Ship (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the naval vessels in Age of Empires II. For the armor class, see Armor class: Ship. For naval vessels in other games of the series, see Naval vessel.

Naval vessels, also referred to as boats or ships, are the only units in Age of Empires II that can move across water. They can also pass shallow water, but can never move on land. As water is a natural and impenetrable barrier for all units but naval vessels, they are of crucial importance on maps with a lot of water, e.g. Islands, Coastal, or Baltic.

General information

All naval vessels move quite fast, possess high pierce armor, and high HP. Hence, almost all military vessels are quite capable of battling land units on the shoreline for they can hit-and-run melee units and kill ranged units with their ranged attack and good resistance against arrow fire. But they struggle against siege weapons and also have problems dealing with Monks. Naval vessels all have an attack bonus against buildings, which makes them good raiding units to clear shorelines, but defensive structures deal bonus damage against ships as well, so they should only be attacked if they can be outranged.

All naval vessels are trained at the Dock and cost wood and gold. The both Dark Age vessels, the Fishing Ship and the Transport Ship, only cost wood.

All information that follows is current as of patch 5.0.

List of naval vessels

Marked with yellow background are unique units.

Naval Vessel	A	HP	At	Ar	PA	Ra	ROF	LOS	Sp	W	G	TT	Ci
Fishing Ship		60	0	0	4	0	N/A	5	1.26	75	0	40	31
Transport Ship		100	0	4	8	0	N/A	5	1.45	125	0	46	31
Trade Cog	File:Feudal-age-reseach.jpg	80	0	0	6	0	N/A	6	1.32	100	50	36	31
Galley	File:Feudal-age-reseach.jpg	120	6	0	6	5	3.05	7	1.43	90	30	60	31
War Galley	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	135	7	0	6	6	3.05	8	1.43	90	30	36	31
Galleon		165	8	0	8	7	3.05	9	1.43	90	30	36	30
Fire Galley	File:Feudal-age-reseach.jpg	100	1	0	4	2.49	0.25	5	1.3	75	45	60	30
Fire Ship	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	120	2	0	6	2.49	0.25	5	1.35	75	45	60	30
Fast Fire Ship		140	3	0	8	2.49	0.25	5	1.43	75	45	60	19
Demolition Raft	File:Feudal-age-reseach.jpg	45	90	0	2	0	N/A	6	1.5	70	50	45	30
Demolition Ship	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	60	110	0	3	0	N/A	6	1.6	70	50	45	30
Heavy Demolition Ship		70	140	0	5	0	N/A	6	1.6	70	50	45	20
Cannon Galleon		120	35	0	6	13	10	15	1.1	200	150	46	27
Elite Cannon Galleon		150	45	0	8	15	10	17	1.1	200	150	46	15
Longboat	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	130	7	0	6	6	3.05	8	1.54	100	50	25	1
Elite Longboat		160	8	0	8	7	3.05	9	1.54	100	50	25	1
Turtle Ship	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	200	50	6	5	6	6.04	8	0.9	180	180	50	1
Elite Turtle Ship		300	50	8	6	6	6.04	8	0.9	180	180	50	1
Caravel	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	130	6	0	8	6	3.05	9	1.43	90	40	45	1
Elite Caravel		150	8	0	8	7	3.05	9	1.43	90	40	45	1
Average	N/A	126.5	28.8	0.9	6.1	4.6	3.87	7.8	1.35	107.3	63.3	45.1	27.6

Technologies

Listed below are all technologies that benefit naval vessels. Marked with yellow background are unique technologies. This list does not contain unit upgrades.

Technology	Researched at	Age	Civilization	Effect
Careening	Dock	III	All	Increases pierce armor by +1 and Transport Ship capacity by +5
Gillnets	Dock	III	All	Fishing Ships gather food +25% faster
Dry Dock	Dock	IV	28	Increases speed by +15% and Transport Ship capacity by +10
Shipwright	Dock	IV	18	Lowers wood cost by -20% and increases creation speed by +35%
Fletching	Blacksmith	II	All	Increases range and attack of Galleys, Longboats, and Caravels by +1
Bodkin Arrow	Blacksmith	III	All	Increases range and attack of Galleys, Longboats, and Caravels by +1
Bracer	Blacksmith	IV	25	Increases range and attack of Galleys, Longboats, and Caravels by +1
Ballistics	University	III	All	Improves accuracy at moving targets
Chemistry	University	IV	All	Increases attack of Galleys, Longboats, and Caravels by +1
Heresy	Monastery	III	19	Converted units die instead of changing color
Faith	Monastery	IV	28	Increases conversion resistance
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Greek Fire	Castle	III	Byzantines	Increases range of Fire Ships by +1
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Sultans	Castle	III	Indians	Makes Trade Cogs +10% more efficient
File:Unique-tech.jpg Silk Road	Castle	IV	Italians	Halves train cost of Trade Cogs
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Panokseon	Castle	III	Koreans	Increases speed of Turtle Ships by +15%
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Carrack	Castle	III	Portuguese	Increases armor by +1/+1
File:Unique-tech.jpg Arquebus	Castle	IV	Portuguese	Improves accuracy of Cannon Galleons at moving targets
File:Unique-tech.jpg Artillery	Castle	IV	Turks	Increases range of Cannon Galleons by +2

Civilizations

The best naval civilizations are probably the Berbers, Byzantines, Koreans, Malay, Portuguese, Saracens, Spanish, and Vikings.

The Byzantines and Spanish are the only civilizations to have access to all naval units and technologies.

Civilization bonuses

The following civilizations have bonuses that specifically benefit naval units:

Berbers: Ships move +10% faster.
Byzantines: Fire Ships attack 20% faster.
Chinese: Demolition Ships have +50% HP.
Italians: Dock technologies are 50% cheaper. Fishing Ships are 20% cheaper.
Japanese: Fishing Ships have double HP, +2 pierce armor, and work +5%/+10%/+15%/+20% faster in the Dark/Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
Malay: Fishing Ships are 33% cheaper.
Persians: Docks have double HP and work +10%/+15%/+20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
Portuguese: Ships have +10% HP.
Saracens: Transport Ships have double HP and +5 transport capacity. Galleys attack +20% faster.
Spanish: Cannon Galleons benefit from Ballistics.
Vikings: Warships are 15%/15%/20% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.

Team bonuses