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The fan-made info card featuring the Trebuchet unit (Civ5)
Game Info
Powerful Medieval Siege Unit. Replaces the Catapult.
- Common traits:
- Attack bonus vs cities (200%)
- No defensive terrain bonuses
- Unable to melee attack.
- Must set up prior to firing
- Limited visibility
Strategy
A Trebuchet is a medieval siege weapon, significantly more powerful than the earlier Catapult units. Advances in technology allow a much more efficient launch system, capable of delivering larger, more powerful projectiles that can more easily punch through Walls and other defenses medieval cities use. Still, the Trebuchet must expend 1 Movement Point to set up, it is too bulky to use natural defenses, and has limited vision. So, always support your Trebuchets with melee and ranged units to keep enemy units from getting too close.
Another popular use for the Trebuchet (as with the earlier Catapult) is defending your own cities, as they can do a lot of damage to Longswordsmen.
Historical Info
The trebuchet is a powerful Medieval siege weapon. First appearing in Europe in the 12th century, the trebuchet could hurl a 300-lb missile into or over the enemy's walls at long distance. The Medieval European version of the trebuchet was a "counterweight" machine. It consisted of a very long wooden arm with a sling on one end and a heavy weight on the other, mounted on a heavy wooden framework. The long arm was winched down, raising the heavy weight, and a missile was placed in the sling. When released, the weight would come down and the arm would whip up into the air, hurling the missile a huge distance. These machines were generally not mobile and required a long process of assembly, limiting their effective use to protracted sieges.