Dark Age

From Age of Empires Series Wiki

The Dark Age is the typical starting age in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and its expansion, Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. The player starts out with three Villagers (unless they are playing as the Chinese), a Town Center, and a Scout Cavalry (unless they are Aztec or Mayan, in both cases the scout cavalry is replaced by an Eagle Warrior). The Town Center and Scout Cavalry cannot be replaced until the player reaches Imperial Age and the Feudal Age respectively.

For information on the other three ages in Age of Empires II, see Feudal Age, Castle Age, and Imperial Age.

Contents 1 Units available 2 Buildings available 3 Research Available 4 Strategy

[edit] Units available

Village Units

• Villager-trained at Town Center
• Fishing Boat-built at Dock

Military Units

• Militia-trained at Barracks

[edit] Buildings available

Economic Buildings

• House
• Mill
• Farm (requires a constructed Mill)
• Lumber Camp
• Mining Camp
• Dock

Military Buildings

• Barracks

Defensive Structures

• Outpost
• Palisade Wall

[edit] Research Available

Economic Technologies

• Loom-researched at Town Center

[edit] Strategy

Dark Age offers very little in terms of technology and diversity amongst civilizations. Players should generally pursue rapid development of economy since their options for military are extremely limited. Primary resources to gather are wood (for more houses to support more villagers) and food (to create more villagers and advance to the next age). Stone is not a priority since it will only be useful beginning in the Castle Age; however, gold should be set a priority after food and wood is adequate since many units and technologies require gold. Should the map include fishing as a source of food, building a dock and fishing ships is feasible since fishing ships collect food more quickly than villagers and also frees villagers for gathering other resources.

Although the Dark Age leaves all players with little military capability, it is possible to rush players early with militia and villagers. Such a tactic can be risky due to the time and resources needed to commit to an army so early on in the game, but, if successful, is nearly always game-deciding.