Trebuchet, how to get rid of it?

[sinsro]

I just want to enjoy some skirmish battles with multiple AI opponents in my own pace, but before I can do anything I am overwhelmed with trebuchets that levels my civilisation in seconds from 1km away.

I know the unit is there to prevent a stall between human players, but I am not interested in playing with humans, why would we need to be rushed by an AI? Does it have something else to do and have to finish the match quickly? :'D

I used to enjoy this mod that disables them, and had a blast fighting many AIs at the same time on hard level with a 500 unit cap for epic battles, but that mod no longer works.

Looks like we can only use the scenario editor now, but that feels a lot like work to set up the whole level like you are a game developer during working hours.

Is there any way to get rid of trebuchets in the latest version?

[Boshiken]

Originally posted by sinsro:

I just want to enjoy some skirmish battles with multiple AI opponents in my own pace, but before I can do anything I am overwhelmed with trebuchets that levels my civilisation in seconds from 1km away.

I know the unit is there to prevent a stall between human players, but why would we need to be rushed by an AI? Does it have something else to do and have to finish the match quickly? :'D

I used to enjoy this mod that disables them, and had a blast fighting many AIs at the same time on hard level with a 500 level cap for epic battles, but that mod no longer works.

Looks like we can only use the scenario editor now, but that feels a lot like work to set up the whole level like you are a game developer during working hours.

Is there any way to get rid of trebuchets in the latest version?

either - you are rushed - or you play with friends - for the start

[sinsro]

Originally posted by Boshiken:

Originally posted by sinsro:

I just want to enjoy some skirmish battles with multiple AI opponents in my own pace, but before I can do anything I am overwhelmed with trebuchets that levels my civilisation in seconds from 1km away.

I know the unit is there to prevent a stall between human players, but why would we need to be rushed by an AI? Does it have something else to do and have to finish the match quickly? :'D

I used to enjoy this mod that disables them, and had a blast fighting many AIs at the same time on hard level with a 500 level cap for epic battles, but that mod no longer works.

Looks like we can only use the scenario editor now, but that feels a lot like work to set up the whole level like you are a game developer during working hours.

Is there any way to get rid of trebuchets in the latest version?

either - you are rushed - or you play with friends - for the start

uhm, i think you replied to the wrong post? I am asking for ways to disable the trebuchet when playing with AI opponents, sorry if I was not clear about the purpose of this post.

[BirbNotBird]

My option is to find an AI bot/data mod that disables trebuchets as an available solution.

Alternatively, just make/import a skirmish map, place TCs, and disable trebuchet in tech tree.

Sadly, option 1 is kinda rare-ish, option 2 is better and already been answered by OP.

[Boshiken]

Originally posted by sinsro:

Originally posted by Boshiken:

either - you are rushed - or you play with friends - for the start

uhm, i think you replied to the wrong post? I am asking for ways to disable the trebuchet when playing with AI opponents, sorry if I was not clear about the purpose of this post.

disable trebuchets - if you stop in "Castle Age"
you can decide - by hosting - last age - not "Imperial Age"

[Quintem]

Originally posted by sinsro:

I know the unit is there to prevent a stall between human players, but I am not interested in playing with humans, why would we need to be rushed by an AI? Does it have something else to do and have to finish the match quickly? :'D

Because the AI is designed to play the game, not sim city.

Age of Empires 2 is a war game not a city builder. Disabling trebuchets would also require you to disable bombard cannons, because AI would try to build those instead. If it does not have access to either of those it's going to build rams. At that point you'd disable all siege meant to destroy entrenched fortifications. Now you can't destroy the AI's castles easily either.

Also, if the AI is laying siege to you with trebuchets, why do you have nothing to destroy them?

[Boshiken]

Originally posted by Quintem:

Originally posted by sinsro:

I know the unit is there to prevent a stall between human players, but I am not interested in playing with humans, why would we need to be rushed by an AI? Does it have something else to do and have to finish the match quickly? :'D

Because the AI is designed to play the game, not sim city.

Age of Empires 2 is a war game not a city builder. Disabling trebuchets would also require you to disable bombard cannons, because AI would try to build those instead. If it does not have access to either of those it's going to build rams. At that point you'd disable all siege meant to destroy entrenched fortifications. Now you can't destroy the AI's castles easily either.

Also, if the AI is laying siege to you with trebuchets, why do you have nothing to destroy them?

just like disabling the future - like getting walking dead romans into the future

[sinsro]

Originally posted by Quintem:

Originally posted by sinsro:

I know the unit is there to prevent a stall between human players, but I am not interested in playing with humans, why would we need to be rushed by an AI? Does it have something else to do and have to finish the match quickly? :'D

Because the AI is designed to play the game, not sim city.

Age of Empires 2 is a war game not a city builder. Disabling trebuchets would also require you to disable bombard cannons, because AI would try to build those instead. If it does not have access to either of those it's going to build rams. At that point you'd disable all siege meant to destroy entrenched fortifications. Now you can't destroy the AI's castles easily either.

Also, if the AI is laying siege to you with trebuchets, why do you have nothing to destroy them?

Okay, try this game setup:
500 units cap, fight four AIs at the same time on hard difficulty. See what happens... Have fun with those trebuchets when the enemy has 4 times more units and resources than you. Removing those is a kind of handicap that is necessary in this scenario.

If your response is "oh, dont do that, it is not designed for that." then you are not getting the point of the skirmish sandbox mode where you can carefully design your own challenges after you played it to death in the regular way. I bet you have your own way to do that which you think is fun, you can make your own post about that. In this post the topic is how to get rid of those trebuchets.

If this topic is of no interest to you and you do not know how to answer this question, then why are you posting here telling us how to play the game?

[Boshiken]

Originally posted by sinsro:

Originally posted by Quintem:

Because the AI is designed to play the game, not sim city.

Age of Empires 2 is a war game not a city builder. Disabling trebuchets would also require you to disable bombard cannons, because AI would try to build those instead. If it does not have access to either of those it's going to build rams. At that point you'd disable all siege meant to destroy entrenched fortifications. Now you can't destroy the AI's castles easily either.

Also, if the AI is laying siege to you with trebuchets, why do you have nothing to destroy them?

Okay, try this game setup:
500 units cap, fight four AIs at the same time on hard difficulty. See what happens... Have fun with those trebuchets when the enemy has 4 times more units and resources than you. Removing those is a kind of handicap that is necessary in this scenario.

If your response is "oh, dont do that, it is not designed for that." then you are not getting the point of the skirmish sandbox mode where you can carefully design your own challenges after you played it to death in the regular way. I bet you have your own way to do that which you think is fun, you can make your own post about that. In this post the topic is how to get rid of those trebuchets.

If this topic is of no interest to you and you do not know how to answer this question, then why are you posting here telling us how to play the game?

so - if you cannot defeat - the AI - or Opponents better than you
maybe you can conquer your Country - or even the whole World

[PeteSkTemplar]

Set up a treaty up to 90 min or less iirc so no rush.

[Quintem]

Originally posted by sinsro:

If this topic is of no interest to you and you do not know how to answer this question, then why are you posting here telling us how to play the game?

Because the game is balanced around 200 population. That's why. I get confused by people that play a game like a city builder when it's a war game. Then complain the war game contains war.

And no the AI would not have more stuff than me with 500 population...So that's a skill issue not a settings issue. I'd have my own trebuchets, bombard cannons or cavalry to deal with their siege.

[Boshiken]

Originally posted by Quintem:

Originally posted by sinsro:

If this topic is of no interest to you and you do not know how to answer this question, then why are you posting here telling us how to play the game?

Because the game is balanced around 200 population. That's why. I get confused by people that play a game like a city builder when it's a war game. Then complain the war game contains war.

And no the AI would not have more stuff than me with 500 population...So that's a skill issue not a settings issue. I'd have my own trebuchets, bombard cannons or cavalry to deal with their siege.

yeah - if it is a war game - why you complain about trebs anyways
everyone knows

[Quintem]

Anyway the solution...

Go to the map editor. I assume you're playing randomly generated maps.

Select the number of players, map type and size.

Go to options. Select player 2 and disable trebuchets from their unit list.

Repeat this process with all AI players.

Congratulations you've disabled trebuchets. Now you need to do this every time you want to generate a new map to play on.

[Flakstruk]

You could lock ending age in castle. Trebs are imperial only

[James3157]

The biggest weakness for AI is actually building close to them. Especially on moderate and easier difficulty settings. I for example learned how to win against CD AI on skirmishes at least on moderate difficulty with it being 1v2 by building castles close to them. You might however need to defend your villagers as well. Also, if you have map explored (although, I prefer explored over revealed actually mainly because at least against CD AI it would be too easy to hunt them down if the entire map is revealed) or revealed from the start of the game (which technically does not count as cheating) take away as many domestic animals as you can since this will slow them down from aging up as well.

[Nivlache]

I think it's only possible to disable it in the scenario editor , or by limiting the max. age to Castle Age (but it locks ton of other stuff too)

A no treb. mode would be good, my main issue with trebs is that it makes all other siege weapons obsolete/inferior and feels cheap to use them in a way.
on Defenders side they can turn the game into whack-a-mole for their opponent, on attackers I avoid using them in casual games cause it feels cheap.
It's not that it's difficult to deal with them, it's that it takes out the fun from siege battles for me so I prefer to only have them in a match if I'll try to improve myself or playing against others, not while just wanting to have a fun casual match.