This article is about the unit type in Age of Empires III. For other uses, see Artillery. |
Artillery are heavy weapon units in Age of Empires III, superseding the role of siege units in Age of Empires II. Basically, they are gunpowder siege units.
Overview[]
First available in the Commerce Age, they are produced from the Artillery Foundry for European civilizations, from the Castle for Asian civilizations, and from the Siege Workshop for the Haudenosaunee. They can also be shipped from the Home City.
Typically effective against infantry and buildings, artillery are best countered with both heavy and light cavalry, or Culverins. Some civilizations have their own unique artillery pieces such as the Rocket for the British and the Great Bombard for the Ottomans.
They are different from the so-called siege units (such as Grenadiers) in that artillery units have hard counters with their own anti-artillery multiplier, whereas hard counters for siege units use different multipliers, as siege units have their own class and on top of that, usually have some more common class in their traits, such as heavy infantry.
- Note: SiegeTrooper units will also have their training time reduced by cards such as Fencing School or Riding School due to their classification as infantry or cavalry. This same classification as infantry allows them to be easily slaughtered by Lancers, Jat Lancers and true artillery (except Culverins), or, for the ones classified as cavalry, heavy infantry.
Most cannons have modes for moving (Limber mode) and firing (Bombard mode). Switching modes takes a few seconds, and they will automatically switch to the appropriate mode when commanded to attack or move for more than a short distance.
Some artillery units are used effectively against buildings and ships at long range, some are effective against infantry, while others are designed to counter other artillery units. Some civilizations are capable of increasing the hit points or attack of their artillery units through the use of aura effects, these civilizations are the Spanish (Unction card, level 40 Home City required) and the Japanese (Shogun/Daimyo auras).
List of artillery units[]
- Captured Mortar (Native Americans only)
- Cetbang Cannon (Indonesia only)
- Culverin
- Falconet
- Flaming Arrow (Japanese only)
- Gatling Camel (The African Royals onwards)
- Gatling Gun (The WarChiefs onwards, for revolting European civilizations and the United States)
- Hand Mortar (Chinese only)
- Horse Artillery (The WarChiefs onwards)
- Leather Cannon (Swedes only)
- Leonardo's Tank (Italians only, or as cheat unit)
- Light Cannon (Haudenosaunee only)
- Mansabdar Siege Elephant (Indians only)
- Mortar
- Morutaru (Japanese only)
- Napoleon Gun (since update 23511 of the Definitive Edition)
- Organ Gun (Portuguese only)
- Papal Bombard (Italians only)
- Quaker Gun (United States)
- Sebastopol Mortar (Ethiopians only)
- Siege Elephant (Indians only)
Heavy artillery[]
- Flying Crow (Chinese only)
- Great Bombard (Ottomans only)
- Heavy Cannon (European civilizations except British and Ottomans)
- Li'l Bombard (The WarChiefs onwards)
- Rocket (British only)
- Great Cannon (Campaign Russians only)
Cheat units[]
Trivia[]
- For the most part of the Modern age, artillery wasn't standardized, and the guns names were exchanged until the Gribeauval system. Ensemble Studios used the now-outdated "Harper's Encyclopedia of Military History" theoretical framework for the units' appearances, while they based their roles on the works of Luis Collado (?-1602):
- Culverins are the modern strict sense of "cannons" or "guns": artillery used for straight fire, relatively long and slender, used in long distance fire.
- Cannons are the equivalent of modern howitzers: curved trajectories, from relatively thick barrels.
Tags in Age of Empires III | |
---|---|
Infantry | |
Heavy infantry | Hand infantry ยท Pikeman ยท Musket infantry |
Light infantry | Foot archer ยท Rifle infantry ยท Hand skirmisher |
Other | Counter skirmisher ยท Grenade trooper |
Cavalry / Shock infantry | |
Heavy cavalry | Hand cavalry ยท Ranged heavy cavalry ยท Lancer |
Light cavalry | Gunpowder cavalry ยท Mounted archer |
Shock infantry | Hand shock infantry ยท Ranged shock infantry |
Siege units | |
Siege unit ยท Artillery ยท Siege Elephant ยท Gatling Camel* ยท Fixed Gun* ยท Arrow Knight* | |
Ship | |
Fishing boat ยท Warship ยท Recruiting ship | |
Building | |
Resource enclosure ยท Wall ยท Frontier fortification ยท Barracks | |
Other | |
Hero ยท Mercenary ยท Outlaw ยท Pet ยท Villager | |
Mother nature | |
Huntable ยท Treasure guardian | |
Support tags | |
Gunpowder unit ยท Archer ยท Healing unit ยท Native warrior ยท Elephant ยท Camel ยท Archaic infantry ยท Ranged infantry ยท Ranged cavalry ยท Consulate unit | |
All tags with icons are related to the bonus and penalties counter system, except *hidden tags that aren't in the UI |