What is the Pop Cap in Age of Empires 4? How to Raise Population

Whether your unit build order is amassing tons of villagers in the Dark Age or longbowmen in the Castle Age, knowing the population cap in Age of Empires 4 is as important as it has ever been. But what is the pop cap and how do you increase it? 

The population cap in Age of Empires 4 is 200, the same as almost every other game in the popular RTS franchise except the original Age of Empires. Indeed, there are a few other similarities to keep in mind when increasing your population of villagers and military units.

Both Houses and Town Centers increase the population limit by 10 for each structure built. Houses cost 50 wood to construct, and Town Centers cost 400 wood and 300 stone to build.

These structures increase the pop cap for every civilization except the Mongols, which begin each match at the 200 unit limit automatically. The Mongols do not have Houses, and the civ’s Town Center does not add to the overall limit. 

Further, the Chinese civilization can build a structure called the Village starting in the Feudal Age, which adds 40 to the population. To build the structure, you must choose the Song Dynasty, which requires both the Imperial Academy and the Barbican of the Sun Landmarks. The Village costs 30 wood and takes roughly 30 seconds to build.

You can see how many units you have and your capacity in the top left corner of the menu in the bottom left corner of the screen. The number on the right represents the units you have, while the number on the right represents your current capacity. 

Unlike Age of Empires 2 and Age 3, there are no options for increasing the overall pop limit of 200 or starting at the max population in Skirmish mode, and since there is no map editor or scenario editor in Age 4, there is no way to set a higher cap otherwise. At least until those features are added at a later date.

And that’s essentially all there is to know about the pop cap and how to increase population in Age of Empires 4. For more tips and help, consider heading over to our AoE4 guides page.