Age Of Empires IV Shows Off Trebuchets At Gamescom 2021

Age of Empires IV showed off the trebuchet today in epic fashion, with a bit of a history lesson during the Xbox Gamescom 2021 presentation. I don't mean the in-game unit, I mean the actual historical trebuchet up close and personal. We got to see the pivoted arm, the sling, and of course, the big freaking projectile. While we've all fired trebuchets at castles in Age of Empires titles, it was a strange sort of History-channel pivot to see one on-screen hyping up the upcoming Age of Empires IV release.

Oddly enough, I kind of enjoyed it instead of traditional E3 and Gamescom antics like trotting out a celebrity. Instead, we got to see an actual trebuchet and got a little bit of a history lesson on top. Did you know trebuchets were used to throw pretty much everything into enemy territory, including beehives? Yeah. Weaponized bees. Okay, that's kind of scary. 

But wait! You don't have to listen to me talk about how cool (and slightly strange) it is to fork a video game marketing event into a history reel. You can watch it right here in this episode of Hands-On History. They should put these episodes into the game whenever you dig into a unit. That would be cool, right?

Age of Empires IV arrives on October 28.