Siege weapon (Age of Empires II)

This article is about the siege weapons in Age of Empires II. For the armor class, see Armor Class: Siege Weapon. For siege weapons in other games of the series, see Siege Unit.

Siege Weapons in Age of Empires II become available in the Castle Age. They are powerful machines that excel at taking town enemy buildings or at battle against massed units. Unit upgrades for siege weapons as well as long-range siege weapons are only available in the Imperial Age.

They are built at the Siege Workshop or Castle. With the exception of Rams, Siege Towers, and Petards, all siege weapons possess a mid-to-long range.

General Information

Like ships, siege weapons cannot be healed by Monks, but have to be repaired by Villagers instead. Repairing siege weapons costs gold.

All siege weapons cost wood and gold, with the lone exception of the Petard, who costs food and gold. Generally speaking, siege units are the most expensive units and take longest to train.

In order to train Bombard Cannons, Chemistry must first be researched.

Siege weapons and Monks are the only units than can initially not be converted. In order to convert siege weapons, Redemption must be researched.

Trebuchets, Onagers (since The Forgotten), and Siege Onagers can kill trees, making them the only units being able to do so, next to, of course, Villagers. That can be of high strategic importance, especially in maps with dense forests, e. g. Black Forest.

All information that follows is current as of patch 5.0.

Categorization

Siege weapons are best divided into two categories: units that main purpose is to destroy buildings and units that excel at combat against enemy infantry and archers.

Anti-building

Anti-unit

Since The African Kingdoms, the Siege Tower cannot attack enemy structures or units and cannot be put in any of the categories above. In The Forgotten, it was able to attack, but its main purpose was still the transport of troops. So even there it does not fit in any of the two categories.

The Bombard Cannon can be put in both categories since it can outrange almost all buildings, but also can be effectively used against enemy units.

Although the two types of units can still fulfill each other’s roles, they are generally ineffective at doing so. For example, while Mangonels are devastating against groups of infantry and can outrange Town Centers, they deal little damage to Castles. Trebuchets, on the other hand, are excellent against fortifications but almost never hit any unit they target - excluding, to some extent, other Trebuchets.

List of Siege Weapons

Marked with yellow background are unique units.

Siege Unit	Building	A	HP	At	Ar	PA	Ra	ROF	LOS	Sp	F	W	G	TT	Ci
File:BatteringRamIcon.jpg Battering Ram	Siege W.	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	175	2	-3	180	0	5	3	0.5	0	160	75	36	31
File:CappedRamIcon.jpg Capped Ram	Siege W.		200	3	-3	190	0	5	3	0.5	0	160	75	36	31
File:SiegeRamIcon.jpg Siege Ram	Siege W.		270	4	-3	195	0	5	3	0.6	0	160	75	36	16
Mangonel	Siege W.	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	50	40	0	6	7	6	9	0.6	0	160	135	46	31
Onager	Siege W.		60	50	0	7	8	6	10	0.6	0	160	135	46	29
Siege Onager	Siege W.		70	75	0	8	8	6	10	0.6	0	160	135	46	9
Scorpion	Siege W.	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	40	12	0	7	7	3.6	9	0.65	0	75	75	30	31
Heavy Scorpion	Siege W.		50	16	0	7	7	3.6	9	0.65	0	75	75	30	20
Siege Tower	Siege W.	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	220	0	-2	100	N/A	N/A	8	0.8	0	200	160	36	31
File:BombardCannonIcon.jpg Bombard Cannon	Siege W.		80	40	2	5	12	6.5	14	0.7	0	225	225	56	19
Petard	Castle	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	50	25	0	2	0	N/A	4	0.8	65	0	25	25	31
Trebuchet (packed)	Castle		150	0	2	8	N/A	N/A	19	0.8	0	200	200	50	31
Trebuchet (unpacked)	Castle		150	200	1	150	16	10	19	0	0	200	200	50	31
File:OrganGunIcon.jpg Organ Gun	Castle	File:Castle-age-reseach.jpg	60	16	2	4	7	3.45	9	0.85	0	80	70	21	1
File:OrganGunIcon.jpg Elite Organ Gun	Castle		70	20	2	6	7	3.45	9	0.85	0	80	70	21	1
Average	N/A	N/A	113	33.5	-0.1	58.3	6.1	5.3	9.2	0.63	4.3	139.7	115.3	37.7	26.2

Technologies

Listed below are all technologies that benefit siege weapons. Marked with yellow background are unique technologies. This list does not contain unit upgrades.

Technology	Researched at	Age	Civilization	Effect
Siege Engineers	University	IV	20	Increases range (except Rams) by +1 and attack against buildings by +20%
Chemistry	University	IV	All	Increases attack by +1
Heresy	Monastery	III	19	Converted machines die instead of changing color
Faith	Monastery	IV	28	Increases conversion resistance
Conscription	Castle	IV	All	Increases creation speed for Castle units by +33%
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Kasbah	Castle	III	Berbers	Increases creation speed for Castle units by 25%
File:Unique-tech.jpg Warwolf	Castle	IV	Britons	Trebuchets do blast damage
File:Unique-tech.jpg Furor Celtica	Castle	IV	Celts	Increases HP of Siege Workshop units by +40%
File:Unique-tech.jpg Rocketry	Castle	IV	Chinese	Increases Scorpion attack by +4
File:Unique-tech.jpg Torsion Engines	Castle	IV	Ethiopians	Increases blast radius of Siege Workshop units
File:Unique-tech.jpg Kataparuto	Castle	IV	Japanese	Trebuchets pack, unpack, and fire faster
File:Unique-tech.jpg Shinkichon	Castle	IV	Koreans	Mangonel range increased by +1
File:Unique-tech.jpg Drill	Castle	IV	Mongols	Siege Workshop units move faster by +50%
File:Unique-tech.jpg Arquebus	Castle	IV	Portuguese	Increases Bombard Cannon accuracy at moving targets
File:CastleAgeUnique.png Ironclad	Castle	III	Teutons	Increases melee armor by +4
File:Unique-tech.jpg Artillery	Castle	IV	Turks	Increases Bombard Cannon range by +2

Civilizations

The Slavs, Celts, and Ethiopians have the best siege weapons due to their civilizations bonuses and unique technologies.

The Ethiopians are the only civilization to have access to all units from the Siege Workshop.

Civilization Bonuses

The following civilizations have bonuses that specifically benefit siege weapons:

Celts: Siege weapons fire 20% faster.
Chinese: Demolition Ships have +50% HP.
Huns: Trebuchets are 30% more accurate.
Slavs: Siege Workshop units are 15% cheaper.
Spanish: Cannon Galleons benefit from Ballistics.

Team Bonuses