Mortar

Mortar
Unit information
Introduced in	Age of Empires III
Type	Artillery
Civilization	Europeans Americans
Age	Industrial Age Fortress Age (Knights of St. John)
Training
Trained at	Artillery Foundry
Wood	100
Coin	350
Training time	45 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	300
Resists	75% vs. Ranged
Speed	3.0 (Limber) 1.2 (Bombard)
Line of Sight	44
Population	4
XP train bounty	45
XP bounty	45
Siege attack
Damage	500
Multipliers	×0.5 vs. Ship
Range	4-40
Area of Effect	1
Rate of Fire	6.0

“	Artillery that fires an exploding shell at buildings or ships.	”
—In-game description

The Mortar is an artillery unit in Age of Empires III that can be trained by European and American civilizations at the Artillery Foundry once the Industrial Age is reached.

Overview

The Mortar can be used effectively against buildings and ships, but it is unable to attack land units. They deal greatly inferior damage to Petard, though they can attack from great range and aren't suicide units, giving them more strategic value in a greater number of situations.

They play similarly to the Trebuchet from Age of Empires II in that they have very long range and must be packed up to move and fire.

Upgrades

Age	Upgrade	Cost	Effect	Civ.
	Howitzers	250 food, 250 wood	Upgrade Mortars to Howitzers (+25% hit points and attack)
	Gallilean Mortars	250 food, 250 wood	Upgrade Mortars to Gallilean Mortars (+?% hit points and attack)
	Imperial Howitzers	1,500 wood, 1,500 coin	Upgrade Howitzers to Imperial (+50% hit points and attack); requires Howitzers
	Imperial Gallilean Mortars	1500 food, 1500 wood	Upgrade Gallilean Mortars to Imperial (+50?% hit points and attack); requires Gallilean Mortars

Civilization differences

• Knights of St. John can train Mortars in the Fortress Age.
• John Black's Mercenaries can only upgrade Mortars to Howitzers.
• The United States can upgrade Mortars up to Imperial Howitzers.
• The Japanese can get Mortars by allying with the Dutch at the Consulate (requires a level 25 Home City) which provides Dutch Expeditionary Army and Dutch Brigade that includes 2 and 4 Mortars respectively. Unlike their regular counterpart, these Mortars are automatically upgraded in the Industrial Age and the Imperial Age (see here for the exact values).

Revolution

• Argentina have the "Argentine Mortars" Home City Card, which ships a Mortar and upgrade Mortars to Imperial Howitzers.

Further statistics

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Buildings, ships
Weak vs.	Infantry especially Arrow Knights, cavalry, artillery especially Culverins
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	Quechuan Diet (-10%)
Train cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
Other	Meritocracy (-20% upgrade cost)
Penalties	Coffee Trade (-10% speed, Dutch only) High Crusade (-5% hit points, Knights of St. John only)

Home City Cards

Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Mortar

• Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team
• Purple: Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times

All

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Advanced Artillery	Mortars and Horse Artillery available from the Fortress Age
2 Mortars	Ships 2 Mortars		1
TEAM 2 Mortars	Ships 2 Mortars		40
3 Mortars	Ships 3 Mortars (also +4 Uhlans for the Germans)		10

• "TEAM 2 Mortars" is not available to British, French, Portuguese, Swedes, and United States.
• "3 Mortars" is not available to the Dutch.

Americans

Card	Description	Age
2 Culverins + 2 Mortars	Ships 2 Culverins and 2 Mortars

Chinese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Western Reforms	All units get +8% hit points and attack		40
Siege Hitpoints	Artillery get +15% hit points; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points		10
Siege Attack	Artillery get +15% attack; Flamethrowers get +20% attack		10
Siege Combat	Artillery get +15% hit points and attack; Flamethrowers get +20% hit points and attack		25
TEAM Engineering School	Artillery, Grenade Trooper, Petard, Ram, Mantlet, Flamethrower, Siege Elephant, Black Flag Army, and Mongolian Army train time -15%; Heavy Cannons, Rockets, Great Bombards, and Flying Crows train 10% faster		25

"TEAM Engineering School" is also available to the Swedes (in the Industrial Age).

Dutch

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Coehorn Mortars	Mortars, Hand Mortars, Morutaru, Grenadiers with "Grenade Launchers", and Sebastopol Mortars get +20% attack		1

Europeans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Artillery Hitpoints	Artillery and Grenade Trooper gets +15% hit points		10
Advanced Artillery	Mortars and Horse Artillery can be trained at the Fortress Age		1
Engineering School	Artillery, Grenade Trooper and Petard train time -30%; Heavy Cannons/Great Bombards train 20% faster		25

• "TEAM Artillery Hitpoints" is available to Ottomans and Portuguese (in the Fortress Age).
• "Engineering School" is available to French, Ottomans, Portuguese, and Swedes.

Indians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Shivaji's Tactics	All units get +5% hit points and attack		25

Japanese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Cheaper Unit Upgrades	Unit upgrades cost -20%		1

Mexicans

Card	Description	Age
San Blas Battallion	Ships 8 Chinacos and 1 Mortar

Ottomans

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Artillery Attack	Artillery and Grenade Trooper gets +15% attack		25

Portuguese

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Rangefinding	Mortars get +10 LOS and range		25

Russians

Card	Description	Age	HC level
Unicorne Mortars	Mortars get +30% attack, cost -50%, and train time -15%		10

Spanish

Card	Description	Age	HC level
TEAM Inquisition	All units get +10 LOS		10

Swedes

Card	Description	Age
Barrage	Mortars get the Barrage attack (used against enemy units at 4-30 range, dealing 40 damage with 7 AOE, a ×0.5 multiplier against Cavalry and Shock Infantry, and a ×0.1 multiplier against Artillery and Arrow Knights)

History

“

A mortar is an artillery piece with a short barrel and a large bore that fires massive projectiles in a high arc. The name "mortar" probably refers to its resemblance to the mortar of a mortar and pestle. The high arc of a mortar's fire reaches emplacements and buildings that are screened by terrain or walls or other permanent defenses. The projectile a mortar fired was filled with gunpowder and fitted with a fuse that was lit right before firing the mortar. The artillery crew had to carefully measure how long to make the fuse for the mortar to explode at the right moment (usually on impact). This made mortars much better at firing on buildings and fortifications than on fluid groups of moving troops.

”

Gallery

A Mortar in Bombard mode

A Mortar in Limber mode

A(n) (Imperial) Howitzer in Limber mode

A Howitzer in Bombard mode

Mortar firing a huge shell following a reload

A Mortar fixed on top of the Monitor

Mortar from 1864 on a railroad, during the US Civil War

Mortar of 18th century

Mortar in the original game and in the Definitive Edition

See also

• Hand Mortar – Chinese counterpart
• Morutaru – Japanese counterpart
• Captured Mortar – Native American counterpart
• Sebastopol Mortar – Ethiopian counterpart