So I suppose this would double as both a scenario and a challenge.
The city is surrounded by three lakes and the land routes in have canals running through them a bit further off where you can't see them.
The city in question is set in a Fantasy setting and the culture that holds it is very Roman in style, but has a mixture of Nordic influences as well.
High Fantasy
Late Dark Ages-Early Medieval technology
So here's the scenario in earnest:
You're a commanding officer in the army set to besiege this fortress.
The Map given plots out a 25 sq. mile piece of land showing the defenses and structure of the city.
You are in command of a force of 300,000 men, and have access to a large contingent of artillery (Mostly Ballistas and Catapults), You are also in command of a large naval contingent, capable of blockading one of the three sides.
You've scouted out the enemy forces and found that there are massive garrisons in each of the outlying hill forts, numbering of up to 20,000 men in each and the cities proper garrison being somewhere of 60,000. They also have a naval defense force in each port side area, though they're much weaker than your own in any particular area.
So it comes down to this, with those resources and information how do you bring this down?
>>46403553
Well Miriam, would I be correct in assuming that those hexagonal outcroppings of wall in the north and south are the city's two garrisons?
>>46403553
Prep for your session on your own, OP. This isn't the Lazy GM Help hotline.
>>46404131
Yes, there is a third one to the east as well that doesn't show up for whatever reason why you make the image bigger
>>46404161
Not for a session, I'm just curious how people would tackle it.
>>46403553
If I don't have enough ships to cut off the city from resupply then this is an impossible task.
poop dick
>>46404241
Fair enough, alright for the sake of discussion, and I'm assuming your goal would be to starve them out, lets say you had enough boats to blockade them totally.
>>46403553
I'd probably pay an Indian guy to shit in as many local wells as possible.
Cholera is better than catapults.
>>46403553
make like a Jew and poison the wells
Research magic that can
>Tunnel
>Teleport/portal
>Grant flying en masse
etc
>>46404476
Then I'll starve them out. Fortresses fall to hunger, thirst, or treachery far more than even direct assault.
The strength of forces is such that a direct assault will be chancy and likely to fail. The best option will be to either try to starve them out, or if a more rapid solution is required, there have to be disaffected factions within an imperial city: leverage one of them by offering them power once we've conquered the city.
Immovable staff.
>>46404201
Well then, the path I would take would go as such.
1. First, line up skirmishers outside the south fort with shielded infantry right behind. Have the skirmishers shoot it out with the guys on the walls. This is happening at night, by the way.
2. Just after this, have yet more infantry, alongside all the artillery that can be reasonably fit, line up near the southeast section of the wall. They shall bombard the dock district there.
3. At the same time, have my ships blitz those parts of the southeast dock district which the artillery cannot reach. We must destroy them swiftly, so fire and bomb ships are an acceptable option.
4. Set up a blockade in those waters
5. Rinse and repeat for the northern fort and the northeastern dock district.
At this point, the only docks (and therefore hope for resupply) they will have will be in the west, where we can lure whatever outside fleets they may have into decisive battles with our own. In order to keep the act convincing, we would probably have to launch some half-hearted attempts at taking the western beach, just to give them hope and keep their eyes pointed that direction. Boom, the siege is three quarters won already.
OP the right side of the picture looks a bit cut off, does that city have 3 land routes into it or 2?
>>46404736
Three
>>46403553
We have a little more than double their numbers, I wouldn't feel confident with an assault until I had at least 3x.
If I was forced to attack I'd surround the city, attack with most of the artillery on the East side of the city and a feint to attempt the walls, hopefully the other garrisons would send reinforcements to the East, then attempt a naval invasion of the west.
I don't think it would work because the center citadel would be causing hell on the naval portion the whole time and reinforcements could probably easy shift right back to the West once they figured it out.
I'd starve them out, 120,000 soldiers is a helluva lot to feed in one city, not even including civilians.
>>46404161
>his isn't the Lazy GM Help hotline.
That + 40k is basically what /tg/ was made for, retard.
>>46404684
Clever, Though splitting your fleet could be dangerous, are you intending to hold the blockade on the Northeast and southeast while sending ships to harass in the west? Presuming there's no naval reinforcements it'd be a sound strategy.
>>46403553
Make a hole in the wall and throw lots of men at it.
>>46404901
The Imperium holds you with high regard for your willingness to do what is necessary.
>>46404838
I want there to be naval reinforcements. I don't just want to destroy the ships docked in the city, I want the rest of this country's navy to come down and try to help through the opening I have presented, rather than try to run or break the blockades (which will of course be rather small).
>>46404935
I see, so a decisive battle naval doctorine is what you'd be angling at, Right I suppose that should have been obvious looking at your previous post.
That would be one way to circumvent the fortress and bring it down to just a Naval battle, which would basically decide the siege, would be particularly good if you had on a Strategic level Naval Supremacy.
>>46404751
Alright. Besides taking the fun out of jt and starving them/killing them with disease.
Start by deploying my navy into one of the waters, lets say the SE. Also deploy some 150k of my man with a good amount of my artillary. Use harassment and force projection on land and brute force in the waters to give the feeling of a geniun assault, crushing that navy and frightening the garrison. These numbers will likely draw at least one if not parts of both other garrisons to bolster the line, likely the north one since its the farthest away and might not be suspect to an attack with such a large force being in the south.
Yet it's just the outer wall and the navy might be able to assist with it. If im lucky the enemy might even use their reserve city forces to bolster the line, but i wont count on it. Then, once all attention is fixed on the South land and SE waters, send the remaining 150k man and artillery from the North, while doubling the push from the south. These northern 150k w/ art can likely slaughter the garrison (which is hopefuly under-manned now), and storm forward relatively un-opposed towards the keep, cracking it and engaging in a bloody and costly push. The southern wall will fall, and those men can advance to the keep also, sandwiching the remaining defenders
>>46405058
What about the Eastern Garrison fort?
Presumably they could launch a flanking strike on the southern or Northern push or aid in the defenses of either.
You might not have taken it into account do to it not showing up but as I said there are three but all three have forts. I don't know why the Image is cut off, I assume it's just to big.
>>46403553
We strategy now
>Come in from the sea on both sides, fire upon the city from the south
>Raze the city, burn as much as you possibly can
>Break through the gates, capture those 4 important-looking buildings
>Break through inner gates, bottom left group goes to the southern half of the keep by breaking a hole in the wall, top right group enters the keep through the main hall.
Building at the top will be saved for after the main siege.
>>46405151
Im relying that force projection would force the east to act and support the south, since relocation back east would be easy enough in case of attack, and the north would likely move to assist. If nothing more, then they'll sit tight while my navy bombarss them. Also how would they flank the south? We control the land route and SE water route. And if they move to support the keep instead, then the south will fall regardless. And we still sandwich them.
But wait if its high fantasy Id sell all my ships, get a bunch of mages, and make them create essentially underground highways from 1 side right into the keep's inner walls at night, where we dislodge the mrn and storm the enemy's central fortification.
>>46403553
Without mention of a time limit, I use my smaller numbers to wage geurilla warfare over a series of weeks or months.
I figure if I take years, I'll get killed off.
>>46405292
Be careful. Areas with a lot of houses have a tendency to slow your troops down and break them up. You want to keep formation as long as you can, preferably by using the main roads.
>>46405292
Well presuming you push hard enough and crack through the first fort and into the first line of walls they could come through the south eastern port district and assume positions at the walls as you said or attempt to go through one of the two gates, perhaps not the wisest move now that I think about it, but its plausible.
Best case scenario for that counter attack from the eastern garrison would be pushing you awy from the south eastern garrisons and some how managing to funnel the assualt into the area between the fort and the first line of walls. Though that is rather unlikely.
Suffice it to say though it's a sound strategy none the less.
And yeah magic makes everything easier, but you can always assume they have magic to in a high fantasy setting.
>>46405383
*South Eastern Gates
Flood it.
I would need to know details about the terrain topology and the hydrographic network surrounding the city, but it could be doable rerouting nearby watercourses to converge on the three lakes
>>46403553
WAAAGH!!!
>>46403553
>The city is surrounded by three lakes and the land routes in have canals running through them a bit further off where you can't see them.
Seems like there are a fort on each hill, and the island is surrounded by hills. This means that any traditional siege would require all three hills to be taken. This would require killing 60,000 heavily entrenched men without any element of surprise. That's difficult, especially since they're likely to have their own artillery.
>Late Dark Ages-Early Medieval technology
That means the city has a sewage system set up. Given it's clearly a highly planned city, it likely is a very nice sewer system. With it's location being surrounded by 3 lakes, it definitely empty into one of them. (Probably all 3, since the city's creators were clearly obsessed with symmetry.
I take the 2 hundred most dexterous of my soldiers; Decided by an Olympic games style competition (With a emphasis on water type sports) before the siege begins.
I train them to be able to withstand cold and disgusting things. I also look to buy water breathing type items.
These two hundred men will be my special forces. I equip them each with a bag of holding filled with as many Alchemist's fire as can fit. (Or a different explosive type of material)
I then load all non special forces troops that can fit onto my naval contingent.
>My Navy positions itself to the west of the city. >The normal forces that don't fit on a boat attack the northern fort.
>Meanwhile, my special forces sneak into the city through any sewer drainage pipes
>They should be able to avoid detection because the troops to the north are causing a distraction
>Half makes their way to the western gate
>The hundred soldiers set their charges while dealing with the guards at the gate as they see fit
>My Navy, utilizing the extensive port system the city provided, unloads the troops and artillery on their ships quickly
>My troops flood the city through the western gate/walls.
Cont?
>>46403553
It takes an average of 10 times the number of attackers to take a fortified position than it does to hold it. It doesn't matter what you do, you're in for a long haul. Starving 1.2 million people is easy enough with blockades, but it's not fast.
If you gotta move (you really want to) than ignore it. Attack elsewhere.
You attack an enemies WEAKEST point, not his strongest. Conquer his farmland and control his resources. This city has enough trained men to place them shoulder to shoulder across its entire outer perimeter, to say nothing of the conscripts 1.2 million people can make.
A better question is: WHY are we attacking this?
Remember your Sun Tzu: If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. Laying siege to his citadel is CERTAINLY unexpected, but a waste of resources.
Now if it were a city of undead and they didn't NEED resources and we HAD to attack for some reason, I'd say you were hosed.
Nuclear bomb
>>46405676
You make a fair point. It's the capital of the enemy nation, and yes I agree any general assault on this is just madness. Most people wouldn't assualt this city until they've either destroyed the rest of the nation or they would try to make the enemy surrender without doing it at all.
That having been said it's not necessarily about the correct reaction, which would be as you said to avoid the action all together, so much as it is to facilitate discussion in regards to how to crack a fortress in a pressed scenario.
>>46405644
>Hopefully, my troops attacking the northern fort were successful
>If so, the second half of my special forces blow up the northern wall
>They enter the city
>Both my Northern Army and my Western Army spread to the east and south, respectively, surrounding the center island
>half of each army set up their artillery and begin laying a traditional siege against the center island
>The other half man the eastern and southern outer walls, assuring that the enemy doesn't get more troops into the city
>Meanwhile, my Navy escorts my previously planned naval trade routes. (getting supplies to my home nation towards the west)
>After 2 months, the center island will be entirely destroyed
>Any people inside would have almost certainly starved to death
>My army begins looting the center island
>I take the war-torn city as my own, establishing the Duchy of Three Lakes under my king
>I request settlers from my home country to claim homes in my city (For almost no cost)
>Then I set about repairing the city
>Eventually, begin sire a child, grant him my title of Duke
>Then conquer other lands to the East, establishing my own Kingdom
>>46405644
I like your ingenuity, though that's presuming that the enemy doesn't have some sort of magic alarm at the sewer exits, though that'd be a lot of places, so it's not a perfect defense by any means.
But I like where this post was going.
>>46403553
Invent gunpowder or fuck off.
>>46405842
Tell me when you establish your dynasty here what's going to stop that random courtier from seducing your wife? Let alone the factions trying to enforce council empowerment?
>>46403553
Blockade the SE port.
Have a large force of 175k men assault the Northern wall daily, however try to keep casualties to a minimum, mainly shelling with artillery. Leave 125k men on the Southern front, daily assaulting as well.
Cont.
Step 1. Acquire plague ridden corpses
Step 2. Fling them over the walls with our artillery
Step 3. Collect lootfrom dead city
>>46405644
>WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!
>lets not post even a small guard at the sewers exits that lead straight into our city
get out with your movie logic.
>>46405850
Why would they have an alarm set up? It's the sewer, it's literally just for poo. Any motion based alarm would be triggered by the poo, any aura sensing alarm would have to be reset every so often otherwise the magic would fade.
For it to be reset, there would have to be wizard who's sole job is to reset the poop alarm.
That wizard would probably have to be level 5, at least
A level 5 wizard wouldn't do that, it's beneath him
therefore, there isn't an alarm, and if there is, the Wizard lied about setting it just to get some of that sweet sweet gold
>Also, 30 seconds in MS paint
>>46405972
Make sure to allow re supplying of the city. One night move the blockade and commandeer the ships carrying supplies. Load it up with as many volunteers as possible(assuming only 100 would be able to fit but maybe more). Give the new traitor crew orders to drop off supplies as normal, but to try and escape into the city, with instructions to burn down as much of it as possible/cause chaos. While this is all happening both infantry forces will get the order to launch flaming ammo at the city, aiming to hit civilian locations and cause a fire. Also encourage the men to all shout and scream insults at the burning city.
Cont.
>>46406075
This will most likely cause mass fear/low morale. i will make sure to leave one side of the city completely empty of my soldier so they think they can retreat. If I have any Calvary then their job will be to hunt down all the soldiers that run. After that it will just be a slow grind until the garrisons either flea or are cut down.
>>46406002
They're attacked from the north, by a large army with artillery. The sewer exit, in my hypothetical, is completely submerged. Most soldiers in the town probably don't even think about it existing. (Do you know where all the drainage pipes are in your town?)
>>46405949
Why would I give two shits if he seduces my wife? I'll have three and I'll be sure to sire as many children as possible. Women get married off, Men become generals, dukes, ext.
I set up a North Korea-esque propoganda unit, who's job is to ensure that every citizen loves their King. My army will be loyal because I allow copious amounts of looting during battles.
>>46403553
Drop all 300,000 men via several hundred parachute drops onto the castle
They can't even fire arrows straight up because not only would they get fucked for breaking the Geneva Convention, they'd also get rained back down with arrows
>>46406142
>They're attacked from the north, by a large army with artillery. The sewer exit, in my hypothetical, is completely submerged. Most soldiers in the town probably don't even think about it existing. (Do you know where all the drainage pipes are in your town?)
I meant to say, they won't be expecting any forces from the any directions but the North, because it will seem like a full fledged attack
>>46406142
Well I concede you're plan is pretty damn good, and I'm going to side with you in regards to the sewers, this city is 25 sq miles from what you see on the map (Smaller in actual usage, but still damn large) with a massive population, to guard all the potential sap points from the sewer ways would be impossible.
That having been said I think 200 would be to few to take the gates especially if they know that you have men on the western boats, I presume you move your men onto the boats under the cover of night to deal with this, as stated by others there's a massive amount of men here for a defending force.
>>46405850
Fantasy setting. The sewers are probably huge. 1-3 sewer exits tops, most assuredly home to monsters of various descriptions. Like >>46406047 said, there wouldn't be alarms, at least not near the entrances. Don't want aberrations triggering your spells day and night.
>>46403553
2/3s our men on one side, all our ships on the opposing port, rest of our men raiding. Hammer the walls with rocks and the people inside with old dead body parts. Break their morale a while. Blockade a port (the one that gets the most food... we did do our homework, right?) and raid what we can. Get our men as much booze, music, and women as possible while still keeping them at some level of combat ready. Every once in a while, storm the blockaded port to keep them paranoid.
Once their morale is thoroughly broken, we attack in force.
If they attack our camp we have, at any time, at least 100000 men with siege weapons in a defended position.
>>46406171
Shooting airborne troops isn't a war crime, Broseph.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_parachutists
>>46406171
Attacking downed fighter pilots is a dick move (one person, light arms, unplanned descent), but paratroopers (many people, heavy arms, planned attack) are free game.
War crimes weren't even a thing until later, not until the 19th century.
Things that are a war crime: intentionally killing civilians or prisoners, torture, destroying civilian property, taking hostages, perfidy, rape, using child soldiers, pillaging, etc.
>>46406272
>That having been said I think 200 would be to few to take the gates
That is a good point, but more than 200 men and we run the risk of detection. We could instead blow up a deserted section of wall. (a few blocks away from the gates)
>>46406327
>most assuredly home to monsters of various descriptions
The Monsters shouldn't be too much of an issue, given these types of dungeons are usually cleared by a group of 6 or so murder hobos.
>>46406561
Very true, you could do that, but you'd certainly need more alchemist fire/explosive agent to blast through the full thickness of the wall rather than destroying the gate, which arguably the weakest point in any wall outside of it becoming the most obvious killing field when people go through that breach.
>>46406606
I'm not worried about the killing field, most of the city's garrison should mobilize to help defend the northern hillfort. As for the question of explosives, I think that would depend on how much fits into the bag of holding
Also, relevant quote from 1956 edtion of the GreenBook
>"or stone or brick
—Use a half pound of explosive for a thickness of 10 inches by a
width of one foot"
So assuming each soldier carries 20 pounds of alchemist fire (Basically a black powder based explosive) and the wall is let's say 8 feet thick, we should be able to blow a at least 40 inch wide hole in the wall. With about 30 minutes before the bulk of the enemy army arives from the hill fort 10 miles away, I'd say enough of my army makes it in in time to fight off the enemy Garrison.
>>46406744
Actually, my math was bad. It should be a 4,000 inch hole in the wall, which is 300 or so feet. And I think a bag of holding would be able to hold more than 20 pounds of Alchemist's Fire.
>>46406802
Yeah you'd be able to do that. That's a football field sized hole in the wall, definitely going to funnel through that well.
This assumes taking the north fort doesn't inflict massive casualties.
I digress, I think if everything went well and according to plan (though it rarely does) I'd be more than willing to declare you the Duke of Three Lakes myself.
>>46403553
Simple, I wouldnt directly.
Deploy some token forces to prevent supplies from entering the city by land, if I have roman tier tech then I have catapults firing pitch soaked bales of straw into the docks. Now I cycle the rest of my army around the city from siege camp to siege camp. If the defenders attempt to break the siege then they have a 1/3 chance of landing a pitched battle without their defences and a 2/3 chance that I attack the city while it's unguarded and they're out of position.
Given that I'm attacking an opponent who has a significant defensive position I'm going to assume that I outnumber them, else they wouldnt need the defensive position, as a result a pitched battle is in my favour.
At this point they starve, capitulate or they hope for reinforcements.
>>46403553
land northeast port deploy almost all men and siege equipment, bring the naval contingent into southeast bay. at first essentially ignore al major fortifications except for the east garrison. set fire to the majority of the town between the main keep and the east garrison it seems fairly densly packed so it would be fairly easy. while the towns burning assault the east garrison mostly by using catapults. once that is taking set up all the siege engines on the hill and using the ruins as ammunition for the catapults to slowly tear down the defenses of the main keep. (preferably focusing on the easternmost gate) while this is happening send the naval forces around to the west bay and have them use catapults mounted to the deck to cause general mayhem and be a huge pain in the fucking ass if anyone's trying to leave by that bay. after this it all depends on how the defending force reacts. (do the men in the other two garrisons move in to reinforce the main keep?) (do peasants attempt to take shelter in the main keep?) bla bla bla...
main thing should be the total and utter destruction of as much of the city as possible, burn everything outside of the main city keep to the ground, find corpses and use those catapults to launch them into the main keep and other two garrisons.
>>46403553
>Late Dark Ages
Stopped reading
>>46403553
First of all I'm more interested in how you designed that city. What program did you use and how?
Secondly, given their defenses and their numbers, I think an assault would be risky. I would destroy their navy and starve them out in a prolonged siege. If I'm in a hurry I'd pay a spy or something to find moles in the city to provide me with more information about the garisson, and preferably spread some disinformation among their ranks.
With that knowledge and moles working for me in the city, I'd instruct my soldiers to create a fake army of strawmen and deploy it on one side of the city only barely in visible reach, then instruct the moles to tell the city's commander that the attack will take place from that side. Naturally my real army attacks from the other side and takes their bastion before the enemy is fully aware of what just happened. This should minimize casualties on both sides.
>>46403553
There are 48000 people per sq mile, it's not possible to take it or even for the city to exist. It would take weeks to starve without the attacking army doing anything, the sense of scale in this is off. Most modern cities have about 3000 people per sq mile this is 16 times larger. The city would collapse into disease, starvation and water shortages without intervention from the attacking army. The only way it could survive is assuming there are ways to magically get massive amounts of supplies which if there are there is no way the attacking force of 300,000 could beat 120,000 soldiers + maybe 150,000 militia.
>>46403553
Given it is an assault on the capital of a nation we can assume we have routed their armies in the field and hence have a superior army
With that thought I would settle into a long siege.
What kind of nation is it? Are they honourable and just? Break them psychologically. Goad the garrisons into sallying from the south or east then take them when they are weak.
To do this assault the navies from the south east and north east. Destroy them. Then blockade the third lake to the south west. Go out to the citys hinterlands and mass enslave locals. Get them to start building sand banks from south to east. They may not fire on their own people but if they do all the better to weaken their morale.
Smash old statues, buildings and then cover in sand and soil to fill the lake slowly until you reach the other shore. All the while fortify each land route into the city and bombard the city while keeping an eye on the third lake if the blockade doesn't hold. Let them see every day that they are being cut off.
Beat back assaults from hot headed garrison commanders weaken them and then when the time is right move to assault a garrison. Repeat the tactic with the North East lake.
Remember this is to weaken their garrisons mostly, but works for destroying morale and freeing up the rest of your navy for the one lake in the Southwest.
Complete the sand bars on both Eastern lakes.
Now move on to assault the city. Build siege weapons. Offer the city one last chance to surrender but give them an offer they will never accept just twist the knife.
Remember those slaves? If you want to go full evil overlord nail them the front of your siege towers ala Agathocles of Syracuse. Hopefully their morale will break all together. Assault the city proper and burn the North East housing area to cut off the northern garrison from the safety of the Western lake.
Or just stick hellebore plants in all of their water supplies.
>>46403553
Exterminatus. Cities that aren't already the Emperor's has no value and could potentially be harboring dangerous Chaos worshippers. Cities that defect from the Emperor are DEFINITELY harboring Chaos worshippers. Both warrant extinction.
"Do not ask what the Emperor will do for you, know what you can do for the Emperor" - Thought For The Day
>>46410169
I'm pretty sure he meant Late Antiquity.
>>46403553
>High Fantasy
Bomb them from the skies.
I would parade people captured from neighboring settlements in front of the parapets of and have them executed. Start with the men, then move to the women and end with the children. The nobles I'd leave for last, since they're far more valuable to ransom than to make a point, but my hope is that witnessing these horrors day after day will either force the defenders to sally forth and meet my army in open ground or that the outrage of the citizens will cause enough chaos within to the point that I can attack their diverted forces and break in and hold the inner wards of the city, especially the ports, then lay a new siege of the central keep and starve them out.
Oh and because they're putting me through all this trouble I'm probably going to massacre the city as well, Genghis Khan style.
>>46403553
With only 2.5x their number I personally do not think either a siege or an assault are viable options to take this city. With any given side able to receive resupply and the lakes and causeways as natural barriers and bottlenecks they would only need a minimal amount of troops in order to defend against a much larger attack.
In my opinion, the best course of action in this scenario would be to burn and pillage the countryside, taking all of the food, water, and treasure your men and baggage train can hold and then leaving or using it to lure in more followers to help you conquer the city. You'd mostly likely need over 1 million soldiers to take this city so I would shoot for that.
Well assaulting a city at that stage is out of the question.
Ideally one would feign a retreat and lure out some forces to destroy that way.
Otherwise just a systematic approach of taking out two docks and outlying forts, having a large reserve for schwerpunkts. Have them second-guessing all the time about the direction of attack, the symmetrical nature of the city is actually ok for an attacker (as opposed to Hornburg/Minas Tirith style defenses hugging a mountain)
Whittle down the garrison through attrition, take the outlying areas, then tighten the noose. Fill in the moat. Use fire indiscriminately when appropriate.
>>46403553
Attack from the right top corner with my ships, then send some men with a few catapults to near that side.
I'd send very few men, and keep them unseen. The enemy would be distracted, and focus on that side. About a day later, I'd attack full-force from the bottom.
I'd probably fail, but it's just what springs to mind.
>>46403553
This thing is harder fortified than Verdun and I have to take it with early medieval technology and just twice the forces and no means to blockade and siege it properly. A charge would kill my without having the slightest chance of success. Shelling the fuck out of it could eventually work, but it would take an eternity and I suppose that the enemy has also defensive artillery that would fuck me up. The best strategie would be either to build more ships to be able to siege it or simply marching on and hopeing that the enemy force tries to strike me in the back, so that I can ambush them. Also what fucking kingdom has enough money to sustain such heavy defences for a in comparison relatively small city with that many defence forces?
Why is my idiotic kingdom even attacking someone who is obviously strong enough to kick my butt?
>>46403553
There seems to be absolutely no fortification by the sea? Do they have siege weapons that can reach the water? If not, just fucking sail in and go straight through the city wall, fuck the hill forts.
>>46403553
Call in an airstrike to blow a hole in one of those walls.
>Late Dark Ages-Early Medieval technology
population 1.2million.
well, that's 5 times the population of medieval Paris. 10 times that of medieval london. thier garrison alone is a larger population than Rome in the 1500's.
So I besiege it. Build up wooden walls on each of the 3 choke points between the lakes, and then put boats onto the lakes to intercept any vessels.
They should run out of food within a month, without a single fight.
First, have the fuckboy of the group be molested by the city's corrupt governor. Next, declare war on the governor and appear in front of the city, proudly showcasing the same fuccboi in the field of battle. The governor will have no choice but to charge out of the city in search of that boipucci, leaving only a skeletal crew to man the battlements.
Once the governor's forces have left the city, command your brown lady commander to take over the abandoned city and close the gates. The governor's forces will be cut off, allowing for an easy victory.
>>46403553
I'm not sieging a super-fortress with only a 2 to 1 advantage. Since I deployed my navy on a lake, I assume it can be redeployed. I'll launch a raid into one of the port areas to loot as much as possible, and burn the city while retreating. I'll build a fake fleet on the second lake, and redeploy my fleet to the third lake in secret. I'll then Focus my forces on the portions of the wall that lead directly into the second lake's port. Now that my enemy has moved some of its defenses to the second lake, I launch the raid on the third lake, loot as much as I can and burn the port on my way out. Finally, I launch corpses into the city while harassing or raiding whichever lake seems weakest that day.
I'm harassing them incessantly to force them to sally out, so I can face them on advantageous terrain. That will reduce the defender's advantage. I'm looting them to keep my army financed and maybe hire some mercenaries, to increase my advantage. Once I have a greater advantage, I'll start a proper. I'll starve them out and try not to engage into an actual assault.
Spearhead their inner city, capture the outer wall, lay siege to the castle whilst defending attacks from the outer wall.
Sort of like Caesar in the battle of Alesia, except I don't have to build a fucking fort.
Stage 1:
1 and 3: arrange siege engines and medium forces here, shell the hexagonal defence. At 2 and 4 roll up siege towers in a phalanx. use them to cover men dumping earth and rubble into water, then moving towers forward.
Stage 2:
Launch naval assault at 5, covered by siege engines on towers.
Stage 3:
punish any looting or murder of peoples and their homes,invite them to join the glorious people's revolution where they are welcome to their fair share of the spoils and a voice in their own government.
Stage 4:
Send elite infantry to capture points at 6s. Once foothold on median wall established, bring through siege engines and build them on walls facing inwards.
Stage 5:
Profit. no ... required.
>>46403553
The same way you siege all captials. Over many years.
You camp your army at the chokes, out of range of artillery, you bring some warships dependant on the size of those water ways. And then you stop everyone from coming out or going in. And you wait for the city to run out of food.
>>46411267
/thread
>>46403553
By the way, your city looks artificial as fuck.
Proper cities grow outwards. Yours just plopped into existence and you can tell.
Why is there so much empty space at the center? Have you even played Sim City. That is way too much empty space, I don't care about your royalty or whatever. That exterior ring shouldn't be empty.
Why is there a moat city inside that city, when the city was obviously founded next to natural moats. Your moat doesn't even have a water intake. It's going to turn into a toxic swamp in no time. Digging and maintaining moats isn't picknick. It makes far more sense to build the royal castle against one of the waterlines. Then you can use the natural flow of the river - which I assume these water ways are because else your docks make no sense - to feed a partial moat around the rest of the castle.
On that note, your rivers make no sense either. And if any of those 3 isn't a river but a lake, why does it have massive trade docks.
If that's the sea, why is your capital on a tiny island, and holy shit are you going to get fucked in a blockade in no time.
I could go on, but I suggest you take a look at some medival European city maps.
>>46410823
>>46410169
>I'm pretty sure he meant Late Antiquity.
But then he'd have said early dark ages?
Late Dark Ages is around when guns started to show up and we go into the renaissance. That's a sensible time to set an adventure in. It means you have guns and blackpowder cannons but also still swords and armour, because guns are rare.
Step 1 would be to establish naval dominance and create a blockade. Build a perimeter and siege the city. From there I supppose you would gain control of the ports and sack the outer ring of the city. Try to breach the walls, lob incendiary munitions, start fires, sew panic. The goal would be to eventually cut off the surrounding garrisons and fortresses so they could be sieged individually as needed or later. If we have control of the seas, we would hopefully be continuously resupplied. I honestly don't think the invading army has enough forces to do anything but encircle the city and pick away at it. Walls could be undermined and fires could be started, but I think you could have to starve them into submission before you made any progress. Your best hope would be to destroy the residential centers and force thousands of fleeing people deeper into the city where they can't possibly be cared for or looked after. The siege might take years, and in the end the city would destroy itself
>>46412395
>why is there so much empty space at the center
>what are imperial gardens
>what are tourney grounds
also
>every city has to be modelled after medieval Yuropoor 'cities' aka. A Bunch Of Houses With Shit All Over Them feat. A Castle
>>46406480
Neither (justified) torture or taking hostages are war crimes. The rest I agree with you.
>>46403553
>You are in command of a force of 300,000 men
>The city is surrounded by three lakes
Use a third of my men to drain the lakes via digging riverways towards the nearest low-lying basin in the spring. March on the city in the summer when the lakebeds have hardened.
For context 300k men is about seven times the size of any medieval army so you could do some crazy shit simply via pure manpower.
>>46403553
>87 posts
>no Yang Wenli strats
Pic related.
>>46403553
With that much bullshit? Blockade and starve. Force them to come to me. Slip some folks in through the docks to spread decent and sabotage and wait.
There is just way to much bullshit going on with all of that for me to risk any serious offensive unless I had one hell of an ace up my sleeve.
>>46413152
>I don't care about your royalty
There's creative freedom, and there's just not knowing the first thing about cities. If that map is to scale with itself those areas are massive. Like forest massive. In the center of the city.
>>46413277
torture isn't a war crime? It's against human rights, so I'm pretty sure you're talking out of your ass
>>46403553
Mass immigration.
>>46414290
>the goyim know
SHUT IT DOWN!
>>46403553
If you can't blockade it by sea on all three sides, you're fucked.
