents the additional danger of leaving them exposed to enemy units. Alternatively, the Boar can be killed by military units and Villagers can be brought to harvest from it afterwards with no penalty, since the carcass does not decay. Hunting Boar thus synergizes well with civilizations that like to play aggressive and have early Knights or other strong Feudal Age units, such as the French or Rus, since this also makes it easier to secure map control and keep the Villagers safe from enemy units.

In the original four campaigns, Scouts can carry Wild Boar carcasses after Professional Scouts is researched. This ability is limited to Deer carcasses in all other game modes.

Gallery

Boar in AoE2

Boar banquet skin on a harvested boar in the Villager event

Boars with the Minecraft Legends Warboar skin in the Minecraft Legends event

Boar as warboar render

An angered Wild Boar chasing a Villager in Age of Empires II

Villagers butchering a Boar in Age of Empires II

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

Wild Boar guarding Treasure in Knights of the Mediterranean in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition

The Boar in Age of Empires IV

Animals in Age of Empires IV
Herdable animals	Herdable Sheep · Cattle (Malians only)
Timid huntables	Huntable Deer
Aggressive huntables	Huntable Boar
Predators	Wolf
Fish	Fish · Shoreline Fish
Cut animals	Bear · Crocodile · Fox · Zebra