Queen Historia I Reiss Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 1 hour ago, Coolbeard the Exile said: Lol stupid answer. Ofcourse it is assuming that an enemy can find and lay siege to it. The great strength of Greywater Watch is that no enemy has ever found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Green Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Just looking at it realistically, my main issue with Casterly Rock is that it's so huge that, much like it would be a challenge to attack, it should in practise be very difficult to coordinate the defense of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolbeard the Exile Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 1 hour ago, Queen Historia I Reiss said: The great strength of Greywater Watch is that no enemy has ever found it. Yes but if you are ranking the castles you have to assume that an army knows where it is obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maester Vargo Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Lets see...the parameters are that the strongest castle to survive a siege. So, we're assuming the castle won't be or can't be stormed. And it's a 'good' siege, so it takes into account geographic factors, which would mean a naval blockade if access by sea or river is possible. So basically, resupply is either difficult or impossible. I'm also excluding castles that aren't currently occupied, so Moat Cailin is out. Number 1 would have to be Winterfell, then. Winterfell would have to have massive stores to survive long winters. So, it would be well supplied. Obviously, the Ironborn managed to get in when Winterfell had a skeleton security team, so its far from perfect. Plus, it's far inland and is hard to access by sea, so invading armies would have to resupply from the countryside, which could be a challenge in a place as sparsely populated as the North. It's also got big, strong walls to resist siege weapons. Plus, if winter comes, the invaders are popsicles. Number 2 - Greywater Watch - this is based on scant evidence. It's in a swamp. Setting a siege up is going to be challenging, because swamp. Hard to set up a bunch of tents and siege weapons when the ground, where there is something that can be considered ground, as opposed to pools of brackish water, is so unstable. The Reeds and their people also have a huge advantage with regards to knowing the land. The swamp will bring fevers and other illnesses that will devastate an invading army. Plus, resupply is going to be challenging as there isn't a lot of food to forage in the swamp, and getting food from outside the swamp into the swamp ain't easy. It's close enough to the sea (and the kingsroad runs through the swamp, as I recall) that you can have supplies coming from far afield, though. Not to mention potable water will be hard to come by. Not sure how big Greywater Watch is, but the advantages the Reeds have with knowing the land could allow them to somehow gain more supplies from the swamplands while the sieging army can't. A lot of this is why Moat Cailin is so challenging to bring down. Number 3 - based on reputation mostly, I'd have to say the Dreadfort, for similar reasons to Winterfell. Hard to resupply a sieging army because it's in a sparsely populated land and is inland, though access to a river would make it easier on armies sieging the dreadfort, assuming they don't have any issues with accessing the river (like the Manderlys cutting off an invading force's supply line). Number 4 - Castles in the Dornish Desert would be a huge challenge - something like Sandstone - the invading army has to deal with the sun, with the heat in the day and cold at night. Unless the castle is on a river, then access to water is going to come from a well, and the well is probably in the castle. Not sure how strong the walls are, but if you're in the middle of the desert, it's going to be hard to build siege engines. Number 5 - Casterly Rock - With all the tunnels and mines below it, you'd have to think they have an incredible amount of capacity to store food, which would mean that they could hold out for an incredible amount of time, provided the castle is well stocked. I think most other castles in Westeros are probably vulnerable to a long, well designed siege. The keys are having a large enough army to surround the castle, a navy (if the castle is on a coastline or on a river) to block any maritime escape attempts or resupply efforts, and time. It can take a long time to successfully siege a castle with strong walls and well stocked stores. Keeping an army from deserting for a long enough time to starve out a place like Storms End is a pretty big challenge, though almost accomplished during Robert's Rebellion. Also, raising a large enough army to siege a place like Riverrun is a challenge since your army has to be cut in three pieces. Sieging Pyke would also be challenging since you'd need a navy to block access by sea, but if you can take out the bridges between sections of the castle, you could starve out parts of it pretty easily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Northman Reborn Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Good point about Winter storage space. If you can store enough food for a 3 year Winter, you should be able to last a 3 year siege too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Nathannis Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 1. The Eyrie 2. Storm's End 3. Qarth 4. Moat Cailin 5. Casterly Rock 6. The Twins 7. Winterfell 8. Castle Black Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen Historia I Reiss Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 5 hours ago, Free Northman Reborn said: Good point about Winter storage space. If you can store enough food for a 3 year Winter, you should be able to last a 3 year siege too. Storing food is something for pussies and Lannisters! A real man only needs a smuggler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueNightzx Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 eyrie storm's end riverrun need more info about casterly rock, can't rely on lanninsters over praising their own castle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trigger Warning Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 12 hours ago, Colonel Green said: Just looking at it realistically, my main issue with Casterly Rock is that it's so huge that, much like it would be a challenge to attack, it should in practise be very difficult to coordinate the defense of. Since the Rock is a natural feature I would assume that the entrances and approaches have all been carved out and designed strategically to be manageable and funnel attackers, can't use a siege tower, can't breach it anywhere except the entrances, where they know you'll be attacking, can't use ladders, it's more or less a super fortress immune to conventional attack, created by godlike engineering just like the Eyrie. It's hard enough to attack fortifications as it is, most ASOIAF castles would meat-grind armies, let alone stuff like Casterly Rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolbeard the Exile Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 15 hours ago, Lord Nathannis said: 1. The Eyrie 2. Storm's End 3. Qarth 4. Moat Cailin 5. Casterly Rock 6. The Twins 7. Winterfell 8. Castle Black Why is Castle Black on the list? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Nathannis Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 8 hours ago, Coolbeard the Exile said: Why is Castle Black on the list? Fair question. My reply would be because Wildlings and worse attacked it and it's still standing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolbeard the Exile Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 19 minutes ago, Lord Nathannis said: Fair question. My reply would be because Wildlings and worse attacked it and it's still standing. Nevermind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Universal Sword Donor Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 7 hours ago, Lord Nathannis said: Fair question. My reply would be because Wildlings and worse attacked it and it's still standing. Anyone with half a brain would have been able to take CB. Mance sent raiders over to attack the backside, but not to climb the wall and hold the top from the rest of the NW? He had how many raiders?! Even if the whole of CB had been there he should have easily been able to at least take the top temporarily and destroy the elevators/stairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Umber Posted January 20, 2017 Share Posted January 20, 2017 8 hours ago, Universal Sword Donor said: Anyone with half a brain would have been able to take CB. Mance sent raiders over to attack the backside, but not to climb the wall and hold the top from the rest of the NW? He had how many raiders?! Even if the whole of CB had been there he should have easily been able to at least take the top temporarily and destroy the elevators/stairs. All the Nights Watch castles were intentionally designed to be easily taken from the south. I don't know how they can be on anyone's strongest castle list. Sentimental favourites maybe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadakiss Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 On 1/19/2017 at 7:00 AM, Trigger Warning said: Since the Rock is a natural feature I would assume that the entrances and approaches have all been carved out and designed strategically to be manageable and funnel attackers, can't use a siege tower, can't breach it anywhere except the entrances, where they know you'll be attacking, can't use ladders, it's more or less a super fortress immune to conventional attack, created by godlike engineering just like the Eyrie. It's hard enough to attack fortifications as it is, most ASOIAF castles would meat-grind armies, let alone stuff like Casterly Rock. agreed. only way into the rock is secret passages that are def in existence Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bastards Giant Friend Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 Only George can answer this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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