| “ | Innovative field weapon capable of firing a barrage of rockets to damage defensive positions and clumped enemy troops. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Nest of Bees is a unique gunpowder siege unit in Age of Empires IV available to the Chinese at the Siege Workshop starting in the Castle Age. It replaces the Mangonel and is primarily used against large groups of enemies.
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Tactics[]
Just like Mangonels, they are strong against clumped units (usually infantry) and ranged units, and weak to cavalry and Springalds. The Clocktower Nest of Bees, which can only be produced from the Astronomical Clocktower, enhance their hit points, which is very helpful. The regular Nest of Bees is destroyed with 5 springald attacks, while the Clocktower Nest of Bees is destroyed after 7 attacks. With equal numbers, Nests of Bees can win against Springalds even though it is not really cost-effective. Still, unguarded Nests of Bees are very weak, so they must be guarded with either Spearmen or Palace Guards.
Further statistics[]
As Nest of Bees are unique to the Chinese, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Ranged infantry |
| Weak vs. | Horsemen, Springalds |
| Upgrades | |
| Hit points |  Siege Works (+20%)
|
| Attack |  Chemistry (+20%)
|
| Armor | Siege Works (+10 ranged)
|
| Creation speed |  Military Academy (+25%)
|
| Training cost |  Reusable Barrels (-25%)
|
| Movement speed |  Greased Axles (+15%)
|
08 November 2021
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16 April 2013
23 October 2007
Unit comparison[]
 Nest of Bees
|
 Mangonel
| |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 300 wood, 300 gold | 400 wood, 200 gold |
| Attack | 12 siege | 12 siege, +6 vs ranged +24 vs buildings |
| Burst shots | 8 | 3 |
| Rate of Fire | 5.5 | 6.75 |
| Range | 8 | 9 |
| Speed | 0.81 | 0.75 |
| Line of Sight | 14.22 | 11.56 |
| Upgrade | Reusable Barrels 150 wood, 350 gold, 60 s Cost -25% |
 Adjustable Crossbars200 wood, 500 gold, 90 s Rate of Fire -25% |
Similarities[]
- Time: 40 seconds
- HP: 140
- Armor: 0
- Ranged Armor: 20
- Population: 3
- Minimum Range: 3
Changelog[]
- Originally, the Nest of Bees had 0.62 movement speed, 2.5 minimum range, 240 hit points, trained in 45 seconds, and did 8 damage. With update 8324, it has 0.81 movement speed, 3 minimum range, 200 hit points, trains in 40 seconds, and does 10 damage. Season Two Update 17718 further reduced their hit points to 140 (210 Clocktower).
- Originally, Nest of Bees had 8 ranged armor. With Season Two Update 17718, they have 20 ranged armor.
Gallery[]
3 comments
You can consider Nest of Bees as the ancestral grandfather of all rockets based weapons.
Special Note: these are categorized as Siege as well as Gunpowder unit so they benefit from both tech trees (at black smith, siege works and university).
"Ah, no not the bees!" -Nicholas Cage