Let’s come up with new “war machines.”

I disagree with the assessment of machines being weak. In the case of the ballista, it heavily depends on the game's duration. If you play for several months, as some do, the ballista does become obsolete relatively quickly, which is perfectly normal (every skill has its time). However, if needed, you can increase the number of shots or even the initiative of the ballista. In the case of the ballista, the question boils down to whether you can develop ranged weapons. Without them, the multi-shot branch remains weak. The solution is simple: transfer the ranged weapons skill to the machinery branch. In the case of the catapult, we have two situational and not very useful perks that would be good to strengthen. This is what is planned to be done in the Wargame Edition mod (see the first posts of the topic - description of skills and perks). In short, artillery (the catapult) will kill part of the troops even before the battle (not just siege units), and these enemy losses will be so significant that they will compensate not only for the perks but also for the base often taken for them. The suggestion to give only a little bit of everything, in my opinion, is extremely unsuccessful - it's a meaningless mishmash, which is further aggravated by the fact that many different things are already given for machines in the original game for taking a base.