| “ | Anti-unit siege weapon. Fires bolts that pierce multiple units | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Springald is a siege engine produced at Siege Workshop in Age of Empires IV. It is available to every civilization.
The Springald functions similar to the Scorpion in Age of Empires II. It fires large bolts that pass through multiple units, dealing damage to all of them. Whereas the Mangonel is meant to counter ranged units (especially infantry), the Springald is meant to counter melee infantry.
Tactics[]
Because Springalds have no setup time, and their movement speed is almost on par with Crossbowmen once Greased Axles has been researched, for most purposes, Springalds can be viewed as a more extreme version of Crossbowmen. They have more range and higher maximum damage potential, but are even more vulnerable to melee units that reach the Springald.
Because the realized damage is dependent on how many enemies are hit by a bolt, it performs best against large armies made up of small units. As such, the Springald is at its most effective when fighting against melee infantry. Similarly, Springalds shine when fighting in a choke point, or when kiting back, as both situations will naturally cause the enemy units to line up when attack moving.
To maximize the Springald's damage, player should actively target densely packed areas with them during a fight, and try to position the Springald not too close, but also not too far from its target, as otherwise the bolt will already disappear after the first unit hit. Special care has to be taken when fighting near Palisade Walls, as Springalds will ignore them for targeting, even though their bolts cannot pass through the Palisade Walls.
Due to its supreme range and because it is capable of kiting, the Springald also is an effective tool to harass the enemy army if neither player wants to engage.
Against ranged units, due to their ranged resistance, their effective hit points are 187.5 without upgrades. This puts their effective hit points per resource cost against ranged units between that of the Archer and Crossbowman.
Further statistics[]
| Strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Melee infantry |
| Weak vs. | Melee cavalry, Bombards |
| Conditional matchups | Ranged units |
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Siege Works (+20%); Improved: (+30%,  Mongols)
|
| Attack |  Steeled Arrow (+1) Balanced Projectiles (+1) Platecutter Point (+1) |
 Range
|
 Banded Arms (+1,  Rus)
|
| Damage resistance |  Roller Shutter Triggers (+10% ranged)
|
 Attack speed
|
Roller Shutter Triggers (+25%); Improved: (+35% Mongols only) Siege Crews (+25% while garrisoned  Ottomans)
|
 Movement speed
|
 Greased Axles (+15%); Improved: (+20% Mongols)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Academy (+33%); Improved: (+53%, Mongols) Efficient Production (+100%, requires Scholar garrisoned in the Siege Workshop,  Delhi Sultanate)
|
| Ability |  Siege Carpentry (Grants Structural Reinforcements ability,  Ayyubids)
|
| Other |  Siege Engineering Improved (Can be built by infantry in the field, Mongols)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Hit points
|
 Chinese (+15% in  Ming Dynasty) Chinese (+50% from Astronomical Clocktower)
|
| Resource cost |  Zhu Xi's Legacy (-10% in  Yuan Dynasty)
|
| Creation speed |  English (+75% from  The White Tower)
|
| Other |  Abbasid Dynasty and Ayyubids (Can be built by infantry in the field) English (Available at Keeps)
|
Dialogue lines[]
Springalds use the standard ranged siege engine dialogue lines
- Main article: Siege engine#Dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- Originally, Springalds cost 200 wood, 200 gold, deal +20 damage vs siege engines, and deal 60 base damage. With patch 9369, they cost 250 wood, 250 gold, deal +90 damage vs siege engines, and deal 30 base damage. With the Season Two Update 17718 their attack bonus vs siege engines was reduced to +70. With patch 9.2.628, their attack bonus was decreased to +60. With update 10.0.576 the attack bonus was increased to +65. With update 12.0.1974, their base damage was reduced to 15, their bonus against siege was removed, and they cost 150 wood, 100 gold. With patch 12.1.2454, they deal 16 damage.
- Originally, Springalds had a move speed of 1 tile per second. With patch 11009, this was reduced to 0.88 tiles per second
- Originally, Springalds dealt no bonus damage to Ships. With path 11009, they dealt +90 bonus damage to ships. This was reduced to +70 along with their bonus vs siege engines in update 17718. With patch 9.2.628, their attack bonus was decreased to +60. With update 10.0.576, the attack bonus was increased to +65.
- Originally, Springalds were constructed in the field in 30 seconds. With the Season One Update, constructing them in the field now takes 80 seconds (base). With update 12.0.1974, it takes 50 seconds.
- Originally, regular Springalds had 200 hit points and 8 ranged armor, while Clockwork Springalds had 300 hit points and 8 ranged armor. With Season Two Update 17718, regular Springalds have 125 hit points and 20 ranged armor, while Clockwork Springalds have 190 hit points and 20 ranged armor. The ranged armor was reduced back down to 10 with patch 9.1.370. In patch 12.0.1974, their health was reduced to 75 (112 Clocktwower) and their ranged armor was replaced with 60% ranged resistance. With patch 12.1.2454, they have 85 hit points (128 Clocktower)
- Originally, Springalds had an attack rate of 4.125 seconds. With patch 9.2.268, it was reduced to 3.125 seconds
- With patch 11.1.1201, the Springald no longer needs to pack and unpack.
- With update 12.0.1974, Springalds gain a +10 attack bonus against melee infantry, gain pass-through damage, no longer have a minimum range, and their projectiles no longer track enemy unit movement.
- Originally, Springalds had 10 range, 0 melee armor, cost 3 population and their starting health when built in the field was 1 hp. With update 12.0.1974, they have 8 range, 3 melee armor, cost 2 population, and their starting health when built in the field is 25 hp.
Campaign version[]
Because the original four campaigns have not been rebalanced since the release of the game, Springalds have the following differences in those campaigns:
- They cost 200 wood, 200 gold and take 30 seconds to train
- They have 250 hit points, 0 ranged armor, move at 1 tile per second, deal 75 ranged damage every 4.12 seconds, and have no attack bonus vs siege or ranged armor. This makes them much stronger against most types of units.
In the The Sultans Ascend campaign, Springalds retain their stats upon the release of the campaign. That is, they still function as anti-siege units, and the following stats:
- They cost 250 wood, 250 gold, 3 population, and take 80 seconds to build in the field.
- They have 125 hit points, have no ranged resistance, 0 melee armor, and 10 ranged armor.
- They deal 30 base damage and still deal +65 against siege weapons, with no bonus against melee infantry. They do not do pass-through damage.
Trivia[]
- Springalds (and similar Arabic or Byzantine weapons) are thought to be the only torsion-powered artillery device that was still widely used in the Middle Ages.[1] They used two bars powered by twisted skeins of horse hair or other material to launch large bolts. However, the design of the unit instead uses a flexed board tied to a rope wound around a winch to strike a bolt, similar to the drawing shown below. This type of machine is theorized to most likely be a fictional design by a late-medieval author, never actually used due to its limitations compared to standard tension or torsion devices [2]
Gallery[]
