On the occasion of Hera’s video on Bombard Tower, I’m here to put the question:
What does it cost to change Bombard Tower attack type back to melee from pierce?
Should it be better for its usage rate to have its melee damage back and, to keep it balanced, be exempted from being affected by Murder Holes (not to mention that it’s silly enough to see those cannon balls being dropped vertically)? Or even further have increased minimum range, more than 1, while being exempted from Murder Holes. Or something else.
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Bombard Towers were changed from pierce to melee so that Battering rams would be a counter to them (instead of getting flattened by them). I don’t think that exempting it from murder holes would be a good idea (it’s silly to have an expensive post-imp tower with a gold cost lose to a single militia). I do think that giving BBT a little bonus damage against rams would be a good change (at least enough so that they’re better against rams than keeps are), but it wouldn’t need to be a large amount of bonus damage.
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Someone would argue that it’s your obligation to wall your BBTs with structures to protect their bases, like they do in feudal age Watch Tower rushes, since you get all those benefits from BBTs.
I feel that the whole point of giving melee damage to BBT is to make its projectile work again like a proper cannonball that shatters everything, especially Rams. So to have pierce damage cannonballs with a little bonus damage versus Rams I think seems a bizarre (indirect) way to satisfy what I describe, while BBC’s and Cannon Galleon’s attacks remain melee (consistency).
In any case, I’m not sure if I really want to remove Ram from BBT’s counters list. This thread is also investigative of BBT’s status.
The issue with melee damage is that bombard towers become indestructible in certain scenarios, namely if the opponent doesn’t have castles left and the civ has no access to bombard cannons.
That’s why rams must always be able kill defense building, provided they are protected properly.
Yes, it’s unrealistic (like nearly all siege mechanics in AoE), but gameplay demands it.
It’s a similar issue with castles on islands when the opponent civ has no cannon galleons/dromons available. You can totally win the game, but be unable to finish off the opponent.
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BBT should simply get a splash damage