Catapult

''"Soldiers only throw around their swords and shields and huff a lot. If they were REALLY strong, they'd just throw rocks at people until they died." - ???, Inventor of the Catapult.''

''"Well this was a waste of money. Why didn't we just throw four Archers into this box and attack with it instead of making a giant spoon on the end?  There's a Fortress RIGHT THERE and we've got nothing to hit it with." - ???, Inventor of the Catapult, Experimental Projectile.''

Catapults have a high shooting range, but are pretty slow. They are perfect to break Towers. Catapults have a minimum fire range of 4.

Description
The Catapult is a very strong mid and late game unit that's capable of taking out static defenses, zoning Mages, and introducing a lot of AoE damage on your opponent's army while also providing reasonable defensive options when coupled with Watchtowers. While the Catapult does have an avoidable projectile attack and minimum range that leaves him susceptible to Soldiers, they are an indispensable power boost to any army.

Abilities
Attack Ground

Cost: 0 Mana, Cooldown: 3 Sec, Range: 10(+1) (min 4)

Catapults can be ordered to fire continuously at a given location, regardless of whether there are any units there. Attack Ground can be a very effective zoning tool, providing constant fire even before the enemy is there to be targeted. It also often increases the amount of AOE damage the Catapult deals, as the target point is likely to be offset from the exact center of any unit(s) it hits.

Upgrades
Mech Attack Upgrade

Increases the attack damage of your Mechanical units.

(Grants Catapults +3 damage per upgrade, up to +15)

Mech Upgrade

Increases the armor of your Mechanical units.

(Grants Catapults +1 armor per upgrade, up to +5)

Mech Upgrade

Increases the movement speed of your Mechanical units.

(Grants Catapults +0.15 speed per upgrade, up to +0.75)

Mech Upgrade

Increases the range of your ranged Mechanical units. Has no influence on melee units.

(Grants Catapults +1 range per upgrade, up to +5)

Usage
Catapults are often used to break Towers, particularly in the early and midgame, because they have enough attack range to attack the tower without being shot at. This allows the Catapult player to push into bases even when they have Tower defenses without losing valuable units in a cost-ineffective engagement.

Another very strong use of Catapults is to load them into Airships and use them to harass Workers. Two Catapult shots can kill a Worker, and because they deal AOE damage they can devastate an entire Worker line, while the Airship gives them excellent mobility and defense from most units. Even Archers can have difficulty zoning out an early Airship and Catapults, which can abuse cliffs to attack with impunity.

Catapults inherently force the enemy to micro, because dodging Catapult shots saves a lot of damage, while the Catapult can often me managed with less effort.

Finally, Catapults are occasionally used en masse in the lategame, so that their massed fire is nearly impossible to dodge and can devastate enemies from long range. However, this playsyle does usually need to have a 'critical mass' of Catapults to be effective.

However, Catapults are very vulnerable to well-micro'ed enemies. Their minimum range and low speed leaves them helpless if units get too close, and their shots can be dodged by mobile enmies. In addition, Catapult damage per second is surprisingly low against single targets, so that other army compositions are capable of dealing more damage more quickly, albeit from shorter range. And, of course, Catapults are very vulnerable to air units.

Development
1.32: Damage from 40 to 50 base

1.70: Supply from 3 to 4
 * Cost from 135 to 145

1.72: reduced catapult AoE radius from 0.3 to 0.2; reduced attack dmg benefit for catapults from +8 to +5; reduced dmg from 50 to 45

1.74: HP from 120 to 135
 * reduced dmg from 45 to 40
 * reduced movement speed from 1.6 to 1.5