The Gastraphetes is a Mythic Age archer unit in Age of Mythology. It is trained at the Fortress and Archery Range (from The Titans), and is the unique unit for Hades.
God Bonuses and Upgrades[]
General[]
Hades increases the attack of all archers by 10%, including Gastraphetes.
- Medium Archers, Heavy Archers and Champion Archers all increase LOS by 1, attack by 10%, and hit points by 10%.
- Levy Archers and Conscript Archers decrease training time by 20%.
- Copper Weapons, Bronze Weapons and Iron Weapons increase attack by 10%.
- Copper Mail, Bronze Mail and Iron Mail decrease hack vulnerability by 10%.
- Copper Shields, Bronze Shields and Iron Shields decrease pierce vulnerability by 10%.
- Sun Ray (Apollo) increases attack by 10%.
- Oracle (Apollo) increases LOS by 6.
- Weapon of the Titans (Hephaestus) increases attack and decreases training time, by 20%.
- Shafts of Plague (Artemis) increases attack by 15% (increases attack by 20% EE and Tale of the Dragon Only).
- Beast Slayer (Titans Expansion) increases attack against myth units by ร1.5.
- Burning Pitch increases attack against buildings by ร3 and against ships by ร1.5.
Strategy[]
Gastraphetes are quite expensive but can handle various roles. They have a very long range and deal crush damage so can destroy buildings in groups. As archers, they are strong against infantry as well. Due to their long range they can kill infantry from much further away than conventional archers so can provide long ranged support. This also reduces the extent to which infantry can close the gap and hurt them. They work well when paired with Petroboli since they can provide anti-infantry support and help destroy buildings. Their main weakness is that they are expensive and take up three population slots. Furthermore, like all archers they are weak against cavalry, though their range helps to mitigate this somewhat.
Changelog[]
Age of Mythology[]
Tale of the Dragon[]
History[]
โ | This ancient weapon was an ancestor to both mounted ballistae and medieval crossbows. It appeared to be a large crossbow that was cocked, and perhaps fired, while braced against the soldier's middle. "Gastraphetes" literally means "belly bow". Because they were slow to fire, but had a great range, the weapons were most likely used for siege. | โ |
—In-game history section |
Trivia[]
- The Gastraphetes was the last trainable human unit created for Age of Mythology before The Titans, as Hades originally had access to the Cataphract instead.
- The last trainable unit created was the Jormund Elver.