One of the victory conditions in Age of Empires IV is to destroy all enemy landmarks. Even those seeking other victory conditions, eliminating enemy landmarks and other buildings can make winning much more effortless. One of the ways to make sure that opponents' structures are destroyed as efficiently as possible is to get familiar with the Ignite mechanic, when it should be applied, and how to utilize it effectively.
When a building is ignited, it will begin to burn on its own without needing to be damaged by units or siege engines. The Age of Empires IV landmark or structure will continue to burn until it is completely destroyed unless villagers from its owner's civilization repair it. Igniting a building will allow aggressors to move on to others while they burn down. The igniting mechanic works the same in multiplayer as it does in the Age of Empires IV campaign.
The first thing players need to do to ignite a building is to attack one, which means gathering enough troops to do significant damage to a building without all dying off. Any military unit can ignite a building, including siege weapons. Additionally, the Mongol Civilization even gets a beneficial payout of resources for torching buildings, so players that prefer them should consider utilizing the strategy early and often.
Igniting a Building in Age of Empires IV
To ignite a building, players need to damage it until it only has 25% health remaining. Once it reaches this threshold, it will be ignited, regardless of the unit that got it there. While upgrades like Incendiary Arrows are helpful in doing more damage to buildings, they are not essential for igniting structures. In addition, while igniting buikldings is helpful, it can also lead to a false sense of security, as villagers can repair ignited structures.
So, players should be careful not to abandon ignited buildings to burn on their own unless they can make sure no villagers come back to repair them. The only exception lies with players of the Mongol Civilization, who benefit enough from simply igniting the buildings and impeding enemy civilizations' progress. Therefore, Mongol players should leave ignited buildings during the early game and return their units to minimize losses and take their rewards. Later in the game, though, when total destruction is the goal, players should only move on from ignited buildings if they have the military power to dispatch villagers that try to repair them. This is true no matter which Age of Empires IV civilization players choose to use.
Age of Empires 4 is available on PC.
