Double Crossbow is a technology in Age of Empires II HD: Rise of the Rajas that is unique to the Khmer and can be researched at the Castle once the Imperial Age is reached. Once researched, it makes Ballista Elephants and Scorpions fire one more projectile.
To offset the power a little bit, however, the secondary projectile has a slight cone spread and does less damage than the primary one.
The secondary projectile of Scorpions and Ballista Elephants deals 6 pierce attack and 3 bonus attack against Elephants. The secondary projectile of Heavy Scorpions deals 12 pierce attack and 4 bonus attack against Elephants. The secondary projectile of Ballista Elephants benefits from Chemistry but the secondary projectile of Scorpions does not. Neither secondary projectile has a melee attack attached to it, unlike the primary projectile of the Scorpions.
Strategy[]
Double Crossbow further bolsters the strength of Ballista Elephants and the Khmer's already impeccable Scorpions (+1 range due to their team bonus and access to Siege Engineers) against mass infantry.
Scorpions and Ballista Elephants with Double Crossbow are effective in large groups, as they can devastate large areas (comparatively, this puts the Khmer Scorpions at the same level as Ethiopian, Celtic, Chinese, and Roman Scorpions).
Team bonuses[]
Portuguese: Researching Double Crossbow is 25% faster.
History[]
A platformed multi-shot crossbow illustrated in the Ming dynasty military manual "Wu Bei Zhi"
A development in the design of the crossbow was the incorporation of multiple bowstaves to increase the tension of the device, creating double-bow and even triple-bow crossbows. According to reliefs from the 12th and early 13th centuries, Khmer people were known to employ double crossbows as their weapons. This practice was borrowed from China, who installed those weapons at the siege and defense of fortresses. The Khmer, however, put these arms on the back of war elephants.[1] While these 'multi'-bows were not explicitly designed to fire multiple arrows as is done in the game, but rather to fire a single, stronger shot, it is possible they could have been purposed to do this similarly to the depiction of a single bow crossbow in the thumbnail.
Trivia[]
- For some reason, the technology name is referred to in the plural (as Double Crossbows) in the Definitive Edition tooltip for researching the technology. It is referred to by its proper name everywhere else.
References[]
- ↑ Schliesinger, Joachim. 2011. "Ethnic Groups of Cambodia Vol 1: Introduction and Overview" (p. 169). White Lotus, Bangkok.
