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Upgrade of the Catapult. The Heavy Catapult has many more hit points and more range.
Age of Empires description

The Heavy Catapult is a slow and heavy siege weapon in Age of Empires used to eliminate buildings and defenses. Its attack features medium Area of Effect damage, regardless of whether the unit is a friend or foe.

Civilizations[]

The Heavy Catapult is an uncommon unit, and can only be trained by few civilizations.

Aoede heavy catapult available Available Aoede heavy catapult unavailable Unavailable
x indicates that the civilization can fully upgrade their Heavy Catapults, i.e. gets Alchemy, Engineering, and Ballistics. Alchemy and Engineering were unavailable to the Assyrians before the Definitive Edition.
+ indicates that the civilization has at least one civilization bonus that benefits the combat strength of their Heavy Catapults.

Gameplay[]

The Heavy Catapult is the ultimate siege unit, costing an extremely expensive 1,800 food, 900 wood to upgrade from the Catapult. It doubles the hit points, adds +1 range, +1 pierce armor, 20% wider blast radius, and gains the ability to destroy trees. Before Return of Rome, it also required Siegecraft to be researched at the Market, a technology which otherwise provides no benefits for siege engines.

A major reason to invest the considerable resources to field Heavy Catapults is to get an edge with range. Normally they have the longest reach of anything in Age of Empires, but there are a few rare exceptions:

  • Priests with Afterlife match their un-upgraded range. Egyptian Priests have an additional +3 bonus, so are the only units that can exceed the reach of a Heavy Catapult upgraded with Engineering.
  • Catapults with Engineering slightly exceed the range of a Heavy Catapult without Engineering.
  • Roman Helepolises with Engineering match the range of a Heavy Catapult without Engineering.*
  • Choson Guard/Ballista Towers with Craftsmanship match the range of an un-upgraded Heavy Catapult.*

Another important use for Heavy Catapults over their forebears is their ability to destroy trees using the attack ground command. Trees are normally an impenetrable barrier to movement, only being slowly cleared away by Villagers. Heavy Catapults present the option of cutting quickly through wood lines to create new passages into enemy territory. In the original game, this ability was shared with the Juggernaut, but since the Definitive Edition it is unique to the Heavy Catapult.

Heavy Catapults provide a massive durability upgrade. In Return of Rome, there is no Archery Range unit that can destroy them with fewer than 38 shots (30 for Hittites), so they require a major concerted effort to bring down. Their enormous blast radius also makes their projectiles difficult to escape.

Otherwise, Heavy Catapults share the same traits as Catapults:

  • Good damage versus towers (22), extreme damage versus other buildings (40).
  • Projectiles have a wide blast radius that can devastate tightly-packed groups of units or clusters of buildings.
  • Inflicts full damage on the player's own or allied troops, making it unwise to use for supporting a melee assault.
  • Can continually bombard a tile with the attack ground command.
  • Slow projectiles can be dodged by enemy micro-management, but the Heavy Catapult anticipates enemy movement trajectory at time-of-firing when upgraded with Ballistics.
  • Unable to fire on nearby targets, making them extremely vulnerable to melee attacks, particularly cavalry rushes.
  • Extremely slow-moving, compounding the vulnerability to melee troops.
  • One of the few units in the game which requires no food to train, instead costing a large amount of wood and gold.

Further statistics[]

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs. Buildings, massed units
Weak vs. Cavalry
Upgrades
Attack Alchemy Alchemy (+1)
Range Engineering Engineering (+2)
Accuracy Ballistics Ballistics (hit moving targets)

Civilization bonuses[]

  • Hittite AOE DE ROR icon Hittites: Heavy Catapults have +50% hit points.
  • Lac Viet AOE DE ROR icon Lac Viet: Heavy Catapults are trained 25% faster.
  • Sumerian AOE DE ROR icon Sumerians: Heavy Catapults fire 45% faster.

Team bonuses[]

  • A team containing Assyrians: Heavy Catapults are produced 20% faster.
  • Palmyran AOE DE ROR icon Palmyrans: Researching technologies that benefit Heavy Catapults are 30% faster.

Changelog[]

Age of Empires[]

  • Catapults can be upgraded to Heavy Catapults only if Siegecraft is researched.
  • Heavy Catapults have 2 minimum range, 1.5 blast radius, 5 Rate of Fire, and 2.7 projectile speed, and 0 pierce armor.
  • Heavy Catapults are visually identical to Catapults.

Definitive Edition[]

  • Heavy Catapults have 3 minimum range, 1.2 blast radius, 5.375 Rate of Fire, and 3 projectile speed.

Return of Rome[]

  • Researching Siegecraft is no longer required to upgrade Catapults to Heavy Catapults.
  • Heavy Catapults receive a unique model to visually differentiate them from Catapults.
  • Upon release, Heavy Catapults had 2 blast radius and 2.49 projectile speed. With hotfix 85208, they have 3.49 projectile speed. With update 87863, they have 1.2 blast radius again.
  • Team bonuses added:
    • Assyrians: Heavy Catapults are produced and upgraded 20% faster.
    • Palmyrans: Technologies benefiting Heavy Catapults are researched 30% faster.
  • With update 93001, Heavy Catapults have 1.5 blast radius and 5 pierce armor.
  • With update 99311, Heavy Catapult melee armor reduced from 0 to -2.

History[]

The heavy catapult was a powerful siege weapon, representing the greatest advance in siege weaponry during ancient times. It was employed against fortifications and on the battlefield. It broke down fortification walls, allowing attackers to break in. On the battlefield, smaller missiles could be fired in a shower against dense formations of soldiers to cause casualties and disrupt morale at long range. Enemy armies that could be softened and shaken before the hand-to-hand clash of infantry were at a decided disadvantage.

Gallery[]

Video[]

HEAVY_CATAPULT_vs_EVERY_UNIT_-_Age_of_Empires-_Definitive_Edition

HEAVY CATAPULT vs EVERY UNIT - Age of Empires- Definitive Edition

Siege Workshop
Requires
AOEDE Archery Range icon Archery Range
Stone Age Icon (DE)
Tool Age Icon (DE)
Bronze Age Icon (DE)
Iron Age Icon (DE)
Aoede stone thrower available Catapult Aoede heavy catapult available
Ballista Helepolis
Units in Age of Empires
CivilianReturnofrome female villager icon Villager · Returnofrome trade cart icon Trade Cart
OtherAoE2 DE priest icon Priest · Slinger-0 Slinger · Returnofrome artifact icon Artifact
Civilian ship1 Fishing Boat Fishing Boat · 2 Fishing Ship Fishing Ship
3 Trade Boat Trade Boat · 4 Merchant Ship Merchant Ship
5 Light Transport Light Transport · 6 Heavy Transport Heavy Transport
InfantryClubman Clubman · AxemanAoEDE Axeman
Short Swordsman Short Swordsman · Broad Swordsman Broad Swordsman · AoE nuRoR Long Swordsman icon Long Swordsmen · Returnofrome legionary icon Legionary
HopliteDE Hoplite · AoE nuRoR Phalangite icon Phalangite · Returnofrome centurion icon Centurion
ArcherBowman aoe1de Bowman
Improved Bowman22 Improved Bowman · Composite Bowman Composite Bowman
Chariot Archer111 Chariot Archer
Horse Archer Horse Archer · Returnofrome heavy horse archer icon Heavy Horse Archer
EAICON DE Elephant Archer
CavalryScout-0 Scout
ChariotDE Chariot · ScytheDE Scythe Chariot
Cavalry111 Cavalry · Returnofrome heavy cavalry icon Heavy Cavalry · Returnofrome cataphract icon Cataphract
War ElephantDE War Elephant · Returnofrome armored elephant icon Armored Elephant
Camel RiderDE Camel Rider
SiegeStone ThrowerDE Stone Thrower · CatapultDE Catapult · Returnofrome heavy catapult icon Heavy Catapult
BallistaDE Ballista · Returnofrome helepolis icon Helepolis
War Ship7 Scout Ship Scout Ship · 8 War Galley War Galley · 9 Trireme Trireme
Catapult Trireme Catapult Trireme · Returnofrome juggernaut icon Juggernaut
10 Fire Galley Fire Galley
Scenario Editor-only units
Short Swordsman Chieftain · Donkey caravan aoe2DE Donkey · Clubman Explorer · Returnofrome heavy cavalry icon General · AoE2 DE priest icon High Priest · Returnofrome horse icon Horse · HeavyCavalryDE Mercenary (removed) · Penguin aoe2DE Penguin · AoE2 DE priest icon Pharaoh · 5 Light Transport Raft · Returnofrome artifact icon War Chest
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