Cheiroballista, by definition, are the Atlantean Counter-Infantry unit, who also happens to be a siege weapon.
I'll start by comparing them to spearmen, considering spearmen and cheiroballista are both units meant to counter each other.
102 life
36% Hack Armor
50% Pierce Armor
75% Crush Armor
12 Second Train Time
7 Pierce Damage (x4 arrows)
3.85 Movement Speed
30 LOS
20 Range
+1000% Bonus damage vs. buildings.
+110% Bonus damage vs. walls.
+100% Bonus damage vs. infantry.
+350% Bonus damage vs. huskarls.
+300% Bonus damage vs. Destroyers/Destroyer Heroes.
+200% Vs. Ships
122 Life
62% Hack Armor
47% Pierce Armor
99% Crush Armor
5 Second Train Time
11.9 Hack Damage
5 Running Speed
19 Line of Sight
- Cheiroballista are highly inaccurate, one arrow will almost always hit, but the enemy almost HAS to be moving for 2 arrows to hit them, the inaccurate arrows normally cause a "splash damage" which if enemies are standing in basic formatiion (side by side) 3 arrows will hit 3 different people, the fourth arrow will miss.
- Cheiroballista cost 4 population, very pricey.
- Cheiroballista are still considered siege, so katapelts, raiding cavalry, villagers, prodromos, and spearmen get bonus damage to them.
- Cheiroballista hit 3/4 arrows 50% of the time, and 4/4 arrows 50% of the time when the enemy is standing directly in front of you (melee units attacking you).
-In equal population amounts, Fully upgraded AND basic Cheiroballistae will win both match-ups, when microed and when BOTH sides are non-microed... when expertly microing the spearmen (make all fire on a couple and dodge while others rip the unmicroed cheiros to shreds) the spearmen will win, but that is beyond our area we are studying right now..
-The Spearmen is the hard counter unit for egyptians to use against Cheiroballista.
-Cheiroballistae do their intended job well, they win vs. all infantry in equal pop-wise battles, including huskarls and katapelts.
-Cheiroballistae beat most archers pop-wise, only losing pop-wise to ARCUS (not toxote, but instead the atlantean arcus), and occasionally gataphretes (50% of the time).
-Cheiroballistae, even before getting burning pitch (which gives +1000% damage to buildings for them), do quite well vs. buildings, despite dealing pierce damage
-Elephants cannot stand up to massed cheiroballistae, pop-wise they can, but when you have enough cheiroballistae, due to the slow time and large size of elephants, nearly 3/4 arrows for each Cheiroballista hits them every shot, so with enough cheiroballista, elephants aren't too rough to deal with, although do not expect cheiros to be able to handle elephants by theirself, I was just informing you that if you are on the offensive side, and he is depending on Elephant AQ to take down your units, he will fail at this for a while, of course, kats will be the best counter to them, PERIOD!
-Villagers are a deadly enemy to cheiroballista, but fully upgraded cheiroballista can deal with villagers without much problem, the 2x7 damage each shot as the villager comes toward you is strong, then the 3x7 damage as they are in your face normally makes them fall before they deal too much damage (unless facing Ra Upgraded Villagers).
-Obviously use cheiroballista to counter infantry, I hope that you have grasped that they do their job efficiently.
-If your enemy is atlantean and you are both running turma, make a couple cheiroballistae to both deal damage and absorb the attacks, seeing as they have 50% pierce armor and do quite well vs. archers.
-Vs. Atlantean enemies Cheiroballistae should be massed IMO, especially when combined with fanatics, destroyers, or both, for a very strong army that is tough to beat.
-Vs. Norse making cheiroballistae with Katapelts is a strong combination, as the enemy has to have strong micro in order to counter this. Obviously if they can flank you with a few villagers from the back they can take out your cheiros since the katapelts deal low damage even if they start to catch them, but throwing axeman and raiding cavalry are really necessary, both of which you are countering at every second, please be aware that some expert norse players have found ways to counter this and believe it is really not that strong.
Another Tactic where cheiroballistae are powerful vs. norse, which this is probably a better tactic, is keeping roughly 3 or 4 in your army alongside massed turma and murmillo, because this leaves a strong meatshield with much ranged backfire, and the splash damage of cheiroballista can simply wipe the enemy forces clean without giving it second thought.
-Vs. Egyptian classical fighter you need to run 1-2 counter rax turma (normally I go 2), 1 counter rax Cheiro, and 1 rax Murmillo, simply because this battle is so insanely tough for you, be sure to get some Prometheans if having gone prometheus, or if gaia, keep either Automatons OR have bite of the shark researched ASAP... I would suggest oceanus as gaia however in case they start bringing in elephants.
-Vs. Greek you really can find little usage for them, because of the massive myth units and the very high life Hippikons, both of which will just tear them apart, no matter what their meat shield... only real way to use them vs. zeus is throw in between buildings is he is doing a hoplite rush (which he might do since infantry are easier to spam vs. atty).
I will leave this section open to any questions you may ask, including numbers (exact) from the editor and any fights you want me to retest, basically any questions about cheiroballistae that you think would make the guide look a little better right here.
-Q: I see that cheiroballista have 30 LOS, would they make a good scout?
-A: No, unfortunately they only have a 3.85 movement speed, which is about the same as a destroyer so their line of sight is only a real plus in being able to sight an enemy's units and arrange your army accordingly to counter them, or running him slightly towards a gold mine to see if it's occupied. I would definitely not suggest having them stake-out a gold mine, however, since it IS a 4 population unit that single handedly will lose vs anything they throw at it except for infantry..
-Q: Shouldn't Myth units be able to simply run over cheiroballistae in normal combat?
-A: It all depends on the playing abilities of the atlantean player, as you all know, cheiroballistae cannot be heroized, but they are also ranged and do not intend to have units run straight into them, so if the enemy heroizes some turma, katapelts, or any other unit really (those being the best 2 in normal combat) that they heroize, it becomes simply a battle of micro and unit choices.
-Q: Which makes a better priest counter, the Arcus or the Cheiroballistae?
-A: If your enemy is running 16 priests or less, the arcus is by far the better counter. It does slightly more damage then a cheiroballista, as well as has a faster firing speed. If your enemy is running between 17-24 priests, the tests come so very close that there is no one definite winner in effectiveness, and if the enemy has more than 25 priests (which is 50 pop or higher devoted to priests) cheiroballistae rip them to pieces so very fast in comparison to arci that the game is definitely in favor to the cheiroballista. In another test, when there is tower spam as well as priests, which is a very probable situation if you have a titan, the cheiroballistae are the best counter in any population based tests.
Anything you think I should change about this guide (other than saying something stupid like "cheiros suck, no guide is needed for them") you can feel free to post that in one of your replies to this thread. Thank you for reading it, this took me roughly a week and a half to complete, but I am pretty sure of the information I have given.
[This message has been edited by Squeoo (edited 11-26-2007 @ 04:26 PM).]