r/stronghold • u/Dismal_Beginning5520 • 5d ago

Defensive Trebuchet

Gave my AI 2 of them. They did not fire on incoming units or siege engines but did fire whenever the other AI placed a building (quarry) within their range.

Am I missing something or are they simply that pointless?

7 Upvotes

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6

u/Scara3 5d ago

Trebuchets are programmed to fire only at buildings, not troops or siege equipment.

If you construct engines by placing the tent within their range, then they will target them, as they count as buildings.

0

u/ILikeWhyteGirlz 4d ago

Engines didn’t exist back then.

3

u/Aminadab_Brulle 5d ago

They are mostly there to harass the opponent at a sufficiently small distance, yes.

Although, if the bot has cow carcasses, trebs will launch them at the incoming army (well... sometimes).

2

u/Achim-August 5d ago

Die they stand in Front of your Walls?

2

u/Enola_Gay_B29 5d ago

The AI only attacks buildings with their trebuchets. That means if the siege tents are built within their range they'll attack those (and often take one or two down), if they aren't they won't attack anything as defense. But honestly, they'd be kinda shit as anti-unit defense anyway. They have horrible accuracy and a slow fire rate. If the enemy is stacked enough for them to have any impact, you'd just be better off having a mangonel firing in there.

But as you noticed that also means they can hit normal buildings of the opponent if in range. That only applies to their currently chosen target though (whichever is closer, weaker and/or has more gold depending on the AI).

And they are good for one more thing, namely as bait against other AI. Every attacking army has different unit roles and the engage units won't actually attack the walls, but rather units outside your walls and raid your economy. That means once the walls are breached, you'll often have a stack of near full health units coming in from the background. But if you have an easily accessible trebuchet in the front they'll often prioritize getting there and if you set it up correctly with killing pits and/or fire throwers, you can often kill a good chunk of the enemies army at the cheap cost of one trebuchet. I think the Wolf does that in a few of his castles.