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
Rate of Fire	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.

Overview

This 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 unlike other buildings, having 18 additional armor against them (meaning they will do 10 bonus damage instead of 28).

Although the Mirror Tower can out range any unit in the game, it has the slowest firing rate in the game. Additionally, civilization bonuses do not apply to this structure. 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.

Civilization bonuses that would have otherwise affect traditional towers may have no influence on this particular tower. As a result, hit points do not double if played as the Babylonians, and range does not increase by 2 if played 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, 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 there is little evidence that it actually exists. The Mirror Tower in the game is an overpowered and exaggerated version of the actual tower.

Gallery

Triremes attacking a Mirror Tower

The Mirror Tower's in-game description

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