Worlds of Design: Besieged!

Let’s talk about sieges, both how they work in the real world, and something about how they might work in fantasy.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

“Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” George S. Patton (American General WW II)

Fortifications, both city defenses and military forts, play a large part in warfare, especially in pre-gunpowder times. Sieges occur when fortifications stop attackers from capturing their objectives immediately. So let’s discuss real-world sieges and observe how fantasy worlds may change how things work.

Attacker Options​

If you’re the attacker, you have several options to besiege* a fortification:

• Go over the walls (scale with ladders etc. (escalade), make a ramp, siege towers)
• Breach (go through) the walls
• Undermine (go under) the walls
• Surround the fortress and starve it out
• Betrayal from within
• Use water! whether to interfere with defender water supply, or reroute watercourses
• Stratagems of war (e.g. the Trojan Horse)

Siege engines can make a big difference when it comes to going over the walls, breaching them, or undermining. But siege engines (towers, rams, catapults) have to be invented, and built. Siege engines were not much used in ancient Greece, for example, so it’s possible not every culture has them at their disposal.

Superior stealth may make a big difference in all these tactics. Invisible or otherwise hidden attackers may be able to capture gates (or posterns, door-size entryways). This is a big difference between real world and fantasy where such tactics were not always at the disposal of most armies.

Magic can make a big difference in a siege. In general, the more superhero-like the characters, the less likely that fortifications can be useful. For example, going past/through a wall includes using spells such as (in AD&D) passwall, dimension door, teleport. And includes creatures that can break through walls. Going under the wall takes into account umber hulks and other tunneling monsters. Going over the wall includes fliers, spells, even Spelljammer-style ships. And so forth.

Before I show the lists of defender options, keep in mind that in fantasy, a world of common powerful magic is likely to make fortifications less valuable or practical, while low levels of magic (as in Middle-earth) leave us closer to medieval Europe. But even in Tolkien’s world, magic could make a significant difference.

Defender Options​

Defenders have options too.

• Attack the besiegers (to drive them away or to discomfit them)
• Hole up and wait for relief force to drive away attackers
• Hole up and outlast the attackers (disease, supplies)
• Break out and run for it (the defenders, not city inhabitants)

Which of these options they choose depends heavily on the state of their supplies, especially water, food, and (where applicable) ammunition. Holing up is by far the most common. If defenders think before the siege begins that they can’t hold out, they’ll likely run beforehand if that’s practical. Sometimes the delay is worth the loss, however.

Disease was an ever-present threat to both sides, but especially attackers living in outdoor camps. Healing spells might mitigate this, making sieges more likely. Many sieges ended as long affairs, months rather than days, whether the target was captured, or the attackers had to leave.

Results of a Successful Siege​

As you might imagine, a successful siege can be dire for the inhabitants. Some might surrender, or flee (if that’s an option). Surrender agreements often included provisions for treatment of the populace, even for the defenders to retain their weapons as they marched away.

Once attackers have control, the population within is at their mercy. Sometimes the slaughter is contingent on the defenders not surrendering immediately. “If you don’t surrender now, we’ll slaughter you all when we succeed.”

Historical Sieges​

Sieges in history tended to be bound by the same laws of nature and physics that spells can sometimes break. Ancient Greeks rarely besieged cities, because the non-professional soldiers of the time were unwilling to risk an escalade (lots of casualties) and siege engines were rarely seen. Even the practically professional Spartans didn’t want to risk casualties, so the several-miles-long walls connecting Athens to its port Piraeus stood inviolate for decades. In general, the more valued the individual soldiers, the less likely they are risked in a siege.

In a world with dragons and wizards, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that walls are simply not good enough and fantasy defenses need to be underground. Though if you’re defending a city, going underground is impractical, so walls will still appear, more likely earthen walls such as ancient hill forts or Marquis de Vauban-like 17th century star forts. In the real world, artillery destroys conventional masonry walls, hence the need for Vauban’s star forts, and later for the pillboxes and underground forts of the French Maginot Line. The more powerful magic is, the closer we come to the kind of warfare General Patton knew, which led to his disdain for fortifications.

*The verb is "besiege," not "siege." Siege is a noun. That is, you don’t siege a town, you besiege it. I don’t know why, English is an odd amalgam of German-Dutch, Celtic-Gaelic, Latin, Danish-Norse, French, and other languages.

Your Turn: How are fortifications in your world(s) different from medieval European forts and castles?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Now there are more one isekai where the superpower by the main character is building walls, houses and castles as if it was a Fortnite game.

Building in the Middle Age was very slow and expensive. In D&D terms buildings could work like very powerful magic item. Do you remember D&D Stronghold builder's guide and the "wondround architecture"?

Magic is very powerful, but also expensive. Some times too much, and others it's worth, for example to send a message asking help.

We lack experience about the effect of "warmages" (3.5 class) in the battlefield.

Other point is magic could be used for mind-controlled/magic trained war beasts. Attackers could be really surprised when a herd of bulls are summoned in front of them and running furious toward them.

Or some zones could be cursed, and when the attacker arrive they are polymorphed into mice. Defenders could suffer the same fate accidentally, but recovering the original shape would be safer if they go to the right zone.

 

[Nephilim00]

IRL city walls had other uses. For instance, generating revenue—you can tax people coming and going thru gates. Information gathering—monitor the comings and going’s of people. Protection from the wild—keep predators like wolves and bears out. You need to determine what functions other than military that city walls might serve in your campaign world based on available technology, magic and culture.