Villagers seeking shelter in the Town Center after the Town Bell was rung
The Town Bell is a function of the Town Center in Age of Empires series (except Age of Empires before Return of Rome). Once rung, it causes all Villagers to run for shelter and garrison inside the closest available building: Town Center, tower, House (only for the Khmer), or other defensive structures. Once the danger is over, the Bell may be rung again to release all Villagers and send them back to work. In Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Town Bell, and all related features mentioned in the sections below, also apply to Mule Carts.
If no close-by building has room left to garrison any more units, the Villagers will just keep working.
The Town Bell is a very useful function (especially in earlier stages of a game) to prevent the loss of Villagers and to rout the attackers when the town is under attack. However, using it can be very costly, as it halts all resource gathering therefore setting back progress, which also depends on how long the Villagers are sheltered.
The Town Bell feature was introduced to Age of Empires with the release of Return of Rome.
All Back to Work[]
All Back to Work is a feature for buildings in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Return of Rome since update 107882. It sends garrisoned Villagers and Mule Carts back to work not only from the selected building, but also from nearby buildings. All garrisonable buildings have this option in their command panel, except Castles. The hotkey (V) still works if a Castle is selected, even if the button itself is not visible.
Seek Shelter[]
Seek Shelter is a feature similar to the Town Bell first introduced in Age of Empires IV, and then in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and Return of Rome (since update 107882). It is available in the Villager's and Mule Cart's command panel, and behaves like the Town Bell, but for only the selected objects. Once clicked, the selected objects move towards and garrison inside the nearest garrisonable building, which includes towers, Castles (in Age of Empires II)/Keeps (in Age of Empires IV), Town Centers, Donjons, Fortified Churches, and Kreposts, as well as Houses for the Khmer in Age of Empires II.
In Age of Empires II, Fishing Ships of the Gurjaras, despite being able to garrison in Docks, do not have this command. Even if they were selected with Villagers and the command was pressed, the Fishing Ships do not respond to it, and must be garrisoned manually.
Trivia[]
- In the Age of Empires II campaign scenarios Feeding the Army and Training the Troops, the Town Bell does not work.
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