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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clark411" data-source="post: 1087915" data-attributes="member: 4768">Is this fortress old, or new?If it's new, most noncombatants like families etc will be beyond the walls of the fortress.  A new fortress is built first and foremost to protect vs the initial swattings that any raider or foriegn nation worth it's salt would send at it, trying to destroy it or capture it before it has a solid defense.If it is an older fortress, as in withstood the test of time, it either has a series of defensive positions (towers) dotted along its supply lines and has huge stores that can last a long long siege or it is in fact a city town, with walls encompassing most of the population required to support the military.If it's an ancient fortress that requires a big big army.. well its' probably either a massive city or a network of smaller fortresses buttressed by really nifty magics.. It probably has underground networks specifically designed to counter sapping attempts, and all sorts of nifty things that a medieval castle wouldn't.A realistic medieval garrison would actually not have terribly many men to it.  The feudal system is, put simply, about the King calling upon armies here and there to defend specific points of interest.  A castle needs to be able to fight off an enemy host long enough for the cavalry to arrive (the metaphor of reinforcements being called "cavalry" has a bit of historical accuracy).  Usually, an offensive force had to commit about 3 men for every one man defending the place.. so a medieval lord would learn, through spy networks or simply losing and regaining a fort a few times, how large the opposing armies could get.  That lord would then petition for more men.  Figure out how big the last enemy army was, divide by three, and then add to that number to figure out the necessary defenders required.The fortress' location on the mountain may actually hinder them more than help them, if your hobgoblins/orcs/goblin hordes are of the standard type in their affinity for mountains, and also in their ability to get ahold of a few giant helpers (like hill or stone giants, who will literally spend their months of service getting chiselled out bits of the mountainside to toss at the fortifications).  Furthermore, any fortress that exists up in the mountains has to be near a ready water supply... usually with mountains that means springs, and rivers flowing from a snowcap.  These produce disgusting amounts of subterranean tunnels that humans hate and goblins love.As for sorties.. I'd say that they'd be extremely dangerous to pull off vs. goblins and the like.  Standard horses work best on standard roads, and the horde probably has constant ambushes laid out for them.  If the fortress could grab ahold of some nice giant eagles, owls, griffons, or even awakened animals devoted to the cause (there has to be at least one mountain druid around that doesn't want those elves around) they'd be better able to prepare.  Also seeing knights moving around on Mountain Goat Warbeasts would be pretty awesome (not to mention seeing goblin foot soldiers flying up in the air from large goat head butts and kicks would be fun).  Invariably i'd say mountain fortresses are about defense... if they have altitude advantages, it's great for catapults, and ballista.. not cavalry.</blockquote>

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