| “ | Anti-building siege weapon. Resistant to most ranged attacks. Garrisoned infantry increase speed and attack. | ” |
| —Age of Empires II description | ||
The Siege Ram is a non-ranged siege unit in Age of Empires II that can be trained at the Siege Workshop once the Imperial Age is reached. The wet hides of the Capped Ram have been replaced by metal roof armor for increased durability and strength. It is not only stronger than the Capped Ram, but also slightly faster, has an increased splash damage radius, and can garrison up to six foot units (infantry, archers, or Villagers), but only infantry units improve the speed and attack against buildings. Also, Siege Rams perform outstandingly against Trebuchets.
Availability chart[]
 Available
|
 Unavailable
|
|---|---|
- x means that the civilization has Siege Engineers, and hence can fully upgrade its Siege Ram.
- + means that the civilization gets some civilization or team bonus or a unique technology that benefits the combat strength of the Siege Ram.
Tactics[]
The Siege Ram is a significant improvement over the Capped Ram. It boasts with +70 hit points, +50 anti-building damage, +0.5 blast radius, and +1 ram armor. While the upgrade's cost 1,000 food makes it pricy, the absence of gold requirement for a unit as expensive as the Siege Ram makes it very valuable to pick up.
The Siege Ram excels in its ability to demolish buildings and absorb damage from pierce units, surpassing other rams in effectiveness. While it is weak against melee units with -3 melee armor, it has so many hit points that it can still take a respectable fourteen hits from an enemy Champion before dying. The Siege Ram synergizes very well with infantry, as it can absorb ranged attacks and tear down buildings for infantry, while the infantry can kill enemy melee units that threaten the Siege Ram.
Further statistics[]
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Buildings, Trebuchets |
| Weak vs. | Mangudai, Onagers, melee units especially Magyar Huszars |
| Upgrades | |
| Hit points |  Furor Celtica (+40%, Celts only)
|
| Attack |  Siege Engineers (+20% attack against buildings) Torsion Engines (increases splash damage radius, Ethiopians only)
|
| Speed | Drill (+50%, Mongols only)
|
| Line of Sight | Siege Engineers (+1)
|
| Conversion defense |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted) First Crusade (+4 min, +4 max, Sicilians only)
|
Civilization bonuses[]
Aztecs: Siege Rams are created 11% faster.- Celts: Siege Rams attack 25% faster. Siege Rams can convert herdable animals even if enemy units are next to them.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Siege Rams are 15% cheaper.
- Georgians: Siege Rams receive -20% damage (-40% instead of -25%) when fighting from higher elevation.
- Slavs: Siege Rams are 15% cheaper.
- Spanish: Researching technologies that benefit Siege Rams provides 20 gold each.
- Tatars: Siege Rams deal +20% damage (+50% instead of +25%) from elevations.
Team bonuses[]
- Celts: Siege Rams are created 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Researching Heresy, Devotion, and Faith is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Siege Engineers is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Siege Rams are researched 25% faster.
- Teutons: Siege Rams are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
The Age of Kings[]
- No units can be garrisoned inside rams.
The Conquerors[]
- Infantry and foot archers can be garrisoned inside Rams.
- Heresy introduced.
- Celts: Furor Celtica introduced. It gives Siege Rams +50% hit points.
- Mongols: Drill introduced.
The Forgotten[]
- Villagers can be garrisoned in Rams.
- Celts: Furor Celtica gives +40% HP to Siege Rams.
Definitive Edition[]
- Bulgarians: With update 42848, upgrading to Siege Ram costs -50%.
Dynasties of India[]
- With update 61321, siege units and ships are now resistant to armor-ignoring attacks, similarly to buildings.
Trivia[]
- With the Mongol unique technology Drill researched, a Mongol Siege Ram fully garrisoned with infantry units has a speed of 1.2, the same speed as a Dark Age Scout Cavalry, and thus can move faster than most foot soldiers. Such speed and high anti-building bonus will allow Mongol players to quickly devastate a defensive fortification far more swiftly than conventional Trebuchet or Bombard Cannon tactics.
- With the Celtic unique technology Furor Celtica researched, the Celtic Siege Ram has the third most hitpoints (378 HP) among all units in the game, only behind the Persian War Elephant and the Vietnamese Elite Battle Elephant with Chatras researched.
- With -3, the Rams have the lowest melee armor of all units.
- In addition to all infantry and foot archer units (and such-classed Hero units), Siege Rams can also be garrisoned with Villagers. Further, they can be garrisoned with unique Scenario Editor units Photonman and Penguin. They can never be garrisoned with Petards, Saboteurs, Kings or Queens (or similar Hero units), Monks (and other Monk-like units), Merchants, or animal units like Hunting Wolves or Furious the Monkey Boy.
History[]
| “ | The ultimate battering ram was the siege ram. This was a large engine that was heavily protected and designed to hit with a powerful force. Siege rams were often prefabricated weapons that were hauled to the site of the siege and assembled on the spot. | ” |
Gallery[]
Video[]
SIEGE RAM vs EVERY BUILDING - AoE II- Definitive Edition
