Battering Ram

"Slow, lumbering siege weapon used to reduce enemy towns to ruins."

- Age of Empires II description

The Battering Ram is a non-ranged siege unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Siege Workshop. It has a huge attack bonus against buildings and is nearly impervious to arrow fire. It also is effective against Trebuchets, but vulnerable to melee damage. A Battering Ram can garrison up to four foot units (infantry, archers, or Villagers).

Tactics
Rams do not have any melee armor (in fact they have -3 melee armor, displayed in The Conquerous but not AoE2 HD), so any unit with a melee attack can destroy a Battering Ram rather quickly. The best ways to destroy them are with Mangonels, Mangudai, cavalry, or infantry. However, due to their high pierce armor and HP, they can withstand most ranged attacks easily. In fact, it's sometimes useful to add a few Battering Rams to an army for the sole purpose of soaking up enemy archer fire to protect the main force.

Battering Rams can cause enormous damage if left ignored. Although they can attack units, the damage they do is negligible. However, they can be used against Trebuchets and other siege units to good effect. The Battering Ram is good against arrow-shooting Towers, buildings and Castles. In The Age of Kings, it is not recommended to use the Battering Ram against Bombard Towers, but this weakness was removed in a The Conquerors patch.

Since The Conquerors, infantry and foot archers can load themselves into Battering Rams, with infantry also increasing their speed and damage, and giving enemies a nasty surprise should they attempt to destroy it. The presence of units garrisoned inside a Ram is denoted by a flag on top of the Ram (similar to Transport Ships). A Battering Ram may load up to four units. The relationship shared between foot troops and Rams is mutually beneficial. When they are fully loaded, it is granted a speed greater than that of most foot units. Thus, the Ram may be used as a viable form of rapid transportation for the infantry and foot archers, in addition to providing cover from withering archer fire from Castles and Towers while the Ram closes the gap. Battering Rams can knock holes in Walls and then disgorge infantry directly into the enemy base.

In The Forgotten, Villagers can also load themselves into Battering Rams enabling them to perform a distraction through deception by loading single Villagers in Rams making them effective dummies that can drive enemy forces away from the player's intended target, and enabling to perform offensive maneuvers. This new ability also enables to the Villagers to make them a better frontal support builders as they can travel inside Rams along with infantry and foot archers, and once they reach the intended place they can start to build frontal military structures.

Like with buildings, if a Ram is converted, units inside the Ram will not be converted. They will just be forced to leave the converted Ram.

Civilization Bonuses=
 * Aztecs: Battering Rams are created 15% faster.
 * Celts: Battering Rams attack 20% faster. Herdables cannot be stolen within a Battering Ram's Line of Sight.
 * Chinese: Technologies that benefit Battering Rams are 20% cheaper.
 * Portuguese: Battering Rams cost 15% less gold.
 * Slavs: Battering Rams are 15% cheaper.
 * -|Team Bonuses=
 * A team containing Celts: Battering Rams are created and upgraded 20% faster.
 * A team containing Malians: Researching Siege Engineers is 80% faster.
 * A team containing Teutons: Battering Rams are more resistant to conversion.


 * -|The Forgotten Changes=
 * Villagers can be garrisoned in Rams.
 * Celts: Furor Celtica gives +40% HP to Battering Rams (instead of +50% as in The Conquerors).

Trivia

 * With the Mongol unique technology Drill, Rams loaded with infantry may move faster than cavalry. Such speed and damage will allow Mongol players to quickly devastate a defensive fortification far more swiftly than conventional Trebuchet or Bombard Cannon tactics.
 * With 2, Battering Rams have the weakest melee attack in the game.

History
''The most direct way to attack a stone wall or other stone fortification was to knock it down with a battering ram. The typical ram was a stout log mounted on wheels or suspended from a frame so it could swing forward and backward. The frame was brought up to the wall or gate to be battered and then men heaving in unison repeatedly slammed the ram head into the target. The battering ram frame required a roof of some sort to protect the crew from above. This was often covered with wet animal hides to retard fire. Given enough time, any obstruction could be knocked down, opening a breach for assault.''