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A simple siege weapon with a slow but powerful attack. Better against immobile targets.
Age of Empires description

The Stone Thrower is the first siege unit available in Age of Empires. It is the only siege unit that can be built at the Siege Workshop during the Bronze Age. They are the very first siege unit to appear in Age of Empires series and are the predecessor of the Mangonel in Age of Empires II and the same unit in Age of Empires IV.

It is a slow and heavy siege weapon used to eliminate buildings and defenses. Its attack features Area of Effect damage in a small radius, regardless of whether the unit is a friend or foe.

Gameplay[]

The Stone Thrower is the only siege weapon available in the Bronze Age, and can be created by all civilizations at the Siege Workshop.

Stone Thrower-line units are absolutely devastating to buildings. They are the most powerful units in the game against walls and wood buildings. Against towers, they they perform on par with many of the game's most powerful units, but behind the War/Armored Elephant and Fire Galley.

The projectiles of Stone Thrower-line units deal damage to all units (friend or foe) close to the impact site. Compared to later units, the radius of the Stone Thrower's splash damage is quite small: if attacking a set of walls, no damage will reach walls two tiles from the target, or anything behind the target. Stone Throwers can be ordered to continually bombard a tile with the attack ground command.

Unusually for a ranged weapon, Stone Throwers deal melee damage rather than piercing damage. This means that shield upgrades have absolutely no effect against them, but conventional armor does.

Note that buildings in Age of Empires have 80% resistance to all attacks, so Stone Throwers' damage figure of 50, +50 vs towers, or +140 vs other buildings, will actually inflict 20 damage on towers and 38 on other buildings.

Siege weapons of the Stone Thrower and Catapult Trireme lines are the only units in the game capable of inflicting friendly fire. There is no damage mitigation whatsoever for projectiles hitting the player's own or allied units, so they are extremely dangerous to use in combination with melee troops. If attacking a building with Stone Throwers and melee troops at the same time, splash damage can be avoided by having the melee troops attacking from the opposite side to the Stone Thrower.

Like all Siege Workshop units, Stone Throwers are completely helpless against enemies close to melee distance: they have a minimum range of 3 tiles. They are also some of the slowest-moving units in the game, unable to escape even Crocodiles in Return of Rome. This makes them particularly vulnerable to cavalry rushes, and should be kept screened behind other units or walls to prevent the enemy getting close.

The other great weakness of stone-throwing machines is their slow projectile speed and long pause between shots. This means that a skilled player can micro-manage their troops to dodge incoming projectiles, making Stone Throwers somewhat vulnerable to groups of agile archers that can dart into range, fire off shots, and retreat from retaliatory volleys.

While Stone Throwers have excellent range, it's not quite enough to beat that of upgraded Guard Towers or Priests. The former requires the player to research Engineering, and a Choson tower or Afterlife-equipped Priest will necessitate an upgrade to Catapults or Heavy Catapults. Stone Throwers also match the range of the Helepolis and Juggernaut.

From the Iron Age, most civilizations can upgrade the Stone Thrower to the Catapult, which adds a bonus of +2 range, 56% increase in splash damage radius, +1 pierce armor, and a moderate damage increase of +10. Only the Carthaginians, Choson, Egyptians, Phoenicians and Yamato are unable to train Catapults. Half the civilizations in the game can further upgrade to the Heavy Catapult for a massive spend of food and wood, which is the longest-ranged unit in the game.

Further statistics[]

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs. Buildings, massed units
Weak vs. Cavalry, ships
Upgrades
Attack Alchemy Alchemy (+1)
Range Engineering Engineering (+2)
Accuracy Ballistics Ballistics (hit moving targets)
Upgrades AoE Catapult upgrade Catapult

Civilization bonuses[]

  • Assyrian AOE DE ROR icon Assyrians: Upgrading Stone Throwers to Catapults costs -50%.*
  • Hittite AOE DE ROR icon Hittites: Stone Throwers have +50% hit points.
  • Lac Viet AOE DE ROR icon Lac Viet: Stone Throwers are trained 25% faster.
  • Sumerian AOE DE ROR icon Sumerians: Stone Throwers fire 45% faster.
  • Macedonian AOE DE ROR icon Macedonians: Stone Throwers cost -25% and are four times more resistant to conversion.

Team bonuses[]

  • Assyrian AOE DE ROR icon Assyrians: Stone Throwers are produced and upgraded to Catapults 20% faster.
  • Palmyran AOE DE ROR icon Palmyrans: Upgrading Stone Throwers to Catapults and researching technologies that benefit Stone Throwers are 30% faster.

Changelog[]

ReturnRome-AoEIcon Age of Empires[]

  • Stone Throwers have 2 minimum range, 0.5 blast radius, 5 Rate of Fire, 2.7 projectile speed, and 0 pierce armor.

Age of Empires Definitive Edition icon Definitive Edition[]

  • Stone Throwers have 3 minimum range, 5.375 Rate of Fire, and 3 projectile speed.

AoE2Icon-ReturnRome Return of Rome[]

  • Upon release, Stone Throwers had 2.49 projectile speed. With hotfix 85208, they have 3.49 projectile speed.
  • Team bonuses added, Assyrians: Stone Throwers are produced and upgraded 20% faster. Palmyrans: Technologies benefiting Stone Throwers researched 30% faster.
  • Assyrians: Upgrading Stone Throwers to Catapults costs -50%.
  • With update 93001, Stone Throwers have 0.8 blast radius and 3 pierce armor.
  • With update 99311, Stone Thrower melee armor reduced from 0 to -2.

History[]

The stone thrower was an artillery weapon based on the principle of the lever. The stone thrower fired a heavy missile, usually a large stone or stone wrapped in burning oily rags. The missile was placed in a large basket at the end of the throwing arm. Tension was built up on the other end of the arm while the throwing basket was held taut against a fulcrum. When released, the throwing arm swung up and forward until checked, throwing the missile. Stone throwers were used primarily against fixed positions, especially cities and fortifications. Stones were used to knock down walls to open the way for an infantry assault. Fireballs set wood rubble on fire, burning out the defenders. Small stone throwers were also used on the battlefield to disrupt massed enemy formations, although the enemy rarely offered easy targets within range. The stone thrower was invented around 400 BC by Greeks seeking to capture an island fortress off the coast of Sicily.

Gallery[]

Tech tree[]

Siege Workshop
Requires
AOEDE Archery Range icon Archery Range
Stone Age Icon (DE)
Tool Age Icon (DE)
Bronze Age Icon (DE)
Iron Age Icon (DE)
Aoede stone thrower available Catapult Aoede heavy catapult available
Ballista Helepolis


Units in Age of Empires
CivilianReturnofrome female villager icon Villager · Returnofrome trade cart icon Trade Cart
OtherAoE2 DE priest icon Priest · Slinger-0 Slinger · Returnofrome artifact icon Artifact
Civilian ship1 Fishing Boat Fishing Boat · 2 Fishing Ship Fishing Ship
3 Trade Boat Trade Boat · 4 Merchant Ship Merchant Ship
InfantryClubman Clubman · AxemanAoEDE Axeman
Short Swordsman Short Swordsman · Broad Swordsman Broad Swordsman · AoE nuRoR Long Swordsman icon Long Swordsmen · Returnofrome legionary icon Legionary
HopliteDE Hoplite · AoE nuRoR Phalangite icon Phalangite · Returnofrome centurion icon Centurion
ArcherBowman aoe1de Bowman
Improved Bowman22 Improved Bowman · Composite Bowman Composite Bowman
Chariot Archer111 Chariot Archer
Horse Archer Horse Archer · Returnofrome heavy horse archer icon Heavy Horse Archer
EAICON DE Elephant Archer
CavalryScout-0 Scout
ChariotDE Chariot · ScytheDE Scythe Chariot
Cavalry111 Cavalry · Returnofrome heavy cavalry icon Heavy Cavalry · Returnofrome cataphract icon Cataphract
War ElephantDE War Elephant · Returnofrome armored elephant icon Armored Elephant
Camel RiderDE Camel Rider
SiegeStone ThrowerDE Stone Thrower · CatapultDE Catapult · Returnofrome heavy catapult icon Heavy Catapult
BallistaDE Ballista · Returnofrome helepolis icon Helepolis
War Ship7 Scout Ship Scout Ship · 8 War Galley War Galley · 9 Trireme Trireme
Catapult Trireme Catapult Trireme · Returnofrome juggernaut icon Juggernaut
10 Fire Galley Fire Galley
5 Light Transport Light Transport · 6 Heavy Transport Heavy Transport
Scenario Editor-only units
Short Swordsman Chieftain · Donkey caravan aoe2DE Donkey · Clubman Explorer · Returnofrome heavy cavalry icon General · AoE2 DE priest icon High Priest · Returnofrome horse icon Horse · HeavyCavalryDE Mercenary (removed) · Penguin aoe2DE Penguin · AoE2 DE priest icon Pharaoh · 5 Light Transport Raft · Returnofrome artifact icon War Chest
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