| “ | Massive infantry transport effective against buildings and walls. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Tower of the Sultan is a siege engine in Age of Empires IV: The Sultans Ascend unique to the Ayyubids. It can only be created in the field by infantry, or cavalry if advancing with the Reinforcement branch of the Military Wing. It attacks similar to a Battering Ram, but also deals ranged damage to units thanks to the arrows that it fires. Garrisoning infantry inside this unit does not increase its attack, but does increase its speed. Unlike other siege engines, melee units attack it with torches.
Tactics[]
The Tower of the Sultan is essentially an especially powerful Battering Ram with the ability to defend itself with arrows. Against most structures, it deals close to twice the DPS (three times the damage but with a slower Rate of Fire). By comparison, the Tower is much slower, considerably more expensive, and takes up 3 population space. However, its speed can be doubled when it is fully garrisoned, being increased by 0.025 tiles per second for each garrisoned unit.
Like a Tower Elephant, the Tower of the Sultan can be tasked to attack structures while the arrows fire automatically at nearby units. Though it has very high hit points and fires multiple arrows, this isn't much deterrent to more durable units like Men-at-Arms and Knights, who will take minor damage from the attacks, and does little to fend off the common siege counter of Horsemen. Therefore, the arrows fired should be considered a bonus, with the perk of picking off weaker units such as Spearmen or ranged units who wander too close to the Tower.
In most cases, the simple Battering Ram is preferable to the Tower of the Sultan, considering it costs five times the total resources and has few advantages. The Tower can help with a military push in the case of an enemy who has massed Spearmen or Archers and in this way it is sometimes combined with using the Industry wing to Age up to the Castle Age, which immediately grants the wood necessary to build one and provides a power spike against an opponent still in the Feudal Age.
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Siege Works (+20%)
|
| Armor | Siege Works (+10 ranged)
|
 Attack speed
|
 Lightweight Beams (+20%)
|
 Movement speed
|
 Greased Axles (+15%)
|
| Ability |  Siege Carpentry (Grants Structural Reinforcements ability)
|
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Armor |  Structural Reinforcements (+20 melee, +10 fire armor for 10 seconds)
|
| Resource cost |  Golden Age Tier 4 (-20%)
|
Dialogue lines[]
The Tower of the Sultan shares the same dialogue lines as the Battering Ram
Changelog[]
- Initially, the Tower of the Sultan build time was 240 seconds. With patch 9.1.370, this was reduced to 200 seconds. With update 10.0.576, this was further reduced to 140 seconds.
- With update 10.0.576, each garrisoned unit increases the movement speed by 0.025 tiles per second, and the Tower of the Sultan no longer has a 20% melee vulnerability
- Originally, the Tower of the Sultan started with 90 hit points when it was placed under construction. With update 12.0.1974, it starts with 120 hit points.
- Originally, the Tower of the Sultan had 20 ranged armor. With update 12.0.1974, the ranged armor was replaced by 95% ranged resistance.
Campaign unit[]
It also appears in the first scenario of the The Sultans Ascent campaign as The Beast with much higher stats. The objective of the scenario is to destroy it.
Trivia[]
- Among other changes, the pre-release version of the unit doesn't have the ram head, this is still visible in the icon of the unit
- Despite appearing as an Ayyubid unique unit, in the campaign is a weapon made by the crusaders
- Originally, the Tower of the Sultan took 20% extra damage from melee attacks, like Battering Rams. However, since melee units attack this unit with torches, the extra damage was never applied.
Gallery[]
