Tell me about medieval border fortresses, please!

[Agback]

G'day

The mediaeval fortress par excellence would have to be the aforementioned Krak des Chevaliers, a stronghold of the Knights Hospitallers of St John from c. 1144 to 1271. It was once described as 'the supreme achievement of mediaeval military architecture'.

The Krak was built for a garrison of a thousand men, but the Order was often short of manpower. It withstood a siege by Saladin in 1188, but when it was besieged by Baibars in 1271 it had a garrison of only about 300, and he battered it to a wreck within five weeks.

Castles were all very well against soldiers. The garrisons could hold off thirty times their number or more of merely armed men. Against engineers they were invariably doomed.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Crass]

G'day

The mediaeval fortress par excellence would have to be the aforementioned Krak des Chevaliers, a stronghold of the Knights Hospitallers of St John from c. 1144 to 1271. It was once described as 'the supreme achievement of mediaeval military architecture'.

The Krak was built for a garrison of a thousand men, but the Order was often short of manpower. It withstood a siege by Saladin in 1188, but when it was besieged by Baibars in 1271 it had a garrison of only about 300, and he battered it to a wreck within five weeks.

Castles were all very well against soldiers. The garrisons could hold off thirty times their number or more of merely armed men. Against engineers they were invariably doomed.

Regards,


Agback

Re: engineers dooming soldiers - I KNEW there was a reason for it, just I couldn't translate it into words eloquently enough... (rant: curse this darned cold/flu of mine...) Oh, and cavalry horses tend to end up in the soup pot after enough time under siege conditions Warfare tended to be a slow, methodical process in the middle ages...

 

[Dark Helmet]

I just wanted to add a few ideas.

First. You know the goblins are going to attack at night so their darkvision will give them the edge.

Second. The elves should give a large number of the goblins potions of spider climbing so the gobs can just crawl over the walls.

Third. Crass gave me the idea that the elves should probably catapult animated diseased corpses over the walls (I wonder if ghouls are immune to falling damage?


Notice how I seem to favor the Dark Side!

 

[Crass]

I just wanted to add a few ideas.

First. You know the goblins are going to attack at night so their darkvision will give them the edge.

Second. The elves should give a large number of the goblins potions of spider climbing so the gobs can just crawl over the walls.

Third. Crass gave me the idea that the elves should probably catapult animated diseased corpses over the walls (I wonder if ghouls are immune to falling damage?


Notice how I seem to favor the Dark Side!

First. So the defenders should clear a large area around the fort, and ensure it is well-lit - or easy to illuminate. The goblins could not sneak around in the dark thereafter. They'd also be at a disadvantage and in a big missile "kill zone" if the area was suddenly illuminated at night. Does 3.5 give goblins a penalty if exposed suddenly to bright light?

Second. Good idea, if the goblins overcome First, above.

Third. Happy to oblige. If the body also has contagion cast on it, and is sent back while alive... maybe a scout from the fort that'd been captured, let's say... I WOULD have favoured the Dark Side as well, but with the elves being evil...

 

[Hand of Evil]

You would need two to three walls to block and control traffic through the pass, the biggest need would to be to break charges by horse and then bottle neck troops creating a kill zone.

I would also have platforms where most arrow fired would be to the right-hand side of the target (non-shield arm).

 

[Pbartender]

Have you checked the WotC Map-a-Week on their website?

There is a castle floor plan that is quite typical of your average medieval British border fort... Ground Level, Upper Level, Top Level and Side View.

It has plenty of room for wells, storerooms, stables, barracks, a smithy, a chapel, and a lord's hall. It even has a sallyport.

And a "Stout Stronghold"... Stout Stronghold

For a mountain pass, have the Castle situated on the mountainside over-looking the mountain road. The Stout Stronghold commands the slope on the opposite side of the valley, with a small village on the mountain roud between them.

Anyone wanting to move through the pass has to travel through the small village which is watched over from either side by the two fortresses on the high ground.

 

[hong]

WotC's maps section is generally pretty "eh". Check out Dragonsfoot's maps for some kick-butt fortresses and other things:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/maps/

 

[NewJeffCT]

Communication is very important.

What is the magic level of your world? How far is the distance from Ice Eagle Fortress (IEF) to the two fortresses to the South? If there is an emergency at Ice Eagle, how do they communicate back to the Church and the other forts to the South for reinforcements? Is it via magical means, some non-magical signaling, pony express, etc? How fast could a relief force reach IEF from these locations? If a message takes a month to get South, then there is time to mobilize the troops and march back north, it could be 80-90 days.

Also, there would likely be scouts & rangers about in the mountains ranging for miles into the mountains to warn IEF of possible incoming bad guys. 5,000 goblins are not going to be quiet, even at the night and trying to be quiet. A ranger or druid may have some animal companion that can fly as well.

In addition, as I and others mentioned above, there are probably smaller watch towers/border forts farther in to the mountains to serve as bases for these scouts & rangers, and a base for more formal patrols. The paladin guy has been there for a long time, so he will know what is required in the amount of troops stationed in the towers, how big a patrol should be, how many scouts are out and about, etc.

It would be very hard for IEF to be surprised by a large force of goblinoids. Any significant force is going to leave signs and make noise and also move slower than a single scout can move on his or her own, even if they are on a forced march. This will allow IEF to withdraw the family members back to a safe distance. The fortress himself would require that at least some support personal stay within the fortress for emergency weapon/armor repairs, new horseshoes, repair of torn leather/clothes, healing, etc.

 

[Agback]

There is a castle floor plan that is quite typical of your average medieval British border fort...

It's not typical, it's low-end. It isn't a patch on William Fitz Osbern's's castle at Chepstow, let alone a royal castle like Caerphilly, Pembroke, Harlech, Dover, Caernarvon, Beaumaris, Conway, Rhuddlan, Kenilworth, or Flint.

In fact, it doesn't look much like the plan of an English castle at all. If I didn't know better I'd say the artist had done all his research in RPG materials.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Wombat]

IIt isn't a patch on William Fitz Osbern's's castle at Chepstow,

Mmm, Chepstow...

Crunchy, castley goodness