Gates are an unfortunate weakpoint of any wall, including in Age of Empires 2. This guide will teach how to build simple, effective gate layouts and some more general principles of building fortifications.

If you don't care about making advanced fortifications, simply build your gates as below. I would rate this the third most optimal layout. Don't build towers or anything else, just gate and move on.

But if you do want to build strong defenses, keep reading.

First, you need to understand rams. They can and will ruin your day because they can be rushed early. Upgraded rams have splash damage and can destroy multiple layers of wall at once. For this reason, always leave an airgap between wall layers.

To counter a ram rush on your gate, build a kill zone in front of it. A pair of mangonels can be micromanaged to decimate any early rush on the gate. This is the second strongest layout and the most flexible.



The open area before the gate is more than just a kill zone. Units passing through a gate are vulnerable because they are clumped up and block movement of other units. The kill zone gives you room to arrange formations in relative safety. If you are attacked, you can move counter units to the front and retreat valuable units back through the gate.

You also need to keep an open area behind your gate so you can line up your army to pass through the gate. If the enemy has a camel army waiting for you, you probably want your spears out first, not your scout cavalry.

To build the strongest defenses, you need to learn about trebuchets and bombard cannons.

In fact, the strongest gate layout requires you to have bombard cannons.

You could theoretically defend with trebuchets in place of cannons, but it takes more effort and is very unreliable.

The ultimate siege weapon, trebuchets can destroy all fortifications. Eventually.

Mitigating trebuchets is essential. They have 16, 17, or 19 max range. Before you build, make sure you know which range band you are facing.

The cannon is both friend and foe. They can outrange any fortification (except Teuton castles, except Turks) and are very hard to counter without sending units out to attack.

On the other hand, with proper wall layout your own cannons can protect your base from trebuchets. Cannons have 12, 13, or 14 max range - know which one you have.

To protect a building with cannons, you must place it at least [enemy trebuchet range - your cannon range] tiles back from the innermost wall. This distance ranges from 2 tiles (Turks vs 16 range trebuchets) to 7 tiles (12 range cannons vs Tatar trebuchets).

Trebuchets take about 10 seconds to set up (except Japanese), and it takes 3 cannon shots to kill one. So have 3 cannons.

If a trebuchet dies before it unpacks, it deals 0 damage. If none of them get to fire, your villagers don't have to waste time fixing things.


A couple more details you should remember:

• Diagonal walls are longer than orthogonal walls and therefore leave larger openings when destroyed. Cheaper, but less effective.
  
• Vision control is critical to victory — outposts are cheap, cost no population, and give fantastic vision.

Without further ado, the strongest gate layout, simple and effective:




These two examples both assume 13 range cannons vs 17 range trebuchets.

Whether you should expose the gate itself to uncontested trebuchet fire depends on whether or not you are concerned about being rushed.

The kill zone should be at least 4 tiles wide, while going wider than 6 tiles risks it exceeding the range of your defending units. Not very deadly, then.

You don't need multiple "air lock" layers of gates. It is to your advantage if your enemy tries to rush an open gate because that is what the kill zone is designed to counter!

The three key concepts to remember of strong gate layouts are all about leaving open space.

• The kill zone is a small open area in front of your gate.
  
• You need to set structures back from walls, leaving open space for cannons to fire from.
  
• Third, you need open space behind the gate to maneuver troops.

Finally, always remember fortifications exist to control the map. Forward castle drop, build outposts, wall the enemy in! Be aggressive!