| “ | Ranged Soldier, Siege Weapon. Fragile, but very powerful against infantry and ships. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Cheiroballista is a hand-operated Atlantean version of the Ballista, available in the Classical Age. It is an anti-infantry siege weapon and ranged soldier that can mow down charging groups of infantry with ease, but is less effective against buildings compared to other siege weapons.
Further statistics[]
Strengths and weaknesses[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. |  Infantry,  Ships
|
| Weak vs. |  Cavalry,  Peltast,  Slinger,  Turma,  Huskarl,  Wuzu Javelineer
|
Upgrades[]
| Age | Upgrade | Upgrades to | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 Medium Ranged Soldiers
|
Medium Cheiroballista | 150 wood, 150 gold 20 seconds |
+10% hit points, +10% damage, +1 Line of Sight |
|
 Heavy Ranged Soldiers
|
Heavy Cheiroballista | 300 wood, 300 gold 30 seconds |
+10% hit points, +15% damage, +1 Line of Sight |
|
 Champion Ranged Soldiers
|
Champion Cheiroballista | 500 wood, 400 gold 40 seconds |
+10% hit points, +20% damage, +1 Line of Sight |
God bonuses[]
Gaia: Regenerate 1 hit point per second when on Lush.- Kronos: Returns 20% of its resource cost upon destruction.
- Oranos: +4 Line of Sight.
General technologies[]
- Levy Counter Soldiers and Conscript Counter Soldiers: -20% training time
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons, Iron Weapons: +10% attack
- Copper Armor, Bronze Armor, Iron Armor: -10% hack vulnerability
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields, Iron Shields: -10% pierce vulnerability
- Burning Pitch: +3.0 attack multiplier vs. Buildings, +1.5 attack multiplier vs. Ships.
- Ballistics: Fires more accurately at moving targets.
- Heavy Cheiroballista and Champion Cheiroballista: +10% hit points, +25% attack (before Retold).
Myth technologies[]
- Channels (Gaia): +15% movement speed on Lush. (since Retold)
- Volcanic Forge (Leto): -15% pierce vulnerability (Since Retold)
- Heart of the Titans (Prometheus): -75% time to transform into a hero.
- Petrification (Helios): -15% hack vulnerability vulnerability and slowly grants additional hack armor while standing still.
Relics[]
- Archimedes' Ledger: -1 population cost.
- Arrows of Heracles: +5% attack.
- Bow of Artemis: -10% cost.
- Dwarven Calipers: -20% cost.
- Girdle of Hippolyta: +10% hit points.
- Feather of Bifang: +0.2 attack multiplier vs. buildings.
- Pelt of Argus: +6 Line of Sight.
- Thundercloud Shawl: -5% pierce vulnerability.
- Ullr's Bow: +1 Line of Sight and range.
- Wuhao, Bow of Huangdi: Apply 15% snare for 2 seconds.
Removed[]
- Draft Horses: +20% speed. (Removed since update 17.36100)
- Engineers: +1.10 attack multiplier against walls, +25% attack. (Removed since update 17.36100)
Strategy[]
Cheiroballistae have a large Line of Sight and range so they can take down melee units before they get too close. They are important in the Classical Age as they are the only anti-infantry unit available for the Atlanteans at that point in the game. Despite their classification as a siege weapon, they deal no crush damage and are therefore ineffective against buildings. In addition, they are quite expensive and take up a large amount of population space. Furthermore, cavalry have enough speed to close the gap before taking too much damage and will take them down easily. They are usually obsolete by the Heroic Age, as the Arcus can take over the role without being as expensive or occupying as many population slots. The only advantage of Cheiroballista late-game is when the Atlantean player is faced against a Norse player who is massing Huskarls.
Kronos players can worship Prometheus, Hyperion, and Helios to make their Cheiroballista Heroes more durable, as Heart of the Titans gives time reduction, additional hit points, and regeneration by Heroic Renewal, and durability with the help of Petrification. Furthermore, Cheiroballistae belonging to a Kronos player will refund part of their resource cost when destroyed.
Cheiroballista Hero[]
| “ | Ranged Soldier, Siege Weapon, Hero. Fragile, but very powerful against infantry, ships, and myth units. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
While the Cheiroballista is a siege weapon, it is also a human unit, so it can be converted into a hero at any time, provided the player has sufficient resources.
Special ability[]
Further statistics[]
In addition to the technologies mentioned for the regular Cheiroballista, the hero version is affected by the following:
- General technologies
- Medium Ranged Soldiers, Heavy Ranged Soldiers, and Champion Ranged Soldiers: +10% hit points, +1 Line of Sight, and +10/20/30% attack respectively (all cumulative).
- Copper Armor, Bronze Armor, Iron Armor: -15% hack vulnerability instead of -10%.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields, Iron Shields: -15% pierce vulnerability instead of -10%.
- Myth technologies
- Volcanic Forge (Leto): -15% pierce vulnerability.
- Heroic Renewal (Hyperion): Regenerate +1.5 hit points per second and gain +10% hit points.
- Relics
- Archimedes' Ledger: -1 population cost.
- Arrows of Heracles: +5% attack.
- Bow of Artemis: -10% cost.
- Fur of Boyi: Regenerate 0.25 hit points per second.
- Girdle of Hippolyta: +10% hit points.
- Hermes' Winged Sandals: +5% movement speed.
- Kui Drum: +0.25% attack per 1% hit point missing.
- The Khopesh of Horus: +1.0 attack bonus multiplier vs. myth units.
- Tyrfing, Angantyr's Sword: Regenerate 10% of damage dealt to units.
- Ullr's Bow: +1 Line of Sight and range.
- Wuhao, Bow of Huangdi: Apply 15% snare for 2 seconds.
Changelog[]
The Titans[]
- Cheiroballistae have 85 hit points, 25% hack / 75% crush resistance, a range of 20, 30 Line of Sight, a movement speed of 4.0, and train in 20 seconds.
- Cheiroballistae have 4 pierce attack, 5 projectiles, a damage multiplier of 5× vs. Destroyer Heroes, 2.5× vs. infantry, Murmillo Heroes, Katapeltes Heroes, and Fanatic Heroes, 1.5× vs. Hersir and Heroes of Ragnarok, 4.5× vs. Huskarls, 4× vs. Destroyers.
- The Cheiroballista is classified only as a siege weapon and does not benefit from Armory technologies, but does benefit from Engineers.
- The Cheiroballista can be upgraded with Heavy Cheiroballista and Champion Cheiroballista.
- Kronos only reduces wood and gold cost by 10%.
Extended Edition[]
- With patch 1.9, Draft Horses is available to the Atlanteans and affects Cheiroballistae.
Tale of the Dragon[]
- With patch 2.7, the Cheiroballista benefits from Armory technologies and has a movement speed of 3.85.
- With patch 2.7, Kronos' Cheiroballista also have +10% movement speed.
- With patch 2.8, the Cheiroballista benefits from Volcanic Forge and does 4× damage vs. Destroyer Heroes.
Retold[]
- The Cheiroballista is classified as a siege weapon, a human soldier, and an archer, can be affected by abilities which affect human units, and can be converted into a hero.
- The technologies Heavy Cheiroballista and Champion Cheiroballista are removed, Cheiroballistae are now upgraded by Medium Ranged Soldiers and its subsequent versions, like other archer units.
- Cheiroballistae have 3 pierce attack, 4 projectiles, 50% crush resistance, 24 Line of Sight, a movement speed of 3.8, a 3.5× multiplier vs. infantry, no multiplier vs. Murmillo Heroes, Katapeltes Heroes, Fanatic Heroes, Hersir, Heroes of Ragnarok, Huskarls, Destroyers, or Destroyer Heroes, and train in 24 seconds.
- With update 17.36100, Cheiroballistae no longer benefit from Engineers and Draft Horses.
- With update 17.43876, Cheiroballistae and Cheiroballista Heroes have 4× bonus damage vs. infantry.
- With update 17.64528, Cheiroballistae and Cheiroballista Heroes now fire 2 projectiles with higher accuracy, rather than just one per volley.
- With update 18.7603, Cheiroballistae and Cheiroballista Heroes have 5x bonus damage vs. infantry and 65% crush resistance.
Immortal Pillars[]
- With update 18.9036, Cheiroballistae have 105 hit points, 20 Line of Sight, and 18 range; Cheiroballista Heroes have 120 hit points, 24 Line of Sight, and 18 range.
- With update 18.21333, Cheiroballistae and Cheiroballista Heroes have 20% hack resistance and 17 range.
History[]
| “ | The light and relatively fast Cheiroballista is an anti-infantry unit. It is very powerful against enemy infantry, but is weak against everything else, especially cavalry. The Cheiroballista was the most advanced arrow-throwing ballista devised in ancient times. Its metal arms were short and provided great torque, but also allowed the ballista to be mounted in a drawn cart (or put on wheels). |
” |
| —In-game help section | ||
Trivia[]
- Its appearance, mechanism, and bonuses are similar to the Organ Guns which appear in other games of the series.
- Before Retold, its name in the proto file is Chieroballista instead of Cheiroballista.
Gallery[]
A regular (left) and hero (right) Cheiroballista in Retold
Close-up of the Cheiroballista in Retold, with no technologies
Close-up of the Medium Cheiroballista in Retold, with Classical Age technologies
Close-up of the Heavy Cheiroballista in Retold, with Heroic Age technologies
Close-up of the Champion Cheiroballista in Retold, with Mythic Age technologies
A Cheiroballista hero carrying a Relic
Cheiroballista in-game
Several Cheiroballistae taking on Greek units
The unupgraded, Heavy, and Champion Cheiroballista
A Cheiroballista firing multiple projectiles at once
See also[]
- Ballista: A similar siege weapon available to the Norse
| Heroes obtainable in random maps in Age of Mythology | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God |  Archaic Age
|
 Classical Age
|
 Heroic Age
|
 Mythic Age
|
 Greeks (1 each)
| ||||
| All |  Hippocrates*
|
|||
 Zeus
|
 Jason
|
 Heracles
|
 Odysseus
|
 Bellerophon
|
 Poseidon
|
 Theseus
|
 Atalanta
|
 Hippolyta
|
 Polyphemus
|
 Hades
|
 Ajax
|
 Achilles
|
 Chiron
|
 Perseus
|
 Aphrodite
|
 The Argo
| |||
 Egyptians
| ||||
| All |  Pharaoh (1)
|
|||
 Priest
| ||||
 Osiris
|
 Son of Osiris
| |||
| Pharaoh (more)
| ||||
 Norse
| ||||
| All |  Hersir
|
 Godi
|
||
 Freyr
|
 Gullinbursti (1)
|
|||
 Baldr
|
  Hero of Ragnarok
| |||
 Atlanteans
| ||||
| All |  Citizen (Hero) (50)
|
 Murmillo (Hero)
|
 Arcus (Hero)
|
 Fanatic (Hero)
|
 Katapeltes (Hero)
|
 Contarius (Hero)
| |||
 Oracle (Hero) (10)
|
 Turma (Hero)
| |||
 Cheiroballista (Hero)
|
 Destroyer (Hero)
| |||
 Chinese (Immortal Pillars)
| ||||
| All |  Pioneer
|
 Sage (5)
|
||
 Jiang Ziya (1)
| ||||
 Fuxi
|
 Nezha (1)
|
 Yang Jian (1)
| ||
 Nüwa
|
 Kuafu (Hero) (1)
|
 Li Jing (1)
| ||
 Shennong
|
 Wen Zhong (1)
| |||
 Chinese (Tale of the Dragon)
| ||||
| All |  Monk
|
|||
 Fu Xi
|
 Immortal (8)
|
|||
| Others | Immortal (2)
|
Immortal (2)
|
Immortal (2)
|
Immortal (2)
|
| Regicide game mode | ||||
| All |  Regent (1)
| |||
