Trees gone

[The Cheese]

Despite playing CloD on my laptop since its release, with medium-high graphics and generally playable framerates (my comp is dual core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 6GB DDR3 RAM, Radeon HD 6770m 2GB GPU), after the final patch, suddenly the game stutters far more than I've experienced before, still on the same settings I've always used (medium landscape detail, medium tree quality, high model detail, low buildings detail). Based on when the stutters occur, they seemed to largely be due to trees. But anytime I change any options to lower tree quality, nothing happens unless I set Landscape Detail lower, and when the game restarts, trees no longer show up at all, and I've been unable to get them back.

This hadn't particularly concerned me when the patch first came out, because I figured I could play the game on my family's desktop until BoM came out, but now I learn that that isn't going to happen, and I'll be well into college by the time BoS comes out, stuck with only my laptop. Any help/advice, on optimising/fixing trees for this final patch? Since CloD is the last we'll see of it's kind for some time, I'd like to get it working...