Wood

Wood is an important resource used throughout the Age of Empires series. It is most often required for buildings or training ranged units and is usually acquired by felling trees.

Methods to obtain wood

Wood can be collected by a few methods which are all listed below.

Forestry

Trees are abundant on almost every map found in the game, including arid ones. Major forests can easily be located and cut down, both supplying wood for new buildings and clearing land to build on.

Market

Gold can be traded for wood at the Market. The more wood a player buys, the more expensive it gets. In Age of Empires and Age of Empires III, the Market also contains essential upgrades that can increase the speed of wood collecting from chopping down trees. In Age of Empires IV, French Traders may also drop off wood at the Market.

Resource-generating buildings

Throughout the series, a few buildings are featured that steadily generate wood:

• Feitoria (Age of Empires II, Portuguese)
• Plenty Vault (Age of Mythology, Greeks)
• Garden (Age of Mythology, Chinese)
• Factory (Age of Empires III)
• Porcelain Tower (Age of Empires III, Chinese)
• Shrine (Age of Empires III, Japanese)
• Pagoda with Relic garrisoned (Age of Empires IV, Chinese only)
• Guild Hall (Age of Empires IV, French only)

Trade Route

In Age of Empires III, building Trading Posts is another way to obtain wood. Some units of a chosen resource are produced for free each time a Coach or Train makes a full loop around a Trade Route (the amount depends on the length of the Trade Route), and the player can choose to make that resource wood.

Improvements

Wood Crates	Ships 500 wood; Chinese only
Woodland Dwellers	Ships 500 wood for every 10 minutes of game passed, up to 30 minutes; Haudenosaunee only
Zapotec Cloud People	Ships 100 wood for every 2 minutes of game passed, up to 30 minutes
Nanban Trade	Crates and Trade Routes contain/generate +25% resources and XP; Japanese only
Wood Trickle	Gives a trickle of 1.25 wood; Chinese only
Jagiellonian Legacy	Units and resources already earned from age-ups are provided again

Jagiellonian Legacy affects The Quartermaster, The Admiral of the Ocean Sea, The Viceroy (for the Germans and Portuguese), The Wise Woman (for the Haudenosaunee), The Chief (for the Lakota), Karni Mata, Tower of Victory, South Carolina, Vermont, Illinois, Connecticut, Portuguese Alliance, Hausa Alliance, Sonora, Coahuila, Oaxaca, and Jalisco.

Home City shipments

Age of Empires III also offers the option of Home City shipments as a means to get extra wood. Once selected, wood arrives in the form of cords to the shipment point which by default is a Town Center. Villagers must work on them to unpack the shipments. All shipments that provide wood are listed in the following table.

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to Wood

Some cards are highlighted with:
Green	TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
Purple	Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times
Red	Shipment that can be sent twice
Blue	Shipment that arrives fast (5 seconds)

All

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Cords of 300 Wood	Ships 300 wood		1
Cords of 600 Wood	Ships 600 wood (also +2 Uhlans for the Germans)		1
Cords of 700 Wood	Ships 700 wood (also +2 Uhlans for the Germans; +1 Villager for the Indians)		10
Cords of 1000 Wood	Ships 1,000 wood (also +3 Uhlans for the Germans; +1 Villager for the Indians)		10
Cords of 1600 Wood	Ships 1,600 wood (also +1 Villager for the Indians)		25
Cords of 1200 Wood	Ships 1,200 wood		N/A
Distributivism	Gives a trickle of 1.25 wood		25

• "Cords of 600 Wood" is not available to the Haudenosaunee, Inca, Indians, and Japanese.
• "Cords of 700 Wood" is not available to the Haudenosaunee, Inca, and Japanese.
• "Cords of 1,000 Wood" is available to all civilizations.
• "Cords of 1,600 Wood" is available to the Aztecs, Chinese, Dutch, French, Italians, Mexicans, Portuguese, Russians, and Swedes.
• "Cords of 1,200 Wood" is available to the Ethiopians, Hausa, and Inca.
• "Distributivism" is available to the British, French, Indians, Maltese, and Russians.

Asians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Sumptuary Laws	Gives a trickle of 0.3 food, 0.3 wood, 0.3 coin, 0.15 export, 0.15 XP		25

• "Sumptuary Laws" is available to the Chinese and Japanese.

Europeans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
South Sea Bubble	Exchanges all coin for ×1.25 the amount of wood		40

• "South Sea Bubble" card is available to the British and Dutch.

French

Card	Description	Age
Guillotine	You receive 10 wood, 10 coin for each lost economic unit; Sansculottes get ×2.0 multiplier against Hero
Crates of 500 Food, 500 Wood, and 500 Coin	Ships 500 food, 500 wood, 500 coin

• "Guillotine" and "Crates of 500 Food, 500 Wood, and 500 Coin" is available upon revolting to Revolutionary France.

Haudenosaunee

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Crates of 100 Food, 100 Wood, and 100 Coin	Ships 100 food, 100 wood, 100 coin		1
Crates of 300 Food, 300 Wood, and 200 Coin	Ships 300 food, 300 wood, 200 coin		1
Crates of 300 Food, 300 Wood, and 300 Coin	Ships 300 food, 300 wood, 300 coin		10
Crates of 400 Food, 400 Wood, and 400 Coin	Ships 400 food, 400 wood, 400 coin		25
Crates of 600 Food, 600 Wood, and 600 Coin	Ships 600 food, 600 wood, 600 coin		25
Crates of 500 Food, 500 Wood, and 500 Coin	Ships 500 food, 500 wood, 500 coin		1
Onondaga Support	Ships 14 Tomahawks and 500 wood; costs 1,000 coin		1

Inca

Card	Description	Age
Cords of 600 Wood	Ships 600 wood
TEAM Seasonal Labor	Ships 2 Villagers, 2 fattened Llamas, and 200 wood

Indians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Cords of 900 Wood	Ships 900 wood		10
Cords of 500 Wood	Ships 500 wood		10
Cords of 900 Wood	Ships 900 wood		10
Cords of 1300 Wood	Ships 1,300 wood		25
Grazing	Camels generate 0.05 food per second; Elephants generate 0.1 wood per second; Sacred Cows generate 0.075 coin per second; +1 Villager		40
Foreign Logging	Gives a trickle of 2.35 wood; +1 Villager		40
TEAM Sumptuary Laws	Gives a trickle of 0.2 food, 0.2 wood, 0.2 coin, 0.1 export, 0.1 XP, 0.1 influence		25

Italians

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Pizza	Ships 100 food, 100 wood, 100 coin, 100 XP

Japanese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Cords of 600 Wood	Ships 600 wood		1
Cords of 1000 Wood	Ships 1,000 wood		10

Lakota

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Sans Arc Support	Ships 16 War Clubs and 500 wood; costs 1,000 coin		40

Maltese

Card	Description	Age
Merchant Republics	Returns 25% of resources previously gained from Trade Routes; Trade Routes generate +35% resources
Shipping Supplies	Ships 2,000 wood the first time sent; ships 1,300 wood thereafter
Barrakka Gardens	Exchanges all food for an equal amount of wood
Trip To Jerusalem	Returns 10 wood, 10 coin for each unit lost so far this game (up to 1,500 resources)

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
TEAM Piñatas	Ships resources at random, the total amount of which depends on the Age this card is sent: 200 at Exploration Age; 400 at Commerce Age; 600 at Fortress Age; 1,000 at Industrial Age; 1,600 at Imperial Age
Cerro de Mercado	Deposits 350 coin and exchanges all wood for ×1.25 the amount of coin
Sierra Madre Forests	Gives a trickle of 3 wood; Villagers gather wood from trees 30% faster; trees last 30% longer
Cords of 600 Wood	Ships 600 wood
Cords of 700 Wood	Ships 700 wood
Cords of 1000 Wood	Ships 1,000 wood

• "TEAM Piñatas" is also available to the California.
• "Cerro de Mercado" is available upon selecting the Durango Federal State.
• "Sierra Madre Forests" is available upon selecting the Chihuahua Federal State.
• "Cords of 600 Wood" and "Cords of 700 Wood" are available upon revolting to Central America.
• "Cords of 1000 Wood" is available upon revolting to Yucatán.

Ottomans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Silk Road	Crates and Trade Routes contain +25% resources and XP		25
Sublime Porte	Exchanges all food for ×1.25 the amount of wood		40

Portuguese

Card	Description	Age
Feitorias	Town Centers generate 0.5 food, 0.24 wood, 0.24 coin/sec (totally 0.98 per Town Center)

Russians

Card	Description	Age
Cords of 1000 Wood	Ships 1,000 wood

United States

Card	Description	Age
Washington Lumber Mills	Ships 400 wood; Land villagers gather wood from trees and Mango Groves 10% faster
New Jersey Seaports	Resource shipments' content +900 and are immediately gathered; can send resource-only shipments that have already been sent for the second time, as well as "Washington Lumber Mills", "Minneapolis Mills", and "Plymouth Settlers" (except TEAM ones); infinite crate cards are only increased by +300

• "New Jersey Seaports" is available upon selecting the New Jersey Federal State.

Uses

Age of Empires

Wood is needed to make all buildings except walls and towers, and is the primary resource for ships and siege weapons. It is also needed for Bowmen, Chariots, Chariot Archers and a number of technologies (mostly economic ones at the Market, but also for Architecture, Ballistics, Engineering, Urbanization and upgrading to Improved/Composite Bowmen, Scythe Chariots, Catapults and Helepolis).

Wood is the most abundant natural resource on nearly all maps and can be used to create Farms which ensure food production, but in the original and Definitive versions of the game it is still a finite resource. In Return of Rome it can be obtained indefinitely with commodity trading at the Market, but this is an expensive way to acquire it.

Trees create a movement barrier referred to as a "wood line", which most units are incapable of removing. In Age of Empires, the only ways to demolish a wood line are to slowly cut away at it with Villagers, or to use the "Attack ground" feature of Heavy Catapults, expensive late-game units that many factions are unable to train. An effective defensive strategy is to keep wood lines intact to prevent enemy incursions into the player's territory, providing a more robust barrier than walls.

Age of Empires II

Wood has a myriad of uses in Age of Empires II. Wood is used to make almost all buildings: houses, resource collection, military production, palisades, etc. Secondly, it is usually used in the collection of food via farming or Fish Traps. Wood is also used for the Spearman line, Archery Range units, siege units, and naval units. Wood is invested into economic upgrades (as well as Thumb Ring at the Archery Range and certain University technologies). Overall it is generally important to collect some wood no matter what strategy is pursued.

Some other uses include being sold for gold at the Market, particularly if the price of food is already low. Massed Halberdiers or Skirmishers are sometimes considered during trash unit wars due to wood's general abundance throughout the game. The amount of wood collected may vary depending on the units in the strategy; for example, wood costs for siege units can accumulate rather quickly if multiple Siege Workshops are maintaining production.

Age of Empires III

In this game, wood has changed its role significantly. While there are fewer buildings needed, each individual building tends to cost more wood. For example, dropoff buildings are not required, while Houses provide double population, but now cost 100 wood instead of the 25 wood in Age of Empires II. This is an equivalent to 10 wood per population (instead of 5 in the previous installment). Additionally, the rate of wood collection starts off slower to obtain than even coin and remains this way prior to Circular Saw. Because of this, it is common to avoid chopping much wood unless necessary, and especially prior to the Fortress Age. The usual way to do this is to send wood crates, which provide enough for early military buildings or the first Town Center.

There are several other specific cases that change from their Age of Empires II equivalent uses:

• With respect to food, it has reduced prominence, due to the abundance of huntable animals delaying the requirement for Farms. Mills are generally produced late in the game if at all necessary and a one-time cost producing infinite food over time without requiring more input of wood.
• Wood is very heavily used for unit upgrades along with coin, unlike in Age of Empires II, where most unit upgrades cost food and gold. For example Royal Guard upgrades cost 1,000 wood. Wood is still required for archaic units and archers, cannon/siege, and naval units, although the number of different types of these units is fewer overall and most compositions focus on food/coin.
• Wood partially takes on the role of stone in producing defensive buildings and walls, including the Town Center which costs 600 wood (500 since the Definitive Edition), over double its equivalent in Age of Empires II.

Age of Empires IV

Rus Villagers gathering wood

Wood is needed to make all buildings except landmarks, Stone Walls (and accompanying structures), and Keeps. It is also the only resource required to build most buildings, with the exceptions being the Town Center, Wonder, and Military School. Notably, the House of Wisdom costs 50 wood which is unusual for a landmark, but understandable since it behaves very differently from conventional landmarks.

Among units, all siege engines (elephants excluded) and ships cost wood. In addition, many non-siege units, such as the Spearman, Horseman, Archer and their variations cost wood, as do the Camel Archer, Horse Archer, Fire Lancer, Zhuge Nu and Grenadier. A fair number of technologies cost wood, though the majority do not.

Cheats to obtain wood

• Age of Empires: woodstock +1,000 wood
• Age of Empires II:
  • lumberjack - 10,000 wood
  • ninjaconnor or ninjalui or rowshep - 100,000 wood (along with 100,000 food, 100,000 gold, and 100,000 stone)
• Age of Mythology: TROJAN HORSE FOR SALE +1,000 wood
• Age of Empires III: <censored> +10,000 wood
• Age of Empires IV: knock on wood +100,000 wood

Gallery

Wood icon in Age of Empires III

Wood icon in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition