|  | The Total Annihilation: Kingdoms WarGuide
4.1: The Trebuchet | [Back to the WarGuide]
Here are some tips to keep in mind when using a Trebuchet: Try to have plenty of builders building it as quickly as possible. You want to get in and out and get it ready as early as possible. If you have the resources to build two at the same time, do that, and build them in different places so that if the fire of one is blocked by an obstacle, the fire of the other just might make it past. Build defenders like crazy around the Trebuchet, and some Bastions/Strongholds if you have the chance. You will be attacked by air immediately upon firing by anybody with any kind of air force at all. Also, some defencive patrols wandering in a confusing pattern to the side of or in front of your Trebuchet can spot the early waves he sends looking for the Trebuchet. This could buy you some vital time to fire the Trebuchet more, and add more units to your defence line. People often scout and attack monotonously back and forth along the same lines, so don't shoot where they are; Shoot where they're going to be. Trebuchets are more useful on small maps, so use them there yourself, again in an unexpected location that your enemy doesn't seem to scout. Try to remember which maps a Trebuchet can or cannot reach across, or how far it can. When targeting, getting off shots quickly is imperative because retaliation is imminent, so try not to make your Trebuchet have to turn much or at all to fire at multiple targets. Try to fire along the line of the barrel, not side to side, if possible. Trebuchets turn awfully slowly. Unless especially rich targets demand it, fire up a radius first, then fire to the side. Remember to try to hit important targets, especially ones that prevent the enemy from building things. Try to queue up many targets at once; once your Trebuchet fires, you'll want to be watching very carefully for retaliation. Bookmark where your Trebuchet is and where you're firing so you can alternate between the general areas . Put your Bertha in a control group (CTR-1 or CTRL-9) that's easy to find quickly (1 or 9). This way you can stop it quickly if the enemy is tracking the trajectory, or target it quickly if something new pops up. Keep two builders by each Trebuchet. One should be set to guard the Trebuchet so you can heal it if it gets hurt, and the other should heal defenders that get damaged by attack, and then move on to creating and replacing other defencive structures.. Trebuchet Ships have a great advantage: Mobility. Have your Trebuchet Ship whipe out one area, and then move to another! Veruna players can save alot of mana this way. On naval maps, if you have a Trebuchet Ship, keep it moving! A moving Trebuchet Ship is much harder to find than a stationary one. Watch very carefully if your Trebuchet fire is hitting uselessly into the side of a mountain or terrain feature, or just causing no explosion. Make corrections immediately. When firing blindly, watch the area you're aiming at. Listen for any sounds of destruction and/or pain. If you hear alot, this is a worthy spot. If not, move on for a while. One good reason to build multiple Trebuchets is that if you spot a monarch, say with a scout for just an instant, your enemy may be overwhelmed with action and not realize what's happened. Bookmark the area if the screen fades before you can visually target the monarch, and then let fly with multiple Trebuchet shots right where the commander is. You'd be suprised how often people just keep their monarch in the same place after he's been scouted. Putting quite a few scouts into the air just to spot their monarch is always worth the effort; you can win the game literally in a few shots, a matter of seconds (If the game ends when the monarch dies). Try to be a good judge of what will hurt your opponent most, and then kill it. I almost always go for Divine Lodestones first and other Trebuchets second, because mana effects everything else in the game, and if another Trebuchet is in my range, I am in its range. This is a great Trebuchet defence. If you were playing this game, not even half the current structures would be nessescary, unless you were be attcked from all sides. The Strongholds provide a great land unit defence, while the Watch Towers provide air and backup defence.