Hidden Units Unleashed
You may have seen some scenarios or downloaded them from here and there, or even played one of those multiplayer scenarios when suddenly you get a unit you’ve never heard of or seen before. So you go check your editor and you can’t seem to find THAT unit. Later you might come across some screenshots with these mysterious units in them, and you want to know:
What are these units?
First of all let’s have a look at a showcase of all the units, their uses and their special qualities. Later we will see how to finally get our hands on them. Please note that the ‘Uses’ listed below are just suggestions and ideas.
Hidden Treasures and Unknown Oddities
Advanced Heavy Crossbowman
Special Qualities- As you can see the Advanced Heavy Crossbowman has TWO sets of graphics, one for walking and standing, and another for attacking and dying. The attacking graphic appears to be a version of an AoE I Composite Bowman. The other unusual thing about this unit is the reload time it has which is comparatively very long and instead of firing arrows it fires something akin to javelins. It has been thought to be some sort of siege crossbow it carries.
Uses- For scenarios with bizarre occurrences, but however would look good as a patrolling watchman or guard if set to not attack.
ABGAL
Unit ID- 536Special Qualities- This boat that looks the same as a galley can convert ships. It is like the monk of the sea except it has no range and therefore must be adjacent to the ship it wishes to convert.
Uses- Great addition to mix up sea battles as it can be used as a boarding vessel.
BDGAL
Unit ID- 535Special Qualities-See ABGAL, however if used in AoK it will have a war galley graphic.
Berserk
Unit ID- 94Special Qualities- Another unit that uses different graphics, as you may note when walking it appears to be some sort of swordsman, when attacking it is the Aoe I Axeman. It’s unit icon is a rock.
Uses- Another oddity, you might like to surprise or confuse a player with swordsmen that suddenly bring out axes.
Castle
Unit ID- 33Special Qualities- Looks exactly like a castle to it’s respective civilisation. Does not attack, has a garrison capacity of 75 and has a rapid garrison heal rate.
Uses- Scenic castles that don’t attack and castles that can hold large numbers of units that can be healed fast.
Civ Relics
Unit ID- 287, 288, 289, 290, 292, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298Special Qualities- There are ten different civ relics: (in order of unit ids) British, Byzantine, Chinese, Frankish, Gothic, Japanese, Persian, Saracen, Teutonic and Turkish. When a monk picks up a civ relic, let’s say for example the British relic, it will become “Monk with British Relic” and show a monk carrying a relic. However if you pick up the Japanese Relic the monk will become “Monk with Japanese Relic” (See Monk with Japanese Relic) When the monk drops the relic it will become a normal monk again.
Uses- Special relic for special scenarios.
Church_4 (aka Cathedral)
Unit ID- 445Special Qualities- Ummm… none?
Uses- Well. Get creative! Maybe as a strange wonder…
Cobra
Unit ID- 748Special Qualities- This unit can be acquired by cheating, uses a rapid firing machine gun dealing out huge damage and can move quite quickly.
Uses- Time travel scenarios, siege weapons or a special unit for some scenarios.
FLDOG
Unit ID- 544Special Qualities- Looks like a running wolf, flies like a bird. It is killable, has the icon of a hawk and can move through ALL terrain. Moves randomly around the map like birds. It seems to hold 100 food, but it is uncollectable.
Uses- Scenic units on open maps, otherwise looks bizarre running on water, through cliffs and over trees. However it could be used as a magical unit or type of deity.
GALLY_D
Unit ID- 61Special Qualities- Classed as a dead unit, cannot move and can disappear after a while. It has the graphics of an AOE I Trireme without sails.
Uses- Scenery that lasts for a few minutes before vanishing.
Heavy Swordsman
Unit ID- 76Special Qualities- Has the graphics of an AoE I broad swordsman, although some of the graphics are missing on some angles, causing the unit to disappear from view.
Uses- A roman swordsman or, by using the random vanishing to your advantage, it could be a type of phantom/ghost unit.
ICE
Unit ID- 728Special Qualities- GAIA only unit that other units can walk over. Can be placed on most terrains.
Uses- Eye candy
Infiltrator
Unit ID- 299Special Qualities- This is a hero unit,so it will automatically heal. It cannot be converted and it’s attack is 2x as fast.
Uses- A type of bandit or assassin, maybe even as some sort of super unit.
Junk
Unit ID- 15Special Qualities- A ship with the graphics of an AoE I trade boat. It cannot attack and has the icon of a relic.
Uses- Civilian ship in any sea scenario, especially in a port location.
Light Cavalry
Unit ID- 37Special Qualities- Was originally planned to be a slaver unit for the game, however it needs modding for this property to be activated. Despite it’s name being ‘Light Cavalry it looks like a camel and has the icon of a dead fish trap.
Uses- Special scenarios.
Monk with Japanese Relic
Unit ID- 305Special Qualities- A monk carrying a relic, however you cannot see the relic it carries. When the monk drops his relic the relic appears next to him and he becomes a monk. If the relic is placed in a monastery and is un-garrisoned it becomes a normal relic.
Uses- Monk carrying a hidden relic.
OMTBO
Unit ID- 436Special Qualities- Cannot move unless in a group, and can attack other units, but because it has no attack graphics it will become invisible until it has finished attacking.
Uses- Eye candy shipwreck or as a bizarre ship.
OREMN
Unit ID- 352Special Qualities- This unit looks like a gold mine and was going to be another type of resource. It has a value of 400 gold but cannot be mined. These can be overlapped in off-grid placement
Uses- Eye candy that can’t be mined.
OUTLW
Unit ID- 158Special Qualities- This is a GAIA only unit and it cannot be converted/changed ownership to a player. It acts as a predator much like the wolf and has an icon of the berry bush.
Uses- Outlaws that attack innocents.
PILE 1, PILE 2, PILE 3, PILE 4, PILE 6, PILE 8
Unit ID- (in order shown above) 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 261Special Qualities- Extra rubble piles even though three of them are the same as Rubble 1×1, Rubble 2×2 and Rubble 3×3. Will disappear in the editor if a different PILE # is placed overlapping or too close to another.
Uses- Eye candy
Pile of food
Unit ID- 262Special Qualities- A forage bush that is worth 1 food, however it does not have white outlines when placed behind other objects. Can be overlapped with off-grid placement. Villagers that collect food from it are seen carrying meat.
Uses- Eye candy
Pile of gold
Unit ID- 252Special Qualities- A gold mine that is worth 1 gold, however the mine does not have white outlines when placed behind other objects. Can be overlapped with off-grid placement.
Uses- Eye candy
Pile of stone
Unit ID- 248Special Qualities- You guessed it! It holds 1 stone, can be overlapped in off-grid placement and does not have any white outlines when placed behind objects.
Uses- Eye candy
Pile of wood
Unit ID- 253Special Qualities- Again, can be overlapped in off-grid placement, looks like a stump, but can have 1 wood collected from it.
Uses- Eyecandy
PMANG
Unit ID- 479Special Qualities- This unit looks like a packed trebuchet and unpacks into a mangonel. The unit is highly unstable and there is a fair chance that when unpacked your game will crash. If successfully unpacked it can suddenly vanish.
Uses- Because it is so volatile, it is generally refrained from use in scenarios, but it would make a good packed mangonel if the game doesn’t crash.
POREX
Unit ID- 249Special Qualities- Another type of ore mine that never was implemented. If you select villager to mine it they will become invisible. Can be overlapped in off-grid placement and has a value of 1 gold.
Uses- Eye Candy and disappearing villagers.
Port
Unit ID- 446Special Qualities- Looks much like a dock depending on what civilisation owns it. Will appear as shown above if owned by Aztecs, Goths, Huns, Mayans, Teutons or Vikings. It has a garrison capacity displayed as 10 and cannot create any units.
Uses- An eye candy building.
PTWC
Unit ID- 444Special Qualities- GAIA only object that if unpacked will become a town centre. It cannot be converted and moves away if attacked.
RCARC
Unit ID- 577Special Qualities- A cavalry archer with 1000 armour, but a very low attack (ingame shown as 0). Will not select with “Go to next idle military unit” hotkey.
Uses- Because of the low attack power and high armour they are useful for cut-scenes with a long battle of soldiers hacking away at each other or a continuous battle somewhere on a map (using triggers to spawn new combatants).
RCSWD
Unit ID- 575Special Qualities- Light Cavalry with 1000 armour and low attack power. Will not select with “Go to next idle military unit” hotkey.
Uses- See RCARC
Relic Cart
Unit ID- 159Special Qualities- When still it, looks like a normal relic, when moving it looks like a ‘piece of true cross’. It can move by itself and cannot die. It will also convert like a sheep converts to different players. It cannot be garrisoned inside monasteries. Another interesting point about this unit is that it gives +1 population, but does not add on over the population limit, however the relic cart takes up 1 population, so this is almost redundant.
Uses- Special relic.
RFARC
Unit ID- 571Special Qualities- An archer with 1000 armour, poor range and poor attack. Will not select with “Go to next idle military unit” hotkey.
Uses- See RCARC
RFSWD
Unit ID- 573Special Qualities- A militia unit with 1000 armour and low attack. It’s icon is a man-at-arms icon. Will not select with “Go to next idle military unit” hotkey.
Uses- See RCARC
Sea Gate
Unit ID- 789 to 804Special Qualities- A palisade gate that can be placed on shallow water and deep water. Also, some of the sea gates are the gate ends that look like palisade walls if they were twice as tall.
Uses- Sea gates and palisade gates with careful placement of terrain (unless of course you are using UserPatch, with which you can use free placement). Tall palisade walls using the gate ends.
Sea Tower
Unit ID- 785Special Qualities- A watch tower that can be placed in shallow water and deep water, but not medium
Uses- Well as the name suggests, a sea tower in water scenarios.
Sea Wall
Unit ID- 788Special Qualities- A palisade wall that can be placed on shallow water and deep water.
Uses- Sea wall.
SHALW
Unit ID- 447Special Qualities- See ICE
Uses- Eye candy
STRBO
Unit ID- 438Special Qualities- This unit also has to different graphics, when still it looks like an AoE trade boat, but when moving it looks like a flat bottomed boat. It also has the icon of a petard. It can attack, but has no attack graphics so it will become invisible when attacking.
Uses- Using triggers it is possible to make it look just like a flat bottomed boat. This could be used in sea scenarios especially around docks.
Trade Workshop
Unit ID- 179Special Qualities- Looks like the normal trade workshop, but has a no icon. It also holds a value of 10000 trade goods, an unused resource.
Uses- Decorative building.
TWAL
Unit ID- 208Special Qualities- Another wall that was never used, has a black shadow making it look unappealing.
Uses- Another type of wall in scenarios. The shadow can be used to create a cave effect.
VMDL
Unit ID- 206Special Qualities- Classed as a villager, but cannot build, repair or collect any resources. Moves extremely fast.
Uses- A fast scout in scenarios.
WARGA_D
Unit ID- 443Special Qualities- See GALLY_D
How do I get to use these units?”
So, now you’ve seen them all and you want to know how to get them. Am I right? Well there are two ways that I will cover. First of all you could use a template, a scenario (.scx file) that already has some units in them and has been uploaded to the blacksmith such as this one: EXTRA OBJECTS (updated) or this one: New units and new objects template v.1.1
All you have to do with a template is:
- Download it.
- Place it in your scenario folder in your game directory.
- Open your game, open the scenario editor and… Hey Presto, just copy the units around the map.
You can also copy the units you want then select another map to edit and paste them in!
The second option, (I would recommend this one) is to use a modding program called Advanced Genie Editor 3, or AGE3. You can use earlier versions, but I’m just going to cover AGE3. When looking through the showcase you would have noticed Unit IDs, now these are there for AGE. If you don’t have AGE3 you can get it here: Advanced Genie Editor2015
So here we go:
- Open Advanced Genie Editor and open The Conquerors, default pathway usually works if you default installed the game, otherwise you have to override the pathway and find it yourself
- In the AGE window, as shown in the picture below got to A, this is the search bar, you can type in the names of the units or the ID numbers here, however check at the scroll down option at B to make sure it is set to Language DLL Name if you are searching by unit name. The units you enter in will appear below the search box.
- Simply select the unit you want, for example the Advanced Heavy Crossbowman as shown at C
- Now as shown at D there is a checkbox marked “Hide in Editor” (you may have to scroll down), simply uncheck it.
- Go up to Save at E and click it. There you go, you’re done and can now select the units in the scenario editor. Another major advantage with using AGE3 to unhide the units is that the units will be added to the triggers list in the map editor.
Please Note:
Always back up your game files BEFORE editing them. Also if you want to select these units as any civ (unless its a GAIA only unit) make sure you select the “Automatically copy to all civs” check box.
Credits and Thanks to:
- AGE3 and it’s creator/s
- Aoe_scout- for insisting I use the proper AoE 1 unit names
- AOHH- For many units and info on them
- BF_Tanks- Also for many units, info and IDs
- DerWerwolf- corrections
- HockeySam18- for units, info and history on many of them
- Mahazona- that little bit of extra info
- Monika_A- for some unit names and IDs
If you know more units or there is something we missed go to the thread discussing hidden units: Hidden Units in AoK: TC
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