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This article is about the building in Age of Empires II. For the similar building in other games of the series, see Siege Workshop. |
| ā | Used to build and upgrade siege weapons. | ā |
| —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 reduce traveling distance, especially considering all siege weapons move really slowly.
Trainable units[]
Clicking on the icon links to the corresponding page.
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 Indian civilizations only |
 Indian civilizations only |
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 Requires  Chemistry |
  Bohemiansonly | ||||||
  Tatarsonly |
Availability grid[]
The following table shows the availability of the units for every civilization. The Battering Ram and Armored Elephant lines are mutually exclusive, and all civilizations have access to the Capped Ram or Siege Elephant. Units that are available to all civilizations are not shown in the table. Battering Rams and Capped Rams are not shown either. The presence of the Siege Elephant in the Siege Ram column shows the presence of the Armored Elephant line.
| = Available | |
| = Unavailable |
Upgrades[]
| Hit points |  Masonry (+10%) Architecture (+10%)
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| Armor | Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor) Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
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| Line of Sight |  Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4)
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| Conversion defense |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max) Heresy (die upon getting converted)
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| Construction speed |  Treadmill Crane (+20%)
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Civilization bonuses[]
Aztecs: Siege Workshop units are created 11% faster.- Bulgarians: Siege Workshop technologies cost -50% food.
- Burmese: Researching Devotion and Faith is 50% cheaper.
- Byzantines: Siege Workshops have +30%/+40% hit points in the Castle/Imperial Age. Town Watch and Town Patrol are free.
- Chinese: Technologies that benefit Siege Workshops are 5%/10%/15% cheaper in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age.
- Cumans: Siege Workshop and Battering Ram available in the Feudal Age, Capped Ram available in the Castle Age.
- Georgians: Siege Workshops receive -20% damage (-40% instead of -25%) when fighting from higher elevation.
- Italians: 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.
- Romans: Siege Workshops are built and repaired 5% faster.
- Spanish: Siege Workshops are built 30% faster. Researching technologies that benefit Siege Workshops provides 20 gold each.
Team bonuses[]
- Celts: Siege Workshops work 20% faster.
- Georgians: Repairing Siege Workshops costs 25% fewer resources.
- Lithuanians: Researching Devotion, Faith, and Heresy is 20% faster.
- Malians: Researching Masonry, Architecture, and Treadmill Crane is 80% faster.
- Portuguese: Technologies that benefit Siege Workshops and Siege Workshop technologies are researched 25% faster.
- 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.
The African Kingdoms[]
- Siege Tower introduced.
Definitive Edition[]
- Portuguese: with update 42848, technologies are researched 30% faster.
Dawn of the Dukes[]
- Bohemians: Houfnice introduced as an upgrade for the Bombard Cannon.
Dynasties of India[]
- Armored Elephant-line introduced. It is a Ram-line replacement for India-based civilizations. The two lines are mutually exclusive, except in Full Tech Tree mode.
The Mountain Royals[]
- With update 99311, Devotion was introduced.
Victors and Vanquished[]
- With update 107882, the Flaming Camel no longer requires Timurid Siegecraft to be trained at Castles, but now becomes instantly available at the Siege Workshop when reaching the Imperial Age. Flaming Camel train time increased from 20 seconds to 30 seconds.
History[]
| ā | 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. | ā |
| —Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings manual | ||
Trivia[]
- Siege Workshop models in all architecture sets depict a Mangonel frame, except the Central Asian models which depict a Battering Ram/Siege Ram in the Feudal/Castle Age, respectively.
- While the Siege Workshop in the African architecture set also depicts a Catapult, it is specifically a catapult with bow limbs, which is supposed to work due to flexion of the limbs, and not by torsion of cords that the regular Mangonel line seems to possess. This is ironic, as the Ethiopians have a unique technology explicitly named Torsion Engines. The depicted catapult seems to be based on Petraria Arcatinus, which is considered to be a fictitious modern design, and not something which existed or was used historically, with no contemporary depictions of Catapults matching it and its mechanism.
Gallery[]
