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"Farms provide unlimited Food, but are slower than hunting or herding."
In-game description
In Age of Mythology, Farms are buildings that enable Workers to gather unlimited food. The cost of a Farm varies with different civilizations. The high cost for the Atlanteans is presumably due to their Citizen's greatly enhanced work rate.
The Egyptians can build Farms since the Archaic Age, while all other civilizations can build them from the Classical Age. Like in the other games of the series, only one Villager may work a Farm at a time. Farms do not hinder unit movement (unlike all other buildings), are very weak and can be destroyed very quickly. Moreover, another player's workers can take over an unoccupied Farm simply by beginning to gather from it.
Gameplay
On most maps, farming is not economically viable in the early game. Farms cost resources to build, while the other available food sources (animals and Berry Bushes) are free and yield food more quickly. Once these sources become more scarce and Farms have been upgraded, farming becomes more useful; by the late game, farming dominates food production. Farms should always be built in a secure area. Normally, this will be inside a player's base, preferably around to a Town Center, which acts as a drop-off point and can garrison and defend the farmers if necessary.
When capturing a player's base, rather than spending time razing Farms, it may be a good idea to send workers to capture them once the area is safe enough.
History
"The ability to farm was one of the great advancements in human progress, because agriculture made possible large, renewable food supplies that could be stored and consumed year-round. The availability of food plants, rich soils, a mild climate, and dependable water determined where farming was possible and where early civilizations arose. Improvements such as the plow, irrigation, and fertilization increased yields."
In-game compendium
Trivia
- Originally, Farms required a Socket Unit (similar to Settlements) called Fertile Fields. Farms also dictated the player's access to population (As houses were not added yet) making Action more common earlier in the game.
- Farms originally were 3D instead of being a 2D .DCL (used for flat 2D images and fake-shadows) texture representing a cabbage field.
- There were also six visual types: wheat, olives, berries, cabbages, and, anachronistically, potatoes and corn.
- Farms originally were 3D instead of being a 2D .DCL (used for flat 2D images and fake-shadows) texture representing a cabbage field.
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