Converting enemy buildings and units

[The Jozi Oke]

Sorry for the silly question but I want to clarify things, I was having a conversation with my friend the other day about converting units, he claimed that villagers used to be able to build enemy buildings back in the day in the original age of empires series once they were converted , correct me if I am wrong but i don't believe that is true for any of the age of empire games and have never been able to build enemy buildings even if you converted enemy villagers. I think he is getting confused with command and conquer with engineers or war craft 3's undead civilisation' s banshee units

UPDATE: thank you everyone for your replies. i knew this wasn't true since I've been a huge age of empires fan since a kid. for a moment i thought my memory was getting the better of me for a second so i was looking up information about this on the internet.

[KingKickAss]

I can't confirm rules of the old game, but there's an upgrade that allows monks to convert buildings. Its not available for every civ though.

[Juancito]

Originally posted by KingKickAss:

I can't confirm rules of the old game, but there's an upgrade that allows monks to convert buildings. Its not available for every civ though.

You can't confirm but you post anyway.

[chaoticbalrog]

Buildings are tied to Architecture Set, so you can only construct enemy buildings if they share the same Architecture Set as the civilization that you're playing as. As an example, the Franks can build many of the same buildings as the Britons because they both share the Western European Architecture Set. Your friend is indeed getting confused with those other games.

[FloosWorld]

Originally posted by The Jozi Oke:

I think he is getting confused with command and conquer with engineers or war craft 3's undead civilization' s banshee units

Yeah, constructing enemy building upon converting their workers was never a thing in any Age game, let alone that civ unique buildings such as the Feitoria for Portuguese, Krepost for Bulgarians or Donjon for Sicilians weren't around until AoE 2 HD came out.

Regarding your title thread: In AoE 1 (or Return of Rome) there's a Temple technology called "Monotheism" that allows converting enemy buildings and priests. A similar technology exists for AoE 2 in the Monastery and is called "Redemption" that enables converting buildings and siege weapons.

[MassMetalizer]

I always liked in Tzar: Burden of the Crown that you could capture another faction's building and get their techs and units from it.

But as FloosWorld said, you gotta research a specific tech and can only steal the specific building.

[chaoticbalrog]

Not only that, but in AoE2, you require a separate tech to steal enemy monks called Atonement.

[Woudo]

He's definitely mixing it up with WC3.

[KingKickAss]

Originally posted by Dan Taylor:

Originally posted by KingKickAss:

I can't confirm rules of the old game, but there's an upgrade that allows monks to convert buildings. Its not available for every civ though.

You can't confirm but you post anyway.

https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Redemption

[2GenL]

Originally posted by The Jozi Oke:

Sorry for the silly question but I want to clarify things, I was having a conversation with my friend the other day about converting units, he claimed that villagers used to be able to build enemy buildings back in the day in the original age of empires series once they were converted , correct me if I am wrong but i don't believe that is true for any of the age of empire games and have never been able to build enemy buildings even if you converted enemy villagers. I think he is getting confused with command and conquer with engineers or war craft 3's undead civilization' s banshee units

Not true - I brought the original box set too (still have it)

[Khaio Yuzo]

Cossacks 3 and command and conquer.

[FloosWorld]

In Star Trek Armada if you played as Borg and assimilated other worker ships you could build their stuff as well

[MassMetalizer]

Originally posted by FloosWorld:

In Star Trek Armada if you played as Borg and assimilated other worker ships you could build their stuff as well

That makes me think of Homeworld Cataclysm and The Beast who could infect other ships and take them over.

[Quarantined_villager]

The only thing that you an convert, in AoE2, and get something from it that you can't initially train is when you convert a Stable as a Native American civ (Aztec, Incas, Mayas) then you can train Xolotl Warrios from the converted Stable
You can also convert a Feitoria and get the resources from it (it also will take 20 pop from you)
You can convert a Donjon from a Sicilian player and train Pikes from it (not Serjeants unless you are Sicilian too)

[chaoticbalrog]

Originally posted by Quarantined_villager:

The only thing that you an convert, in AoE2, and get something from it that you can't initially train is when you convert a Stable as a Native American civ (Aztec, Incas, Mayas) then you can train Xolotl Warrios from the converted Stable
You can also convert a Feitoria and get the resources from it (it also will take 20 pop from you)
You can convert a Donjon from a Sicilian player and train Pikes from it (not Serjeants unless you are Sicilian too)

Do note however that converting Buildings requires researching Redemption in the Monastery, and the Mayans do not get Redemption.