Stockades
Stockades are campaign and scenario structures used to imprison characters, Villagers or military units. Destroying an occupied Stockade can release its prisoners, making these buildings part of rescue objectives rather than ordinary production or defense.
Recorded values
- Available
- Exploration Age
- Function
- Imprisons units and characters in the campaign
- Structure
- 1,000 hit points · 14 line of sight · 4x4 footprint
Function & construction
The scenario determines who is held inside, how the Stockade must be approached and whether freed units join the player. Stockades do not train troops or provide standard population support. Some missions require a specific one to be destroyed, while others make prisoners optional reinforcements.
Placement & timing
Locate the occupied Stockades and clear nearby defenders before attacking them. Releasing prisoners can add workers or troops, but protect the newly freed group and account for the time spent on the rescue. Follow the mission objective to distinguish a required rescue from an optional detour.
Campaign rescue structure
Stockades appear only in Age of Empires III campaign scenarios. They hold captured civilians or military units, and the in-game rule is straightforward: destroy the enclosure to free the prisoners. The Stockade has 1,000 hit points and 14 line of sight, but no defensive attack, so the danger usually comes from guards and the time spent approaching it. Rescued units may provide workers or reinforcements, which can be especially important in missions where the player starts without Settlers. Some scenarios make a prisoner cage optional, while others require destroying the Stockade that holds a named character. Read the objective and identify which enclosure matters before diverting the army. Clear nearby defenders, destroy the correct building and then protect the rescued group as it moves to safety. These are mission structures rather than a normal military building, so they cannot be constructed or used for population support in standard matches.
Examples of mission use
Examples include freeing Swiss Pikemen in Into the Caves, releasing Native units in Spanish Treasure Fleet, and rescuing Nonahkee and Villagers in The Rescue. Some Act III: Steel Stockades also contain soldiers inside the Boneguard’s Lair. The exact prisoner group depends on the scenario, so a Stockade has no universal unit roster outside the mission that places it.
Campaign-only imprisonment and rescue objectives
Stockades are mission structures rather than ordinary skirmish defenses. Their recorded role is to imprison units and characters in campaign scenarios, and destroying or reaching one can be part of a rescue objective. They have 1,000 hit points, line of sight 14 and are available from the Exploration Age in the scenario data. Since they do not belong to the normal building roster, standard base-planning assumptions about production, garrison or repeatable construction do not apply. In a mission, inspect the objective text and surrounding guards before attacking: a Stockade may be an objective marker, a holding site or part of a scripted sequence. Protect rescued units while withdrawing, because completing the structure objective may expose them to the same enemy force that guarded the enclosure.