Siege Tower

"Artillery is the god of war."
	—Josef Stalin, 20th century Soviet dictator

In game

Volley Gun — Vital statistics
	Weak and slow mercenary unit which can fire a splash attack of either volleys of shot or rockets into the foe, ideal against tight formations and frontal assaults. Strong versus infantry and cavalry Weak versus siege weapons, buildings
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrade of	Upgrades to
	8s (120t)	100	30	24	3.4s (55t)	22	Basic unit	Bombard
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 280; : 60	: 1; : 1; : 1	2		None	4–15	Brutal area of effect attack versus infantry, cavalry Attack penalty versus buildings.

Overall strategy

The Siege Tower is used by Asian factions, most notably the Iranians, Assur, Babylon and Zhou factions. It is a tall tower that can fire javelins on all and sundry and at a good range, because of its height advantage and as such is very useful especially if attacking ranged units — who can't really damage it. This thus makes Siege Towers highly powerful units when used against enemy buildings, particularly Forts, since it can really cause damage to them even as it receives almost no damage to itself. Howev

With this in mind, we can draw two conclusions — the first is that like most siege weapons, the Siege Tower needs to be protected at all costs with infantry escorts, perhaps archers as well. The next thing that any faction wishing to bring this monster to bear upon the foe's cities must remember is that because of its very slow movement, you will need to do some forward building, and have the resources on hand. Always research the upgrades required for the Siege Tower first as quickly as you can, then build Siege Workshops near the enemy in order to cut the traveling distance between the point of construction and combat hotspots.

Unit summary

• Wild Horses Couldn't Drag Me Away — The Volley Gun's ability to destroy cavalry at range, which might render it useful in anti-cavalry defence.
• Sitzkrieg — Slow reloading time, poor maximum range and substantial minimum range means that Volley Guns can only be used defensively.
• Fire Walls — Although the Volley Gun is trainable by quite a number of factions, England and Japan benefit most from it as they can use these weapons to support their slow-moving, archer-dependent armies.

Notes

This unit can have two different appearances, namely:

• Infernal euro cameo.jpg

  European Volley Gun

• 

  Eastern "Bees' Nest" rocket launcher