Bombard Tower

Bombard Towers are powerful defensive structures in Age of Empires II available in the Imperial Age. They are a Gunpowder Unit, so require Chemistry to have been researched from the University beforehand, as well as its own technology. They cost 200 Stone and 150 Gold to build, and can only be built by some civilizations. A Bombard Tower has 120 attack, enough to one-hit-kill any infantry or archer and most siege weapons or severely damage heavy cavalry. They can only be out ranged by Trebuchets and Bombard Cannons.

Before Patch 1.0b Battering Rams did not work well against Bombard Towers because its attack was counted as melee damage. With the patch the attack has been changed to pierce. Hence Rams are now effective against Bombard Towers, because they sustain only one damage per cannon ball.

Bombard Towers feature very high LOS and hitpoints, making them effective late game defense tactics.

Like normal towers, Bombard Towers can garrison up to five units. However, garrisoning archers does not increase the attack, like in the case of standard towers. The Teutons make an exception: due their civilization bonus, they can garrison up to 10 archer-like units. A fully occupied Teutonic Bombard Tower will shoot two cannon balls at once.