Age of Empires IV – Season Ten Update Preview

Variant Civilization: Knights Templar 

The Knights Templar are making their debut as a new variant civilization for the French. Founded with the goal to protect pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land, the Templars became renowned for their financial sophistication and defensive fortresses in the Levant. We aimed to highlight their cultural and military excellence through unique, highly flexible gameplay. 

The Knights Templar do not progress to the next age when a landmark is built, but rather age up with Town Centers. This allows them to select one of three Templar Commanderies per age, each providing their own set of powerful unique units and features. For example, players can select the Kingdom of Poland for a tanky Heavy Cavalry unit and a massive boost to Cavalry charge damage, or the Knights Hospitaller for a new Man-At-Arms variant and a civilization-wide boost to economic unit heath and healing received. 

This variant civilization foregoes the French’s standard Trade Economy trait in favor of the new Pilgrimage trait. Instead of relying on Traders for gold generation, the Knights Templar gain gold by sending Pilgrims to Sacred Sites. In addition to this, they also reveal all Sacred Sites at the start of the game, so be sure to use this extra intel to plan out your pilgrimages!  

This only scratches the surface of the many tricks the Knights Templar have up their sleeves, and we are beyond excited for Knights of Cross and Rose players to maximize their potential. The Knights Templar’s creative, game-bending playstyle not only shakes up established gameplay norms, but brings the rich history of one of France’s most renowned military orders to life. 

Variant Civilization: House of Lancaster 

Fearless combatants in the Wars of the Roses, the House of Lancaster established themselves as Europe’s most dominant military force after winning the famous battle of Agincourt against the French. The House of Lancaster variant civilization showcases their undeniable military capability while also providing a streamlined, intuitive gameplay experience. 

The House of Lancaster’s notorious prowess at range is well illustrated through their unique units. The variant civilization replaces the Longbowman with the all-new Yeoman unit. Not only is the Yeoman stronger and more mobile than your average archer, they can also rain down a volley of arrows with their unique Synchronized Shot ability. We all know it can be a delicate art balancing your army’s survivability with enough range to whittle down the enemy. However, you can have the best of both worlds with the House of Lancaster’s Earl’s Guard unit! This unique Man-At-Arms possesses the bulk and power you’d expect from a Heavy Infantry unit, but can also toss daggers at range to deal huge burst damage.  

In addition to its powerful military units, the House of Lancaster gains several new traits that help players amass a veritable horde of resources. The Wool Industries trait grants players free sheep when a Town Center is built and allows villagers to gather from sheep faster. Additionally, players can construct several Manors throughout the game, providing the House of Lancaster a consistent stream of gold for each one built. The Manor’s abilities only grow as new unique Technologies are unlocked.  

The House of Lancaster will provide a familiar, comfortable gameplay experience for Age of Empires IV players while also offering a bevy of unique traits to keep things fresh. We think this new variant civilization will be a favorite for new and old fans alike! 

Game Mode: Historical Battles 

In the Knights of Cross and Rose expansion, players can dive into four new single player Historical Battles. Unlike the more narrative-centric campaigns, these scenarios focus on key moments throughout the history of the Knights Templar and the House of Lancaster. By narrowing our scope to singular, larger-than-life battles, we are able to provide an even richer historical experience than Age of Empires IV players have seen before!  

In contrast to previous game modes, players are scored and ranked based on their performance during each Historical Battle rather than solely on their ability to secure a victory. Each battle is filled with secrets and traps for players to uncover, which can significantly affect their final score. Players can explore the intricacies of each map and use their discoveries to improve future playthroughs. Historical Battles are designed to be more than a one-time experience – we want players to feel compelled to attempt them time and time again! 

Clash of Champions Event

Ranked Season Ten Updates

It’s time to kick off a brand-new season! Season Ten follows the lords of the land and the citizens under their protection. Lead your people to victory and prosperity with a host of rewards for your efforts! Season Ten runs from April 8^th to June 26^th. 

Map Pool Rotation

We feel confident introducing our new maps directly to the Ranked Map pool! Test your mettle on this season’s new terrain and unique mechanics. 

1v1 Ranked Map Pool

• Prairie → Carmel 
• King of the Hill → Enlightened Horizon 
• Lipany → Relic River 
• Golden Heights → High View 
• Archipelago → Migration 

Team Ranked Map Pool

• Mountain Clearing → Waterlanes 
• Hideout → Volcanic Island 
• Lake Side → Wasteland 
• Nagari → Shadow Lake 
• Cliffside → Enlightened Horizon 

New Feature: Points of Interest 

Points of Interest are dynamic reward locations being added to several maps. They feature neutral map objectives that provide players with various reward types. Some may grant a consistent flow of resource yields, while others can uncover a relic. While it can be tempting to focus exclusively on capturing them, your opponents can capture them back to steal the benefits. Just be warned that the wolves of the Wolf Den are more dangerous than ever before! More information can be found in the Maps section of the patch notes. 

Visual Improvements

• Reload animations for Crossbowmen and Handcannoneers have been improved. 
• Horsemen attack animations should now appear slightly more aggressive. 
• Civilization flags will now gently ripple in the appropriate loading screens. 
• The Technology Tree has had some minor visual improvements to aid in readability. 

Achievements

AI Updates

• AI monarchs will now choose safer paths to shelter when Dominion victory condition is active. 

• AI monarchs will now use the Sprint ability when available when Dominion victory condition is active. 

• AI villagers will now correctly repair a damaged Town Center when Dominion victory condition is active. 

• AI military units will now flee from monks attempting to convert them. 

• The AI will now be more efficient on naval maps and maps with small amounts of water, correctly focusing on military or gathering behavior as required. 

Proving Grounds (Art of War)

• The Art of War page has been renamed to Proving Grounds. It now includes Historical Battles and Art of War missions. 

Caster Mode

• Caster Mode Army Value now provides an accurate count of the resources a unit requires to train (Wood and Olive Oil). 
• Unique civilization UI is now displayed in Caster Mode for: 
  • Ottomans Vizier Points 
  • Rus Bounty 
  • Abbasid & Ayyubid Golden Age 
  • Jeanne d’Arc Experience 
• Fixed a bug where Ayyubid House of Wisdom Wings construction progress would not display in Caster Mode. 
• Fixed a bug where unique Japanese technologies were not tracked in Caster Mode. 
• Sultans elite tower elephant no longer counts 3 units per elephant in caster mode 

UX/UI & Menus (All Platforms)

• The “Set Automatic Drop-off Target” ability will now appear on the Xbox radial menu after Professional Scouts has been researched. 

Update to Ranked Lobbies

• In the pregame lobby for ranked matches, the opponent’s displayed rank will be set to the “Unknown Rank” badge. It will no longer be possible to click on an opponent’s profile in the pregame lobby, and both the player display and lobby chat will display the opponent’s name as “Ranked Opponent”. 

General Map Changes

• A new method to control the distribution fallback mechanic has been implemented on several maps to distribute minerals, gaia, relics and sacred sites more fairly. 

• A new type of gold mine (tiny) with 1600 Gold is featured across several maps. 

• 12 new maps have been added to the quickmatch map pool. 

Map-Specific Changes

Atamaca 

• Sacred site generation is more balanced between players. 

Hill and Dale 

• Markets are pushed slightly away from the edge. 

• Gold has been rebalanced to distribute more fairly between teams. 

• Sacred sites no longer spawn next to each other, or at just one corner of the map. 

Highview 

• Sacred sites and markets were pushed closer to the middle of the map. 

• Fewer dense woods in favor of more stealth woods. 

• Abandoned Outposts spawn across the map (new POI). 

Lakeside 

• Starting gold changed from small (4k) → tiny (1.6k). 

• The shoreline behind the player’s base no longer has a chance to be blocked by trees. 

Land Megarandom 

• Map spawns with more random features. 

• Markets may now spawn on the map. 

• Random Points of Interest will spawn on the map. 

Danube River 

• Stone bridge replaced with a destructible wooden bridge. 

Upcoming Free Maps 

In addition to the 10 new DLC maps, we are also introducing Carmel and Sunkenlands as two free maps in 13.0! Look forward to Carmel being in the upcoming 1v1 Ranked map pool as well. 

Carmel

Scattered gold shimmers beneath high mountain ridges, filled to the brim with wildlife. With gold scarcity threatening to diminish civilization progress, nearby factions take the opportunity to seize as much as they can. 

Sunkenlands 

Berries and wildlife huddle into scattered sunken craters across rugged and open terrain. Climb out of your crater and embrace the Sunkenlands to fight over the riches held within these cradles of earth! 

New Map Feature: Points of Interest 

Points of Interest are all-new neutral map features for players to compete over! These POIs are unique capture points that civilizations can engage with from the very start of the game. Capturing a Point of Interest with a single unit will take a long time, but adding more units into the capture area will dramatically increase the capture speed. 

Abandoned Outpost 

• Grants line of sight to the controlling player. 

Lost Ronin 

• The controlling player can hire Ronin. 
  • One new Ronin becomes available every 120s, becomes stronger as the player advances in age. 
  • Costs 100 gold to hire a Ronin. 
  • Starts adding Ronin charges after 5 minutes game time.

Merchant Camp 

• The controlling player receives a trickle of resources: 
  • Granted 15 food, 15 wood, and 15 gold per minute. 

Forgotten Ruin  

• The controlling player may garrison a villager to excavate. 
  • Grants 60 stone per minute while excavating. 
  • After 6 minutes of uninterrupted excavation a relic is unearthed, and the ruin is exhausted. 

Wolf Den 

• Periodically spawns Wolves up to a cap of 5. 
  • Wolves start spawning after 5 minutes of game time. 

• Instead of being a Capture Point, the Wolf Den is destroyable. 
  • At 70% health, spawns 2 wolves out of raw desperation. 
  • At 30% health, starts burning, spawns 2 final wolves, and grants 150 gold to the attacker. This stops all future spawning of wolves. 

Affected Maps (POI): 

Enlightened Horizon  

•  Merchants spawn adjacent to player bases, and Ronin spawns near the “spire” up north. 

Land Megarandom  

•  Random Points of Interest. 

Highview   

• Abandoned Outposts spawn across the map. 

Hedgemaze  

• Wolf Den spawns at the entrance of each passage to the maze and at the center of the map. Forgotten Ruins are spread out across the maze. 

Developer Note: We are adding Points of Interest to just a few maps to gauge your feedback, so please let us know how you feel about this new system!

General Changes & Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where siege units could become frozen when being commanded to turn while already turning. 

Balance & Gameplay Changes (All Civilizations) 

• Villager repair rate on Siege Engines reduced by 20%. 

• Stone Wall Tower cost decreased from 300 → 250 stone. 

• Springald: 
  • Base damage decreased from 16 → 14. 
  • Bonus damage vs melee infantry increased from 10 → 12. 

• Professional Scouts: 
  • Cost increased from 100 wood & 275 gold → 150 wood & 300 gold. 
  • Movement speed penalty for Scouts carrying carcasses increased from 40% → 55%. 

• Town Centers can now see into stealth forests. 

• Empire Wars: All civilizations starting economy reduced by approximately 3 villagers. 

Naval Updates (All Civilizations) 

• Ships now have access to the following formations: Line, Column, and Staggered. 

                        Abbasid Dynasty

• The Abbasids now have a Golden Age UI Widget above the Resource Panel.  
  • This widget displays the current age and the progress towards the next one.  
  • Hovering the widget displays the Golden Age’s information and clicking the widget will select the House of Wisdom. 

• Trader replaced with Trade Caravan. 
  • Rides a Camel. 
  • Has Camel Unease aura. 
  • Health reduced from 90 → 60. 
  • Speed increased from 1 → 1.56. 

• Resource per minute income reduced by ~12% compared to a normal trader. 

Developer Note: This is to compensate the increased speed, which increases the flow of gold and the survivability of the traders.

                             Byzantines

• Byzantine Stone Wall Tower Mangonel emplacement damage reduced from 8 → 7. 
• Cistern cost no longer scales depending on the number of Cisterns constructed and now cost 125 stone. 
• The Oil cost of all Mercenaries available from Neutral Trade Posts have been reduced: 
  • Mercenary Musofadi Warrior batch cost reduced from 400 Oil → 360. 
  • Mercenary Camel Archer batch cost reduced from 480 Oil → 440. 
  • Mercenary Sipahi batch cost reduced from 480 Oil → 450. 
  • Mercenary Arbalétrier batch cost reduced from 480 Oil → 440. 
  • Mercenary Zhuge Nu batch cost reduced from 400 Oil → 360. 
  • Mercenary War Elephant cost reduced from 750 Oil → 680. 
  • Mercenary Royal Knight batch cost reduced from 480 Oil → 460. 
  • Mercenary Horse Archer batch cost reduced from 360 Oil → 330. 
  • Mercenary Mangudai batch cost reduced from 480 Oil → 435. 
  • Mercenary Desert Raider batch cost reduced from 540 Oil → 495. 

                               Chinese

• Nest of Bees: 
  • Health reduced from 130 → 120. 
  • Number of projectiles reduced from 8 → 7. 
  • Projectiles granted from Additional Barrels technology increased from 2 → 3. 

• Great Wall Gatehouse 
  • Now adorned with 2 emplaced Nest of Bees instead of its default weapon. 

                           Delhi Sultanate

• Fishing Boat: 
  • Base damage reduced from 6 → 4. 
  • Now does +1 bonus damage versus Ships. 
  • Damage now increases per age: 
    • Dark Age: 4 (+1 vs Ships) 
    • Feudal Age: 6 (+2 vs Ships) 
    • Castle Age: 7 (+3 vs Ships) 
    • Imperial Age: 9 (+4 vs Ships) 

                    Holy Roman Empire

• New unit in Imperial Age: Black Rider (150f 150g)  
  • Mounted Gunpowder Heavy Cavalry, wielding an Arquebus with high ranged damage. 
  • Trained at the Archery Range. 
  • Can only train 5 per standing Keeps (8 with Elzbach Palace). 
  • Has the Caracole Ability: 
    • Moves 10% faster and can fire while moving for 30s. 
    • Cannot fire at targets directly behind. 
• New Castle Age UT: Cistercian Churches (75w 200g) 
  • Each Monastery acts as a drop off building and inspires villagers in an area when a Prelate garrisons inside. 
  • Radius is smaller than Aachen. 
  • Prelates can be trained directly into hold like Delhi Scholars. 
  • Works on Regnitz Cathedral. 
• Burgrave gives Infantry +50% increased charge damage. 
• Palace of Swabia discount reduced from 20% → 10%. 
• Devoutness gather rate bonus reduced from 10% → 5%, construction bonus unchanged. 
• Elzbach Palace: 
  • Damage reduction reduced from 33% → 25%. 
  • Keeps support 8 Black Riders instead of 5. 

                              Japanese

• Fixed a bug where Yorishiro would not increase dock production speed. 
• Fixed a bug causing Stone Wall Towers to take longer to construct than other civilizations. 

                           Mongols

• Scouting falcon no longer telepathically blocks charge attacks. 
• Fixed an issue with Mongols Improved Elite Army Tactics not reflecting the intended effect. 

                              Ottomans

• Stone Wall Towers are now correctly discounted after researching the Extensive Fortifications upgrade. 

                                Rus

• Bounty Requirements: 
  • Tier 2 bounty requirement has been increased from 250 gold → 400 gold. 
  • Tier 3 bounty requirement has been increased from 750 gold → 1000 gold. 

                            Ayyubids

• The Ayyubids now have a Golden Age UI Widget above the Resource Panel.  
  • This widget displays the current age and the progress towards the next one.  
  • Hovering the widget displays the Golden Age’s information and clicking the widget will select the House of Wisdom. 

• Trader replaced with Trade Caravan. 
  • Details identical to Abbasid’s Trade Caravan. 

• Atabeg appearance updated to be distinct from Trade Caravan. 

• Master Smiths: 
  • Now also grants Military Academy for free in addition to previous effects. 

• Industry Wing: 
  • Now also grants villagers +30/40/50% faster construction speed in addition to previous effects. 

• Fixed an issue where the villager gather rate increased from Economic Wing: Growth would affect all villagers (including enemies). 

• Fixed an issue where Economic Wing: Growth gather rate enhancement did not apply to newly produced villagers. 
• Fixed an issue where the Passive Mass Heal ability was always shown for Dervishes. 

                     Order of the Dragon

• Palace of Swabia discount reduced from 20% → 10%. 

                      Zhu Xi's Legacy

• Now has access to the Additional Barrels technology in the Imperial Age. 

• Nest of Bees: 
  • Health reduced from 130 → 120. 
  • Number of projectiles reduced from 8 → 7. 
  • Projectiles granted from Additional Barrels technology increased from 2 → 3. 

Investigation

Community-Reported Issues:

• We are aware of an issue allowing players to submit more than 15 Quickmatch map vetoes. While we may increase this limit in the future, please keep vetoes to 15 or under in the meantime to avoid errors.
• We are aware of formatting issues with Iberian Spanish and are currently working on a fix. 

Your reports continue being crucial to our prioritization and implementation of fixes and features in the game. Keep them coming!

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

Coming Up…

We are primarily focusing our attention on supporting Season Ten and the Knights of Cross and Rose DLC as it goes live, but rest assured that we will have even more new events, game modes, and patches heading your way soon!