Onager (Age of Mythology)

This article is about the unit in Age of Mythology. For the similar unit in Age of Empires II, see Onager (Age of Empires II).

Template:Infobox unitsThe Onager is an Atlantean siege weapon in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon, available at the Palace in the Mythic Age. The Onager functions as a hybrid between the Petrobolos and the Ballista. It fires 2 projectiles each volley.

Attack bonuses

Ships: ×3
Gates: ×2
Towers: ×1.25
Buildings: ×2.5

Upgrades

General

Kronos reduces Wood and Gold cost by 10% and increases movement speed by 10%.

Engineers +1.10 attack multiplier vs walls, +25% attack
Draft Horses +20% speed
Petrified (Helios) reduces hack vulnerability by 15%.

Strategy

Meant to act as intermediate between the Classical Age anti-infantry Cheiroballista and the Mythic Age anti-building Fire Siphon, the Onager plays similarly to the Petrobolos, firing stones that cause great damage to ships and buildings, while also being able to cause moderate damage to human soldiers, though it's preferable to use Cheiroballistae in this role.

While cheaper and faster firing than the Petrobolos, the Onager deals less than half the damage to buildings per volley. The damage over time is roughly 33% lower than the Petrobolos. The Onager is also wastly inferior in terms of damage to the Egyptian Catapult with equal numbers and performs noticeably worse even with equal resources. Of course, being a ranged siege weapon means it has a minimum range that can be exploited from melee units, so it must always be escorted.

Changelog

The Titans

The Onager has 12 crush damage.

Tale of the Dragon

With patch 2.0, Onagers now have proper selection sounds.
With patch 2.7, the Onager has 13 crush damage.
With patch 2.8, the Onager has 14 crush damage.
Originally, Onagers and Sitting Tigers did not get increased range from Engineers. This was fixed in patch 2.7.

Trivia

The Onager was added because the Atlanteans lacked a proper long-range siege engine.

*Originally, the Onager was supposed to be a Heroic Age siege weapon (According to the Protox and in an announcement)^[1]

The Onager bears no similarity to the Roman Onager, but seems to be based on the likely historical fantasy Petraria Arcatinus (roughly "bow-powered stone-thrower") instead.

History

“

The Onager is a Roman-style catapult on a wooden frame which launches its projectile using a sling that is forced down against high tension and then released. The name of the weapon means "wild donkey," and has been attributed to the mechanism's visual similarity to the animal's kicking hind hooves. The Atlanteans made great use of Onagers. It was their most effective artillery for besieging a city and for firing at high-density troop formations.

”

Gallery

References

↑ "The Atlantean Onager will be a heroic age ranged siege unit trained at the Palace. The straightforward reason we went for this is because of how the Atlantean civilization lacks a viable long range siege option. We wanted to keep Fire Siphons as a mid-range unit in order to maintain their uniqueness, while allowing Atlanteans to siege from a safe distance with Onagers if they so choose. This should also promote wall usage for Atlantean players, which currently we see a massive lack in." from [1]

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[1] "The Atlantean Onager will be a heroic age ranged siege unit trained at the Palace. The straightforward reason we went for this is because of how the Atlantean civilization lacks a viable long range siege option. We wanted to keep Fire Siphons as a mid-range unit in order to maintain their uniqueness, while allowing Atlanteans to siege from a safe distance with Onagers if they so choose. This should also promote wall usage for Atlantean players, which currently we see a massive lack in." from [1]

[1]