Wonder (Age of Empires II)

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

Wonder
Building
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II
Type	Civilian
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Imperial Age
Selection sound
Use	Grants victory if defended for a certain period of time (In standard rules only)
Construction
Wood	1,000
Gold	1,000
Stone	1,000
Build time	3,500 seconds
Statistics
Size	5×5 tiles
Hit points	4,800
Melee armor	3
Pierce armor	10
Armor classes	Building Wonder
Line of Sight	8
Notes
Cannot be converted

“	Building a Wonder of the World demonstrates the superiority of your civilization. Constructing a Wonder that stands for a certain period of time is one way to win the game.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Wonder is a special building in Age of Empires II that becomes available upon reaching the Imperial Age. In specific game modes, the Wonder grants victory if built and defended for long enough. Wonders take considerably longer time to build compared to other buildings and cannot be converted.

Each civilization builds a Wonder of historical relevance and unique appearance.

Tactics and placement

Wonders serve as a victory condition, but only in game modes that allow for that kind of victory. When a player starts to build a Wonder, every other player receives a notification that reveals the location of the Wonder.

The length of time it takes for a Wonder victory (which is the same as a Relic victory) varies on the size of the map.

Map size	Miniature	Tiny	Small	Medium	Normal	Large	Huge	Giant	Massive	Enormous	Colossal	Incredible	Monstrous	Ludicrous
Duration (years)	100	200			300	350	400			450			500
Duration (in-game time)	8:20	16:40			25:00	29:10	33:20			37:30			41:40
Duration (normal speed)	4:54	9:48			14:42	17:09	19:36			22:04			24:31

Note: all underlined map sizes are only available since update 107882 with the launch parameter "MORE_MAP_SIZES".

Wonders should be built in a well-defended area, so it is better to first build up a strong fortification composed of Castles, walls, and towers. The player must be prepared to be the focus of all enemy attacks and prepare to defend the Wonder, and a large army to defend against incoming attacks. Since the Wonder takes incredibly long to be built, it is advised to build it with as many Villagers as possible. Due to this, building a Wonder against an object, a building or map edge will slow down its maximum build rate. In team games, the support of allies while defending is highly valuable.

It is possible, though costly, to build more than one Wonder, so that if one falls, other Wonders can stand for the time required to win the game. Every Wonder has its own countdown, though only the lowest one for each player will be displayed. Although extremely unlikely, if multiple players finished their Wonder at the same time (to the frame), the player in the highest slot (regardless of color) wins once the countdown ends.

A Monument can be found in the Scenario Editor and some campaigns. Its appearance varies for each civilization and has the same icon and design as a given civilization's Wonder. It has 9999 hit points, making it one of the bulkiest buildings in the game, although this is moot as Monuments cannot be damaged.

List of Wonders

The Three Kingdoms
Jurchens	Yinshan Pagoda Forest	Into China
Khitans	Pagoda of Fogong Temple	-
Shu	Wuhou Memorial in Chengdu	[What?]
Wei	Songyue Pagoda	[What?]
Wu	Jing'an Temple	[What?]

Further statistics

Technologies
Hit points	Masonry (+10%) Architecture (+10%)
Armor	Masonry (​+1 melee / ​+1 pierce, +3 building armor) Architecture (​+1 melee / ​+1 pierce, +3 building armor)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4)
Build speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)
Other	Atheism (adds 100 years to Wonder victories for all players, Huns only)

Civilization bonuses
Hit points	Byzantines (+40%)
Damage resistance	Georgians (-20% {-40% instead of -25%} on higher elevation)
Resource cost	Inca (-15% stone) Malians (-15% wood)
Build speed	Romans (+5%) Spanish (+20%)
Other	Romans (+5% repair speed)

Team bonuses
Other	Georgians (-25% repair cost)

Civilization bonuses

• Byzantines: Town Watch and Town Patrol are free.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit Wonders are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Italians: Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane are 33% cheaper.
• Jurchens: Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane cost -75% wood and are researched 100% faster.
• Persians: Town Watch and Town Patrol are researched 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Spanish: Technologies that benefit Wonders provide 20 gold each when researched.

Team bonuses

• Malians: Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane are researched 80% faster.
• Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Wonders are researched 25% faster.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Wonders are always revealed on the map, regardless of victory condition.
• Britons: The Wonder is the Aachen Cathedral.

The Conquerors

• Wonders are only revealed on the map on Standard Victory conditions.
• Wonders are indicated on the minimap as a white spot.

The Forgotten

• Inca and Italians: The Wonder is partially edited from other buildings in the game.
• Indians: The Wonder is the Gol Gumbaz.
• Magyars: The Wonder is a modified, smaller version of the Hunyad Castle.

Rise of the Rajas

• Indians: The Wonder is the Brihadeeswarar Temple. The Gol Gumbaz remains available in the Scenario Editor.

Definitive Edition

• Britons: The Wonder is the Chichester Cathedral. The Aachen Cathedral remains available in the Scenario Editor.
• Inca and Italians: The Wonder has a unique model made from scratch, but it is still based on the same real-life buildings.
• Magyars: The Wonder is a full version of the Hunyad Castle.

Dynasties of India

• Upon the split of Indians, Dravidians inherit their Wonder.
• Wonders get a new armor class 0.

Trivia

• The Wonder is one of two constructible building that does not have Armor class: Standard building, along with the Fish Trap.
• The Wonder is the only standard item in the game to cost three different resources. Scenario triggers can be used to make buildings which cost three resources, as happens with the buildable Quimper Cathedral in Unholy Marriage, which also costs Wood, Gold and Stone.
• A few Wonders are repurposed as other buildings in the Scenario Editor: The Arch of Constantine in Rome, edited from the Hunnic Wonder; the Gol Gumbaz and Aachen Cathedral, previously used as the Indian and Briton Wonder, the Mosque, identical in appearance to the Turkish Wonder, the Cathedral, which is a larger version of the former Briton Wonder (and actually was created first during development), the Temple of Heaven, which is a larger and more decorated version of the Chinese Wonder, the Monument, which is a building used in King of the Hill and uses the same designs as the Wonder, The Amphitheatre, which had its model used as the Roman Wonder; and in the HD Edition, the Palace, which is identical to the Wonder except in the case of the Malians, Ethiopians, and Portuguese, where it resembles previous Wonder models that were later discarded or reworked.
• Most Wonders that do not appear in any scenario and are not part of any objectives have at least one scenario where they can be built at the player's discretion. This includes the Hunnic, Berber, Burgundian, Bohemian and Armenian Wonders. The only Wonder that has no way to appear in the campaigns is the Slavic Wonder, as it does not appear as part of any scenario, and the only two scenarios where the player plays as the Slavs in the Vlad Dracula campaign do not allow for construction of a Wonder.
• The icon depicts the Turkish Wonder.
• The Wonder description from the manual references the old Briton Wonder (Charlemagne's Palace was destroyed, but a part of it remains as part of the Aachen Cathedral), the Frankish Wonder (Chartres Cathedral) and the Byzantine Wonder (Hagia Sophia).
• During the development of Age of Empires II, there were discussions of implementing gameplay perks (similar to the functionality of Wonders in Age of Mythology: Retold) to make building Wonders more interesting. Sandy Petersen himself suggested Wonder-specific units that could be trained for free. Such gameplay features were dropped due to the difficulty of destroying an enemy Wonder.

The Age of Kings

• The original Briton Wonder is located in Aachen, in modern Germany. It was constructed by Charlemagne and was used as the place of coronation for over thirty German Kings and Holy Roman Emperors. As such, it has little, if any, connections to any nations that could be considered Britonnic.
• Originally, the Frankish Wonder was most likely intended to depict the St. Vitus Cathedral rather than the Chartres Cathedral. At some point in the beta, what is now the Frankish Wonder belonged to the Teutons. St. Vitus Cathedral is in Prague in Bohemia, which until the addition of the Bohemians was covered under the Teutons. However, during development it was most likely given to the Franks to represent the Chartres Cathedral, with the manual naming the Chartres Cathedral rather than the St. Vitus Cathedral. In addition, the Bohemians were given a different Wonder, rather than inheriting the Frankish Wonder. The Frankish Wonder is used in place of the St. Vitus Cathedral in the Jan Zizka campaign, likely as a reference to its original use.
  • In relation to its inspiration, the Wonder's appearance is anachronistic. St. Vitus Cathedral's Western portal featured in game was finished in the late 1920's. This building is located in Prague - Czech Republic. It is also worth noting that St. Vitus's Cathedral is actually a Bohemian cathedral, ordered by Wenceslaus the 1st after he had acquired a holy relic, Saint Vitus' arm, from Emperor Henry I, Emperor of Francia.
• The Turkish Wonder was influenced by the Byzantine Wonder.

The Conquerors

• The Hun Wonder was actually built by the Romans, though it might be a testament of the Huns being one of the barbarian tribes who pushed the Western Roman Empire into decline, as shown by the Huns' loot filling it. The looted state of the Wonder, however, is contradictory to history, as the Huns never reached the city where the Arch is located, which is Rome itself.
  • This is true of the Hunnic empire of Attila, at least. Some Huns would follow Belisarius on his campaign into Italy, which included the conquest of the city of Rome.
• The Spanish Wonder is usually credited to the Berber Almohad Caliphate, though its in-game appearance includes elements built after its Castilian takeover.

The Forgotten

• The Italian Wonder was originally created for the Age of Chivalry: Hegemony mod, where it serves as the Genoese "Monument", the Wonder equivalent in the mod. Other structures that originate from the mod include the Fortress and Quimper Cathedral.
  • The top of the Spanish Wonder is reused for the Italian Wonder.
• The base of the Celt Wonder was slightly altered and reused as a base for the Mediterranean style Castles.
• The Slav Wonder is anachronistic, as the Kizhi Pogost was not built until the 17th century (outside Age of Empires II's timeframe). A more accurate choice would've been the Moscow Kremlin when it was a limestone citadel, the Dormition Cathedral, or the Ferapontov Monastery.
  • Notably, the Russian Mod that preceded The Forgotten and served as basis for the Slavic civilization used a model of St. Basil's Cathedral (near the Kremlin, and often mistaken for it by Westerners), which had been taken from the game Cossacks, and would be a more appropriate choice since St. Basil's was built in 1555-1561 (barely within Age of Empires II's timeframe) to commemorate the Russian conquest of the Tatar Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. It is possible that Kizhi Pogost was chosen as the new Wonder because it resembles St. Basil's, but also looks different enough to avoid accusations of plagiarism.
• Similarly, the first Indian mod actually used the Gol Gumbaz's contemporary but much more famous Taj Mahal (1632) as the Indian Wonder.

The African Kingdoms

• The Berber Wonder is actually an incomplete building, being the minaret of an unfinished mosque and has only half of its intended height. The Hassan Tower has two finished "twin" minarets in Seville, Spain (Giralda) and Marrakesh, Morocco (Kutubiyya Mosque). Since Giralda was reformed extensively in later centuries, Kutubiyya is the only resembling what a finished Hassan Tower would have looked like.
• The design of the Malian Wonder is anachronistic by necessity. It is based on the current appearance of the Great Mosque of Djenne, but the mosque was rebuilt in the early 20th century. The original mosque would likely have looked different, but no records exist that describe its appearance, so it remains unknown. The architect of the original mosque was from Egypt, so it is possible that it would have been similar to medieval Egyptian mosques in appearance.
• The Ethiopian Wonder in the real world is a monolithic underground rock-cut church, so ideally it should be built by digging the soil, cutting and sculpting an underground rock and digging a passage from above to the church's front door.
• The Portuguese Wonder appears in the Portuguese Home City in Age of Empires III.

Rise of the Rajas

• Gol Gumbaz is the first Wonder to be replaced by another Wonder. Aside from being a better fit for the time period, Brihadisvara Temple also fit in better with the newly developed Indians-specific architecture set.

Definitive Edition

• The Cuman Wonder was actually built by the Khazars, an unrelated Turkic people, with assistance from the Byzantines, but taken by the Kipchaks from the Kievan Rus' in the 12th century. Although the Wonder having a ruined appearance in-game is likely a reference to this, the list of Cuman AI players also includes some Khazar Khans.
• The presence of the Tower of London and the Dormition Cathedral in the Editor could be due to them being considered for new Briton and Slavic Wonder. The former was ultimately replaced with Chichester Cathedral, whereas the latter remained unchanged.

Lords of the West

• One wing of the Brussels Town Hall was constructed prior to the Burgundian acquisition of Brabant. The other wing was constructed during Burgundian rule, with Charles the Bold laying the first stone.

Dawn of the Dukes

• The name Powder Tower would be anachronistic, as it originates in the 17th century due to the storage of gunpowder inside of the gate.
• The Wavel Cathedral is an amalgamate of structures covering several centuries of additions by different Polish rulers, including two reconstructions.

Dynasties of India

• Due to having similar statistics to a Wonder, it is possible that the Minaret of Jam was considered for a Hindustani Wonder at some point in development, prior to Humayun's Tomb being selected. The Minaret of Jam (constructed in 1190) would have been a better choice since the latter is anachronistic, being constructed in 1558, and is required to be constructed in the Babur campaign (which is funny since a father is constructing his son's tomb). It is possible that the developers wanted Hindustanis to have an Indian touch, so they selected the building located in India, rather than in Afghanistan.
• The Somnath Temple could be considered anachronistic in two different ways, being either a structure from before or after the Age of Empires II time period. This is due to it being constructed potentially very early in the first millennium, or due to several reconstructions it has gone through during its existence, with the latest one being in the twentieth century.

Return of Rome

• The Roman Wonder is anachronistic due to being built prior to the Age of Empires II time period, being built in the first century. It would see use into the Middle Ages, however, even being repurposed as a Castle and having a Chapel built inside of it.
  • Less anachronistic choices for the Roman Wonder include Old St. Peter's Basilica (built during the 4th century AD) and the Arch of Constantine (also built during the 4th century; however, a ruined version is already used by the Huns).
• The Colosseum is the first Wonder to have previously been a different building, in the form of the Amphitheatre Scenario Editor-only building. It is also the second Wonder from the original Age of Empires to be featured as a Wonder in Age of Empires II, after the Chinese Wonder, although unlike the Temple of Heaven, it also reuses the same model as its Age of Empires counterpart.

Armor class

The Wonder Armor class was introduced with Dynasties of India. No unit has an attack bonus against this armor class, but the melee Elite Immortal has an attack 0 against the armor class. The buildings with the armor class are the generic Wonder itself, Palace, Sankore Madrasah, Tower of London, Dormition Cathedral, Aachen Cathedral, and Minaret of Jam.

History

“	One distinguishing cultural characteristic of the great Middle Age civilizations was architecture. Buildings in Japan, Scandinavia, Britain, Constantinople, and Arabia looked quite different and employed different construction techniques. In many cases, particularly noteworthy buildings stand as icons for the building civilization, marking it for all time as a culture that achieved greatness, if only temporarily. Examples of such Middle Age cultural icons are the Cathedral at Chartres, Charlemagne's Palace, and the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.	”
—Age of Empires II manual

Gallery

The new designs of all Wonders in the Definitive Edition including all released expansions until The Mountain Royals

Real-life locations of all the Wonders on an isometric map until Return of Rome

Wonders as they appear in the HD Edition with all its expansions

Comparison of the real sizes of all Wonders in the Definitive Edition until The Mountain Royals, as well as some other large structures and units

Videos

Everything You've Wondered About Wonders

Another 10 Wonderful AoE2 Questions

AoE2 Wonders

AoE2 Expansion Wonders

All AoE2 DE Wonders Collapsing

Map

Civilization icons are placed at the real world locations of their Wonders.

_{The Mongol icon is at Avarga, the capital of the empire during Genghis Khan's rule.}

_{The Frank Wonder is pinned at the location of Chartres Cathedral in France rather than St. Vitus Cathedral in the Czech Republic.}