Age of Empires 4 Victory Conditions

In a PVP match in Age of Empires 4, you might think that razing the enemy city is enough to win, but while that's partly true, it's not the only way to emerge victorious. There are actually three different victory conditions, each requiring different strategies.

The different victory conditions

To win the match you can :

• Destroy all opposing monuments
• Building a wonder and defending it
• Controlling sacred places

These different objectives are always visible during the game, in the upper left part of your screen:

You don't have to achieve all of them, if you achieve one of the three, you're in the bag! The rest of this guide will take you through each of these goals in more detail.

Destroying opposing monuments

To understand this victory objective, it is important to understand what a "monument" is. In Age of Empires 4, all buildings that have been built during an age change are monuments, for example the "Cavalry School" of the French or the "Deer Stones" of the Mongols. In addition to the age monuments, there are forums, which are also monuments. If your opponent has built several forums, you will have to raze them all to the ground to reach the goal. The objective may seem easy, but these monuments are extremely solid and can be repaired, think about it!

• Special cases

In the face of ChineseThis objective can be even more complex. Thanks to the dynasty system, they can build the two monuments offered in each age. Your opponent could, if he has enough resources and reaches age IV, have 6 monuments and 1 forum at minimum.

Conversely, you may want to prioritise this win condition over the Abbasids which have only one monument, the "House of Wisdom", for all age changes and the base forum. In the reality of a match, it is likely that your opponent will build several forums.

To find out more about age changes and monuments, visit our guide to the change of age.

Building your wonder

It is more accurate to say build and defend your wonder as written above. If the objective in the game only talks about building, a second one appears as soon as your villagers have finished building (see picture).

The wonder is the last building you can build during a game. To access it, you must first reach the Imperial Age (IV). This is the most expensive building, as you will have to spend a whopping 3000 units of each resource (wood, stone, gold and food). This cost is always the same for all civilizations except for the Mongols where it reaches 4000 of each resource. This may seem expensive, but you are not paying for nothing! The wonders have an unequalled health (5000 life points) and a good armour (50, against the attacks at distance).

If you want to achieve this victory condition, don't take it lightly: you have to be well prepared! Not only will you have to spend a significant amount of resources, but you will have to hold the opponent's push for 15 minutes! You must therefore think, beforehand, about your defence and have enough resources to continue producing military units as losses occur.

To help you keep track of the time remaining, the timer is visible at the top left of your screen (see photo). In the same way, you will be notified, like your opponents, when there are 3, then 2 and finally 1 minute(s) left on the clock.

• Good to know

This building does not grant any bonus, it is simply a victory objective. As soon as it is built, all opponents (or the only opponent depending on the game mode) are notified and the location appears on the mini-map.

The building time displayed in game "10min" is the time for 1 villager. As with other types of buildings, the more villagers you assign, the shorter the time. For example, it takes about 3 minutes to build Notre Dame with 9 villagers.

Take control of sacred places

Before going into more detail, you should know that the capture of sacred places is only possible from age III. If some religious units can be unlocked early, they will only have the ability to capture at this age.

The number of holy places is constant in 1v1, there are only 2, regardless of the map you play on. If you play with more than 2, more places are added. Their location is random, on different maps and on the same map. If you want to play this objective, you will have to discover them first.

Capture is relatively simple. When you have a monk, or another religious unit, depending on your civilisation, go to a sacred place. If your unit is in the white zone (see photo), you capture. To follow the progress of the capture, you have two solutions: the progress bar above the sacred place or the progress bar visible at the top left of your screen. As long as the location is not completely captured, if you leave the white zone, you will not capture anymore. Furthermore, when a location is captured, there is a mention of the capture to all enemies, and a "check" on the captured location.

In reality, once you have taken control of the various sacred places, you will still have to defend them before you can win. You will have to hold on for 10 minutes, so prepare your defences accordingly, and as soon as you have captured the place, do not wait for the enemy rush. If you don't manage to defend properly, your opponent may well take control in turn.

To help you keep track of the time remaining, the timer is visible at the top left of your screen (see photo). In the same way, you will be notified, like your opponents, when there are 3, then 2 and finally 1 minute(s) left on the clock.

• Unit capable of capturing sacred places

As you can see, there is a need for religious units. These can have different names from one civilisation to another. Moreover, they require the construction of specific buildings to obtain them.

• Good to know

Unlike the wonder, this location offers you an interesting advantage as the holy place automatically generates gold, 16 to be exact, regularly.

It is quite possible to accumulate objectives. If you have several objectives in progress, you will get the victory thanks to the objective that finishes first, simply. In the case shown in the following image, the sacred victory will take precedence over the marvel victory since the time will finish first.

All you have to do is get started. Follow our guides to discover the bonus of the different civilizations and how to get started. Practice and you'll come out on top!