Unit

A Unit or Units is an individual or group of soldiers or civilians in the Age of Empires Series. Units are featured in all of the games as one of the important aspects of gameplay. Each unit has his unique abilities and is good against certain enemy troops. A combination of various unit types makes a effective army in combat. Units can be created and produced in buildings.

There are four types of units: Civilian, Military, Heroes, and Animals. Each type of unit has a different role in the gameplay, for example, the Civilian units are used to build and maintain a faction's economy and also to construct buildings.

Age of Empires
In Age of Empires, selected units display a white square beneath its feet. All different types of unit have their own distinct voice, although there is no distinction regardless of the civilization the unit is in. Each civilization has access to more or fewer upgrades for a particular unit, and all civilizations have unique bonuses. For example, the Greek's hoplites move much faster than other civilizations. If no victory conditions are set, players must kill every last enemy unit to win.

Age of Empires II
In Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, units from different civilizations have distinct voices. Units that have been selected display a white circle beneath its feet, proportionate to the units' size. Every type of unit has a different voice, for example, military units have a different voice from civilians. Every civilization has access to one or two unique units, and some civilizations have restricted access to a certain unit's upgrades, for example, Huns cannot build fast fire ships. In order to defeat an enemy in a conquest game, all units must be killed. However, an AI player is more likely to resign before all its units are killed.

Age of Empires III
In Age of Empires III, every unit has a unique voice and units of different civilizations has a distinct sound. when scrolled over, units display a shaded circle beneath its feet. The circle is shaded in the colour of the unit's player. When selected, units display a circle underneath it, however, there are notable differences. Heroes and Mercenaries display a circle with a five-pointed star, while Consulate units display an unique decorative pattern. Units under the aura of a leader such as the War Chief or the Daimyo will also indicate a different pattern. Unless an enemy player surrenders, all enemy units including ships and settlers must be killed to win the game. In Age of empires III, along with unique units, there are now royal guard units.

Each civilization has access to a different set of the standard units, for example, the British lack the Skirmisher, but the Germans lack the Musketeer. Military units are now categorized into three groups: Archaic, Standard, and Royal Guard. Archaic units such as the Crossbowman and Pikeman usually can only be upgraded to Veteran status. Standard units can be upgraded to Veteran, then Guard, then Imperial.

Royal Guard units do not have a Guard or Imperial upgrade. Instead they have unique unit upgrades which make the units more powerful than ordinary Guard or Imperial units. Alongside the Royal guard units civilizations also have a number of unique units. Unique units usually do not differ much from ordinary units, except that they are slightly stronger in certain areas, such as low cost or high hitpoints, but are usually recruited together with the standard units.

Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology units consists of worker units, military units, siege units, naval units, heroes and mythic units. Military units are also referred to as mortal units. Every unit has their own unique quotes and comments, while the monstrous myth units makes grunts and growls. Age of Mythology is the first game in the series to display almost everything in pure 3D models and field rather than 2D sprites like the previous games.

Age of Empires Online
A Unit is a controllable character used in the Quests and PVP matches. Age of Empires Online units consists of worker units, military units, siege units, naval units, and heroes. There are also units seen in a players Capital City, however these cannot be controlled.

Population Cap
The population cap is a limit to the total number of units a player can have, regardless of how many houses he builds. In Age of Empires, the maximum population cap is 50, in Age of Empires II and III the maximum is 200, although for Age of Empires II, the Goths can have 210 in the Imperial Age, and in Age of Empires III, the Chinese civilization's cap is 220 and the Iroquois can be 225 (if 25 villagers are doing the population dance). In Age of Empires I and II, one unit takes up one population slot, the only exception being Sheep and Turkeys. However in Age of Empires III, powerful units, such as most cavalry, mercenaries, and artillery take more population slots, while ships (except fishing ships) and natives take no population slots. Although a unit is seen on the user interface as only one in Age of Empires III, many units actually represent a group of that unit. In Age of Mythology, the total population cap is 300.