This article is about the unit in Age of Empires II. For similar units in other games of the series, see Ram. |
“ | Anti-building siege weapon. Resistant to most ranged attacks. | ” |
—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 six foot soldiers (infantry, archers) or Villagers. Garrisoned infantry units improve the speed and attack against buildings. It is available to every civilization except Bengalis, Dravidians, Gurjaras, and Hindustanis, which get the Armored Elephant instead.
Tactics[]
Battering Rams have -3 melee armor, making them highly vulnerable to units with melee attacks. Even a generic Villager can destroy a Battering Ram, which is useful in case of an emergency. The best ways to destroy them are with Mangonels or cavalry. However, their high pierce armor and hit points give them incredible durability against pierce attacks. It is sometimes useful to add a few Battering Rams to soak up enemy archer fire to protect the main force.
Battering Rams can cause enormous damage to structures if left ignored. In the Castle Age, they are the best anti-building unit available. However, Castles deal enough damage to them to the point where they require a dedicated and invested push. Although they can attack units, the damage they do is negligible outside of siege units.
Infantry, foot archers, and Villagers can garrison themselves into Battering Rams, with infantry also increasing their speed and damage against buildings (+0.05/+10 per unit respectively). The presence of units garrisoned inside a ram is denoted by a flag on top of the ram (like Transport Ships). A Battering Ram may load up to six units. Garrisoning units will protect them from enemy fire, though the practicality is weighed down by the fact that Battering Rams can soak up arrow fire.
Rams also protect allied units behind them from arrow fire from enemy fortifications (but not from projectiles of enemy units or ships). Therefore, a ram attacking a Castle even with Murder Holes can be safely repaired by a Villager for longer service. A Georgian tower with Svan Towers is able to hit the Villager, as it does pass-through damage.
Further statistics[]
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
---|---|
Strong vs. | Buildings, Archers, Gunpowder units, Trebuchets |
Weak vs. | Mangudai, Mangonels, melee units especially Magyar Huszars, Villagers |
Upgrades | |
Hit points | Furor Celtica (+40%, Celts only) |
Attack | Siege Engineers (+20% attack against buildings) Torsion Engines (+1 blast radius, Ethiopians only) |
Armor | Ironclad (+4/+0, Teutons only) |
Speed | Drill (+50%, Mongols only) |
Line of Sight | Siege Engineers (+1) |
Conversion defense | Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted) First Crusade (+4 min, +4 max, Sicilians only) |
Upgrades | Capped Ram |
Civilization bonuses[]
- Aztecs: Battering Rams are created 11% faster.
- Burmese: Researching Devotion and Faith is 50% cheaper.
- Bulgarians: Upgrading to Capped Ram costs -50%.
- Celts: Battering Rams attack 25% faster. Battering Rams can convert herdable animals even if enemy units are next to them.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Battering Rams are 15% cheaper.
- Cumans: Battering Rams are available in the Feudal Age; Capped Ram upgrade available in the Castle Age.
- Georgians: Battering Rams receive -20% damage (-40% instead of -25%) when fighting from higher elevation.
- Portuguese: Battering Rams cost -20% gold.
- Slavs: Battering Rams are 15% cheaper.
- Spanish: Researching technologies that benefit Battering Rams provides 20 gold each.
- Tatars: Battering Rams deal +20% damage (+50% instead of +25%) from elevations.
Team bonuses[]
- Celts: Battering Rams are created and upgraded 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Heresy, Devotion, and Faith is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Siege Engineers is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Battering Rams are researched 25% faster.
- Teutons: Battering Rams are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- No units can be garrisoned inside rams.
- The upgrade to the Capped Ram costs 300 food, 250 gold.
The Conquerors[]
- Infantry and foot archers can be garrisoned inside rams.
- Heresy introduced.
- Celts: Furor Celtica introduced. It gives Battering Rams +50% hit points.
- Mongols: Drill introduced.
- With patch 1.0b, the upgrade to the Capped Ram costs 300 food.
The Forgotten[]
- Villagers can be garrisoned in rams.
- Celts: Furor Celtica gives +40% HP to Battering Rams.
- Teutons: Ironclad introduced.
Definitive Edition[]
- Bulgarians: with update 42848, upgrading to Capped Ram costs -50%.
- Portuguese: With update 42848, technologies are researched 30% faster.
Dynasties of India[]
- With update 61321, siege units and ships are now resistant to armor-ignoring attacks similarly to buildings.
- Hindustanis: With update 61321, Battering Rams are removed from their technology tree, and replaced with Armored and Siege Elephants.
Return of Rome[]
- With update 87863, Battering Ram move speed increased from 0.5 to 0.6 and garrison capacity increased from 4 to 6.
Trivia[]
- With 2, Battering Rams have the weakest melee attack in the game (excluding units dealing both melee and pierce damage).
- With -3, the rams have the lowest melee armor of all units.
- In addition to all infantry and foot archer units (and such-classed Hero units), Battering Rams can also be garrisoned with Villagers. Further, they can be garrisoned with unique Scenario Editor units Photonman and Penguin. They can never be garrisoned with Petards, Saboteurs, Kings or Queens (or similar Hero units), Monks (and other Monk-like units), Merchants, or animal units like Hunting Wolves or Furious the Monkey Boy.
- A Battering Ram can only deal 1 damage to a Villager with every attack (1 per 5 seconds), Villagers can cause 6 damage to a Battering Ram, due to the fact rams have -3 Melee Armour and a Villager has 3 base melee attack. Villagers have 40 hit points with Loom, which means both a Villager and a Battering Ram need 40 attacks to defeat the other, but as the Villager attacks about 2.5x faster, they will win.
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. | ” |