Top 6 Bombard Tower civs (AoE2)

[@A.v.o.i.d]

You have made massive oversight in not including Bohemians 15% faster moving bombard towers.

[@quasibrodo923]

You stole my joke lol

[@darkdill]

Not to mention their Villagers get Sanctity and Fervor, so it's harder to stop them from putting them down. Then again, is that really useful when the Bombard Towers get bonus movement speed?

[@Slayerlord13]

That makes me curious though, if you mod the game to let bombard towers move, *would* theirs move faster?

[@A.v.o.i.d]

@@Slayerlord13 Yes movement speed of bombard towers would be increased. It is actually increased even now but: 0 tiles/sec * 1.15 = 0

[@AC-hj9tv]

Oh lawd bombard tower man comin

[@arckmage5218]

Can we just give a shoutout to the engineers who discovered that putting fletching and bodkin arrows on the balls and a bracer on the cannon would so drastically increase the range the cannonballs would fly.

[@Nazuiko]

I hd no idea Bombard towers benefitted from archer upgrades ... or shot more cannonballs when garrisoned.

[@mattwithahat3857]

That's the one thing I learned from the video today. I feel there is always something new to be discovered about AOE2 😂

[@PrimordialNightmare]

Fin Stabilized Discarding sabots invented just slightly early

[@princeimrahil6557]

I remember the old days when they bypassed pierce armor and one-shotted rams and siege. Those were the days...

[@coopercross6123]

El Cid Campaign Count Berenger's fortress

[@Gashahn24]

I did not know that Chu Ko Nu were also a part of the teuton bombard tower club.

[@ShuckedAeons]

A while back (I think in the patch that came with the Sicilians and Burgundians) they changed defensive structures to count extra projectiles when determining how many arrows an archer adds. This change made it so towers went from thinking Chu Ko Nu deal 14 damage with full upgrades to dealing 26, a huge jump.

[@deutscher1a]

we accept all good cannoneers If the tower makes boom, youre in

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

That Jadwiga scenario when, at release, the devs massively increased the cost of all stone structure except having forgotten bombard towers. What a bombard tower spam it was.

[@mattender8323]

I cheesed it instead. Converted Orange before I entered Vilnius. There was no timers.

[@Allexio173]

y e s walls of bombard towers

[@Pilgrim_HYR]

9:03 Teutons: we decide to renovate our home with some Mediterranean flavor!

[@mattwithahat3857]

Maybe that shot was taken during the HRE and the Teutonic Knights inspected some fortifications in northern Italy 😁

[@WWFanatic0]

It never ceases to amaze me how SotL can find things to make videos on. Constantly teaching me things I never knew I wanted to know

[@blacklight4720]

Coming next... Which ranked map grass is greener? Which ranked map has more birds?

[@Zomgnomnom1]

​@@blacklight4720More birds, more strain on my hardware, dip in FPS could cost me the game. It's very important information

[@uzairahmed4832]

When I played against the campaigns, they seemed so OP. Because of them, I moved at a snail's pace in the last game of the Joann of Arc campaign

[@jurgnobs1308]

was that a long time ago? vecause they used to do melee damage, so they wrecked rams and such

[@Fernybun]

​@@jurgnobs1308it makes sense, there's nothing more sharp than a blunt ball of lead

[@uzairahmed4832]

@@jurgnobs1308 I played it when Huns weren't a civ yet. Don't remember the year.

[@jurgnobs1308]

@@uzairahmed4832 yea, then they definitely were much, much stronger

[@SoWhat1221]

​@@Fernybun Not that it changes your point, but cannonballs were typically made of cast iron or (in the early days) stone.

[@sebastian_blair6685]

Insta clicked

[@telenelatelin8632]

Always

[@Binarokaro]

The bombard tower will always have a special place in my heart as my favourite in AoE2 as a child

[@Nazuiko]

Theyre the spiritual successor to my beloved Mirror Tower from aoE 1 scenario builder (and campaigns)

[@adnivisorx5873]

A fun note, in the first version of Aoe2 conquerors (1.0) the koreans bonus did affect bombard towers

[@adnivisorx5873]

Extra range, making them honestly top 1 if you are just going for any version

[@BelialTnTn]

@@adnivisorx5873 + Siege Onagers that outranged castles, those were fun times.

[@Joakico]

Yeah Koreans were extremely OP. In AoC 1.0 they had +1 range in onager as team bonus, another +2 as tech. So they outranged castles and towers without bracer ( franks, celts, persians for example).

[@adnivisorx5873]

@@Joakico with + 2 range on UT makes their onagers outrange all non teuton castles, afler the nerf to +1 makes them to outrange just castles with no bracer, like celts.

[@anonymousguy9745]

This reminds of the AoE3 campaign "But I need more black powder" "I am Ottoman. I have more black powder than you could possibly ever need" 😅😂

[@teddyhaines6613]

They never asked where Sahin kept the powder considering they'd just rescued him from captivity and all...

[@llSuperSnivyll]

Yet you don't unlock any gunpowder units on that mission (other than those from cards).

[@aryamaanborah7698]

It's been years since I last played AoE2 and I was genuinely amused when I saw the Byzantine Bombard Towers with their Flaming Cannon Trails.

[@krystofmichajlovfrancisko8224]

Its a recent change

[@to_baldly_go]

Yessss! Would love a follow up tower civ video as well which includes not just tower buffs but also cheaper towers, ie Incas

[@ilikeitidont]

Super fun video!! I love Bonnard towers, so this feels like a personal treat!!

[@close-upsteven895]

You have no idea how much I learned my English typing from building Bombard Towers. Back in the day, "rock on" only gave 1000 stones; I had to type every time it said not enough stone. My 6 year old self did not even know ctrl + v yet

[@ad3z10]

Koreans main BBT weakness is exactly the same as the upside for Turk ones, outranging BBC in messy late game situations (the only time you really see them) is a huge advantage and means the only practical solution is Trebs most of the time. If you're against civs who lack BBC though I think it suddenly becomes a decent option, especially in some kind of Halb + Siege comp.

[@adnivisorx5873]

And if they are up against bbc, they make regular towers, what can reach them like turks

[@nemes1s_aoe]

I didn't know that i needed to know this. Ty, oh stats lord.

[@arcticbeak]

I had a feeling this list would mostly include AoK and AoC civilisations. Portuguese managed to sneak in though, good for you!

[@Debrijja]

the background footage for your videos are so goddamn well made. its amazing. ty sotl

[@jjforcebreaker]

NIce list. Always loved that unit since I saw Age of Kings for the first time. I wish it was played more. But competitive pace leaves little space for it, realistically speaking.

[@teddyhaines6613]

I played a Black Forest team game as Dravidians back before they were given bombard cannons and was at my wit's end against the Siege Onager spam I was facing. Bombard towers saved my team's skin on that side because the enemy was spending all their gold on SO and didn't have any trebs or bombard cannons to dislodge me.

[@mivapusa]

*Fires anti-siege cannon-balls* *Does 1 damage to rams*

[@dirkauditore8413]

Balance reasons

[@danxan6438]

Love these videos, keep them coming! If you're ever looking for video ideas, here are two: what units are most "population efficient", ie can kill the most before going down themselves. 2nd, what units are the best "generalists", ie can handle the largest variety of enemies

[@NiDe500]

Not to mention for Spanish: Supremacy villagers with Sappers are a credible threat to enemy rams. They aren’t frightened by a few accompanying skirmishers or archer units to the degree of most villagers, they’re very cheap, and they’re thus able to defend against one of the most practical counters to bombard towers they were just setting up (others being the somewhat less common bombard cannon, and the trebuchet which is expensive and even slower than a ram). Nasty surprise for civs who like to rely on the siege ram late game. In turn, the bombard tower is a credible threat to any paladins, heavy infantry, onagers, etc who think they can pick off builders uncontested. And using villagers this way saves on gold, affording more towers (on top of that lovely late game trade bonus). You could even use them for coastal defense, given that your own cannon galleons are utterly superior to everyone else’s (except -maybe- Turks for range, but the accuracy and speed of Spanish fire tends to dominate) and can protect the bombard towers while they make landings or galleon and fire ships floating coffins.

[@GvF11]

Did the devs ever explain the rationale behind bbc's doing melee damage and bombard tower doing pierce? Especially when it comes to rams

[@tzeentch7118]

They used to do melee damage in AoK. Turns out, it made the fortifications basicaly immune to rams.

[@el_mr6439]

My guess is that they slowed down the game too much, since the only counters would be cannons and trebuchets, but the fisrt isn't aviable to all civs and the second would take a while dealing with them

[@IceSpoon]

@@tzeentch7118And everything in the game back then (except french paladins and trebuchets) was one-shotted.

[@teddyhaines6613]

@@IceSpoon And war elephants and siege rams by virtue of their HP would take more than one shot to go down.

[@bluedistortions]

It forces people to be less brain dead.

[@Doomfrost]

The Bohemians actually have a pretty decent array of civ bonuses that could benefit their bombard towers. Stone and Stone shaft mining being free, blacksmiths and universities costing 100 wood less which allows you to get them up sooner while also reducing the wood impact to your eco, Hussite Reforms which gives massive gold savings that can be spent on bombard towers, Chemistry being available in the Castle Age means you can get that technology squared away so once you hit Imperial you can tech into Bombard Towers much earlier than your opponents. Fervor and Sanctity giving your villagers speed and health boosts which makes building forward towers a less stressful experience. Plus their unit lineup is pretty solid too.

[@BlueShellshock]

I swear, after playing with Spanish Cannon Galleons, I'm fully convinced that Bombard towers could be so much better if they just had faster projectiles. Now, I'd also like to see the research removed and an armor-ignoring blast radius, BUT I will take a projectile speed upgrade if that's the only thing changed.

[@TheCoincidence]

The speed boost Arquebus granted to everything gunpowder in HD used to be alarmingly fast, including BBCs and BBTs. Wouldn't say it was particularly broken on the towers.

[@et34t34fdf]

​@@TheCoincidenceIts a shame they took away everything unique about the portuguese, they where never a top tier civ anyway, so why could they not have great BBTs?

[@daarom3472]

imo BBT should get reduced stats but also make them cheaper (50 gold?) and easier to tech into. Now it's pretty much only used for meme strats or in low elo BF games.

[@ayhanfedai5013]

thats why i love aoe3 bombards and artillery

[@Phoenix_1991]

As a Turk my heart started beating faster and faster the closer you got to your nr. 1 pick. So much so that I started to panick when you were at nr. 2 wondering if Turks were gonna be nr. 1 at all 😅. Was glad to see we made it to nr. 1 after all!

[@dirkauditore8413]

Usta!

[@Aoedam]

This video is perfect in every way, just like the bombard tower; perfection.

[@Adam-oh1ds]

Bombard towers were my favorite when I was a kid playing this game

[@devinanni8117]

I dont think ive ever built one of these as a casual player. I need to build only towers for a game to correct this

[@AkshayKumarX]

Bombard towers were my jam back about 15 years ago, before the age of Internet in my dwelling, when I was just a wee lad with age of empires 2 the age of kings installed on my computer. Didn't even understand half the words or the options but had all the time in the world and full of wonderous curiosity. Watching aoe2 pro players with all the meta game aspects and the apm took all the magic out of it for me. Similar thing kinda happened with chess. But I plan to get start enjoying these games again and ignore all the fun sucking noise.

[@KCzz15]

In 4vs4 Amazon Tunnel games they were my jam, I'd either play Spanish or Portuguese and just spam 100+ trade carts, drive the price of stone at the market up to 1000 for 100 or so (or Feitorias) and spam ridiculous amounts of bombard towers that the opposing team simply had no hopes of dealing with. It was great.

[@Red-jq6bw]

I did not knew about the Cho Ku No giving + 4 to the teutons bombard towers. You learn something new every day i guess

[@mercenarymudcrab]

This is the result of a Patch like a year ago that included additional projectiles into the tower damage calculation of garrisoned units... before that Cho Ku No basically had not effect when garrisoned.

[@arthurreede4478]

I always thought you could only get more cannonshots with Janissaries but now I really want a 10x shared civ matchup with Spanish Chinese and Teutons for rapid cannon towers

[@ezrahuckabee82]

Great combo with Hera's video today lol

[@Fnyx_BodyWorks]

I was about to sleep... oh well who need that when Spirit of the law uploads

[@bm8985]

I'd like a top ten castle civs just to know who has the best castles.

[@marceloromano8774]

Teutons ofc

[@sowhat184]

The last time I was here this early, the tank was still in the square.

[@vandieyahya1024]

I like that Sotl really did open this year with a bang with these bombastic piece of explosive fun! Lol Okay joke aside, i agree with Sotl here that: 6: Chinese can indeed go for BTs but forgoing Castles do hurt them because Chu Ko Nus are that great of an UU for their deathball army. 5: Byzantine can also do the same thing if Cataphracts are not concern to be used for, say, to counter Huskarl+Halberdier spam, and because they are trash units heavy Civ user so its fine for them to spent golds on it. 4: Korean was a great civ to go for BTs strat and to this day still are, but some nerfs actually quiet messes them up for effectiveness compared to old day Koreans. Also like Chinese, War Wagons are great UU for their deathballs, so losing several Castle hurt. 3: Spanish doing a BTs strat - on enemy base is a big, bold YOLO moves that can sure screw them up if they are not ready to deal with either the villagers or the towers, and they better decide it fast because that 30% faster build time will definitely makes those towers up way faster than they anticipated. Thou missing Conquistadors is a bit painful ngl. 2: Portuguese BTs actually having ballistic is insane - can hit pesky micro'd archer lines and melee horsemen. Also Organ Guns are not that great of an UU for them anyway as they can make Hand Cannons in their place, and Bombard Cannons (BC) replaces Trebuchet. And lastly: 1: Turks sums it up with these lines: "I need no introduction in these, My HCs are goated, my BTs are goated, and so the BCs"

[@inductivegrunt94]

Sometimes the best offense is a good defense. Byzantine Bombard Towers are my favorite with how durable they are with Turks being a close second with how long range they are.

[@alexanderzhen5914]

Video suggestion: redo your what civ is best for you quiz. Its been years and needs an update!

[@rockgamiasedes677]

5:43 nobody expects the Spanish inquisition.

[@imsmeagol911]

Byzantines have the imp discount too which really helps get to that chemistry power spike.

[@MostafaHaque]

I read the title as Tom Bombadil civs and I got excited (and also confused)

[@lizardemperorkorbac4281]

At 8:28, you displayed the italian discount wrongly as a -133G, but the tech costs no gold but wood. So it should be -133w ;-)

[@ferrisffalcis]

seeing feitoria promounced property after years of t90 healed my soul

[@TeutonicEmperor1198]

I wonder if there is any category where Teutons aren't honourably mentioned!

[@malikshabazz2065]

great stuff! keep up the awesome work :-)

[@kkdumbo8704]

A interaction that Sotl missed there 09:15 or an open question for me: What happens with the combination of multiple shots of the bombard tower if you have the splash damagde as byzantines. From my perspective there are multiple outcomes: a) every shot get splash damagde b) one shot gets splash damagde, the rest don`t get it c) something else happens maybe someone can help me there Beside that thanks for your videos, the effort and the entertainment. :)

[@RheaMainz]

Were one capable of being Teutons and Byzantines simultaneously, this would be more relevant. It still intrigues me!

[@Davtwan]

The Byzantines unique tech would be better if the shots very slightly past the opponent for optimal splash damage placement (or have a slightly bigger splash radius).

[@astrid2432]

china: can use a tiny version of a canon in their hand can use a canon (maybe a big one) in a tower stationary but have no clue how to mix both or like put the canon on some wheels

[@timothymiles2851]

This just makes me want to see a tower defence community scenario. 50% trying to destroy wonder (not sure how many years to give it) at end of maze. 50% trying to build ranged units and towers and castles etc on top of the maze. Each player starts with fetorias. 🤓 I bet it probably doesn’t work though as someone who understands scenario creation will probably tell me lol

[@jcrojasro]

Hello there great AoE II! I was wondering who is the Spirit of the Law for the Age of Empires III. I'm trying to find out which one may be the very best one to get information from...

[@obesechicken13]

I wanted to try mass bombards on 4v4 black forest as turks mostly to stop raids but games kept ending before they mattered. I also remember that old video showing they're basically as good against Hussar raids as guard towers.

[@felipea1399]

Bohemians should have gotten a honorable mention imo

[@firebase9561]

On the topic of starting the year with a blast, and high damage values, could you perhaps make a cost-effectivity analysis of the demo ship line against land units? Unlike bombard towers, they're single-use, but they have a large blast radius in which allies aren't hurt though. Against units like siege or archers it is possible to get cost-effective exchanges quite easily, for example you only have to hit a single trebuchet per demo ship for the exchange to be cost-effective, or kill about three arbalests, which, considering the high speed, decent pierce armour, high damage and large blast radius of particularly the heavy demo ship should be possible to pull off on the shallows for a skilled enough player against a surprised opponent. I don't know how difficult it is to blow up heavy cavalry cost-effectively though, so that would be something I'd be very interested to learn your opinion on. There's also another part to the situation: if you blow up the enemy invasion army with a few demo ships, you take away the opponent's momentum and have time to act with your own army, or if you just lost it, you have time to rebuild it. This aspect is likely much more difficult to quantify, but I believe it's possible to make a case for demo ships versus land units just based on resources destroyed if one were to pick their engagements cleverly. If this strategy proves to be good, I would also be interested in some suggestions to counter it. I think having a small number of own demo ships on standby to take on enemy demo ships could be effective, but there might be more consistent and more cost-effective methods that I, as a rather unskilled player, can't figure out on my own.

[@micahbush5397]

Why am I watching this when I never build Bombard Towers?

[@dennisjonker4804]

I thought Turks would be second and Portuguese first because 11 range + boosted accuracy seems better than 13 range and passively reducing accuracy/longer time for projectile to move before it hits. But I guess SOTL's points are good.

[@teddyhaines6613]

Extra range is almost always better than accuracy alone - just ask Britons. And that's even more true for towers and castles since they obviously can't get any closer to the enemy if they're out of range.

[@dennisjonker4804]

Interesting. I always did wonder how Britons can be so effective without Thumb Ring. That also reduces their rate of fire. @@teddyhaines6613

[@bluedistortions]

Portuguese should always be first, because they have infinite stone cheats. That's the number one limiting factor.

[@Progeusz]

Range is always superior.

[@et34t34fdf]

BBTs are affected by ballistics anyway, so Portuguese ones don't have any better accuracy, do they? A tiny increase in speed may make them a bit more accurate though.

[@remimk]

I just got AoE2 because of this channel! can you make a basic or advanced strategy guide?

[@georgeprchal3924]

I miss the olden days where you could garrison 10 hand cannoneers in a Teutonic one for 3 shots.

[@Liam__Obrien]

I love late game tower drops with the Spanish :)

[@fiddleriddlediddlediddle]

No one gonna mention how he depicts the Teutons with the wrong buildings?

[@lordhoto8112]

At 8:28 it shows that the gold cost of the bombard tower tech is reduced by -133 for Italians. This should be -133 wood not gold.

[@Jokie155]

I guess you could say that all the civs who didn't make the list... Bomb'd 'ard...

[@soonyo3430]

Elite jans have bonus against rams, bombard towers can range other bbcs and turk bbcs can easily snipe trebs, so yeah good luck if you let the turk player get to bombard towers

[@OminousFlyer]

Top 5 fishing boat civs when?

[@MrSiLenTb88]

Imagine you could garrison bombard cannons inside bombard towers! You would like fire a barrage of cannons

[@VRichardsn]

Fantastic video analysis. The only thing I am not really sold on are the Spanish and Portuguese. If we go by that villager logic, that should also put them in one of the top Castle civilisations... but it doesn't. As for the Feitoria... it is a long tradeoff to recoup all those costs.

[@droger1448]

Don't forget that bombard towers need... you guessed it! Bracer

[@rosejasmin7842]

5:43 Nobody did expected Spanish in #3

[@guidodepietro1017]

Please, now do an arrow tower list.

[@bluedistortions]

He's made several tower and castle and town center videos, but not in a "top ten" format. They should be a in a playlist though, because sometimes I forgot some of the ways they interact, like the first arrow being affected by building armor and the following arrows not, or something like that.

[@BoodyDarknes]

Been years since i played AOE, but i still like watching your videos, ever thought on voice acting ?

[@michaelmccarty1327]

So hypothetically, if Teutons micromanaged their Hand Cannoneers, might they simply repeatedly garrison and ungarrison 10 of them to get the benefits of the extra projectile while also getting to attack between the shots from their tower?

[@yonokhanman654]

Wait, that music at the end, I've heard it somewhere before... but I don't know where.

[@Krbyfan1]

*Happy Tower noises*

[@Walgriff]

Is the music new..? I like it 🤩

[@sewersideproductions2606]

Ah yes, bombard towers. An insanely expensive castle-age-level tech only available in the late game.

[@hqribo2680]

You forgot to mention Bohemians. Their Unique Tech Wagenburg tactic is affect Bombard Towers too

[@hiimalex_]

if this was best looking BBTs, it def have to be poles/bohemians

[@MinyaKinar]

Wait... I don't recall THAT civ bonus from the Spanish... Since when did they get +20 gold for each technology researched? O.o

[@Boethion]

Its a relatively new bonus from a couple months ago.

[@MinyaKinar]

@@Boethion Shows how long it's been since I played last. Thanks for the reply so quick ^^

[@kikaioshin6700]

Since patch 81058 in fact

[@martind5653]

What about Bohemian Houfnice, can it outrange Turkish Bombard Tower? I believe it used to have bigger range than bombard canon but it was nerf since or am I mixing and forgeting previous videos?

[@Dave_The_Musical_Fisherman]

I still wish that bbt projectiles moved faster. I hate all the missed shots

[@et34t34fdf]

Portuguese were so much fun to play as, not anymore though.

[@michasokoowski6651]

I wish in honorable mentions would be a civ with amazing bonuses for bombard towers, but lacks bombard towers... xd

[@nErfEr308]

I still wish you could at least toggle switching them to melee damage for campaigns or vs the AI

[@koldfire7253]

Back in my day we had Bombard Towers with MELEE damage. Yeah rams would be MASSACRED👍🏻👍🏻 either get a Trebuchet out or research 2 consecutive techs to get bombard cannons💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

[@fanaethor]

What about a video about the best castles? Im confident that the new tech citadels will put the persians on the podium

[@Apoz]

My feitoria's take up 219 pop, I can only afford to build bombard towers.

[@sartajali1665]

This is a random comment to boost the video

[@JordanDavidCarr]

Random reply to boost the video

[@lekhakaananta5864]

I feel like this video over-weighs the effect of villager tankiness techs. By the time you're constructing bombard towers, you shouldn't have any problem affording extra villagers and replacing any that die. You should have already saturated your villager count for your economy so your TCs are free to replace any villagers you lose. At only 50 food they're as cheap as any other trash unit.

[@Aimstein]

How about Burgundians?

[@daffarznta]

I just try it in editor mode and elite chu ko nu can only shoot 2 cannonball now, can anyone tell me how to shoot 4 cannonball?, i already use teutons civilization

[@ChewingGumFlavor]

Top 10 transport ship civs when

[@williamjeffery9653]

-Supremacy mentioned as a advantage to the Spanish -No Flamenco jingle It's just not the same

[@et34t34fdf]

Thought they removed projectile speed from portuguese, i have never noticed arquebus doing anything for my BBTs, cant be much of a speed buff they still get then.

[@ryans8122]

I had no idea that BBT were affected by bracer and ballistics... Seems unintuitive compared to bombard cannon, hand cannon, and cannon galleon

[@Joakico]

8:35 Bombard tower tech doesn't cost gold 😅😅

[@rexuchiha2310]

First and finally a my type of video..

[@thatiowan3581]

Your mom was my first and finally a my type of video..

[@erwinwendler4621]

Wow didnt even know that poles had bbt

[@varunmanjunath9123]

Am I the only one who now thinks Koreans should be #1 instead? The FREE bombard tower tech is better than Turk's Free chemistry, Spanish's faster construction or Byzantine's splash damage ALL COMBINED!!! Those quick bombard towers can also be mixed with several Eupseong towers to deny any bombard cannons too! Then you have the tanky war wagons to hold the ground until your villagers construct fortification! :D

[@ageofstrange657]

Since Bombard Towers take up 0 pop, who is shooting the canon? Even the unmanned Scorpion or Onanger take up one bed each, so what about the bombards or towers in general? Are these towers haunted or something?

[@landonlecoq5660]

They found the guy in the SC 2 Terran Missile Turret to fire them.