Heavy Cannon

Heavy Cannon
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III
Type	Artillery
Civilization	See description
Age	Industrial Age
Training
Trained at	Factory
Wood	200
Coin	500
Training time	115 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	475
Resists	75% vs. Ranged
Speed	3.5 (Limber) 1.4 (Bombard)
Line of Sight	32
Population	7
XP train bounty	70
XP bounty	70
Siege attack
Damage	200
Multipliers	×3.0 vs. Infantry ×3.0 vs. Ship ×2.0 vs. Building ×0.75 vs. Artillery ×0.5 vs. Arrow Knights
Range	28
Area of Effect	4
Rate of Fire	6.0

“	Heavy artillery. Good against infantry or buildings.	”
—In-game description

The Heavy Cannon is an artillery unit in Age of Empires III that can only be trained at the Factory or shipped from the Home City.

Heavy Cannons are available to European civilizations except British (who have Rockets instead), John Black's Mercenaries (Act II: Ice campaign), Knights of St. John (Act I: Blood campaign), and Ottomans (who have Great Bombards instead).

Overview

The Heavy Cannon is the typical heavy artillery piece for the Spanish, Portuguese, Germans, Russians, Dutch, and French. Its power and hit points are similar to the Great Bombard, but the rate of fire is slightly faster and it has no penalties versus Cavalry. The Heavy Cannon is effective against enemy infantry and artillery units, Spanish cannons using Unction are also effective versus Cavalry and other Artillery due to high damage and lack of significant penalties.

Overall, a Heavy Cannon (1 on 1 and lacking Unction) would have a good chance to beat a Great Bombard with full health, though it would rely on the Heavy Cannon getting two shots off (12 seconds) before the Bombard began attacking the Heavy Cannon. This is realistically possible due to the Heavy Cannon's smaller penalty versus other artillery and its greater rate of fire. Other common factors such as battlefield confusion, varying levels of micromanagement skill and line of sight advantages allow this scenario to occur frequently. The population cost of this unit is 7.

The General Imperial Age politician provides one Heavy Cannon for Dutch, French, Germans, and Spanish.

Hidden cost

The Heavy Cannon has a base cost of 200 wood and 500 coin, and a train time of 115 seconds (86.25 seconds with Engineering School or TEAM Engineering School Home City Card, 69 seconds with both), while the Factory generates 5.5 (7.15 with the respective improvements) resources every second.

Therefore, a Factory producing a Heavy Cannon uses up 632.5 resources (475.75 with Engineering School or TEAM Engineering School, 379.5 with both); with all three of the respective improvements, the value goes up to 822.5 (618.475 with Engineering School or TEAM Engineering School, 493.35 with both).

This means for the majority of civilizations, especially those lacking significant damage potential with Heavy Cannon, it is very economically damaging to create them. Improvements and Home City Cards that reduces artillery train time will also affect the Factory, whereas no economic cards do the same. With Engineering School and TEAM Engineering School, the bonus for Heavy Cannon is only 15% whereas regular artillery will train 70% faster (30% faster for civilizations lacking their Engineering School), fielding much quicker.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect
	Imperial Cannon	1,500 wood, 1,500 coin	Upgrades Heavy Cannons to Imperial Cannons (+50% hit points and attack)

Civilization differences

The Chinese can get Heavy Cannons by the following ways:

• Allying with the Russians at the Consulate, which provides the shipment of one Factory Wagon, allowing the Chinese player to build a single Factory and train Heavy Cannons.
• Allying with the Germans at the Consulate (requires a level 40 Home City), which provides the German Expeditionary Army that includes one Heavy Cannon (two before update 23511). Unlike their regular counterpart, these Heavy Cannons are automatically upgraded in the Industrial Age and the Imperial Age (see here for the exact values).

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Most units, buildings
Weak vs.	Artillery especially Culverins, Arrow Knights
Improvements
Hit points	Professional Gunners (+10%)
Attack	Heated Shot (+1.5x multiplier vs. ships)
Sight	Town Watch (+2) Gunner's Quadrant (+6)
Speed	Trunion (+15%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Mass Production (-25%) Incan Chasquis Messengers (-10%)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
Penalties	Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Heavy Cannon

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Chinese Card Description Age HC level Western Reforms All units get +8% hit points and attack 40 Siege Hitpoints Artillery gets +15% hit points; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points 10 Siege Attack Artillery gets +15% attack; Flamethrowers get +20% attack 10 Siege Combat Artillery gets +15% hit points and attack; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points and attack 25 TEAM Engineering School Abus Gun, Grenadier, Falconet/Organ Gun, Culverin, Mortar, Horse Artillery, Petard, Ram, Mantlet, Light Cannon, Flamethrower, Hand Mortar, Siege Elephant, Flaming Arrow, and Morutaru train time -15%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%; Black Flag Army and Mongolian Army train time -15% 25 Europeans Card Description Age HC level TEAM Artillery Hitpoints Artillery, Abus Guns, and Grenadiers get +15% hit points 10 2 Heavy Cannons Ships 2 Heavy Cannons (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans) 10 Engineering School Artillery train time -30%; Heavy Cannon train time -10% 25 The TEAM Artillery Hitpoints card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (in the Fortress Age). Since the Heavy Cannon cannot be trained by British and Ottomans, the Engineering School card is only relevant to French, Portuguese, and Swedes. French Card Description Age HC level Gribeauval System Falconets, Culverins, and Horse Artillery get +25% attack; Heavy Cannons get +20% attack 40 Germans Card Description Age HC level 1 Heavy Cannon Ships 1 Heavy Cannon +4 Uhlans 10 Indians Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Japanese Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades Unit upgrades cost -20% 1 Russians Card Description Age HC level Tsar Cannon Ships 2 Heavy Cannons 25 Spanish Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10 Swedes Card Description Age Case Shot Gives all artillery units a powerful close range attack ability that can be used against enemy units Cronstedt Reforms Leather Cannons, Heavy Cannons and Falconets use -1 population TEAM Engineering School Artillery, Grenade Trooper, Abus Gun, Petard, Flamethrower, Black Flag Army, Mongolian Army, Ram, and Mantlet train time -15%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%

Trivia

• The Heavy Cannon was originally trained at the Artillery Foundry.
• According to pre-release screenshots, the Heavy Cannon would be available to the British. There are unused voice files for British Heavy Cannon in the game files and in the Scenario Editor, which are the same voice files used by the Rocket.

History

“

The logistics of moving, maintaining, positioning, aiming, and firing artillery required a highly drilled and disciplined team with a sharp commander. In addition to the men and artillery pieces in his command, an artillery officer had to see to the horses used to haul the pieces around - sometimes up to six for heavier guns. When one side in a battle could field hundreds of artillery pieces, the logistics of just moving them into position were taxing. "Heavy Cannon" is a relative term, but in general, cannon considered 'heavy' were typically used as permanent gun emplacements to defend Forts and strategic locations.

”

Gallery

A Heavy Cannon in Bombard mode

A Heavy Cannon in Limber mode

Heavy Cannon side model

Heavy Cannon in Bombard mode model

Heavy Cannon in Bombard mode side model