I remember this being the case many years ago. It made them difficult to counter with rams, but that’s fine since BT are only available in Imperial Age, when every civ has access to Trebuchets and many have Bombard Cannons or Cannon Galleons by then. Speaking of those 2 unit types (BC and CG), both deal melee damage, and fire projectiles similar to the Bombard Tower. It only makes sense that these 3 should function consistently. One of the least intuitive changes IMO, and not necessary for balance. Armor that protects from arrow fire is not going to do anything against a cannonball.
Edit: I’ll also add that I think Trebuchets should only be a counter because they outrange the Bombard Tower. Currently, you can leave an unpacked Treb within Bombard Tower range for 900 seconds (15 minutes) as it only takes 1 damage from each cannonball and has 150 HP. Obviously the tower will be long gone by then since the Trebuchet is devastating to it. This is nonsense and leaving a treb within BT range should be punished just like leaving one within Bombard Cannon range
2 Likes
The very reason it was changed I think is because it was ridiculously overpowered.
So no, that would make the bombard towers an absolute nightmare to deal with. Turks have great defences already in long drawn out games where they can mass bombard towers in team games with trade.
Turks and Portuguese would become broken overpowered. In team games you can mass trade and make lots of bombard towers. Feitoria for the Portuguese will suddenly become ridiculously powerful since it can help make these powerful towers.
5 Likes
Only if you give them a counter thats avaible to most civs without needing a castle
no
No.
literally the reason it was changed to pierce
But how about a tiny bonus to rams? like +5 dmg? The ram class armor now exists.
At least a bombard tower wouldn’t need 200+ shots to kill an imperial age capped/siege ram.
3 Likes
I admit its just silly that a bombard cannon ball is reflected from a little plank like a battering ram like it was a paper ball.
3 Likes
Interestingly right after I posted this I ended up in a game where the opponent was spamming bombard towers. I tried Bombard Cannons at first, but they kept getting picked off by Cavaliers, Skirmishers and enemy bombard cannons. Trying to protect them meant standing in tower fire and taking severe losses. Instead i swapped to Trebs, cleared it all up and won the game. Rams would have been worse than cannons, there’s no way they would’ve gotten close to the towers with all the bombard cannons and cavalry around. I don’t really see them as a real counter for any towers with units nearby.