# Sีuggestion: Personal gameplay suggestions for Age of Empires IV **URL:** \ **Category:** IV - Discussion\ **Created:** [September 30, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/s-uggestion-personal-gameplay-suggestions-for-age-of-empires-iv/290136 "2026-09-30T13:14:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AnUnknownBaron](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/anunknownbaron/32/213483_2.png) [@AnUnknownBaron](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/AnUnknownBaron)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/s-uggestion-personal-gameplay-suggestions-for-age-of-empires-iv/290136/1 "2026-09-30T13:14:27Z")
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](https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/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 T_he 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 - Outposts, Toll Outposts, Wooden Fortresses, Fortified Outposts: - Stone Wall - Stone Wall Towers - Keeps, Castle, Fortress, Tughlaqabad Fort, and Keep-type defense landmarks - 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. - 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. - Golden Horn Tower for the Byzantines now gain large Line of Sight and allow to garrison foot units up to 10 units. - 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. - 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 - Add **Masonry:** - Add **Hardened Structure** - Add **Capped Ram** - Add **Heavy Cheirosiphon** - Add **Sappers** - Add **Machicolations** - **Boiling Oil/ Rain of Fire** - **Court Architects** - **Fortifications** (Macedonian dynasty) - **Lookout Towers** (Previously removed technology) - **Daimyo Palace** upgrade for Town Centers (Japanese): Now cost 450 stone, Move to Feudal Age. - **Shogunate Castle** upgrade for Town Centers (Japanese): Now cost 400 Wood, 800 stone, Move to Castle Age. - **Open Field System** (House of Lancaster): Move to Castle Age. - **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). - 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. - 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 - 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. - The Player slot can be replaced by Al in Singleplayer Skirmish. - Add following **AI personalities** setting for Al players: - Add **autoqueue** and **prequeue** options for training units and researching technologies (Optional). - 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. - Add new total damages/kills count UI display for units and buildings. - Add following cheat units based on classic cheat units in the series. - Add unique appearance of Wonders for variant civilizations (Optional): - Add new common animal types; **Cow** , **Chicken** , **Fox** , and **Crocodile** (Optional). - Add more animal variants for some different biomes (Optional), for example: - Hit-point bar displays for buildings should much longer than units ones (Optional). - Buildings can be rotate in any orthogonal directions during the in-game constructing placement. - Add unique death displays and animations for each land mechanical unit and siege engine (Optional). - 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](https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:UndisputableWisdom339926/Personal_gameplay_suggestions_for_Age_of_Empires_IV:_Defense_Reworks_and_Counterplays) - 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](https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:UndisputableWisdom339926/Personal_suggestions_for_Age_of_Empires_IV:_Naval_Reworks_and_Other_suggestions) ---
**Author:** ![Adribird90](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/adribird90/32/187641_2.png) [@Adribird90](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/Adribird90)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/s-uggestion-personal-gameplay-suggestions-for-age-of-empires-iv/290136/2 "2026-09-30T17:23:06Z")
I’m not going to criticize the QoL issues or the naval rework (whether or not it’s appropriate), but the defensive buildings topic are something I find unacceptable. There’s been a lot of criticism in the past (a few years ago) about how strong the defensive structures were and how the game clearly favored players who spent a lot of time at their base without incentivizing them to leave it for a long time. I hope that doesn’t happen again. In fact, if more stone was removed from the map in the past, it was for a reason—namely, the unbearably boring, passive matches that used to happen. Even I’m in favor of removing gold or distributing it more evenly across the map. The only thing I can say is that stone walls could cost slightly less stone, that the stone tower should start with arrows and be upgradeable, and that the wonders should be significantly cheaper in 1v1/2v2 matches. As for the rest, it seems to me that this proposal could very clearly favor players who don’t interact with the map and stay holed up in their base for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Blast9867](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/blast9867/32/50724_2.png) [@Blast9867](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/Blast9867)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/s-uggestion-personal-gameplay-suggestions-for-age-of-empires-iv/290136/3 "2026-09-30T19:31:04Z")
Variant civs won’t have their unique Wonders because that’s reserved for full civs as a unique Wonder is one of the core signs of a full civ. Now something I would add to the list is that the Horse Archer, War Elephant, and maybe the Camel Rider as well, all need to become sharable units because those kinds of soldiers were historically used by multiple civilizations. I especially don’t expect the former two to be unique units forever because of how widespread archers on horseback and soldiers mounted on elephants were among various civilizations. ---
**Author:** ![MedicMaaan](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/medicmaaan/32/124336_2.png) [@MedicMaaan](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/MedicMaaan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/s-uggestion-personal-gameplay-suggestions-for-age-of-empires-iv/290136/4 "2026-09-30T19:36:08Z")
Let walls connect with buildings to block unit movement!