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This article is about the unique technology in Age of Empires II. For other uses, see Citadel. |
Citadels is a technology in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - The Mountain Royals that is unique to the Persians and can be researched at the Castle once the Imperial Age is reached. Once researched, their Castles fire bullets instead of arrows. These bullets have +4 attack (total 15 instead of 11 per projectile, before Blacksmith technologies), and also do a bonus damage of +3 vs rams and +3 vs infantry. Further, their Castles also receive -25% damage from bonus attacks, like those of Trebuchets and Siege Rams.
It replaces Mahouts since update 95810.
Strategy[]
The Persians lack Bracer, meaning that they fall behind in the defense department by lacking 1 range, and to a lesser extent 1 attack. Citadels provides Castles with +4 attack (so +3 more than generic Castles and +1 more than Georgian ones), which not only helps against units, but also against enemy Castles, which with all technologies normally do 2 damage per projectile to each other.
As gunpowder projectiles, they also deal bonus damage vs infantry (except Condottieri) and rams. The way the latter attack bonus works is that every projectile deals 2 damage to Capped Rams and the same 1 damage to Siege Rams, so it is not very helpful there. Trebuchets outrange Persian Castles by 6 tiles, which means that this effect will normally not come into play against them either.
The last effect is that Castles receive -25% bonus damage. Castles take bonus damage as part of the armor classes Castle, building (+8), and standard building. Reducing all of them by 25% can have the same effect as having up to +33% hit points. The upper limit is reached when the attacking unit has trivial melee/pierce attack like rams and Petards. It is on the lower end (negligible) against infantry which mostly deal melee damage.
Team bonuses[]
Portuguese: Researching Citadels is 25% faster.
History[]
The Bam Citadel in Kerman, Iran is one of the oldest fortresses in the world, and contains the largest adobe building
A citadel is a fortified town or a section of a town in an elevated position within a city. It is where the government, defenders, and inhabitants of the city retreat to if the city's main walls fall. Often, citadels were significantly more defensible and could hold out for years after the fall of the rest of the city, as seen with the Arab-controlled citadel within a Crusader-controlled Antioch in Bohemond in the East. This has expanded from the role of a Castle which was primarily the residence and holdouts for the royalty and their soldiers, rather than civilians or other institutions, and were not urban environments by themselves and usually had far lesser food stores.
Some of the famous citadels in Persia are Falak-ol-Aflak (also called Shapur-Khast) Citadel, Izadkhast Citadel, Zahhak Citadel (built by the Parthians), the Castles of Alamut and Rudkhan (which were once controlled by the Nizari Ismailis, a.k.a. the Order of Assassins), Sistan Seb Citadel, Iraj Citadel (dating back a few thousand years), Bam Citadel (dating back to the Achaemenid period), as well as the Four Arches Citadel at the Fire Temple of Isfahan dating to Sassanid Persia.
Trivia[]
- While researching Citadels gives Castles gunpowder projectiles, it does not give them the gunpowder unit armor class, which the Bombard Tower has.
- Citadels has an effect reminiscent of the Boiling Oil technology introduced in The Forgotten. It was removed in the Definitive Edition and replaced with Kamandaran. However, its effect is partially incorporated into Citadels, with additional effects added on.
