Mirror Tower (Age of Empires)

This article is about the building in Age of Empires. For the similar building in Age of Mythology, see Mirror Tower (Age of Mythology).

Mirror Tower
Building
Information
Introduced in	Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
Type	Tower
Special ability	Ignore pierce armor
Construction
Stone	150
Build time	72 seconds
Statistics
Size	2×2 tiles
Hit points	400
Attack	100
Reload time	10
Range	17
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	5
Armor classes	Buildings and Fire Galley (+90) Defensive structures Towers
Line of Sight	17

“	Contains a sophisticated array of light-gathering mirrors to focus intense heat upon attacking ships and troops.	”
—In-game description in the Definitive Edition

The Mirror Tower is a tower in Age of Empires that is only available to the Scenario Editor and the campaign mode.

Unlike its Age of Empires II counterparts like The Tower of Flies, it is not classified as a Hero. As such, it can be converted, and does not regenerate hit points.

The infobox uses "O" as the shorthand of "original" for the original icon. Moreover, it uses the following shorthand for different architecture sets:

• G - Greek
• A - East Asian
• M - Mesopotamian
• E - Egyptian
• R - Roman

Overview

The Mirror Tower is a defensive structure. If Architecture is researched, the hit points of the building increases from 400 to 480. Like all towers, Mirror Towers are more resistant against stone throwing siege weapons compared to other buildings, having 18 additional armor against them (meaning they will do 10 bonus damage instead of 28).

Although the Mirror Tower can outrange any unit in the game, it has the slowest firing rate in the game. Just like any defensive structure, it can be easily outgunned by a large army of the best available siege equipment. This defensive structure is featured in the The Siege of Syracuse scenario.

Certain civilization bonuses specific to towers have no influence on this particular tower. In particular, the tower's hit points are not doubled when playing as the Babylonians, and its range does not increase by 2 when playing as the Choson.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Infantry, archers, ships
Weak vs.	Siege units
Upgrades
Hit points	Architecture (+20%)
Attack	Alchemy (+1)
Range	Woodworking (+1) Artisanship (+1) Craftsmanship (+1)
Accuracy	Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Line of Sight	City Watch (+3)

Civilization bonuses

• Macedonians: Mirror Towers are four times more resistant to conversion.

Changelog

• Originally, the Mirror Tower fired a beam of red light every 10 seconds, which could track moving targets without the need to research Ballistics. Since Return of Rome, it fires regular tower arrows.
• Before Return of Rome, its range could not be upgraded by Woodworking technologies in the Market, and its cost did not decrease by half if played as the Romans.

History

The Mirror Tower is a historical legendary structure that is thought to be invented and constructed by Archimedes. The purpose of the building is to focus sunlight onto an enemy warship by using a mirror. Once enough energy is focused in the mirror, a ray of light would strike the desired target and light the object on fire. The true existence of this structure is historically disputed since no documented evidence of this contraption existed until 800 years after the battle, and no sources that were present in the battle mentioned the use of mirrors or fire.

Gallery

Triremes attacking a Mirror Tower

The Mirror Tower's in-game description

MIRROR TOWER vs EVERY UNIT - Age of Empires- Definitive Edition