Armor class: Heavy siege

The Heavy Siege armor class (armor class 37 in the Advanced Genie Editor) is an armor class introduced in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Dawn of the Dukes. It was originally unique for the Bohemian (Elite) Hussite Wagon unique unit, being extended to the Ballista Elephant with update 81058. All units that have an attack bonus against this class deal bonus damage against units with this armor class.

The armor class was originally implemented so that the Mangonel line and Bombard Cannon line could be a hard counter versus the otherwise resilient Hussite Wagon.

The numbers were set in such a way that these units took double melee damage; that is, the attack bonus of the units had the same value as their base melee attack. With update 93001, this is no longer true for Siege Onagers (which get the same attack bonus as Onagers) and Villagers (which receive +6 attack bonus instead of +3).

Heavy siege units

The following units have the heavy siege armor class and take bonus damage from attacks against this class. The number in brackets indicates the amount of armor. If there is no number, the amount is 0.

• Hussite Wagon → Elite Hussite Wagon (Bohemians only)
• Ballista Elephant (+20) → Elite Ballista Elephant (+20) (Khmer only)

Anti-heavy siege units

The following units have an attack bonus against the heavy siege armor class. They are sorted descending by the amount of bonus damage they deal.

+50 bonus attack

• Houfnice (Bohemians only)
• Onager → Siege Onager

+40 bonus attack

• Bombard Cannon
• Mangonel

+6 bonus attack

• Villager

Technologies

The following technology gives the following units an attack bonus against the heavy siege armor class:

• Counterweights (Saracens only)
  • +8 bonus attack
    • Onager → Siege Onager
  • +6 bonus attack
    • Mangonel

Civilization bonuses

• The following Burgundian units get an attack bonus against the heavy siege armor class:
  • +10 bonus attack
    • Bombard Cannon

Changelog

• Upon release, the Burgundian civilization bonus granting additional damage to the attack classes of gunpowder units did not apply to attack type 37 (i. e., Bombard Cannons did not deal another +10 damage vs. the heavy siege armor class). This was fixed with update 56005.
• With update 81058, Ballista Elephants receive the heavy siege armor class, with +20 armor.
• With update 93001, Siege Onager bonus attack vs heavy siege reduced from 75 to 50. Villagers gain +6 bonus attack vs the heavy siege armor class, or practically speaking vs Hussite Wagons (since the attack bonus is negated by the bonus armor of the Ballista Elephant).