Outpost
Defensive - DarkBase values, before building technologies. Masonry and then Architecture each give buildings "+10% HP, +1/+1 Armor": late in a game, the real numbers are higher.
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Try it freeDescription
"Small defensive structure that provides vision. Cannot attack but has excellent line of sight for map awareness."
Strategic Analysis
Strategic Role
Outposts provide vision without the cost of Watch Towers. Use them to spot incoming attacks and monitor key map locations.
Key Tactics
Early Warning
Place Outposts at common attack routes to spot enemies before they reach your base. Early warning saves villagers.
Relic Watching
Build Outposts near relics to monitor when enemies try to collect them.
Gold/Stone Vision
Place Outposts near contested resources to see when enemies are mining there.
Warning
Outposts cannot attack. They are purely for vision and will be easily destroyed by any military force.
Stats Analysis
Outposts are cheap vision buildings. Their excellent line of sight makes them valuable for map control.
Line of Sight
8 Tiles
Excellent vision range. Outposts see farther than most buildings.
Cost
25W / 5S
Very cheap. You can afford multiple Outposts for comprehensive map vision.
Hit Points
500 HP
Low health. Outposts are not meant to withstand attacks.
Placement Tip
Build Outposts on hills for extra vision range. Place them at map edges and common attack routes.
Timing Tip
Build Outposts in Feudal Age to spot enemy rushes. They are especially valuable on open maps like Arabia.
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Other Buildings
AoE Coach analysis
Context & meta
The Outpost is a Feudal defensive vision building costing 25 wood and 5 stone. It has 500 HP, 0 melee armor, 0 pierce armor, line of sight 8, and a 15-second build time. The official help is explicit: it is an observation tower with great line of sight, does not attack, and cannot garrison units. Its job is information, not damage. An Outpost on a resource, crossing, or forward route can reveal a raid before it arrives and make a vulnerable economy easier to coach, but it must be placed where that vision changes a decision.
History & balance
The Outpost represents a low-cost answer to uncertainty. Twenty-five wood, 5 stone, and 15 seconds create 8 line of sight without adding an attack or a garrison, so the design asks the player to value warning time rather than raw firepower. Its 500 HP and 0 pierce armor let it survive a glance, but the building is not meant to hold a committed army by itself. A good Outpost extends the information network around a gold mine, wood line, or approach; a bad one is simply a 30-resource marker that the opponent can ignore or remove. Its history is the history of decisions made early.
In pro play
Build an Outpost when the vision will save more than one group of Villagers or reveal a route before units arrive. Fifteen seconds is short enough to secure a threatened gold or wood line, and 25 wood/5 stone is cheaper than reacting with a full army, but the location must cover the actual approach. Do not place it so close to the base that its line of sight duplicates a Town Center; place it on the edge of the decision. Because it cannot attack or garrison, pair it with houses, walls, or a response force. The value is the warning that lets your economy move before the raid lands.
How to counter it
The Outpost has no combat Weak vs. list; the classic mistake is to treat its vision as damage and dive past it without accounting for the response it reveals. Neutralize what it provides: deny the vision with terrain or another angle, then raid the exposed resource or builder that the Outpost was meant to protect. Since it cannot attack or garrison, a small mobile force can remove it when the defender is elsewhere, but do not spend an army on 500 HP if simply changing the route achieves the same denial. If you keep losing to vision traps without knowing what to pressure or when, AoE Coach reads your match-up and gives you the economy plan and timing.