Petard (Age of Empires III)

The Petard is a siege unit available in The WarChiefs and The Asian Dynasties.

Overview
The Petard is effectively a suicide-bomber unit. Once it reaches its target, it will detonate, causing the target to sustain massive amounts of damage. The Germans are able to ship four Nitro Petards from their Home City in the Industrial Age, which can destroy most buildings in a single blast.

Unction boosted regular Petards with all available upgrades are capable of inflicting 3257 damage versus buildings in a single explosion. They will also possess 393 hit points, 4.40 speed and double (12) their usual melee attack power. However their hand attacks are still ineffective in actual combat.

The Russians are able to build petards with 2800 damage through the use of their Ransack card which increases infantry siege damage by 50%. The Dutch can ship six petards from the Home City in the Fortress Age.

History
"The term petard first emerged during medieval times, referring to a small and notoriously unstable explosive device similar in concept and usage to the modern grenade. The name probably derives from the Latin "petar," which means, "to break wind" (an example of the military mind's wry sense of humor.) To be "hoisted by one's own petard" is a phrase commonly thought to mean something along the lines of "being hung with your own rope"; or, to stay true to the actual context of an explosive device, to be blown up by your own bomb. The saying is derived from Shakespeare's Hamlet. The bard wrote: "For 'tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petar""

Trivia

 * When the Petard attacks a building, it shows that the soldiers who carry the bomb will attempt to escape from the explosion, but do not succeed and die.
 * Despite the model featuring two men carrying the bomb, the unit only uses a single population slot.
 * Although Petards are excellent for destroying buildings, they are very weak at fighting other units by using hand combat. Petards can not blow up on units to kill them making them defenseless to any soldiers.