Catapult Trireme

Catapult Trireme
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires
Type	Warship
Civilization	See table
Age	Iron Age
Requires	Catapult Trireme (technology)
Training
Trained at	Dock
Wood	135
Gold	50
Training time	90 seconds (base) 45 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	135
Melee attack	35
Attack bonus	+140 vs. Buildings except Towers +50 vs. Towers +10 vs. Fire Galley
Blast radius	1
Reload time	5.3
Range	9
Projectile speed	3.49
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Speed	1.45
Line of Sight	12
Ability	Attacks ignore armor of non-siege land units
Upgrades to
Upgrades to	Juggernaut
Upgrade cost	1,300 food, 700 wood
Upgrade time	200 seconds (base) 100 seconds
Upgrade requires	N/A

“	A siege ship with a slow but powerful catapult attack. Can fire at a location instead of a particular unit. Better against immobile targets.	”
—In-game description in the Definitive Edition

The Catapult Trireme is a large warship in Age of Empires which shoots stone projectiles, similar to Catapults. Constructing them requires researching the technology of the same name first, which is unlocked in the Iron Age only after researching the Trireme upgrade.

Availability chart

Available	Unavailable
Egyptians Greeks+ Lac Viet-+ Macedonians-+ Minoans+ Persians Phoenicians+ Romans- Yamato+	Assyrians Babylonians Carthaginians Choson Hittites Palmyrans Shang Sumerians

^- means that the civilization does not get Alchemy or Engineering, and hence cannot fully upgrade their Catapult Triremes.

⁺ indicates that the civilization has at least one civilization bonus that benefits the combat strength of their Catapult Triremes.

Gameplay

Once the Scout Ship line has been upgraded to its final iteration, the Trireme, the Catapult Trireme technology becomes available at the Dock. Despite the name, it is not an upgrade to the Trireme, but a separate unit.

The Catapult Trireme fires large rocks and boulders toward enemy targets every 5.3 seconds. Like all stone-throwing siege weapons, they deal bonus damage against buildings. After accounting for buildings' 80% resistance to all attacks, the final damage figure is 35 against buildings, and 17 against towers.

It fires far slower than the Trireme, but the high damage per projectile means that they deal similar amounts of raw damage over time. The Catapult Trireme pulls ahead with its special traits: it is far more powerful against buildings, and its projectiles' blast radius can damage multiple units per shot. Additionally, it completely ignores all armor, melee or piercing, making it particularly effective for bombarding land-based elite units if the enemy is unable to dodge the projectiles (this is made easier by researching Ballistics). However, the Catapult Trireme is relatively fragile for a warship, with fewer hit points than a War Galley, so it benefits from being escorted by a screen of more durable Triremes.

Although the Catapult Trireme fundamentally has high range, in practice it rarely has more reach than Guard Towers or Stone Throwers, and sometimes not even Triremes. This is because, being a siege engine, it doesn't benefit from the arrow upgrades of the Market's woodworking technologies and can only increase its range with Engineering's +2 bonus. All civilizations can upgrade their arrow range by +2, nearly all can extend this to +3 (exceptions being the Macedonians, Palmyrans, Persians, and Sumerians), and the Guard Towers of the Choson can reach an incredible 13 range. Meanwhile, Engineering is unavailable to the Choson, Lac Viet, Macedonians, Palmyrans, and Shang; also the Assyrians before the Definitive Edition. This table shows how the range compares, depending on upgrades:

	Catapult Trireme	Stone Thrower	Guard Tower	Trireme
(unupgraded)	9	10	8	7
(with Engineering)	11	12
(with Artisanship)			10	9
(with Craftsmanship)			11	10

Players without access to Engineering may need to use land siege engines instead to out-range enemy fortifications or military blockades. However, upgrading to the Juggernaut provides an additional unit of reach.

Like Stone Thrower-line units, Catapult Triremes can use the attack ground ability to continually bombard a tile. It is unable to demolish wood lines, which from the Definitive Edition onwards has been an ability reserved solely for the Heavy Catapult. In the original version of the game, however, Juggernauts are able to clear away trees.

Most civilizations with access to the Catapult Trireme are able to further upgrade it to the Juggernaut (the exceptions being the Lac Viet and Macedonians), which brings durability in line with the Trireme, adds an extra tile of range, and a 20% wider blast radius. In versions of the game before Return of Rome, the Juggernaut technology requires Engineering to be researched at the Government Center first.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Buildings
Weak vs.	Ships, Ballistae
Upgrades
Attack	Alchemy (+1)
Range	Engineering (+2)
Accuracy	Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Upgrades	Juggernaut

Civilization bonuses

• Greeks: Catapult Triremes have +20% speed.
• Lac Viet: Catapult Triremes are trained 25% faster.
• Macedonians: Catapult Triremes are four times more resistant to conversion.
• Minoans: Catapult Triremes cost -30%.
• Phoenicians: Catapult Triremes fire 33% faster.
• Yamato: Catapult Triremes have +25% hit points.

Team bonuses

• Palmyrans: Upgrading Catapult Triremes to Juggernauts and researching technologies that benefit Catapult Triremes are 30% faster.

Changelog

Age of Empires

• Catapult Triremes have 120 hit points, cost 135 wood, 75 gold, 5 Rate of Fire, 1.35 speed, and 2.7 projectile speed.
• The Juggernaught upgrade costs 2,000 food, 900 wood and take 180 seconds.
• Catapult Triremes can be upgraded to Juggernauts only if Engineering is researched.

Definitive Edition

• Catapult Triremes have 135 hit points, cost 135 wood, 50 gold, 5.3 Rate of Fire, 1.45 speed, and 3.1 projectile speed.
• The Juggernaught upgrade costs 1,300 food, 700 wood and take 200 seconds.

Return of Rome

• Team bonuses added, Palmyrans: Technologies benefiting Catapult Triremes researched 30% faster.
• Researching Engineering is no longer required to upgrade Catapult Triremes to Juggernauts.
• Catapult Triremes have 2.573 projectile speed. With hotfix 85208, Catapult Triremes have 3.49 projectile speed.

History

“	The ultimate warships of antiquity were advances on the trireme that occurred after the death of Alexander the Great. These ships were first broadened so that multiple rowers could apply power to each oar. Based on limited descriptions and detailed figures from crew and rowers, it is believed that the largest ships of this period may have had catamaran hulls. The broadening of ships and decks added weight and further reduced speed and maneuverability, but increased stability. Decks supported catapult artillery and large marine contingents. Ships engaged each other primarily with missile fire and boarding.	”
—Age of Empires manual

Trivia

• In the 1998 version of Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome, no civilization was able to train both Catapult Triremes and Fire Galleys, even with Full Tech Tree enabled. This was changed in the Definitive Edition, and now the Greeks are able to train both units, as can any civilization in Full Tech Tree games.
• Catapult Triremes are the very first naval siege unit to appear in the Age of Empires series, and are the predecessor of the Cannon Galleon of Age of Empires II and the Monitor of Age of Empires III.

Gallery

Catapult Triremes in Return of Rome

A group of Catapult Triremes in the original game, facing all possible directions

Partial cross section of a Roman war trireme, mounted with a tower, an onager (catapult), a carroballista (cheiroballista), and a corvus (boarding hook)

Technology tree

	➞		➞			➞
		➞						Requires War Galley
					➞
			➞			➞
					➞
								Requires unlock	➞