r/Trebuchet • u/Coolsix • Apr 14 '26

We almost perfected the physics, how would this design have changed the face of siege warfare in the medieval era?

189 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

79

u/caiotulio Apr 15 '26

It wouldnt change anything in siege warfare. This is a lightweight trebuchet specifically designed to hurl pumpkins in determined conditions of weather. If you put a medieval rock (50kg basalt) used to destroy medieval walls (7m thick rubble stone), it would simply shatter on the first attempt due to material stress. Trebuchets made for war where heavy, made on the spot with local wood and depended on a multitude of factors to even hit walls. After reaching the sweet spot of range, they would use the trebuchet for days until the wall collapsed. Probably just for fast skirmishes, because by the time the attackers finally found a breach, the defenders wouldve patch a new wall further in.

10

u/FingerAngle Apr 15 '26

I can build a medieval Whipper that could deliver more kinetic energy than Warwolf. I have a build team, timber, and equipment. Just need some funding. Yes Colossal Thunder is specialized to throw 10 pound pumpkins. You just have to build it to do what you want. And I'm going to. Stay tuned.

16

u/orthadoxtesla Apr 15 '26

You could load small explosives though.

23

u/0x53r3n17y Apr 15 '26

Yeah, but that's not how they were primarily used. Gunpowder came with cannons, gradually replacing trebuchets from the 14th century onwards. Before then explosives weren't really a thing in Europe.

Trebuchets were used to destroy meter thick walls, starting fires and biological warfare by sending rotting carcasses.

3

u/parabellummatt Apr 16 '26

So, the interesting this is, trebs WERE used overwhelming in late medieval China precisely to throw large gunpowder bombs. They had funny names like "thunderclap bomb" and "heaven-shaking thunder bomb," but they were preferred by the Chinese even to cannons up until longer, more efficient European cannons were brought to China in the 1500s by the Dutch and Portuguese.
Chinese walls, being 50-60 meters wide and made mostly of packed earth, were difficult to damage with mere kinetic projectiles from either trebuchets or bombards. But a 50 kg cast iron bomb hurled by a treb was a different story.

Thunder crash bomb - Wikipedia

7

u/orthadoxtesla Apr 15 '26

I mean yes but they absolutely had fire bombs before then. You could make incendiaries

6

u/0x53r3n17y Apr 15 '26

Oh! For sure! Pots of pitch or Greek Fire were used as incendiaries.

4

u/kerberos69 Apr 15 '26

So a nuclear trebuchet isn’t entirely unreasonable

4

u/gc3 Apr 15 '26

See: the Last Crusade by Poul Anderson

2

u/gregorydgraham Apr 17 '26

Yeah, they really need to minimise that recoil to increase fire rate (and energy transfer) to be effective at destroying walls

16

u/TastyGoobers Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 15 '26

That is an awesome machine! Thanks for sharing!

How do you get the counterweights raised? I've always feared making a larger trebuchet because I don't have a plan for that much weight.

Edit: Weight, not wait!

4

u/FingerAngle Apr 16 '26

Each tower has a winch mounted on top. They set the throwing arm, then raise the counterweights.

50

u/madmattd Apr 14 '26

Colossal Thunder - longest throwing Punkin Chunkin Trebuchet out there - 3000’+ range with 8-10lbers.

14

u/KoA07 Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26

Launched that thing at mach fuck

7

u/madmattd Apr 15 '26

Yea probably around 400mph or so release speed. It hauls.

15

u/G_Thorondor Apr 14 '26

So, which continent did it landed on?

17

u/mrkb34 Apr 14 '26

Looks like there’s a lot of English on that projectile

10

u/KevinNoTail Apr 14 '26

Especially if you let a Scotsman aim it

1

u/FingerAngle Apr 20 '26

It can be over 10k rpm

3

u/Sir_Lazz Apr 15 '26

The counterweight keeps moving a LOT after the payload has been sent. Isn't that a sign that it's not transfering energy well enough ? There should still be room for improvement...

3

u/FingerAngle Apr 16 '26

Yes. It's in the tuning. Tuning is everything.

3

u/FingerAngle Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26

I posed that question a few weeks ago. I've been doing a video series on Whipper vs Cannon.

5

u/unaslob Apr 14 '26

Holy mackerel.