Siege weapon (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the siege weapons in Age of Empires II. For the armor class, see Armor class: Siege weapon. For siege weapons in other games of the series, see Siege unit.

Siege weapons in Age of Empires II are one of the four combat forces on land, the other ones being archers, infantry, and cavalry. They are powerful units that excel at destroying enemy buildings or massed units.

Siege weapons first become available in the Castle Age (excluding the Cumans), and most upgrades are only available in the Imperial Age. They are mainly built at the Siege Workshop, but some (Trebuchets, Petards, and unique siege weapons) are created at the Castle.

General information

A Villager repairing a Capped Ram.

Siege weapons are the most diverse class of military units in the game. Some attack at close range, like rams, and others at mid-to-long range, like Trebuchets (which are the longest ranged units in the game); some are suicide units, like Petards; and one, the Siege Tower, has no attack and is used to ferry Infantry units over walls instead.

Siege weapons that are predominantly organic (namely the Petard, the Ballista Elephant, and the Flaming Camel) cost food and gold to create, can be garrisoned in Castles (but not in other Siege Weapons), and are healed by Monks. Those that are mechanical, on the other hand, cost wood and gold, and have to be repaired by Villagers in a similar manner to buildings and ships. Repairing siege weapons costs gold. Bombard Cannons and Organ Guns belong to the second category despite having a visible human operator, unlike non-gunpowder siege weapons.

Generally speaking, siege weapons are the most expensive units and take longest to train. Bombard Cannons and Flaming Camels also require Chemistry and Timurid Siegecraft to be researched before becoming available, respectively.

Besides Monks, siege weapons are the only units that cannot be converted initially. Redemption must be researched in order to convert siege weapons.

All siege weapons are slow and vulnerable to melee units, even if they can attack at close range. As a result, they should be protected by other units or fortifications.

Tactics

Capped Rams destroying an enemy Castle.

Siege Onager knocking down trees.

Depending of their use, siege weapons can be broadly divided into those whose main purpose is to destroy buildings, and those that excel against enemy units.

Anti-building weapons

• Rams have high pierce armor, attack at close range, and deal great damage to buildings, but their attack against units is negligible (excluding other siege weapons). Since The Conquerors, they can improve their speed and anti-building attack by garrisoning foot units.
• Petards are suicide units that deal great damage to buildings in a radius, but their effect on units is limited. Their attack is triggered even if they are killed before reaching their objective.
• Trebuchets shoot powerful projectiles at very long distances. Though they may kill individual units in one hit, they are unlikely to because of their missing rate and slow rate of fire (excluding, to some extent, other Trebuchets). They also have to be packed to move and unpacked to shoot, and have a minimum range.

Anti-unit weapons

• Mangonels shoot projectiles at mid-range that cause area damage, allowing them to hit several massed units at once. They are less effective against buildings because they are outranged by all fortifications except garrisoned Town Centers, and can also damage units belonging to the same player or an ally (for example, rams and melee troops attacking the same enemy as the Mangonel).
• Scorpions and Ballista Elephants shoot projectiles with the ability to damage several units in a line, but cause little damage to buildings.
• Organ Guns are similar to Hand Cannoneers, but fire volleys that can hit up to five units in close proximity at once.
• Flaming Camels are suicide units, but contrary to Petards, their attack bonus is against Cavalry, and their effect on buildings is limited.

Mixed weapons

• Bombard Cannons fire powerful projectiles at a range only surpassed by upgraded Castles and Trebuchets. Unlike the latter, it is also mobile enough to hit slow or massed units, and can dodge enemy projectiles to some extent.
• Siege Tower: Since The African Kingdoms, Siege Towers have no attack of their own, but have high pierce armor and can garrison foot units, then unload them on the other side of a wall. As the transported units will be used to attack units or buildings behind the wall, Siege Towers can be considered useful against both, albeit indirectly. In The Forgotten, Siege Towers also fired arrow volleys like the Longboat, but their main purpose was still to protect and transport troops.
• Flamethrowers shoot a stream of fire similar to the Fire Ship that is damaging to buildings and units alike. However, because they are Scenario Editor-only units, they cannot be upgraded and eventually become ineffective against both.

Special commands

Trebuchets, Mangonels, and Bombard Cannons can be ordered to attack ground, even when there are no enemy units in place at the time. This makes possible to hit units arriving later at a spot (for example, after being lured there or while in patrol), and (excluding Trebuchets) to kill units belonging to the same player or to an ally without having to change Diplomacy first (for example, if they get stuck in a bottleneck).

Trebuchets, Onagers (since The Forgotten), Siege Onagers, and Ballista Elephants can also be ordered to destroy trees, making them the only units able besides Villagers. This can be of high strategic importance in maps with dense forests, e. g. Black Forest.

Statistics

Marked with yellow background are unique units.

Siege unit	Building	A	HP	At	Ar	PA	Ra	ROF	LOS	Sp	F	W	G	TT	Ci
File:BatteringRamIcon.jpg Battering Ram	Siege W.		175	2	-3	180	0	5	3	0.5	0	160	75	36	35
File:CappedRamIcon.jpg Capped Ram	Siege W.		200	3	-3	190	0	5	3	0.5	0	160	75	36	35
File:SiegeRamIcon.jpg Siege Ram	Siege W.		270	4	-3	195	0	5	3	0.6	0	160	75	36	19
Mangonel	Siege W.		50	40	0	6	7	6	9	0.6	0	160	135	46	35
Onager	Siege W.		60	50	0	7	8	6	10	0.6	0	160	135	46	33
Siege Onager	Siege W.		70	75	0	8	8	6	10	0.6	0	160	135	46	11
Scorpion	Siege W.		40	12	0	7	7	3.6	9	0.65	0	75	75	30	35
Heavy Scorpion	Siege W.		50	16	0	7	7	3.6	9	0.65	0	75	75	30	22
Siege Tower	Siege W.		220	0	-2	100	N/A	N/A	8	0.8	0	200	160	36	35
File:BombardCannonIcon.jpg Bombard Cannon	Siege W.		80	40	2	5	12	6.5	14	0.7	0	225	225	56	19
Petard	Castle		50	25	0	2	0	N/A	4	0.8	65	0	25	25	35
Trebuchet (packed)	Castle		150	0	2	8	N/A	N/A	19	0.8	0	200	200	50	35
Trebuchet (unpacked)	Castle		150	200	1	150	16	10	19	0	0	200	200	50	35
Flamethrower	N/A	N/A	160	4	2	2	5	0.25	7	0.6	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0
File:OrganGunIcon.jpg Organ Gun	Castle		60	16	2	4	7	3.45	9	0.85	0	80	70	21	1
File:OrganGunIcon.jpg Elite Organ Gun	Castle		70	20	2	6	7	3.45	9	0.85	0	80	70	21	1
Ballista Elephant	Castle		250	8	0	3	5	0.25	7	0.8	100	0	80	25	1
Elite Ballista Elephant	Castle		290	9	0	3	5	0.25	7	0.8	100	0	80	25	1
Flaming Camel	Castle		55	20	0	0	0	N/A	4	1.3	75	0	30	20	1
Average	N/A	N/A	113	33.5	-0.1	58.3	6.1	5.3	9.2	0.63	4.3	139.7	115.3	37.7	26.2

Technologies

Listed below are all technologies that benefit siege weapons. Marked with yellow background are unique technologies. This list does not contain unit upgrades.

Technology	Researched at	Age	Civilization	Effect
Bloodlines	Stable	II	2	Increases HP of Flaming Camels and Ballista Elephants by +20
Husbandry	Stable	III	2	Increases speed of Flaming Camels and Ballista Elephants by +10%
Siege Engineers	University	IV	23	Increases range (except for rams and suicide units) by +1 and attack against buildings by +20%
Chemistry	University	IV	All	Increases attack by +1
Heresy	Monastery	III	22	Converted machines die instead of changing color
Faith	Monastery	IV	32	Increases conversion resistance
Conscription	Castle	IV	All	Increases creation speed for Castle units by +33%
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Kasbah	Castle	III	Berbers	Castle production and research speed increased by +25%
File:Unique-tech.jpg Warwolf	Castle	IV	Britons	Trebuchets do blast damage and have 100% accuracy against units
File:Unique-tech.jpg Furor Celtica	Castle	IV	Celts	Increases HP of Siege Workshop units by +40%
File:Unique-tech.jpg Rocketry	Castle	IV	Chinese	Increases Scorpion attack by +4
File:Unique-tech.jpg Torsion Engines	Castle	IV	Ethiopians	Increases blast radius of Siege Workshop units
File:Unique-tech.jpg Kataparuto	Castle	IV	Japanese	Trebuchets pack, unpack, and fire faster
File:Unique-tech.jpg Double Crossbow	Castle	IV	Khmer	Scorpions and Ballista Elephants fire an additional projectile
File:Unique-tech.jpg Shinkichon	Castle	IV	Koreans	Mangonel range increased by +1
File:Unique-tech.jpg Drill	Castle	IV	Mongols	Siege Workshop units move +50% faster
File:Unique-tech.jpg Arquebus	Castle	IV	Portuguese	Increases Organ Gun and Bombard Cannon accuracy at moving targets
File:Unique-tech.jpg Timurid Siegecraft	Castle	IV	Tatars	Increases the range of Trebuchets by +2 and enables creation of Flaming Camels
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Ironclad	Castle	III	Teutons	Increases melee armor by +4
File:Unique-tech.jpg Artillery	Castle	IV	Turks	Increases the range of Bombard Cannons by +2

Note: Ballista Elephants also benefit from cavalry armor upgrades.

Civilizations

The Slavs, Celts, Mongols, and Ethiopians have the best siege weapons due to their civilizations bonuses and unique technologies. The Britons, Huns, Japanese, Khmer, Koreans, Tatars, and Teutons have also strong siege weapons, through less prominent than the before-mentioned civilizations.

The Ethiopians are the only civilization to have access to all units from the Siege Workshop.

Civilization bonuses

The following civilizations have bonuses that benefit siege weapons:

• Aztecs: Siege weapons are created 18% faster.
• Burmese: Monastery technologies that affect siege weapons are 50% cheaper.
• Celts: Siege weapons fire 25% faster.
• Chinese: Technologies that benefit siege weapons are 20% cheaper.
• Cumans: Siege Workshops and Battering Ram/Capped Ram available in the Feudal/Castle Age.
• Huns: Trebuchets are 30% more accurate.
• Italians: Bombard Cannons are 20% cheaper.
• Portuguese: Siege units cost 20% less gold.
• Spanish: Bombard Cannons fire 15% faster.
• Slavs: Siege Workshop units are 15% cheaper.
• Tatars: Siege weapons deal +50% damage when attacking from hills.
• Turks: Bombard Cannons have +25% HP. Chemistry is free.
• Vietnamese: Conscription is free.

Team bonuses

The following civilizations have team bonuses that benefit siege weapons:

• Celts: Siege Workshops work 20% faster.
• Khmer: Scorpions have +1 range.
• Huns: Stable technologies that affect Flaming Camels and Ballista Elephants are researched 20% faster.
• Indians: Flaming Camels have +6 attack against buildings.
• Koreans: Mangonel minimum range reduced from 3 to 1.
• Lithuanians: Monastery technologies that affect cavalry are researched 20% faster.
• Malians: Technologies that affect siege weapons are researched 80% faster.
• Teutons: Siege Weapons are more resistant to conversion.
• Turks: Bombard Cannons are created 25% faster.

Trivia

• Early in development, the Mongols were planned to have a fast unique siege weapon that would be pulled by a horse or donkey. Although discarded for the Mangudai (a unique Cavalry Archer with bonus attack against siege weapons), it influenced the Mongol unique technology Drill (which increases the speed of siege weapons), as well as the Tarkan, a unique cavalry of the Huns with bonus attack against buildings.
• Mangonels and Scorpions were planned to have visible human operators, like Bombard Cannons, and Mangonels would have to be packed to move and unpacked to shoot, like Trebuchets.

Gallery

All siege units trained at the Siege Workshop

All siege units trained at the Castle plus the Editor-exclusive Flamethrower

Early render of the Scorpion with an operator