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The Great Sieges of Westeros.


Morienthar

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The Number game,What would it take to successfully lay siege to and take a castle,either by blockade or by Storming with preference to Storming.

Kings Landing-Would be neigh impossible to starve out,Would take I think about 40,000 to storm it.

Winterfell-Would be relatively easy to blockade,Would take anything between 10,000-15,000 to storm.

Storm's End-Never been taken,Easy to blockade and can last a few months without supplies,If Breached would take at least 20,000 to storm.

Harrenhall-Took Dragons to bring it down,Easy to blockade due to it's position,Might need anywhere between 30,000-40,000 to take without taking enormous casualties.

Riverrun-Easy to blockade,Would take about 5000-8000 to storm

Casterly Rock-Would be hard to Blockade without a really good navy,Would take anywhere between 25,000 to 30,000 to storm.

Eyrie-Easy to blockade,Neigh impossible to take,could be held by a few thousand good archers.

Pyke-Almost impossible to Blockade,The Rope bridges make it easy to isolate invading armies,could be taken by 10,000 well prepared soldiers.

Highgarden-Would be hard to starve out,Would take at least 30,000 to take it.

Hightower-Would be relatively easy to blockade,would be extremely hard to take without taking a lot of casualties.

Sunspear-Hard to blockade without a good navy,the walls would pose a problem if the gates aren't quickly taken,Might need 10,000 to storm.

The Wall-If held by sufficient men,is impossible to take.

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Kings Landing-Would be neigh impossible to starve out,Would take I think about 40,000 to storm it.

Lol very easy to starve out, huge population to feed.

Harrenhall-Took Dragons to bring it down,Easy to blockade due to it's position,Might need anywhere between 30,000-40,000 to take without taking enormous casualties.

Depends on how much men defend it ...

Riverrun-Easy to blockade,Would take about 5000-8000 to storm

Lol not easy to blockade, you need to block it from 2 sides of the river. Thus splitting your army making it vulnerable.

Casterly Rock-Would be hard to Blockade without a really good navy,Would take anywhere between 25,000 to 30,000 to storm.

I think it's easier to take then Storm's End ...

Eyrie-Easy to blockade,Neigh impossible to take,could be held by a few thousand good archers.

A few hundred would do ...

Pyke-Almost impossible to Blockade,The Rope bridges make it easy to isolate invading armies,could be taken by 10,000 well prepared soldiers.

Easy to blockade once you've taken out their fleet, which you must do before you can siege it ...

Highgarden-Would be hard to starve out,Would take at least 30,000 to take it.

Think Storm's End, Winterfell and Casterly Rock are harder to take ...

Hightower-Would be relatively easy to blockade,would be extremely hard to take without taking a lot of casualties.

Again you need to split your army to two sides of the river ...

The Wall-If held by sufficient men,is impossible to take.

You could bypass it ...

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Well you'd still have to consider the garrison's numbers and quality of both forces.

Anyway, I disagree on many of your accounts.

Stannis would've taken KL with 20,000 men (who also were enough to siege it) if Tyrion hadn't delayed them enough for Tywin to arrive and crush them. King's Landing had also at the time 500,000 habitants so it would've been extremely easy to starve the city or at least to starve its citizens in order for uprisings to begin destroying the garrison from within, since the city hardly has stores for its nobles and garrison, much less the common folk.

Winterfell, it would not be particularly hard to siege but to take the castle in case it had a full garrison, it would take maybe even more than the numbers you presented.

Storm's End is overrated. The Tyrells not once stormed it, if they had managed to breach it, storming would be the easy part (breaching it is really the hardest) but anyway, Storm's End is relatively small and easy to siege and starve out.

Harrenhal is hard to siege due to its size. With a proper garrison, the castle would be impossible to take. Also starving is out of option as you can make plenty of farms within it.

Riverrun could be stormed by just a few thousand, the forks make an assault hard though.

Eyrie and CR, agreed.

Pyke, could be taken by a small amount. Ironborn weren't made to defend castles or even hold out mainland sieges.

Highgarden, too speculative.

Sunspear doesn't seem that hard, it isn't much of a stronghold either. So far as we know, those towers would be the ones giving trouble. 5,000 well-equiped men should do it.

For the Wall to be held by sufficient men, it would take dozens of thousands to garrison. From the South it would be somewhat easy. From the North, it could also be if you had a large amount of men and if you're not a White Walker, there are a few ways to bypass it, as long as you know them.

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Lol very easy to starve out, huge population to feed.

Depends on how much men defend it ...

Lol not easy to blockade, you need to block it from 2 sides of the river. Thus splitting your army making it vulnerable.

I think it's easier to take then Storm's End ...

A few hundred would do ...

Easy to blockade once you've taken out their fleet, which you must do before you can siege it ...

Think Storm's End, Winterfell and Casterly Rock are harder to take ...

Again you need to split your army to two sides of the river ...

You could bypass it ...

1.In sieges they stock up and feeding 500,00 with a daily limited ration for a year or more won't be hard for such a large city

2.I'm assuming full garrisons.

3.Two outriding groups can do the blockading in the riverlands along with a few ships if need be,no real need to split your main force

4.Breaching storms end is the hard part not taking it,Casterly rock is larger and by virtue can hold larger numbers.

5.You would have to take it step by step i.e each fort will need to be held,so you need more than a hundred men,I'd say anywhere between 1000-1500 can do the job.

6.Again Highgarden is more like Kings Landing an entire walled city,can hold larger garrisons.

7.True,But with 30,000 men splitting won't cause much of a problem.

8.When the watch is at full power they had a navy,so it would still be hard to land enough people from the sea,Climbing it would be stupid.

Sunspear doesn't seem that hard, it isn't much of a stronghold either. So far as we know, those towers would be the ones giving trouble. 5,000 well-equiped men should do it.

For the Wall to be held by sufficient men, it would take dozens of thousands to garrison. From the South it would be somewhat easy. From the North, it could also be if you had a large amount of men and if you're not a White Walker, there are a few ways to bypass it, as long as you know them.

1.Sunspear has 3 interlocking circular walls,which would be hard to breach, and these go around the city,if you go into these,you'll be trapped in a maze,that's why I said you'll have to get the three gates to take Sunspear.

2.I was thinking a north bound attack with all the 12 castles at full garrison,

The ways to bypass the walls are all slaughter zones as long as you have the men for it.

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1.In sieges they stock up and feeding 500,00 with a daily limited ration for a year or more won't be hard for such a large city

It's 500,000. And, sorry, but you have obviously no clue what you are talking about.

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1.In sieges they stock up and feeding 500,00 with a daily limited ration for a year or more won't be hard for such a large city

2.I'm assuming full garrisons.

3.Two outriding groups can do the blockading in the riverlands along with a few ships if need be,no real need to split your main force

4.Breaching storms end is the hard part not taking it,Casterly rock is larger and by virtue can hold larger numbers.

5.You would have to take it step by step i.e each fort will need to be held,so you need more than a hundred men,I'd say anywhere between 1000-1500 can do the job.

6.Again Highgarden is more like Kings Landing an entire walled city,can hold larger garrisons.

7.True,But with 30,000 men splitting won't cause much of a problem.

8.When the watch is at full power they had a navy,so it would still be hard to land enough people from the sea,Climbing it would be stupid.

1. Food supplies were already low during WOT5K, let alone a year ...

3. The blackfish knows how to deal with outriding groups ..., you need to split your army like Jaime did ...

5. 200-300 men could hold the Eyrie, you don't need more, just more mouths to feed

7. Splitting always makes your army more vulnerable ...

8. You could take that navy out ...

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Storm's End is overrated. The Tyrells not once stormed it, if they had managed to breach it, storming would be the easy part (breaching it is really the hardest) but anyway, Storm's End is relatively small and easy to siege and starve out.

Whut? From the Wiki "Storm's End has proven to be an exceptionally formidable fortress. In its long history it has never fallen to either siege or storm. The castle has endured several sieges and battles in recent history."

It is easy to siege and starve out, I give you that. But it is also nearly impossible to storm. Not even taking about the "magic in the walls".

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1. Food supplies were already low during WOT5K, let alone a year ...

3. The blackfish knows how to deal with outriding groups ..., you need to split your army like Jaime did ...

5. 200-300 men could hold the Eyrie, you don't need more, just more mouths to feed

7. Splitting always makes your army more vulnerable ...

8. You could take that navy out ...

1.I'm not thinking times of famine or the conditions during the WOT5K just in general,this is not how many men would x character need,this is more how many men would it take assuming the conditions of the said fort or city is ideal.

2.I forgot about Brynden damn.

4.Hightower doesn't have the garrison capacity of most other castles by the descriptions of it,Splitting a very large force if the city around the castle is taken(The city isn't said to be walled) won't pose as much of a problem as it did the Riverlands.

5.You'd still have to find the landing space and actually land enough men to take either Eastwatch or go a few hundred kilometers inland after landing near the shadow tower area,it will leave you exposed and will just cause attrition.

It's 500,000. And, sorry, but you have obviously no clue what you are talking about.

I missed a bleeding zero while typing and enlighten me.

There is so much more to it than this. Weather, season, supply lines etc.

Lets say Summer...

Supply Lines will be a huge problem,which is why I said blockading Pyke will be hard,without ending up starving yourselves.

Also Winterfell is harder to blockade than other places like Storms End and Eyrie,due to the long supply lines it'll take.

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The Number game,What would it take to successfully lay siege to and take a castle,either by blockade or by Storming with preference to Storming.

In addition to number of men, I will add ratios of attacker vs defender

Kings Landing-Would be neigh impossible to starve out,Would take I think about 40,000 to storm it.

Difficult to starve out without a sizeable fleet to block both the bay and the river. About 3:1 ratio for the attacker if the general populace does not fight. At least 20,000 men to storm

Winterfell-Would be relatively easy to blockade,Would take anything between 10,000-15,000 to storm.

Yes, it would be fairly easy to blockade, and to starve out if the siege is in summer. At least 5:1 ratio to storm, provided the defender has at least 1000 men. A smaller ratio if the defender cannot man the outer wall

Storm's End-Never been taken,Easy to blockade and can last a few months without supplies,If Breached would take at least 20,000 to storm.

Yes, easy to blockade (unless you have a good smuggler ;) ) and I would say no harder to starve out than the majority of the other castles. To storm, I would say at least 10:1 ratio.

Harrenhall-Took Dragons to bring it down,Easy to blockade due to it's position,Might need anywhere between 30,000-40,000 to take without taking enormous casualties.

Easy to starve out and blockade, unless you have a very small force. To storm, even 2:1 ratio would help if both have small forces and a bit of cunning is involved. But if the defender has at least 10,000 men in there, 4:1 ratio would do it provided the defenders are sufficiently starved out.

Riverrun-Easy to blockade,Would take about 5000-8000 to storm

Not so easy to blockade, as has been mentioned. You need to deploy your army in three chunks. Difficult to storm since the castle can be turned into an island so I would say at least 5:1 ratio.

Casterly Rock-Would be hard to Blockade without a really good navy,Would take anywhere between 25,000 to 30,000 to storm.

Has never been taken by force. Though we have not seen it yet, I imagine it rest right by the sea with only one way in and out, which is probably on a bridge protected by a strong barbican. Starving out would be possible and easy to blockade. To storm would be highly inadvisable: at least 20:1 ratio provided the defender has at least 100 men.

Eyrie-Easy to blockade,Neigh impossible to take,could be held by a few thousand good archers.

Easy to blockade. Need dragons to take. Storming is impossible, and you don't need thousand of archers to defend. The attacker can have 100,000 men and a hundred good archers with 100,000 arrow will be enough.

Pyke-Almost impossible to Blockade,The Rope bridges make it easy to isolate invading armies,could be taken by 10,000 well prepared soldiers.

Just like King's Landing, it can be blockaded with a sizeable fleet. 10:1 ratio to storm, less if only a couple of hundred defenders. Should the defenders isolate themselves to the Sea Tower or other towers in the sea, starving out would be preferable and quite easy to achieve.

Highgarden-Would be hard to starve out,Would take at least 30,000 to take it.

Not sure about this one. I do agree that it would take a large army to storm it. I would say 5:1 ratio, but adding another 2 pts (as in 7:1) for each wall above one the castle may have

Hightower-Would be relatively easy to blockade,would be extremely hard to take without taking a lot of casualties.

Yep easy to blockade. Will provide solution for storming below.

Sunspear-Hard to blockade without a good navy,the walls would pose a problem if the gates aren't quickly taken,Might need 10,000 to storm.

Don't really remember Sunspear's description apart from its 3 very different towers. Starving out would be problematic due to the climate.

The Wall-If held by sufficient men,is impossible to take.

Yes, sufficient men, as in at least 10,000 to man the entire 300 miles of it, and maybe at least another 500-1000 to guard the Bridge of Skulls. Mance really should have sent more men to scale the Wall in different places.

The numbers I have given do not count for use of artillery (catapults, trebuchet). Some castles like the Eyrie, Storm's End and of course the Wall cannot be taken with artillery. However, the other ones could, and it would help reduce the numbers needed to storm them. In fact, for Hightower, the best solution would be to surround it with artillery and reduce it to dust.

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Yes, sufficient men, as in at least 10,000 to man the entire 300 miles of it, and maybe at least another 500-1000 to guard the Bridge of Skulls. Mance really should have sent more men to scale the Wall in different places.

Mace made it very clear at why he didn't want the Wildlings too spread. Because then the WWs would just anihilate them one group at the time. He does mention that tactic to Jon though, so he was well aware of it.

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I missed a bleeding zero while typing and enlighten me.

II guessed that but your KL is hard to starve out point is just ridiculous. In siege time the lesser number of defenders/people inside your walls you have, the more difficult to starve out ... . 500000 men to feed is an enormous amount and if you don't feed them properly diseases will spread and affect the defenders to. The population couldn't be fed with no food from the Tyrells and wasn't even blocked at the time of the WOT5K. It's nearly impossible to gather food for 500000 men for 1 year in war time and sieges only happen in war time.

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Has never been taken by force. Though we have not seen it yet, I imagine it rest right by the sea with only one way in and out, which is probably on a bridge protected by a strong barbican. Starving out would be possible and easy to blockade. To storm would be highly inadvisable: at least 20:1 ratio provided the defender has at least 100 men.

Don't really remember Sunspear's description apart from its 3 very different towers. Starving out would be problematic due to the climate.

The numbers I have given do not count for use of artillery (catapults, trebuchet). Some castles like the Eyrie, Storm's End and of course the Wall cannot be taken with artillery. However, the other ones could, and it would help reduce the numbers needed to storm them. In fact, for Hightower, the best solution would be to surround it with artillery and reduce it to dust.

In Casterly rock there is apparently an inlet,right under the castle,if this is unknown to the attackers then they might find it hard to blockade.

Sunspear has three almost concentric walls,which houses the market district,housing district and such,this essentially creates a maze,But there are three gates which lead directly to the main palace,if these gates cane be taken,it might not be hard to take sunspear as the defenders at the circular walls will be either forced to give up or try and retake the palace.

I actually considered using artillery to collapse out the upper part(The Lighthouse) of the tower in Hightower and then it might be easier to take.

II guessed that but your KL is hard to starve out point is just ridiculous. In siege time the lesser number of defenders/people inside your walls you have, the more difficult to starve out ... . 500000 men to feed is an enormous amount and if you don't feed them properly diseases will spread and affect the defenders to. The population couldn't be fed with no food from the Tyrells and wasn't even blocked at the time of the WOT5K. It's nearly impossible to gather food for 500000 men for 1 year in war time and sieges only happen in war time.

Yes,But during the WOT5K the crown was bankrupt and the Tyrells were essentially doing charity.

But I'm considering an ideal situation for the defenders here,not the attackers,So unless the Crown's navy can be completely taken out by these said attackers it would be hard to starve out as the food will keep coming in through both the river and sea.

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Sunspear has three almost concentric walls,which houses the market district,housing district and such,this essentially creates a maze,But there are three gates which lead directly to the main palace,if these gates cane be taken,it might not be hard to take sunspear as the defenders at the circular walls will be either forced to give up or try and retake the palace.

Where did you get this information? All we know from the books is that the walls are winding, meaning any army will have to go through houses and bazaars in the maze that is the Shadow City before reaching the Old Palace (unless, like it's been said, they manage to take the three gates). There is no mention of a housing, or market district, or concentric walls, as far as I know. I got the impression, while reading, of serpentine walls, not circular (your description reminds me more of Minas Tirith, actually :)).

As an added defence, Sunspear's walls are mostly surrounded by the sea, as it seats in the end of a little jut of a land. HEre, I'll just pull the quote from AFFC.

The ancient stronghold of House Martell stood at the easternmost end of a little jut of stone and sand, surrounded on three sides by the sea. To the west, in the shadows of Sunspear’s massive walls, mud-brick shops and windowless hovels clung to the castle like barnacles to a galley’s hull. Stables and inns and winesinks and pillow houses had grown up west of those, many enclosed by walls of their own, and yet more hovels had risen beneath those walls. And so and so and so, as the bearded priests would say. Compared to Tyrosh or Myr or Great Norvos, the shadow city was no more than a town, yet it was the nearest thing to a true city that these Dornish had.

Lady Nym’s arrival had preceded theirs by some hours, and no doubt she had warned the guards of their coming, for the Threefold Gate was open when they reached it. Only here were the gates lined up one behind the other to allow visitors to pass beneath all three of the Winding Walls directly to the Old Palace, without first making their way through miles of narrow alleys, hidden courts, and noisy bazaars.

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Where did you get this information? All we know from the books is that the walls are winding, meaning any army will have to go through houses and bazaars in the maze that is the Shadow City before reaching the Old Palace (unless, like it's been said, they manage to take the three gates). There is no mention of a housing, or market district, or concentric walls, as far as I know. I got the impression, while reading, of serpentine walls, not circular (your description reminds me more of Minas Tirith, actually :)).

As an added defence, Sunspear's walls are mostly surrounded by the sea, as it seats in the end of a little jut of a land. HEre, I'll just pull the quote from AFFC.

Well the wiki says,this "Sunspear is a walled city, protected by three massive winding walls encircling one another",which I took to mean concentric,really makes the most sense.

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The Number game,What would it take to successfully lay siege to and take a castle,either by blockade or by Storming with preference to Storming.

Kings Landing-Would be neigh impossible to starve out,Would take I think about 40,000 to storm it.

easy to starve out and takes about 15k to storm it.

Winterfell-Would be relatively easy to blockade,Would take anything between 10,000-15,000 to storm.

easy to blockade but not to starve cause of the glass gardens. Very difficult to storm - a single wall normally gives a defender an advantage of 10:1, WF has double walls, both of which are incredibly tall(80 feet and 100 feet) and it also has a moat. I'd say at least 80-90k to storm WF.

Storm's End-Never been taken,Easy to blockade and can last a few months without supplies,If Breached would take at least 20,000 to storm.

Not so easy to blockade unless you have a fleet. Nearly impossible to breach and would take 80-90k to storm,

Harrenhall-Took Dragons to bring it down,Easy to blockade due to it's position,Might need anywhere between 30,000-40,000 to take without taking enormous casualties.

Its too huge - you could grow food inside it to feed the garrison. So very difficult to starve. Would take 100k to storm it if it wasn't a ruin - now I'd say about 50k.

Riverrun-Easy to blockade,Would take about 5000-8000 to storm

Not easy to blockade at all - since your army has to be divided into 3 camps, thus leaving them very vulnerable. It's a pretty strong castle but nothing special about it - 15k might suffice if tha garrison was at full strength.

Casterly Rock-Would be hard to Blockade without a really good navy,Would take anywhere between 25,000 to 30,000 to storm.

Agree about the blockade - would need far more men to storm. 80-90k is my guess

Eyrie-Easy to blockade,Neigh impossible to take,could be held by a few thousand good archers.

a hundred archers could hold it against an army.

Pyke-Almost impossible to Blockade,The Rope bridges make it easy to isolate invading armies,could be taken by 10,000 well prepared soldiers.

Agreed

Highgarden-Would be hard to starve out,Would take at least 30,000 to take it.

Havent seen it and have heard nothing about it's defenses - so no idea.

Hightower-Would be relatively easy to blockade,would be extremely hard to take without taking a lot of casualties.

Impossible to blockade without an extremely strong navy. Also very difficult to take. Has never fallen in over 5000 years.

Sunspear-Hard to blockade without a good navy,the walls would pose a problem if the gates aren't quickly taken,Might need 10,000 to storm.

would need far more than 10k to storm. I'd go with 70k

The Wall-If held by sufficient men,is impossible to take.

Agreed.

You seem to terribly underestimate the advantage of strong walls in medieval warfare.

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Any castle can be starved out and any castle can be blockaded if you have the men/navy.

Almost all these castles can be taken if you have enough men. A 10 to 1 ratio is something attackers would want if they planned on storming a castle. They would still lose a lot of men so normally it's a better idea to starve the defenders. It doesn't matter how large the walls are when you run out of food and you will run out of food eventually. The Eyrie is really the only castle that sounds like it can't be stormed.

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