Catapult Master

How to play Catapult Master

Catapult Master puts you behind a counterweight trebuchet with three dials: the counterweight, from 500 to 5,000 kg; the length of the throwing arm, from 3 to 6 metres; and the release angle, from 20 to 75 degrees. Set them, pull the pin, and the arm swings for real — the falling counterweight drives it, the arm's own weight and the stone hold it back, and the stone leaves the tip at the release angle with whatever speed the tip had reached.

The dials pull against each other. A longer arm throws faster but is slower to get moving; extra counterweight helps less and less the more you add; an early release flattens the shot and a late one wastes the swing. In flight the stone feels air drag, and from level four a wind that grows stronger. Your last shot's path stays on the field and the landing is called as so many metres short or long of the nearest target, so every miss tells you which way to turn a dial.

There are eight levels with five stones each and six on the last. Targets move further out, walls make you lob high, hills raise the targets, and a siege cart rolls back and forth on level seven. Towers take two hits; tents and carts take one. Spare stones score a bonus when a level is cleared, and running out with targets still standing costs one of three hearts and restarts the level with your dial settings kept.

Objective

Flatten every target on all eight levels before you run out of stones three times.

Features

• A simulated counterweight lever driving the throwing arm
• Counterweight, arm length and release angle dials that trade off
• Air drag, and wind from level four
• Your last shot's path and a short-or-long call on every landing
• Walls, hills, two-hit towers and a moving siege cart

Scores are saved in this browser only. There is no global ranking and nothing is uploaded.