Heavy Catapult

Heavy Catapult
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires
Type	Siege unit
Civilization	See Civilizations
Age	Iron Age
Training
Trained at	Siege Workshop
Wood	180
Gold	80
Statistics
Hit points	150
Attack	60 melee
Rate of Fire	Slow
Range	13
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Speed	Slow
Line of Sight	13
Unit evolution
Upgraded from	Catapult
Upgrade cost	1800 food, 900 wood
Required research	Siegecraft

The Heavy Catapult is a heavy siege weapon in Age of Empires.

Requiring research of Siegecraft from the Market, it is the upgrade of the Catapult, with twice the amount of hit points and larger Area of Effect damage. This makes Heavy Catapults a popular Iron Age unit for bombarding enemy troops and enemy buildings. It is also the only land unit that can knock trees down with its attack damage.

Like all stone throwing heavy siege weapons, Catapults deal 28 bonus damage against buildings (40) after accounting for building armor but only 10 bonus damage against towers (22). Only a certain number of civilizations have the ability to research and train this unit.

Availability

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

Unit availability

Available	Unavailable
Assyrians Babylonians Greeks Hittites Minoans Palmyrans Romans Sumerians	Carthaginians Choson Egyptians Macedonians Persians Phoenicians Shang Yamato

Upgrades

Iron Age

•  Alchemy increases attack by 1.
•  Ballistics increases the accuracy.
•  Engineering increases the range by 2.

Siege Workshop Tree
Bronze Age Siege Workshop Stone Thrower Iron Age Catapult Ballista Heavy Catapult Helepolis

Civilization bonuses

• Hittites: Heavy Catapults have +50% HP.
• Sumerians: Catapults attack twice as fast (same rate of fire as a Ballista)
• Macedonians: Catapults are four times more resistant against conversion (Scenario Editor only)

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

A group of Heavy Catapults

Two Heavy Catapults destroying a Wonder in the Wonder campaign

A Heavy Catapult in the Definitive Edition

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