Heavy Catapult

The Heavy Catapult is a heavy siege weapon used in Age of Empires. The Heavy Catapult is the upgrade of the normal Catapult. It has twice the amount of hit points compared to a Catapult and deals damage in a bigger area. This makes them a popular Iron Age unit for bombarding enemy troops and enemy buildings. Just like any ultimate unit in the game, only a certain number of civilizations have the ability to develop this unit.

Upgrades
Iron Age
 * Alchemy increases attack by one point.
 * Ballistics increases the accuracy.
 * Engineering increases the range by 2 points.

Civilization Bonuses

 * If played as the Hittites, the hit points increases from 150 to 300 hit points.
 * If played as the Sumerians, the rate of fire doubles (same rate of fire as a Ballista).

History
The heavy catapult was a powerful siege weapon, representing the greatest advance in siege weaponry during ancient times. It was employed against fortifications and on the battlefield. It broke down fortification walls, allowing attackers to break in. On the battlefield, smaller missiles could be fired in a shower against dense formations of soldiers to cause casualties and disrupt morale at long range. Enemy armies that could be softened and shaken before the hand-to-hand clash of infantry were at a decided disadvantage.