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This article is about the unit in Age of Empires. For the similar unit in Age of Mythology, see Catapult (Age of Mythology). |
| “ | Upgrade of Stone Thrower. The Catapult has more attack strength, range, and causes a larger area of damage. | ” |
| —Age of Empires description | ||
The Catapult is a slow and heavy siege weapon in Age of Empires used to eliminate buildings, defenses, and tightly stacked troops. Its attack features medium Area of Effect damage, regardless of whether the unit is a friend or foe.
Civilizations[]
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Gameplay[]
The Catapult is an Iron Age upgrade of the Stone Thrower, available at the Siege Workshop. They provide +10 damage, +2 range, +1 pierce armor, and +0.45 blast radius. The blast radius is particularly significant, a 56% increase on the Stone Thrower. While the Catapult's outline is 20% bigger than the Stone Thrower's, they occupy the same tile space.
Catapults fire enormous projectiles that can wipe out entire squads of units. When attacking Catapults, it is important to adopt a loose formation to minimize the number of troops that are hit by each stone. The lengthy pause between shots and slow projectile speed makes it possible to dodge the Catapult's shots, but it doesn't have to hit precisely to score massive damage. After researching Ballistics, the Catapult can predict the trajectory of targeted units, so units must change direction after the shot is fired to evade it. Beware that like all stone-throwing units, Catapults cause friendly fire, so can wipe out the player's own battle line if used carelessly.
Catapults are the most powerful units in the game against most building types, and are particularly devastating against walls, as their large damage radius means that they can hit multiple sections of wall with each shot. When building fortifications against enemies with Catapults, it is important to give a tile's gap between the front wall and any buildings behind it.
Towers are a bit of an exception: Catapults are still very effective against them (particularly as they can attack from beyond the tower's range), but the Centurion, Helepolis, and Catapult Trireme perform similarly well, and War Elephants and Fire Galleys do far more damage.
In terms of the actual damage inflicted, buildings in Age of Empires resist 80% of all damage. Catapults gain damage bonuses against different building types, so they ultimately inflict 22 damage against towers, and 40 damage against other building types.
Catapults are extraordinarily long-ranged. After Engineering is researched, they exceed the reach of everything in the game except the fully-upgraded Heavy Catapult and Egyptian Priest. Without Engineering, though, they can be matched or exceeded by the Engineering-equipped Juggernaut, Helepolis and Stone Thrower, Afterlife-equipped Priest, Craftsmanship-equipped Minoan Composite Bowman and Hittite War Galley, and Artisanship-equipped Choson Guard/Ballista Tower.
Like other Stone-Thrower-line units, Catapults are incapable of attacking anything at close range, so are vulnerable to melee and particularly cavalry attacks. Their slow firing also allows them to be countered with micro-managed Horse Archers. Their attacks inflict melee damage rather than piercing damage, and they can be ordered to continually bombard a tile with the attack ground command.
The Catapult is the strongest Stone-Thrower-line unit available to the Macedonians, Persians, and Shang. Other civilizations can further upgrade to the Heavy Catapult, although as an elite unit, this technology is extremely expensive, and before Return of Rome, it required Siegecraft to be researched first. Heavy Catapults gain +75 hit points, +1 range, +1 pierce armor, +20% blast radius, and the unique ability to clear through tree lines.
Further statistics[]
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Buildings, massed units |
| Weak vs. | Cavalry, ships |
| Upgrades | |
| Attack |  Alchemy (+1)
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| Range |  Engineering (+2)
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| Accuracy |  Ballistics (hit moving targets)
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| Upgrades |  Heavy Catapult
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Civilization bonuses[]
Assyrians: Upgrading Catapults to Heavy Catapults costs -50%.*- Hittites: Catapult have +50% hit points.
- Lac Viet: Catapults are trained 25% faster.
- Macedonians: Catapults cost -25% and are four times more resistant to conversion.*
- Sumerians: Catapults fire 45% faster.
Team bonuses[]
- Assyrians: Catapults are produced and upgraded to Heavy Catapults 20% faster.
- Palmyrans: Upgrading Catapults to Heavy Catapults and researching technologies that benefit Catapults are 30% faster.
Changelog[]
Age of Empires[]
- Catapults have 2 minimum range, 1.5 blast radius, 5 Rate of Fire, 2.7 projectile speed, and 0 pierce armor.
- Catapults can be upgraded to Heavy Catapults only if Siegecraft is researched.
Definitive Edition[]
- Catapults have 3 minimum range, 1.2 blast radius, 5.375 Rate of Fire, and 3 projectile speed.
Return of Rome[]
- Upon release, Catapults had 2.49 projectile speed. With hotfix 85208, they have 3.49 projectile speed.
- Team bonuses added, Assyrians: Catapults are produced and upgraded 20% faster. Palmyrans: Technologies benefiting Catapults researched 30% faster.
- Assyrians: Upgrading Catapults to Heavy Catapults costs -50%.
- Researching Siegecraft is no longer required to upgrade Catapults to Heavy Catapults.
- With update 93001, Catapults have 1.25 blast radius and 4 pierce armor.
- With update 99311, Catapult melee armor reduced from 0 to -2.
History[]
| “ | The stone thrower continued to evolve over time following its invention around 400 B.C. Improvements increased the size or range of the missile and the mobility of the catapult. | ” |
| —Age of Empires manual | ||
Gallery[]
Technology tree[]
  Archery Range |
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