Loom
Age Available	Dark Age
Building	Town Center
Cost	50 Gold
Stats	Villagers +15 HP, +1 armor and +2 pierce armor
Available To	All civilisations

Loom is a technology that can be researched at the Town Center and makes Villagers harder to kill by offering +15 HP, +1 armor and +2 pierce armor (40HP, 1AR, 2PA instead of 25HP, 0AR, 0PA).

Loom is the only technology available in the Dark Age and costs just 50 Gold. Loom is effective during the early game, as it helps protect villagers from an early attack, but decreases in effectiveness as the strength of enemy armies increases. However, it is the cheapest technology in the game, and can be researched almost instantly, so it is usually the first technology a player will research. Additonally, Loom makes villagers far more formidable against wolves. Without Loom, a single villager will lose to any wolf which attacks the villager first.

Loom is free and already researched for the Aztecs as part of their civilisation bonus. Loom combined with Supremacy for the Spanish makes their villagers the strongest in the game.

HistoryEdit

The invention of the loom and the ability to weave cloth was an important ancient technology that was quickly recovered during the Dark Ages. Good wool clothes were an important asset that lengthened life expectancy in the Northern European climate. Raising sheep for wool and then making cloth was one of the early important industries of the Middle Ages. - from Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings game manual

Economic Technologies (Age of Empires II)
Town Center: I: Loom II: Wheelbarrow III: Hand Cart Lumber Camp: II: Double-Bit Axe III: Bow Saw IV: Two-Man Saw Mill: II: Horse Collar III: Heavy Plow IV: Crop Rotation Mining Camp: II: Gold Mining • Stone Mining III: Gold Shaft Mining • Stone Shaft Mining Market: II: Cartography • Coinage III: Banking • Caravan IV: Guilds Castle: IV: Conscription • Sappers • Spies • Treason (Regicide)