Dromon (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the ship in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome. For the ship in Age of Empires IV: The Sultans Ascend, see Dromon (Age of Empires IV).

Dromon
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome
Type	Siege ship
Civilization	Armenians Byzantines Goths Huns Romans
Age	Imperial Age
Training
Trained at	Dock
Wood	175
Gold	150
Training time	65 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	125
Melee attack	8 (×5)
Attack bonus	For each projectile: +34 vs. Building +15 vs. Wall and gate +9 vs. Castle +2 vs. Siege weapon
Blast radius	0.8 [tapering effect]
Reload time	8
Attack delay	0
Range	12
Minimum range	3
Accuracy	100%
Projectile speed	3.5
Melee armor	1
Pierce armor	6
Armor class	Ship Long-range warship*
Speed	1.2
Line of Sight	14
Ability	Can attack ground
Collision size	0.5
Notes
See also	Cannon Galleon Lou Chuan

• The Three Kingdoms
• Return of Rome

“	Anti-building Siege Warship with long range blast attack, but cannot attack enemies at close range.	”
—In-game description

“	Anti-building siege warship with long range and area of effect attack, but cannot attack enemies at close range.	”
—In-game description

The Dromon is a siege ship in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome that can be trained at the Dock in the Imperial Age. They are very similar to the Cannon Galleon. It is categorized as a regional unit, as it is only available to the Armenians, Byzantines, Goths, Huns, and Romans.

Tactics

Dromons have an exceptionally long range and deal very large bonus damage to buildings. They can outrange Castles, Keeps, and Bombard Towers (apart from Teutonic, Korean, and Turkish ones, respectively). While they functionally behave the same as Cannon Galleons (but not Elite Cannon Galleons), Dromons have shorter range, wider blast radius, and faster attack speed than their analogues, making them better at fighting against naval hostiles. They also do not require researching any other technology to be unlocked, unlike Cannon Galleons, which require Chemistry. Before update 99311, like Mangonels, they fired multiple shots with minimum damage for visual effect. Since the update, their projectiles behave more like those of Organ Guns.

Dromons should always be deployed with an escort, usually Fire Ships and Galleons. As they outrange towers and Castles, Dromons should be used for safely dealing with such structures that deal bonus damage against ships.

Dromons should be used primarily to clear the shoreline of enemy buildings, and occasionally to harass land units at range. Unlike Cannon Galleons, the Dromons are potent as anti-ship combat units, though they are still expensive and lose cost-efficiently against naval units.

Like Cannon Galleons, Dromons can attack ground and cause friendly fire. Both of their blast attacks are tapering in nature, though it is not quite visible in the former's case.

The Armenian Dromon is closest to generic. It fires +1 projectile (from 5 to 6), enhancing its damage by 20%, and can get +1 range from Cilician Fleet, whereas a Dromon with Siege Engineers gets +20% damage only against buildings.

The Byzantine Dromon fires 25% faster, enhancing its damage output by 25%. With Greek Fire, it gets a 20% increase in its blast radius.

The Roman Dromon has +1/+1 armor, but lacks Dry Dock. In addition, the Romans are the only Dromon civilization that has access to Siege Engineers.

The Goths and Huns have sub-standard Dromons, with the former lacking Dry Dock, and the latter lacking Shipwright.

Comparison with similar units

	Cannon Galleon	Lou Chuan	Dromon
Research cost and time	300 food, 200 gold 100 s ( Chemistry)	None	None
Cost	200 wood, 150 gold	250 wood, 225 gold	175 wood, 150 gold
Time	46 s	60 s	65 s
Hit points	120	175	125
Melee attack	50 melee +200 vs building +25 vs siege	25+1 melee +230 vs building +10 vs siege	8+1 melee +34 vs building +15 vs wall +9 vs Castle +2 vs siege
Blast radius	0.25 [tapering effect]	0	0.8 [tapering effect]
Reload time	10	5	8 (x5)
Attack delay	0	0.36 s	0
Range	13	13	12
Armor	0/6	0/9	1/6
Speed	1.1	1.15	1.2
Line of Sight	15	15	14

Comparison of damage output

The comparison is done considering Chemistry, Rate of Fire, and additional projectiles, and is measured in intervals of 10 seconds each (standard for Cannon Galleon) - which is accounted by the 1.25 factor for the Dromon.

	Dromon	Cannon Galleon
Melee damage	(8 + 1 - melee armor) x 5 x 1.25	50
Attack vs buildings	(34 x 1.2 - building armor) x 5 x 1.25	200 - building armor
Attack vs siege	2 x 5 x 1.25 = 12.5	25
Attack vs walls	15 x 5 x 1.25 x 1.2	N/A
Attack vs castles	9 x 5 x 1.25 x 1.2

With update 99311, Dromon projectiles were made individually weaker but their secondary projectiles were made equally strong as the main one. This effectively meant that Dromons have weaker attack, but fire very frequently (practically $8/5 = 1.6$ seconds). To help them match Cannon Galleons against buildings with high building armor:

• Dromons get additional 9 attack against Castles because Castles and Kreposts have 8 hidden building armor.
• Dromons get 15 attack against walls because Stone Walls, Fortified Walls, and (Fortified) Gates have 16, 24, and 20 hidden building armor.

Further statistics

Strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Buildings, siege weapons, archers, units in dense formation
Weak vs.	Ships, Bombard Cannons, Monks

Technologies
Attack	Siege Engineers (+20% bonus against buildings, Romans only) Chemistry (+1)
Range	Siege Engineers (+1, Romans only) Cilician Fleet (+1, Armenians only)
Armor	Careening (​+1 pierce)
Conversion resistance	Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
Movement speed	Dry Dock (+15%)
Resource cost	Shipwright (-20% wood)
Creation speed	Shipwright (+54%)
Ability	Greek Fire (+0.2 blast radius, Byzantines only)

Civilization bonuses
Additional projectiles	Armenians (+1)
Armor	Romans (​+1 melee / ​+1 pierce)
Attack speed	Byzantines (+20%)
Other	Romans (+5% repair speed)

Team bonuses
Conversion resistance	Teutons (+3 min, +1 max)

Team bonuses

• Lithuanians: Devotion, Faith, and Heresy are researched 20% faster.
• Malians: Chemistry and Siege Engineers are researched 80% faster.
• Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Dromons are researched 25% faster.

Changelog

Return of Rome

• Dromon training time is 50 seconds.
• Dromons have a primary projectile dealing 50 melee, 135 anti-building, and 30 anti-siege attacks; and four secondary projectiles dealing the minimum damage.
• Upon release, the Dromon had the unique unit armor class. With hotfix 85208, it does not have it.
• Byzantines: With update 87863, Greek Fire now also adds splash damage to Dromons.

The Mountain Royals

• With update 99311:
• Dromon training time is 65 seconds.
• Dromons have total five projectiles, each dealing 8 melee, 34 anti-building, 2 anti-siege, 9 anti-Castle, and 15 anti-wall attacks.

Chronicles: Alexander the Great

• With update 158041, Dromons gain the long-range warship armor class.

Trivia

• The first appearance of Dromons was roughly around 5-6th century and they were used by the Byzantine navy, so the in-game use by Romans and Huns is partly anachronistic. (see book chapter The Dromōn and the Byzantine navy by John Pryor)
• The Dromon is the first regional ship in Age of Empires II.
• The Dromon is the first non-unique ship with a unique sail.
• The Dromon solved a historical accuracy issue for the Romans and the Huns, as their history ended before having access to gunpowder, while still requiring a long-range siege ship in-game.
• Although the Byzantines and Goths survived up to the days of gunpowder, the glory days of the former's navy was long gone by then. They historically used Dromons, although it was one of their main types of war galleys, relying notably on ramming, boarding, and the use of Greek fire, instead of being solely used as an artillery platform.
• Despite being visibly armed with a Mangonel, Dromons considerably outrange Mangonels (12 vs. 7).
• When Dromons are introduced, they had the unique unit armor class. But besides Romans and Byzantines, they also are given to Goths and Huns, so Dromons are considered regional units and lost the unique unit armor class with a hotfix. Due to this, it is speculated the Dromon was intended to be unique for the Romans before release.
• The Dromon has several shields on its sides, which appears to include those of several units in the game which carry round shields, such as Skirmisher, Elite Skirmisher, Imperial Skirmisher, Condottiero, and the Berserk.
• No civilization with access to Dromons can fully upgrade them:
  • The Armenians lack Shipwright and Siege Engineers.
  • The Byzantines lack Siege Engineers.
  • The Goths lack Dry Dock and Siege Engineers.
  • The Huns lack Shipwright and Siege Engineers.
  • The Romans lack Dry Dock.
• Researching Greek Fire and Chemistry changes their projectile, though the Greek Fire projectile takes priority over the Chemistry one when both are researched.
• Unlike Onagers, Dromons cannot destroy trees.

Gallery

Many views of the Dromon

How good are Dromons? (New AoE2 unit)

Video overview

DROMON (Romans) vs EVERY BATTLE SHIP - AoE II- DE

Model of a Byzantine Dromon at Athens War Museum

Dromons with Chemistry (causing the flaming projectiles) and Greek Fire (causing the flaming trails) researched, versus Dromons without either