Welcome, developers, players, and everyone whose interest to Age of Empires IV and Age of Empires series in general.
This is My personal gameplay suggestions for Age of Empires IV. All information below is completely not official information by developers. The Topic information mostly come from a Fandom wiki editor. Undisputable Wisdom’s suggestion blogs on Age of Empires Wiki.
Link for information; User blog:UndisputableWisdom339926
The new DLC will coming in late October this year (2026). This will be a long topic.
I have played Age of Empires IV for a long time, it is fun and intensity to play, as the game goal is to build, defend, expand, and destroy. The game has many additions and improvement, but there still has something not yet improved is city defenses system, as melee units can attack building with powerful fire attack that more powerful each Ages but the buildings are not stronger before the Imperial Age and defense buildings are often weak to even non-siege units and expensive to build in large numbers, and for stone defense buildings which are the best way to counter massed raiding soldiers without sieges are even more expensive due to the scarce of stone outcroppings in the map, there are much less stones (even the large Stone outcroppings are less resources than small gold vein) , likely for balance reason, as they often used them for offensive ways which hard to counter (even they can build Battering Rams to destroy them, it still frustrating). While the recent season update has some balance changes like Palisade Wall health increased, Town Centers less stones, Spearmen are stronger on late games, spear walls can be used more often, etc. However, other defense topics have been not yet changed on better ways. Also, the naval battle in Age of Empires IV while mainly balanced, there still have some problems I have experienced like limited units types, one-sided naval tactics and strategies compared to Age of Empires II especially after major water rework which released alongside with The Last Chieftains DLC. Here i have suggestions for Age of Empires IV gameplay which should be but currently not yet changed to the games or descripted on official update changelogs, and some of them inspired from other players and suggestion comments on YouTube, Reddit, Steam, etc. including general units, buildings, technologies, and others.
Balance Changes
Defense Improvements
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Outposts, Toll Outposts, Wooden Fortresses, Fortified Outposts:
- Outposts and Toll Outposts; have 1000 hit points from 750 hit points, build time unchanged (60 seconds).
- Wooden Fortress; have 2000 hit point from 1750 hit points, build time changed from 60 seconds to 70 seconds.
- Fortified Outposts; have 1800 hit point from 1700 hit points, build time unchanged (60 seconds).
- Add -5 attack vs villagers for garrison arrows.
- Non-foot units like cavalry, elephants, siege engines, no longer garrison inside.
- Arrowslits and Javelin Emplacements; add +5 attack vs cavalry, and -5 attack vs villagers.
- Handcannon Slits; add +10 attack vs cavalry, and -10 attack vs villagers.
- Springald Emplacements; add +20 attack vs heavy.
- Mangonel Emplacements; add +5 each projectile vs heavy.
- Cannon Emplacements; add +30 attack vs elephants.
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Stone Wall
- Cost reduced from 25 to 20.
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Stone Wall Towers
- Add +10 melee armor, +10 fire armor, and +2 siege armor.
- Replace Springald/ Bed Crossbow/ Mangonel default emplacement with arrows as default emplacement.
- Can emplace with Springald/ Bed Crossbow/ Mangonel default Emplacement in Castle Age or Cannon Emplacement for non-Knights Templar Civilizations in Imperial Age.
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Keeps, Castle, Fortress, Tughlaqabad Fort, and Keep-type defense landmarks
- Add +10 melee armor and +10 siege armor, change fire armor to 10 fire armors.
- Add +6 attack vs cavalry for base arrows.
- Springald Emplacements; add +20 attack vs heavy. Springalds for Keep-type buildings rate of fires changes from 3.88 seconds to 2.55 seconds.
- Mangonel Emplacement; add +5 each projectile vs heavy. Mangonel for Keep-type buildings projectiles changes from x3 to x4 projectiles.
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Town Centers, Keeps (or civilizations equivalents), and Keep-type defense landmarks now can be connected by all type of Walls and allow friendly foot units to use Keep-type buildings to access the top of Stone Walls. Note: this will make enemy units harder to raiding.
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Capital Town Centers and Templar Headquarters now heal garrisoning units at 0.1 hit points per second. Medical Center for Abbasid Dynasty increase garrison heal rate for Capital Town Center and enable garrison healing for non-landmark Town Centers and Keeps.
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Golden Horn Tower for the Byzantines now gain large Line of Sight and allow to garrison foot units up to 10 units.
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Naval Arrowslits and Naval Springald Emplacement; rate of fire in Castle Age and Imperial Age change from 3.5 second to 3 second and 2.75 second, respectively.
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Age-up Landmarks destroyed by enemies during construction now return resources depending to progression percentages.
Countering additions/rebalances
- Scouts; base attack change from 1 to 3, add attack -2 vs villagers. and -1 vs land traders.
- Springalds; add +15 attack bonus vs elephants.
- Bed Crossbows; add +8/+10/+13 attack bonus vs elephants.
- Ballista Elephants; add +14/+16 attack bonus vs elephants.
Wonders reworks
- Now can be built without Wonder victory condition enabled. cost unchanged by the map sizes. but cost become cheaper by 40% in 1 to 2 players matches and 20% in 3 to 4 players matches. in 8 players matches, however, the Wonder cost increased by 20%.
- Wonders base hit point change from 5000 to 6000 hp.
- Wonders now generate 100 food, 100 wood, 100 gold, and 50 stone per minute. Have aura that repair nearby buildings by 10 hp per second within 12 tile radius.
- Wonders counted as a fully destructible landmark for the sake of landmark victory purpose. If a player owns the Wonder; destroy it required to landmark defeat for a player.
- Wonder victory countdowns change from 15 minutes on every map size to 15 minutes on Micro, 17 minutes, 30 second on Small, 20 minutes on Medium, 22 minutes, 30 second on Large, and 25 minutes on Gigantic.
- Note: This makes Wonders become more useful in long term even without Wonder victory condition enable and make Wonders more strategical sense for defending and targeting in any gameplays.
Technologies
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Add Masonry:
- Research at Town Centers, Age: Castle Age, cost 300 Gold, 200 Stone, research time 30 second.
- Available for all civilizations except Macedonian Dynasty, Mongols, Golden Hordes.
- Buildings’ hit points +30%
- Note: This makes buildings harder to destroy by enemy infantry and cavalry units, but still vulnerable to enemy siege units. for the Mongols and Golden Hordes, it is replaced by Hardened Structure, which add fewer hit points, but stone cost replaced by wood, and for the Macedonian Dynasty, Fortifications replaced both Masonry and Court Architects and can be researched as early as Age II up to six levels in Age IV.
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Add Hardened Structure
- Research at Town Centers, Age: Castle Age, cost 300 Gold, 200 Wood, research time 20 second.
- Available for Mongols and Golden Hordes.
- Buildings’ hit points +20%
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Add Capped Ram
- Research at Siege Workshops, Age: Castle Age, cost 300 Wood, 250 Food, research time 45 second.
- Available for all civilizations except Byzantines and Macedonian Dynasty.
- Battering Ram; + 30 hp, +50 siege attack.
- Note: This makes even cheap Battering Rams more useful in Castle Age onward in order to counter heavy fortified towns alongside with another siege opitons.
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Add Heavy Cheirosiphon
- Research at Siege Workshops, Age: Castle Age, cost 250 Wood, 300 Gold, research time 45 second.
- Available for the Byzantines and Macedonian Dynasty.
- Cheirosiphon; + 40 hp, +2 siege attack per projectiles, burning Area of Effect on the surface last +1.5 seconds.
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Add Sappers
- Research at Town Center; at Castle Age, cost 200 Food 250 Gold, research time 30 second.
- Available for all Civilizations, for French, Sappers is cost 25% cheaper.
- Add sapping attack for Villagers which target enemy defense buildings, including Stone Walls, Stone Wall Gates, and Great Wall Gatehouse. deal 20 siege attack and 2.0 attack rate.
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Add Machicolations
- Research at Keep and civilizations equivalents and landmarks like Fortress, Age: Castle Age, cost 250 Gold, 100 Stone, research time 60 second.
- Available for all Civilizations except Golden Horde, Mongols, and Tughlaq Dynasty.
- Require for research Boiling Oil and Rain of Fire.
- Keep types buildings and Stone Wall Towers gain a close-range attack against nearby units that deals 20 damage.
- Japanese and Sengoku Daimyo; this technology is free and always researched instantly when reach Castle Age.
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Boiling Oil/ Rain of Fire
- Move to Imperial Age. requiring Machicolations. Japanese and Sengoku Daimyo; always available since Machicolations is already researched for free and instantly.
- Also deal bonus damage +20 vs Siege and +10 vs elephants.
- Boiling Oil: Now make hazard areas around the buildings when unleashed hot oils for 10 seconds which damage all enemy units when pass the hazard areas.
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Court Architects
- Also increase construction speed 20% faster and emplacements research 10% faster.
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Fortifications (Macedonian dynasty)
- Cost change from 200/400/800/1600/2600/3600 to 200/400/600/1000/2000/3000 Silver.
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Lookout Towers (Previously removed technology)
- Now available for Tughlaq Dynasty’s House of Learning.
- Base cost; 200 wood, 300 gold +20 cost civilization bonus = 240 wood, 360 gold.
- Base research time, 45 seconds, civilization bonus research time = 5 seconds.
- Outpost and Stone Wall Tower sight range +50% and weapon range by 1.
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Daimyo Palace upgrade for Town Centers (Japanese): Now cost 450 stone, Move to Feudal Age.
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Shogunate Castle upgrade for Town Centers (Japanese): Now cost 400 Wood, 800 stone, Move to Castle Age.
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Open Field System (House of Lancaster): Move to Castle Age.
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Red Brick Bastions (Tughlaq Dynasty): Now cost 100 gold, 250 stone. Move to Castle Age.
Stone improvements
- Stone Outcroppings:
- Change from 1200 (Small)/2400 (Large) stone to 2400 (Small)/4800 (Large) stone.
- Add Tiny size containing 1200 stone.
- Tithe Barns’ stone generation change from 10 to 20 stone per minute. Improved version for the Mongols stone generation unchanged.
- Grand Brazer (Abbasid Dynasty); now also return stone as one of the random secondary resources.
Balancing counterplays
- All land and naval workers and traders; when killed by enemies if they carry resources, 50% of all resources carried will grant to the player who dealt the killing blow. Delete do not grant any resources.
- Stone defense buildings (Stone Walls, Stone Wall Gatehouses, Stone Wall Tower, Keep-type buildings); can no longer be placed within 10 tiles of an enemy Capital Town Center.
- Outpost (or civilizations equivalents); can no longer be placed within 2 tiles of another Outposts (or civilizations equivalents).
- Stone Wall Tower; can no longer be placed within 2 tiles of another Stone Wall Towers.
- Keep (or civilizations equivalents); can no longer be placed within 3 tiles of another Keeps (or civilizations equivalents).
- Monastery (or civilizations analogous); cost change from 200 wood to 200 wood and 50 stone. Prayer Tent and Shinto Shrine cost 200 wood unchanged.
- Siege Towers; add new passive aura ability: Siege Terror; make nearby enemy defense buildings more vulnerable to attacks by 20%.
- Geometry: now also add Trebuchet damage vs building by +20%
- Guild Hall (French, Jeanne d’Arc): Limit to the total generated resources set to 40,000 resources, for stone, set to 20,000 resources.
Naval Reworks
Expanded naval units
- New ship type, Melee ship, can be trained in Feudal Age
- Flavors including;
- Raiding Dhow - Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, Delhi Sultanate, Ottomans, Tughlaq Dynasty
- Raiding Galley - English, Holy Roman Empire, House of Lancaster, Knights Templar, Macedonian Dynasty, Order of the Dragon
- Raiding Canoe - Malians
- Lodya Raider Ship - Rus
- Raiding Junk - Chinese, Golden Horde, Japanese, Jin Dynasty, Mongols, Sengoku Daimyo, Zhu Xi’s Legacy
- Cost 150 wood, 50 gold, 3 naval pops, train time 25 seconds
- Fast war vessel armed with a pair of ropes and hooks, benefit from Blacksmith melee attack technologies. Strong at close range, weak against fast ranged attack
- Unit specific technologies for melee ships (all available on Dock) including; Ramming Bowsprit (Castle Age, allow to use bowsprit ramming charge attack, which slowdown enemy targets), Advanced Boarding (Imperial Age, increase attack rate by 50% and weapon range by +0.5).
- Flavors including;
- New ship type, Trebuchet ship, can be trained in Castle Age
- Flavors including;
- Siege Baghlah - Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, Delhi Sultanate, Tughlaq Dynasty
- Siege Hulk - English, Holy Roman Empire, House of Lancaster, Knights Templar, Macedonian Dynasty, Order of the Dragon, Ottomans
- Siege Canoe - Malians
- Lodya Siege Ship - Rus
- Siege Junk - Golden Horde, Japanese, Mongols, Sengoku Daimyo
- Louchuan - Chinese, Jin Dynasty, Zhu Xi’s Legacy
- Cost 400 wood, 150 gold, 4 naval pops, train time 45 seconds (Louchuan; cost 400 wood, 350 food, 200 gold, 4 naval pops, train time 60 seconds)
- Ship equipped with long ranged trebuchet. Strong against buildings and long ranged ships, weak against anything at close range, benefit from the following technologies that specific improve Trebuchet units; Geometry, Greek Fire Projectiles, Shattering Projectiles, Counterweight Defenses, Pili Pao.
- Louchuan for Chinese, Jin Dynasty, Zhu Xi’s Legacy has more hit point, and have secondary arrow attack but lower trebuchet attack range and more cost than other Trebuchet ships.
- Flavors including;
- Archer ship; Add attack bonus +15 vs melee ships.
- Incendiary ships; now moved Age requirement from Feudal Age to Castle Age. Attack bonus change from +300 vs springald ships and Warships, +100 vs springald ships, +200 vs melee ship and trebuchet ships , +300 vs gunpowder ship and warships.
- Springald ships; attack damage change from 35 to 20, attack bonus change from +45 vs archer ship. +55 vs Building to +25 vs archer ship, +15 vs Incendiary ship, +10 vs Building. Now can deal pass-thought damage like land Springalds.
- Transport Ships; now eject loaded units instead of killed off if the Transport Ship sunk within or nearby beach coastal or shallow water. Loads units still be killed with the Transport Ship if it sunk in deeper water or cliffy coastal.
- Venetian Galley (Knights Templar); now also equipped with crossbows that attack enemy units even when moving.
Naval countering systems expands and reworks
- Archer ships strong vs Melee ships and Incendiary ships as well as light infantry, situational matchup condition vs Trebuchet ships, weak vs siege engines, Springald ships, Gunpowder ships, and Warships.
- Melee ships strong vs Springald ships, and Trebuchet ships as well as cavalry, situational matchup condition vs Gunpowder ships. weak vs siege engines, Archer ships, Incendiary ships, and Warships.
- Springald ships and Dromons strong vs Archer ships and non-defensive buildings as well as Heavy units, situational matchup condition vs Incendiary ships and Trebuchet ships, weak vs siege engines, Melee ships, Gunpowder ships, and Warships.
- Incendiary ships strong vs Melee ships, Trebuchet ships, Gunpowder ships, and Warships, situational matchup condition vs Springald ships, weak vs Archer ships and siege engines
- Trebuchet ships strong vs building, and siege engines, situational matchup condition vs Archer ship, Springald ships, and Warships, weak vs melee ships, Incendiary ships, and Gunpowder ships.
- Gunpowder ships strong vs building, Archer ship, Springald ship, and Trebuchet ships, situational matchup condition vs melee ships and Warships, weak vs siege engines, and Incendiary ships.
- Warships strong vs building, Archer ships, Melee ships, Springald ships, and most land units, situational matchup condition vs Gunpowder ship, Melee ships, Trebuchet ship weak vs longer ranged siege engines and massed Incendiary ships.
Naval Population
- Introduce Naval population support, replacing normal population support for ALL ships except Fishing boats and Trade ships
- Naval population can increase support by build Town Centers (+10) and Docks (+10), maximum naval populations per player are 100 which cannot increase further by kill enemies Monarchs on Dominion matches.
Regional units concepts
Horse Archer
- No longer a Rus unique unit. now available for the Byzantines, Rus, Ottomans, Tughlaq Dynasty, and Chinese
- Ottomans can turn Horse Archer into Akinji which fires two arrows in quick succession once the Akinji System Vizier Point has been selected from the Imperial Council which can train since Age II.
Mounted Crossbowman
- Ranged cavalry with slow but hard-hitting attack, strong vs heavy cavalry and melee infantry, weak vs other light cavalry and ranged infantry, especially Archers.
- Available for English, Horse of Lancaster, French, Jean d’ Arc, Knight Templar, Holy Roman Empire, Scots, Vikings, and Zhu Xi’s Legacy.
- The Order of the Dragon can train Gilded Mounted Crossbowman which stronger but more cost and double populations.
And more add later…
Quality of life and other gameplay suggestions
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Add truce match lobby setting for all game modes, come with selectable truce times from 5 minutes up to 60 minutes, during the truce time, no fighting between players, all victory countdowns temporally paused from starts, cannot build within areas nearby enemies’ landmark Town Centers, and Wonder constructions are disabled until time out. Good for nomad starts.
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The Player slot can be replaced by Al in Singleplayer Skirmish.
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Add following AI personalities setting for Al players:
- Balanced (default setting)
- Attacker
- Defender
- Passive
- Conqueror
- Economist
- Supporter
- Builder
- Sieger
- Retaliator
- Inactive (No Al)
- Random Al personalities - Passive and Inactive are excluded from this randomization.
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Add autoqueue and prequeue options for training units and researching technologies (Optional).
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Add In-game compendium of historical events, historical people, units, buildings, technologies, natures, warfare, gameplays and tactics, terms glossary, and miscellaneous on Learn section of main menu.
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Add new total damages/kills count UI display for units and buildings.
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Add following cheat units based on classic cheat units in the series.
- Saint Francis, religious unit with area healing and long ranged lightning attack, code: convert this!
- Cobra Car, siege unit with high armor, fast movement, and quick gun attack, code: how do you turn this on
- Lazer Bear, laser ranged cavalry unit with very high stats and powerful laser attack, code: o canada
- Big Andy, siege unit with high HP, fast movement, and damage all enemy units and buildings around it, code: tuck tuck tuck
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Add unique appearance of Wonders for variant civilizations (Optional):
- Ayyubids - Umayyad Mosque (maybe with the Malwiya Minaret of Samarra)
- Golden Horde - Grand Ovoo of Batu Khan (Fictional Building)
- House of Lancaster - Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in London
- Jeanne d’Arc - Orléans Cathedral or Reims Cathedral or Mix of them
- Jin Dynasty - Original Jin Summer Palace (maybe with Liaodi Pagoda or Chengling Pagoda)
- Knights Templar - Enclos du Temple in Paris
- Macedonian Dynasty - Church of the Holy Apostles
- Order of the Dragon - Maria Laach Abbey
- Sengoku Daimyo - Daibutsuden of Tōdai-ji temple
- Tughlaq Dynasty - Tomb of Shah Rukn-e-Alam
- Zhu Xi’s Legacy - Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven
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Add new common animal types; Cow, Chicken, Fox, and Crocodile (Optional).
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Add more animal variants for some different biomes (Optional), for example:
- Asian Temperate: Sheep = Goat, Huntable Deer = Spotted Deer
- Asian Subtropical: Sheep = Goat, Huntable Deer = Spotted Deer, Wolf = Tiger, Huntable Boar = Wild Water Buffalo
- Taiga Summer/Winter: Wolf = Lynx, Huntable Deer = Reindeer, Huntable Boar = Elk Moose
- Steppes: Sheep = Goat, Huntable Deer = Ibex, Huntable Boar = Wild Yak
- Gobi Desert = Sheep = Goat, Huntable Deer = Argali, Huntable Boar = Wild Yak
- Sahara Desert: Sheep = Goat, Wolf = Hyena, Huntable Deer = Gazelle, Huntable Boar = Hippopotamus
- Japanese Spring: Huntable Deer = Spotted Deer
- Savanna: Sheep = Goat, Wolf = Lion, Huntable Deer = Zebra, Huntable Boar = White Rhinoceros
- Tropical Rainforest: Wolf = Tiger, Huntable Deer = Nilgai, Huntable Boar =Indian Rhinoceros
- And more…
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Hit-point bar displays for buildings should much longer than units ones (Optional).
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Buildings can be rotate in any orthogonal directions during the in-game constructing placement.
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Add unique death displays and animations for each land mechanical unit and siege engine (Optional).
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Add Thai Language support and localization (Optional).
More suggestions will add soon when appropriate. Everyone can share other suggestions or discuss about my suggestions. This will help gameplay quality for this game in future. when some suggestions become live in future updates, I will react and discuss about them later. Thank you, everyone for reading and discussion.
Sources:
- Personal gameplay suggestions for Age of Empires IV: Defense Reworks and Counterplays; User blog:UndisputableWisdom339926/Personal gameplay suggestions for Age of Empires IV: Defense Reworks and Counterplays | Age of Empires Series Wiki | Fandom
- Personal suggestions for Age of Empires IV: Naval Reworks and Other suggestions; User blog:UndisputableWisdom339926/Personal suggestions for Age of Empires IV: Naval Reworks and Other suggestions | Age of Empires Series Wiki | Fandom