| “ | Powerful attack with extensive line of sight. Attack bonus vs. ships. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Bombard Tower is a gunpowder tower in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Imperial Age is reached and the Bombard Tower technology is researched. The Bombard Tower has an extremely powerful attack, but its projectiles travel quite slowly and it reloads pretty slowly.
Availability chart[]
 Available |  Unavailable
|
|---|---|
- x means that the civilizations gets fully upgradeable Bombard Towers. The technologies being considered here are Architecture, Bracer and, Heated Shot.
- + means that the civilization gets some civilization or team bonus or a unique technology that benefits the Bombard Tower.
Tactics and placement[]
A Bombard Tower firing at a passing Paladin.
Towers are an essential part of any kind of fortification. Compared to the Keep, Bombard Towers deal significantly more damage, especially against targets with high pierce armor. However, this is with the drawback of a slower projectile speed, making them much easier to dodge. A Bombard Tower starts with 121 attack, enough to one-hit-kill most infantry, archers, and light cavalry (with the major exception being the Shrivamsha Rider since it can absorb the impact without taking any damage) and two-hit-kill any other unit that is not an elephant, ram, or Turtle Ship. Since it deals concentrated damage, it has the tendency to overkill most units. Be it Teutonic Knights (100), Halberdiers (60), Arbalesters (40), or Villagers without Loom (25), all are killed in one hit, which means that the practical damage output is much lower than the theoretical damage output.
Bombard Towers should be placed in choke points to make them more effective or behind cliffs or forests. They work better if placed within range of each other, regular towers, or Castles since those buildings will provide cover fire for each other until Murder Holes is researched. Using walls protects them to some extent from rams, but the help of melee units is still needed. On maps like Archipelago and Islands, it is a wise idea to have several Bombard Towers near the shoreline to take down potentially dangerous enemy fleets and give some support to the player's fleet near the coast.
Garrisoning Bombard Towers is useful only to protect vulnerable units (like Monks, Villagers, or Kings) or to heal damaged units. Garrisoning generally does not increase the attack power of a Bombard Tower as their base damage is too high for most units to be able to add additional cannonball projectiles to. Teuton Bombard Towers have extra garrison space, so when they are garrisoned with 10 Hand Cannoneers, they can fire two cannonballs. If garrisoned by an allied player's Elite Janissaries, they can fire three cannonballs, and if garrisoned by an allied player's fully upgraded Elite Chu Ko Nu, they can fire four cannonballs in total.
Offensively, Bombard Towers can also be used for front-line support as their high attack makes them very dangerous to approach. In this regard, they are better than a Castle since they are cheaper and are created quicker, while also featuring a high attack. Bombard Towers can even be used like a siege support building, if a player is attacking an enemy location they can take some Villagers to create several Bombard Towers outside and around an opponent's fortifications to take them down with the support of units. Employing the Bombard Tower offensively also has the side effect of letting the team gain and retain map control.
When going for a Wonder or Relic victory, Bombard Towers are very valuable when included in the defensive structures.
However, they can be outranged by Trebuchets, Cannon Galleons, and Bombard Cannons. So essentially, these three units and the aforementioned rams are the only units Bombard Towers have to fear. Elite Longbowmen also outrange Bombard Towers, but deal very little damage and are a much smaller threat. Similarly, the aforementioned Shrivamsha Rider takes no damage but also deals less damage too. Turkish Bombard Towers have an extra long range and can only be outranged by Trebuchets, Elite Cannon Galleons, and Turkish Bombard Cannons, making them even harder to deal with.
The Byzantines can research Greek Fire to allow their Bombard Towers to deal 25% blast damage in a small radius.
Further statistics[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Most units, buildings* |
| Weak vs. | Rams, units with longer range, massed units |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Masonry (+10%) Architecture (+10%) Great Wall (+30%, Chinese only)
|
| Attack |  Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Heated Shot (+125% against ships)
|
 Range
|
Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Murder Holes (eliminates minimum range) Artillery (+2, Turks only)
|
| Accuracy |  Ballistics (hit moving targets) Arquebus (hit moving targets, Portuguese only)
|
| Armor | Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor) Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
|
| Line of Sight |  Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4)
|
| Build speed |  Treadmill Crane (+20%)
|
| Healing |  Herbal Medicine (garrisoned units heal 500% faster)
|
| Other | Greek Fire (0.5 blast radius of 25% damage, Byzantines only) Arquebus (projectile moves slightly faster, Portuguese only)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Hit points
|
 Byzantines (+40%)
|
| Build speed |  Spanish (+30%)
|
| Other |  Italians (Bombard Tower technology costs -33%) Koreans (Bombard Tower technology is free) Turks (Bombard Tower technology costs -50%) Teutons (+5 garrison space, +3 projectile capacity)
|
| Team bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Other |  Georgians (repairing costs -25%) Malians (Bombard Tower technology is researched 80% faster) Portuguese (Bombard Tower technology is researched 25% faster)
|
Civilization bonuses[]
Byzantines: Town Watch and Town Patrol are free.- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Bombard Towers are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Italians: University technologies that benefit Bombard Towers are 33% cheaper.
- Spanish: Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer cost no gold. Researching technologies that benefit Bombard Towers provides 20 gold each.
- Teutons: Murder Holes and Herbal Medicine are free.
- Turks: Chemistry is free.
Team bonuses[]
- Bulgarians: Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer are researched 80% faster.
- Lithuanians: Devotion, Faith, Herbal Medicine, and Heresy are researched 20% faster.
- Malians: University technologies that benefit Bombard Towers are researched 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Bombard Towers are researched 25% faster.
- Teutons: Bombard Towers are more resistant to conversion (+3 min, +1 max cycles).
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- Bombard Towers deal melee attack. As such, they do not gain attack from Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, Bracer, and Chemistry. They still get the range boost from the former three technologies though.
- Bombard Towers have 92% accuracy, and 0% dispersion, which means they have 100% accuracy practically.
The Conquerors[]
- Bombard Towers get an attack bonus of +40 against camel units because they share an armor class with ships.
- Herbal Medicine introduced.
- Heresy introduced.
- With patch 1.0b, Bombard Towers deal pierce attack. Even though it does not make much of a difference in many cases, it makes them ineffective against rams. They start getting the attack boost from Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, Bracer, and Chemistry (though the latter is already researched).
- Turks: Artillery introduced.
The Forgotten[]
- Chinese: Great Wall introduced.
- Koreans: Bombard Towers are built 33% faster.
The African Kingdoms[]
- Camels are moved out of the ship armor class, and the Bombard Towers lose their attack bonus against them. They now have +1 attack against them.
- Portuguese: Arquebus increases the projectile speed of Bombard Towers by +0.5.
Rise of the Rajas[]
- Portuguese: Arquebus has a smaller effect on gunpowder units, the speed modifier is reduced by 75%. With patch 5.3, the Arquebus speed modifier for Bombard Towers is removed. With patch 5.7, the Arquebus speed modifier for Bombard Towers is +0.2.
- Koreans: With patch 5.8, Bombard Towers are built 5% faster.
Definitive Edition[]
- Koreans: Bombard Towers are no longer built faster.
Dynasties of India[]
- Byzantines: With update 81058, Greek Fire gives Bombard Towers +0.5 blast radius which does pure 5 damage, and a new fire projectile. However, since Bombard Towers have 92% accuracy, their blast attack fails to do damage sometimes. With hotfix 82587, their accuracy was increased to 100%.
Return of Rome[]
- Byzantines: With update 87863, Greek Fire projectiles deal 25% damage (instead of pure 5) and no longer deal friendly fire.
The Mountain Royals[]
- With update 99311, Devotion was introduced.
History[]
| “ | By the end of the Middle Ages the development of cannon had changed military engineering by making standard castles obsolete. Their high vertical walls were particularly susceptible to direct cannon fire aimed at their base. Military engineers responded by building new structures that were less susceptible to cannon fire and by mounting cannon within these structures to augment their defensive positions along coasts, at important river crossings, and at other strategic points. These new bombard towers swept the approaches to harbors and towns, making them more difficult to attack. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings manual | ||
Trivia[]
- Because the Aztecs and Maya do not have access to Bombard Towers, there was no design for the Native American Bombard Tower in The Conquerors and if given one in the Scenario Editor (or via the Full Tech Tree), it would have the Central European style. However if a game like this was started, it would not load or the game would crash completely. This was fixed in The Forgotten, and the Native American civilizations got their own Bombard Tower design. The same happened in regards to the Stable, and was fixed too.
- The Bombard Tower model of the Native American civilizations is inspired by the Palace Observation Tower in Palenque.
- In the Genie Editor, it can be seen that Bombard Towers have number of base projectiles set to 0 despite having a projectile. Since there is no other such building, it can be inferred that buildings having a primary projectile must fire at least one projectile.
- The Teutons have a bonus which increases the garrison and and projectile capacity of towers by +5 and +4 respectively. Hence, the maximum number of projectiles increase from 0 (minimum 1) to 4, practically increasing by +3 only.
- The rule for increased number of projectiles when having garrisoned units follows a similar path. If the sum of damage output is supposed to add one projectile, it adds none because the first projectile only offsets the minimum projectile rule.
- Since Teuton Bombard Towers can garrison up to 10 units, and garrisoning 10 Hand Cannoneers gives the Bombard Tower a second projectile. If 10 Elite Janissaries of a Turkish ally are garrisoned, three cannonballs are fired. Since update 50292, if 10 fully upgraded Elite Chu Ko Nu of a Chinese ally are garrisoned, four cannonballs are fired.
- The Bombard Tower is the only building which does not use the concept of secondary projectiles. All of its projectiles are primary, a feature it shares with the Dromon and Organ Gun. Hence, all of its projectiles are affected by hill and cliff bonuses.
- The Armenians and Tatars are the only civilizations that can build Bombard Towers, but not Keeps.
- The Bombard Tower for the Western European architecture is darker than the Keep.
- The Bombard Tower for the East Asian architecture is shorter than the Keep and has a black roof.
- Among all buildings and units with the gunpowder armor class, only the Bombard Tower's attack is increased by Chemistry. It is also one of two objects (with Persian Castles with Citadels) which benefit from Chemistry to not have a flaming projectile when it is researched.
- Bombard Towers are the only standard buildings whose projectiles move in an arc rather than in a straight line. The unconstructable Fire Tower is another such building.
- None of the civilizations introduced in The Three Kingdoms have access to the Bombard Tower.
- Bombard Towers unique in an architecture set
- Since Dynasties of India, the Dravidians are the only South Asian civilization with Bombard Towers.
- Since Lords of the West, Burgundians are the only Western European civilization with Bombard Towers.
- Before the Definitive Edition, the Spanish were the only Western European civilization that could build Bombard Towers.
- Since the Definitive Edition, the Malay are the only Southeast Asian civilization with Bombard Towers, as the Vietnamese were changed to have the East Asian architecture set.
- Since the Definitive Edition, the Turks are the only Middle Eastern civilization with Bombard Towers, as the Byzantines were changed to have the Mediterranean architecture set.
- Since the Definitive Edition and before Dawn of the Dukes, Lithuanians were the only the Eastern European civilization with Bombard Towers.
- The Tatars are the only Central Asian civilization with Bombard Towers.
- Architecture sets without Bombard Tower
- After the Spanish were changed to the Mediterranean building set in the Definitive Edition and before Lords of the West, as well as in The Age of Kings, there were no Western European civilizations that could build the Bombard Tower.
- Because Ethiopians and Malians lack access to the Bombard Tower, there are no African civilizations that can build the Bombard Tower.
- Before the Definitive Edition, there were no Eastern European civilizations that could build the Bombard Tower.
- Before Dynasties of India, there were no South Asian civilizations that could build the Bombard Tower, as the only civilization, the Indians lacked it.
- Native Americans do not have access to gunpowder units at all, and as such, there are no Native American civilizations that can build the Bombard Tower either.
Gallery[]
