"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 
Edit
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 Edit
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 Edit
| 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 Edit
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 2 Heavy Cannons. 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 Edit
| 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 Edit
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Heavy Cannon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 -30%; Heavy Cannon, Rocket, Great Bombard, and Flying Crow train time -5%; Black Flag Army and Mongolian Army train time -15% | | 25 |
Europeans Edit
| 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 -40%; Heavy Cannon train time -10% | | 25 |
- The TEAM Artillery Hitpoints card is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (at the Fortress Age).
- Since the Heavy Cannon cannot be trained by British and Ottomans, the Engineering School card is only relevant to French and Portuguese.
French Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 Gribeauval System
| Falconets, Culverins, and Horse Artillery get +25% attack; Heavy Cannons get +20% attack | | 40 |
Indians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Shivaji's Tactics
| All units get +5% hit points and attack | | 25 |
Japanese Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades
| Unit upgrades cost -20% | | 1 |
Russians Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tsar Cannon
| Ships 2 Heavy Cannons | | 25 |
Spanish Edit
| Card | Description | Age | HC level |
|---|---|---|---|
 TEAM Inquisition
| All units get +10 LOS |  | 10 |
History Edit
"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 Edit
