Siege Workshop (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For the similar building in other games of the series, see Siege Workshop.

Siege Workshop
Building information
Introduced in	The Age of Kings
Type	Military
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Castle Age
Use	Trains and upgrades siege units
Construction
Requires	Blacksmith
Wood	200
Construction time	40 seconds
Statistics
Size	4×4 tiles
Hit points	1,800 2,100
Garrison	10
Melee armor	2 3
Pierce armor	9 10
Armor classes	Building Standard building
Line of Sight	6

“	Used to build siege weapons.	”
—Age of Empires II description

The Siege Workshop is a military building in Age of Empires II that becomes available once the Castle Age is reached and a Blacksmith is built. It trains and upgrades siege weapons.

Tactics and placement

The Siege Workshop is an essential building for all players as land siege engines (with the exception of Trebuchet and Petard) are created here. Siege Workshop units can rarely act on their own and need protection from other units, so it is advisable to train other units first.

The work rate of the Siege Workshop is slow and cannot be improved, so any player who wants to create Siege Workshop units in any relevant numbers should build multiple of them. It is advisable to build Siege Workshops near an enemy's settlement if playing offensively as this will cut off distance, especially considering all siege weapons move really slowly.

Trainable units

Clicking on the icon links to the corresponding page.

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Availability grid

The following table shows the availability of the units for every civilization. Units that are available to all civilizations are not shown in the table. An 'X' in the last column indicates that all units are available.

= Available

= Unavailable

Civilization						All
Aztecs
Berbers
Bohemians
Britons
Bulgarians
Burgundians
Burmese
Byzantines
Celts
Chinese
Cumans
Ethiopians						X
Franks
Goths
Huns
Incas
Indians
Italians
Japanese
Khmer
Koreans
Lithuanians
Magyars
Malay
Malians
Mayans
Mongols
Persians
Poles
Portuguese
Saracens
Sicilians
Slavs
Spanish
Tatars
Teutons
Turks
Vietnamese
Vikings
Civilization						All

Further statistics

Building strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Nothing
Weak vs.	Everything
Upgrades
Hit points	Masonry (+10%)  Architecture (+10%)
Armor	Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor)  Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+4)  Town Patrol (+4)
Conversion defense	Faith  Heresy
Construction speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)

Civilization bonuses

• Aztecs: Siege Workshop units are created 11% faster.
• Burmese: Faith is 50% cheaper.
• Bulgarians: Siege Workshop technologies cost –50% food.
• Byzantines: Siege Workshops have +30%/+40% HP in the Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch and Town Patrol are free.
• Chinese: Siege Workshop technologies and technologies that benefit Siege Workshops are 15%/20% cheaper in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Cumans: Siege Workshop and Battering Ram available in the Feudal Age, Capped Ram available in the Castle Age.
• Italians: Bombard Cannons are 20% cheaper. Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane are 33% cheaper.
• Khmer: Building a Siege Workshop does not require a Blacksmith.
• Malians: Siege Workshops are 15% cheaper.
• Persians: Researching Town Watch and Town Patrol is 10%/15%/20% faster in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
• Portuguese: Siege Workshop units cost –20% gold. Researching Siege Workshop technologies and technologies that benefit the Siege Workshop is 30% faster.
• Slavs: Siege Workshop units are 15% cheaper.
• Spanish: Siege Workshops are built 30% faster.

Team bonuses

• A team containing Celts: Siege Workshops work 20% faster.
• A team containing Lithuanians: Researching Faith and Heresy is 20% faster.
• A team containing Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
• A team containing Slavs: Siege Workshops provide +5 population.

Changelog

The Age of Kings

• Siege Workshops always have 2,100 HP.

The Conquerors

• Heresy introduced.

The Forgotten

• Siege Workshop HP staggered: 1,800/2,100 in the Castle/Imperial Age.
• Siege Tower introduced.
• Italians: Bombard Cannons are 15% cheaper.

The African Kingdoms

• Italians: With patch 4.8, Bombard Cannons are now 20% cheaper.

Definitive Edition

• Bulgarians: with update 42848, Siege Workshop technologies cost -50% food.
• Portuguese: with update 42848, technologies are researched 30% faster.

Dawn of the Dukes

• Bohemians: Houfnice introduced. It is a unique upgrade for the Bombard Cannon that costs 950 food, 750 gold.

History

“

The construction of castles and fortified towns created demand for artillery engines that could knock down walls and open the fortification to assault by troops. Without such artillery weapons, the taking of a castle required a long and costly siege that eventually starved the defenders into surrender. The ability to lay siege was constrained by the length of the campaigning season, the cost of providing supplies to a besieging army, the losses from disease in camp, and weather. Battering rams, trebuchets, and other siege engines were used to break into the fortification quickly and decide the issue. Siege engines were built at a siege workshop.

”

Gallery

All Siege Workshops in The Age of Kings and The Conquerors

All Siege Workshops in the HD expansions

All original Siege Workshops in the Definitive Edition

All expansion Siege Workshops in the Definitive Edition

The Cuman Feudal Age Siege Workshop, the only one of its kind

Spritesheet for the Siege Workshop