No elastic here Works the exact same as a counterweight trebuchet but people are that counterweight

This is a mangonel

Indeed...

Should be a second unique unit for the Chinese in AOE2. I mean, they invented the trebuchet afterall. Like the Bulgarian Krepost being a mini castle, the traction trebuchet would be a mini trebuchet, half the damage and less range. And I think it's appropriate for the Chinese to have it since they're actually one of the lower tier civs.

@@EzioIlMentore lesser range trebuchet is useless. It needs to be more than the castle range.

@@HritwRaje So bombard cannon range then. The poor man's bombard cannon lol.

Interesting to see that comment here cause they can be build by the Mongols in the third age in the newly released AoE4. That's one age earlier than any other civ can build counterweight trebuchets. They are called traction trebuchet. 😄

Medieval sieges weren't usually very long or staggering, when a fort or walled city didn't surrender after a few days without supplies or when a few rocks came into it, counterweight trebuchets were more long term and tougher nuts to crack

I get the feeling that most modern reproductions, as demonstrated, are fairly underpowered relative to what would have been used historically. I mean, imagine what you could do if you had twice as many men pulling cables, just for starters, and if you have a few thousand men encamped around a stronghold, a handful of traction trebuchets with a couple dozen operators (or more) each isn't really difficult to imagine. What we see in this video is one of the more convincing demos I've seen, but I still just can't see these being effective siege engines with the performance you see in most videos, and the historical record suggests they *were* certainly effective. They essentially replaced onagers, after all. Until the advent of the counterweight trebuchet, these man-powered catapults were the go-to stone thrower of early and high medieval Europe.

Yes. There was a such a thing as a pavisade, which was a palisade made of pavise.

@UltramanII No, I think that's worse: unless you are obese or very weak you should be able to lift yourself with the movement they are doing, wich is more force than the weight. On the other hand, this requires syncrony, body fall in a platform doesn't, so that's better. What can be done is letting the human body weight fall more distance while gathering energy, that can not be done with just body movement and is closer to the goal of your idea. But this machine is supposed to be simple, cheap and fast to load, and a platform system is contrary to those goals. Maybe a small trebuchet could be.

UltramanII That would be weaker because the body takes time to reach an effective falling velocity which would be too late for an effective loose. Pulling down reaches higher velocity faster. Your idea would work if the platform were 100 meters high and as the rope pullers were falling down they could quickly grab the rope and loose the perrier befoer they slam into the ground.

UltramanII congratulations you have invented the human trebuchet XD

@@YappyRaccoon I get your point though I don't think it takes a 100 meter high platform to reach the force required. I remember standing on seesaw construction, made of a hard rubber band attached to 2 poles on each side and also hanged up at a reel between 2 poles right in the middle of the band, at the playground. The band sagging on each side just as much for kids to bop up and down, when there was person standing on both sides. I was about 8 years old and about 36 kilograms. Best thing to do was to replace my older sister with my father, who was about 1.82m and normal weight. Just seesawing launched me already, but when I finally convinced him to jump onto the band from the poles which were about half a meter above the bands level, boy did I fly! So launching a fairly small stone with a couple of people using their bodyweight synchronously would work out pretty well for what I'd expect. Though I'd just dig small hole. Could also be handy to reduce the amount of shielding required when the team gets under enemy ranged focus.

it's a trebuchet where the people don't need to sit in the counterweight basket; they can just stand and walk around. much more comfortable.

More like the father of trebuchets.

muskets and catapults function differently. a catapult is considered as a missile thrower whilst the musket is a firearm (get it cuz you use it on the arm). the concept of both weapons is also very different. where catapults like these were meant to hurl, muskets were meant to launch.

These were used to deliver bombs before mortars replaced them.

He's there to make sure that the 'firing' sling in the Perrier is under tension. If the firing sling is not under tension, its range becomes shorter and the firing direction becomes more unpredictable. (It's like the difference between firing a rubber band that is stretched tight and a rubber band that is slack). In the worst-case scenario, a slack firing sling can absorb the force of the entire Perrier, which means that the stone isn't shot forward and simply falls back down onto the heads of the soldiers. Standard trebuchets 'wind up' the firing sling around an axle to create tension, but as you can see from the video the Perrier doesn't have that.

Antreas Miltiadous Do you think it is smarter to loose the machine with no rock inserted? The rope will hopefully reach out and whip an enemy soldier?

He does a couple of important jobs including fast reload with no need to set up with a mechanical release mechanism. You will notice there is no lock or other system to hold the shot steady and no channel to set the sling in so they are it. They are essential to keep the sling rope under tension as the crew sets up and takes up slack and in operation they can even do some aiming of the shot on the fly as they can angle the rope in relation to the arm allowing some degree of aiming. If you have a really strong person on the sling they can even add a bit of spring tension to the arm by setting their feet against the frame and pulling against the crew as they take up tension. That little bit of added energy might add some distance and power to the shot that could make a real difference in the result.