The Area of Effect, often abbreviated to AoE, is a gameplay element featured in the Age of Empires series. It describes attacks that can affect multiple targets within a specified area.
Overview[]
Area of effect functions differently from game-to-game and even from unit-to-unit within the same game. In general, all units that have attacks with an area of effect attribute can damage multiple units within a specific area, making these attacks more damaging against tightly packed groups of targets. Attacks can either deal consistent damage across the area, or deal maximum damage at one point and tapering damage at farther distances from this point. Some area of effect attacks can damage buildings as well as units, some can damage friendly units in addition to enemy units, and some can also damage or destroy Gaia features such as trees.
Area of effect damage can also go by different names, either officially or unofficially. For example, it is often called Trample Damage when referring to damage done by melee units - especially cavalry, Blast Damage when referring to damage done by projectiles or explosives, or just generically Splash Damage. Area of effect damage is distinct from Pass-through damage, which refers to a projectile or object that travels in a particular direction and damages each unit it touches. It is also not the same as projectile spread, which refers to one attack having multiple projectiles that can hit independent targets. In fact, some units fire multiple projectiles which each have their own area of effect damage.
Trample damage[]
Trample damage is a subset of area of effect damage that refers to AoE damage done by melee units.
- Main article: Trample damage
Age of Empires[]
Several units in Age of Empires deal area of effect damage. The underlying mechanism behind how it works is the same as in Age of Empires II, shown below.
List of units[]
Units marked with a * are units that cause friendly fire.
- War Elephant → Armored Elephant - 100% effect
- Scythe Chariot - 100% effect
- Stone Thrower* → Catapult* → Heavy Catapult* - tapering effect
- Catapult Trireme* → Juggernaut* - tapering effect
Age of Empires II[]
Age of Empires II has many types of area of effect damage that vary considerably in their damage distribution, damage areas, and even whether or not damage is affected by armor. Unofficially, area of effect damage is referred to as blast damage when dealt by ranged units and explosive units, trample damage when dealt by units, and splash damage when dealt by rams. Fundamentally, however, all area-of-effect units are governed by the same properties.
Blast attack level[]
This controls the units affects by blast attack.
- 0 - damages resources also
- 1 - damages trees also - unique for Onagers, Siege Onagers, Trebuchets, and Ballista Elephants
- 2 - damages nearby units
- 3 - damages only targeted units - blast attack off
- 4 - removes friendly fire for projectile units - used for Bombard Towers, visible with Greek Fire
- Additional
These can be combined with the above parameters for more complete picture.
- 0 - equal damage in all directions and distance
- 64 - tapering effect - unique to Demolition Raft line and Flaming Camels - works only for melee units (Bombard Cannon, Cannon Galleon, and Mangonel lines show the same behavior, which is hardcoded for them)
- 128 - damage in the direction of attack - unique to Ghulams
Blast damage[]
This controls the amount of blast attack received by non-targeted unit.
- If ⇒
- If ⇒
Examples:
- -5 - pure 5 damage - default value for non-ranged infantry units; Cataphracts also have this property.
- 1 - 100% effect - like Siege Rams against buildings
- 0.5 - 50% effect - unique to War Elephants, Ghulams, Urumi Swordsmen
- 0.4 - 40% effect - used by the War Chariot line (Chronicles)
- 0.33 - 33% effect - unique to Scout Cavalry and Armored Elephant lines
- 0.25 - 25% effect - unique to Battle Elephants and Bombard Towers with Greek Fire
- 0.2 - 20% effect - unique to melee Rathas
All units have their blast attack level set. Unique technologies only modify the blast radius. A Cataphract in its natural state possesses the ability to do 5 pure damage, but it does not have any blast radius. Researching Logistica twice (hypothetically), would make it do 5 damage in a 1 tile radius, not 10 damage in a 0.5 tile radius. Rams also possess the ability to clear out buildings, even if it does not seem to be happening in a normal Battering Ram. This can be verified by Battering Rams with Torsion Engines. Attack bonuses are also included in the multiplier for the percentage effects.
Friendly fire[]
In Age of Empires and in Age of Empires II, area of effect attacks from projectile units can also damage the player's own allied units if in vicinity of targeted enemy units if not turned off explicitly with Blast Attack Level flag 4. This is usually the case with allied melee units, which are very close to the enemy usually. Common examples are Mangonels, Bombard Cannons, Cannon Galleons, Dromons, Turtle Ships, and Warwolf Trebuchets. Before update 87863, Greek Fire Bombard Towers also caused friendly fire damage. In older versions of the game, Druzhina affected ranged infantry units like Throwing Axemen and Gbetos by increasing their blast radius, making giving them friendly fire, which was unintended. To avoid this, these units are given blast attack level of 3 and Druzhina is modified to not affect them.
Accuracy[]
When ranged units with blast widths attack an area, accuracy determines the number of units taking damage. Depending on RNG, each unit goes through a test whether it will take the damage or not. This is a rare phenomenon since most ranged units with blast attacks have 100% accuracy.
Before the Definitive Edition, the Bombard Cannon had 92% accuracy, due to which some units escaped its attack. Notwithstanding the blast attack, the increase in accuracy does not change anything since Bombard Cannon projectiles did not miss at all.
When a unit has multiple projectiles, like Mangonels and Fire Towers, the attack and accuracy of secondary projectiles are determined by statistics of the projectile unit, whereas the blast attack is determined by the unit.
Fire Towers have 0% accuracy, due to which their primary projectiles do no area of effect damage. They also have 2 secondary projectiles with 100% accuracy and no attack, which deal the area of effect damage.
Anomalous behavior[]
Siege Rams when attacking buildings do not attack nearby cavalry units, even with their 4 melee attack. Nearby buildings are affected. Moreover, a Siege Ram does not affect nearby cavalry units even when attacking one of them. This effect is also hardcoded.
The blast attack of Urumi Swordsmen only triggers when using its charged attack. This is by design of the unit.
Unique implications[]
Villagers have blast attack level 0 so that they can "attack" resource piles to collect resources.
If a unit has a blast attack level of 3, blast radius and the amount of blast attack does not mean anything. Jarls, archer units and ranged infantry units are given blast attack level 3 to completely avoid the possibility of friendly fire in the Scenario Editor. Mamelukes, however, still possess friendly fire abilities.
List of abilities and units[]
Units marked with a * are units that cause friendly fire.
- Mangonel* → Onager* → Siege Onager* - tapering effect
- Bombard Cannon* → Houfnice* (the latter Bohemians only) - tapering effect
- Rocket Cart* → Heavy Rocket Cart* - tapering effect
- Battering Ram with Torsion Engines (Ethiopians only) → Capped Ram → Siege Ram - 100% effect against buildings and siege units only
- Battle Elephant → Elite Battle Elephant → 25% effect
- Siege Elephant - 33% effect
- / Trebuchet with Warwolf (Britons only)* - tapering effect
- Petard - 100% effect
- Demolition Raft → Demolition Ship → Heavy Demolition Ship - tapering effect
- Cataphract → Elite Cataphract (Byzantines only) - pure 5 damage with Logistica only
- War Elephant → Elite War Elephant (Persians only) - 50% effect
- Turtle Ship* → Elite Turtle Ship* (Koreans only) - 100% effect
- Flaming Camel (Tatars only) - tapering effect
- Ghulam → Elite Ghulam (Hindustanis only) - 50% effect; triggers only in the direction of attack
- Ratha (Melee) → Elite Ratha (Melee) (Bengalis only) - 20% effect
- Urumi Swordsman → Elite Urumi Swordsman (Dravidians only) - 50% effect; triggers only with charge attack
- Dromon* - 80% tapering effect (with Greek Fire - +0.2 blast radius)
- Byzantines' Bombard Tower with Greek Fire - +0.5 blast radius
- Poles' Scout Cavalry → Light Cavalry → Winged Hussar - 33% effect with Lechitic Legacy only
- Slavs' Infantry units with Druzhina - pure 5 damage
- Non-standard units
- Fire Tower - 1 tile - ?
- Saboteur - 2.5 tiles - 100% effect
- Cobra Car* - 1 tile - 100% effect
- Alfred the Alpaca - 1 tile - 100% effect
- Sharkatzor* - 1 tile - 100% effect
- Abraha Elephant - 0.5 tile - 100% Effect
- Tsar Konstantin - 1 tile - 100% Effect
Age of Mythology[]
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- Units targeting a gate spread AoE damage across the gate and nearby walls
- Titan
- Various god powers - Lightning Storm, Earthquake, Meteor, Tornado, Forest Fire, Shockwave, Implode, Uproot, Barrage, Great Flood, and Geyser
- The special attacks of Chimeras, Fire Giants, Azure Dragons, and Dragon Turtles
- Battle Boar, War Turtle, and Centimanus' special attacks that knock multiple units away
- Phoenix, Nidhogg, and Vermilion Bird regular attacks
- Lampades, Scarab, Carcinos, and Terracotta Warrior deal Area of Effect damage on death to nearby enemies. In contrast, Qilin's ability heals allied units in an Area of Effect upon death.
- Shennong's Sitting Tigers and Fire Lances deal AoE damage
Age of Empires III[]
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In Age of Empires III, a wide range of military units (from artillery and cavalry to infantry) have an Area of Effect to their melee or ranged attack. Moreover, all hand cavalry units have the option to enter Trample Mode which reduces their damage, slows them down, and increases the damage they receive, but gives their attacks an Area of Effect. Area of Effect damage does not deal damage to friendly units.
List of abilities and units[]
- Artillery units - typically have an AoE range of 1 to 4
- Cuirassier
- Mahout Lancer and Flail Elephant
- Sipahi
- Lakota War Chief and Tashunke Prowler
- Flamethrower and Iron Flail
- Harquebusier
- Akan Ankobia
- Armored Pistoleer, Giant Grenadier, Royal Horseman, and Winged Hussar
- Hand infantry:
- Doppelsoldner
- Maceman
- Samurai
- Urumi Swordsman
- Skull Knight
- Aztec War Chief with the "Smoking Mirror" Home City Card
- Inca War Chief with the "Son of Inti" Home City Card
- Landsknecht with the "Oberhau" charged attack
- Akan Tufohen
- Hospitaller
Damage cap[]
The damage cap is a gameplay element and hidden attribute for units that can deal AoE damage. Its purpose is to limit the sum of damage by AoE attacks, to make it so that these units cannot harm the game balance. For most units, the damage cap is twice (triple with trample and barrage attacks) the normal attack damage. The calculation for the damage cap is applied before the calculation of multipliers.
The following units have different trample attack damage cap rates:
- Jat Lancer: 1.3
- Raider: 1.36
- Elmetto: 1.44
- Steppe Rider: 2.5
- Kanya Horseman: 2.35
- Cossack: 2.66
- Naginata Rider: 3.75
- Cuirassier, Sipahi, Meteor Hammer, Iron Flail, Winged Hussar, Saxon Cuirassier, and Royal Horseman: 4.0
- Mahout Lancer: 5.6
- Tokala Soldier: 6.0
- Flamethrower: 7.0
Age of Empires IV[]
In Age of Empires IV, the Essence Engine allows the damage area of area of effect attacks to be defined in several different shapes. The two most common are circles and circle sectors (pie slices), but other shapes such as rectangles can also be defined. Circular areas are defined by their radius, while sectors are defined by their radius and their angle. Most area of effect damage tapers off in several steps from the impact point towards the edge of the damage area, and both the distances at which the damage tapers and damage ratio can be adjusted independently. Some units projectiles, such as that of the Counterweight Trebuchet, have very small Area of Effect radii with full damage scaling, likely in order to be able to hit a single unit even if it is not directly targeted. These units are not included here since these attacks are not intended to deal damage to multiple targets in the spirit of true Area of Effect. In Age of Empires IV, no units deal friendly fire damage.
Area of effect damage can also be dealt indirectly. In the special case of walls, damaging a section of a wall, regardless of whether the unit deals area of effect damage, will damage adjacent sections of the wall. Furthermore, when one wall segment is destroyed, the adjacent segments will also be destroyed, In another method, the area damage is not dealt directly by the attack, but rather by a terrain modifier that damages units standing on the terrain. The difference is that this type of area damage cannot stack, unlike direct area of effect damage, since the terrain modifier can only be applied once, regardless of how many units are attacking. Currently, this mechanism is limited to Byzantine Greek fire units.
List of abilities and units[]
- Units
- Mangonel
- Nest of Bees
- Great Bombard
- Counterweight Trebuchet with Shattering Projectiles
- Incendiary ship
- Grenadier
- Fire Lancer (Charge attack only)
- Spearman and Horseman with Roar of the Dragon (Charge attack only)
- Warship with Thunderclap Bombs
- War Elephant
- Ozutsu
- Landsknecht (does not affect buildings)
- Gilded Landsknecht (does not affect buildings)
- Gilded Spearman with Heavy Torches (Torch attack only)
- Counterweight Trebuchet and Huihui Pao with Greek Fire Projectiles (Indirect)
- Dromon with Heavy Dromon (Indirect)
- Buildings and emplacements
- Cannon Emplacement
- Great Bombard Emplacement
- Great Wall Gatehouse (Nest of Bees emplacement)
- Mangonel Emplacement
- Abilities
- Holy Wrath (Jeanne d'Arc)
- Synchronized Shot (Yeoman)
- Dagger Throw (Earl's Guard, after researching Throwing Dagger Drills)
Chronicles[]
The following units deal trample damage by default:
- War Chariot → Elite War Chariot
- Mangonel → Onager
- / Palintonon
- Catapult Ship → Onager Ship
- Leviathan
As the game is in the engine of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the mechanics work as described in the relevant section above.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
