This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For similar units in other games of the series, see Ram (disambiguation). |
“ | Slow, lumbering siege weapon used to reduce enemy towns to ruins. | ” |
—Age of Empires II description |
The Battering Ram is a non-ranged siege unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Siege Workshop. It has a huge attack bonus against buildings and is nearly impervious to arrow fire. It also is effective against Trebuchets, but vulnerable to melee damage. A Battering Ram can garrison up to four foot units (infantry, archers, or Villagers). Garrisoned infantry units improve the speed and attack against buildings.
Tactics
Rams do not have any melee armor (in fact they have -3 melee armor, displayed in The Conquerors but not anymore since The Forgotten), so any unit with a melee attack can destroy a Battering Ram rather quickly. The best ways to destroy them are with Mangonels, Mangudai, cavalry, or infantry. However, due to their high pierce armor and HP, they can withstand most ranged attacks easily. In fact, it's sometimes useful to add a few Battering Rams to an army for the sole purpose of soaking up enemy archer fire to protect the main force.
Battering Rams can cause enormous damage if left ignored. Although they can attack units, the damage they do is negligible. However, they can be used against Trebuchets and other siege units to good effect. The Battering Ram is good against towers, Castles, and buildings in general. In The Age of Kings, it is not recommended to use Battering Rams against Bombard Towers, because they deal melee damage. However, that was changed in patch 1.0b of The Conquerors, and Bombard Towers now deal pierce damage, meaning they do almost no damage to Rams.
Since The Conquerors, infantry and foot archers can load themselves into Battering Rams, with infantry also increasing their speed (+0.05 per unit) and damage against buildings (+10 per unit), and giving enemies a nasty surprise should they attempt to destroy it. The presence of units garrisoned inside a ram is denoted by a flag on top of the ram (similar to Transport Ships). A Battering Ram may load up to four units. The relationship shared between foot troops and rams is mutually beneficial. The foot soldiers add speed and the ram gives the garrisoned soldiers protection. If the ram is destroyed, the garrisoned units will immediately disembark with no injury. Battering Rams can knock holes in walls and then disgorge infantry directly into the enemy base.
Since The Forgotten, Villagers can also load themselves into Battering Rams enabling them to perform a distraction through deception by loading single Villagers in rams making them effective dummies that can drive enemy forces away from the player's intended target, and enabling to perform offensive maneuvers. This new ability also enables the Villagers to become better frontal support builders as they can travel inside rams along with infantry and foot archers, and once they reach the intended place they can start to build frontal military structures.
Like with buildings, if a ram is converted, units inside the ram will not be converted. They will just be forced to leave the converted ram.
Further statistics
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Buildings, Trebuchets |
Weak vs. | Mangudai, Mangonels, melee units especially Magyar Huszars |
Upgrades | |
Hit points | Furor Celtica (+40%, Celts only) |
Attack | Siege Engineers (+20% attack against buildings) |
Armor | Ironclad (+4/+0, Teutons only) |
Speed | Drill (+50%, Mongols only) |
Conversion defense | Faith Heresy |
Upgrades | File:Capped-ram-research.jpg Capped Ram |
Civilization bonuses
- Aztecs: Battering Rams are created 18% faster.
- Burmese: Researching Faith is 50% cheaper.
- Celts: Battering Rams attack 25% faster. Battering Rams can convert herdables even if enemy units are next to them.
- Cumans: Battering Rams are available in the Feudal Age; Capped Ram upgrade available in the Castle Age.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Battering Rams are 20% cheaper.
- Portuguese: Battering Rams cost 20% less gold.
- Slavs: Battering Rams are 15% cheaper.
- Tatars: Battering Rams deal 50% bonus damage from elevations.
Team bonuses
- A team containing Celts: Battering Rams are created and upgraded 20% faster.
- A team containing Malians: Researching Siege Engineers is 80% faster.
- A team containing Teutons: Battering Rams are more resistant to conversion.
- A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Heresy and Faith is 20% faster.
Changelog
The Age of Kings
- The upgrade to the Capped Ram costs 300F/250G.
The Conquerors
- Infantry and foot archers can now be garrisoned inside rams.
- Heresy introduced.
- Celts: Furor Celtica introduced. It gives Battering Rams +50% HP.
- Mongols: Drill introduced.
- With patch 1.0b, the upgrade to the Capped Ram now costs 300F.
The Forgotten
- Villagers can now be garrisoned in rams.
- Celts: Furor Celtica now gives +40% HP to Battering Rams.
- Teutons: Ironclad introduced.
Trivia
- With the Mongol unique technology Drill, rams loaded with infantry may move faster than cavalry. Such speed and damage will allow Mongol players to quickly devastate a defensive fortification far more swiftly than conventional Trebuchet or Bombard Cannon tactics.
- With 2, Battering Rams have the weakest melee attack in the game.
- With -3, the rams have the lowest melee armor of all units.
History
“ | The most direct way to attack a stone wall or other stone fortification was to knock it down with a battering ram. The typical ram was a stout log mounted on wheels or suspended from a frame so it could swing forward and backward. The frame was brought up to the wall or gate to be battered and then men heaving in unison repeatedly slammed the ram head into the target. The battering ram frame required a roof of some sort to protect the crew from above. This was often covered with wet animal hides to retard fire. Given enough time, any obstruction could be knocked down, opening a breach for assault. | ” |