“ | 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 (+1) |
Range | Engineering (+2) |
Accuracy | Ballistics (hit moving targets) |
Upgrades | Catapult |
Civilization bonuses[]
- Assyrians: Upgrading Stone Throwers to Catapults costs -50%.*
- Hittites: Stone Throwers have +50% hit points.
- Lac Viet: Stone Throwers are trained 25% faster.
- Sumerians: Stone Throwers fire 45% faster.
- Macedonians: Stone Throwers cost -25% and are four times more resistant to conversion.
Team bonuses[]
- Assyrians: Stone Throwers are produced and upgraded to Catapults 20% faster.
- Palmyrans: Upgrading Stone Throwers to Catapults and researching technologies that benefit Stone Throwers are 30% faster.
Changelog[]
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.
Definitive Edition[]
- Stone Throwers have 3 minimum range, 5.375 Rate of Fire, and 3 projectile speed.
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[]
Archery Range |
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→ | → | → | ||||||
→ | → | |||||||
→ |
Units in Age of Empires | |
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Civilian | Villager · Trade Cart |
Other | Priest · Slinger · Artifact |
Civilian ship | Fishing Boat · Fishing Ship Trade Boat · Merchant Ship |
Infantry | Clubman · Axeman Short Swordsman · Broad Swordsman · Long Swordsmen · Legionary Hoplite · Phalangite · Centurion |
Archer | Bowman Improved Bowman · Composite Bowman Chariot Archer Horse Archer · Heavy Horse Archer Elephant Archer |
Cavalry | Scout Chariot · Scythe Chariot Cavalry · Heavy Cavalry · Cataphract War Elephant · Armored Elephant Camel Rider |
Siege | Stone Thrower · Catapult · Heavy Catapult Ballista · Helepolis |
War Ship | Scout Ship · War Galley · Trireme Catapult Trireme · Juggernaut Fire Galley Light Transport · Heavy Transport |
Scenario Editor-only units | |
Chieftain · Donkey · Explorer · General · High Priest · Horse · Mercenary (removed) · Penguin · Pharaoh · Raft · War Chest |