Helepolis (Age of Empires)

This article is about the unit in Age of Empires. For the unit in Age of Mythology, see Helepolis (Age of Mythology).

Template:AoEUnitsThe Helepolis is an ultimate siege unit in Age of Empires, the upgrade of the Ballista in the Iron Age.

It is built at the Siege Workshop and requires research of Craftsmanship at the Market beforehand. A cost of 1500 food and 1000 wood is needed to upgrade the Ballista to a Helepolis.

The Helepolis fires twice as fast as a Ballista and has +1 range. It is strong in groups as it is fairly accurate and deals the highest damage per second in the game. Like its predecessor, the Helepolis does not deal bonus damage against buildings.

The Helepolis have a +5 attack bonus against Fire Galleys

The main counter to the Helepolis are Catapults that can out-range and eliminate them in a single shot. No civilizations have bonuses for this unit, although if playing as the Hittites in the Scenario Editor, the doubled hit points still applies due the unit being classified as a siege weapon.

Civilizations

The Helepolis is an uncommon unit and can only be trained by:

• Greeks
• Assyrians
• Minoans
• Shang
• Choson
• Romans
• Carthaginians

Upgrades

Iron Age

• Alchemy increases attack by 1 point (changed to +2 in The Rise of Rome)
• Ballistics increases accuracy
• Engineering increases range by 2 points

Template:Siege Workshop TechTree (Age of Empires)

Civilization bonuses

• Hittites: In a scenario or Campaign, the hit points double from 55 to 110 hit points.
• Macedonians: Since the Macedonians do not have the ability to create a Helepolis, the cheaper cost per unit civilization bonus does not apply. However, their Helepoli are still four times more resistant against conversion (Scenario Editor only).

Trivia

• Due to the fast fire rate at a long range, the unit may still fire a bolt or two within a fraction of a second even after the enemy unit is eliminated.
• Typing ICBM allows the player to upgrade its range by 90 points, bumping the total up to 100 range points.
  • Although the firing range will be improved, the line of sight still remains the same. Likewise, it cannot attack any target unless the unit is already discovered within the fog of war. Even if the fog of war is removed by a cheat code, it still cannot attack moving targets unless the line of sight of other units spotted the enemy. However, it may attack enemy buildings already discovered through the fog of war without the need of additional line of sight.
  • Typing this code before finishing researching Engineering will grant the player an additional 2 range points. This will affect both the firing range and the line of sight.