“ | Weak light artillery. En masse, good against other artillery. | ” |
—In-game description |
The Hand Mortar is an artillery in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Chinese and can be trained at the Castle once the Fortress Age is reached or (prior to the Definitive Edition) as part of the Mongolian Army. It is a weak but very cheap artillery that only takes up one population.
Fandom Trivia
Quiz | Test your knowledge on the Age of Empires series!6 questions |
Overview[]
The Hand Mortar has a high ranged resistance and it complements it with a bonus against artillery. They also out-range most artillery, with exception of the Mortar, Morutaru, and the Culverin (which has equal range), and most other units. It is a relatively weak artillery unit and deals a base damage of 5 points per shot, but has large multipliers against buildings, ships and artillery.
The Hand Mortar is ineffective against all forms of infantry and cavalry, and should not be left exposed. However, it is difficult to destroy by shelling, and with its low cost, it is an effective "meat shield" to protect the Chinese army, which is usually massed in large numbers, from enemy artillery fire. Due to its mediocre range compared to other mortars, it should be positioned outside a city's fortifications and attached to a Territorial or Old Han Army.
The Hand Mortar is best used in massed numbers against buildings, ships or other artillery. When positioned at the flanks, the Hand Mortar should be guarded by infantry or cavalry.
Upgrades[]
Hand Mortars automatically get +0.75x multiplier against Walls in the Industrial Age.*
Age | Upgrade | Cost | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
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250 food 250 wood |
Upgrades Hand Mortars to Honored (+25% hit points and attack) | |
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1,000 wood 1,000 coin |
Upgrades Hand Mortars to Exalted (+50% hit points and attack); requires Honored Hand Mortar |
Further statistics[]
Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
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Strong vs. | Artillery (when massed), ships, buildings |
Weak vs. | Infantry (especially Arrow Knights), cavalry, shock infantry, Culverins |
Improvements | |
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Home City Cards[]
- Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Hand Mortar
Changelog[]
The Asian Dynasties[]
- Initially, The Hand Mortar is trained as part of the Mongolian Army, with 20.0 attack damage, ×4.0 multiplier against Buildings, ×2.0 multiplier against Ships, ×2.0 multiplier against Artillery, and 3.0 movement speed, and 4.0 Max Speed. With Patch 1.01, Speed is 3.0 and Max Speed is 4.0, All cannon attacks' damage reduced to 5.0, and all cannon attacks' multiplier have been changed: multiplier against Buildings isx16.0, multiplier against Ships is x14.0, and multiplier against Artillery is x6.0.
Definitive Edition[]
- The Hand Mortar is no longer trained as part of the Mongolian Army.
Knights of the Mediterranean[]
- With update 13.58326, Hand Mortars have a 1.25x multiplier vs. walls in the Fortress Age, which is increased to 2.0x upon reaching the Industrial Age.
Trivia[]
- The Hand Mortar is the cheapest artillery unit in Age of Empires III.
- Despite the model featuring two men carrying the weapon, the Hand Mortar only uses a single population slot.
History[]
“ | The earliest use of exploding bombs dates back to 1044, when bombs were encased in paper and generally used to create a distraction, or to startle soldiers and cavalry horses. The first Chinese hand mortar used specifically for firing iron-cased bombs was found in 1413. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the hand-thrown bomb became more common in battle, and eventually the Chinese began to use it as mortar ammunition, replacing spherical stones as the projectile of choice. The hand mortar was highly mobile and its fuse could be shortened and lengthened in accordance with the kind of bomb it was firing. Because of the diversity of bombs developed by Chinese and Korean armies, a hand mortar could cause a wide variety of effects, making it a very adaptable, and very dangerous, siege weapon. | ” |
7 comments
For anyone wondering what is Wankouchong (in Team 4 Hand Mortars card), it's just what they call the hand mortars in their language. Basically the famous Chinese hand cannon but much bigger and put on a portable frame instead of a pole. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huochong
These used to be so busted at release. 28 siege damage and a slightly higher RoF, I think? You could literally shell everything into submission once these became available.
This is the artillery equivalent to the strelet, lol
I recently tested (in the Definitive Edition) these "Hand Mortars" and checked that the "Siege Combat" card DOESN'T improve their attack (but it does increase their HP). I consider this to be a bug, since the card its supposed to increase all the artillery damage and this unit it's considered as artillery, the card also DOESN'T improve their attack multipliers.
I (or some one else and then notifies me plz) still have to check if the "Siege Attack" and the "Western Reforms" works on them and increase their attack.
I hope they correct this, since this is one of my favorite units.
my guess is that since the UI doesn't show decimals for damage, the card didnt show up as having an effect. the card is 15% on base damage of 5. thats a total gain of 0.75 damage increase. while this will manifest itself after multipliers and be rather significant against buildings, it wont actually show up on the ui
Doesnt they suck against artillery? Both falconet and Heavy Cannon have 75% resistance against ranged attacks, so a decent amount of hand mortars (wich its 7) at fortress age would deal a total damage of 210 and 210-75%=52.2 and their ROF its 4.0.
Its even worth to use anti artillery at all?
Hand mortars deal siege damage, not ranged damage which they do not have resistances against.
If worth if mass created usually between 10-20 of them. However you still need to properly mirco it.
more range and faster ROF,so kill in 2 shots should be enough
combiantion of both but weak and cheap
Combination of the mortar and culverin.