You're under siege: but which fortress would you defend?

[Haegon Sand]

Storm's End. But first I want to learn of all the advantages and weaknesses of my defenses, be it natural, mechanical, or magical so that no one will die by shadowbaby.With the frequent storms the us of Dragons would be nearly impossible.

[Waters Gate]

I guess Storm's end would have been one of my choices if naval supply was possible, and when not facing half a million men. Even then if it gets so far that i can has naval dominance, then i'd rather be on the Arbor, i could watch my wooden walls work while sipping wine on a beach.

It all really depends on the enemy and what capabillety's he has, how much men, how many ships? heck if its some bozo who only happens to have a few thousand men then i'd happily take a big fort with a hughe levy to sally out and defeat these turdheads in detail, even take my enemy's fort. But when the whole world wants youre head safe for a few 100 loyal men, then i'd rather be at the Eyrie.

I guess one could review the forst of Westeros on their advantage's and disadvantages, and i guess a number of criteria would be used to gauche the strenghts and weaknesses of castle's, which i figure would be:

- can get suplied by water

- gives certain force multiplyers to defense, being things like a moat, thick or high walls, multiple rings of walls, in a difficult location to reach or forcing opposing forces down a killzone path, is on an island

- Boasts a large levy, which is an advantage for force projection, but might be disadvantagous when sieged if you have a lot of mouths to feed

- has large food stores, abbilety to produce food, fresh source of water will be nessecary eitherhow and likely every fort has that.

- The value of the area it controls, which might add to wealth, abbillety to support troops or raise added levy's.

It would appear to me that objectivly there is no castle in Westeros that is the best in every term, but that some are more functional for given circumstances than others.

[MindLikeWarp]

Sorties and garrisons matter. A castle with a bigger garrison means you need more besiegers, and hence, more supply. A bigger fortress requires a bigger siege line. I'd prefer men to go with my walls.

I agree. The bigger the garrison, the more besiegers that will be needed. It is harder to keep a large besieging army intact. After a few months the besieging army's numbers will dwindle, and breaking the siege becomes a possibility.

That said, the answer is Harrenhal.

[Guardian of the Neck]

from what we know castamere without that lake would be pretty much inpregnable

[nickdt]

The Twins. It can only be taken by a Huge Forces, because you must take both Towers. Renly had the biggest force in Westeros, and he would have problems taking it.

[Dream Wind]

The Twins. It can only be taken by a Huge Forces, because you must take both Towers. Renly had the biggest force in Westeros, and he would have problems taking it.

^^^^ This you have to attack from both the north and the river lands and still lose a shit loads of your men

[Waters Gate]

^^^^ This you have to attack from both the north and the river lands and still lose a shit loads of your men

to how many assaulters do you think the twins can stand? Like almost any fortress is supposed to do, it should be costly to assault, but a 10 to 1 advantage might be enough, so i'm not sure if it stands against an army of 50.000 men.

Rob doesn't have the time to surround the twins at both sides, therefore should he need to assault across the bridge in order to get to the other side like that, afcourse that would have costed him too much. I don't think you can easily assault one end of the twins fortress and then take the other side by going over the bridge, i do think its nessecary to assault both sides from land, but then i guess when assaulted from land by both sides the twins are no more stronger a fortress than any castle sitting on flat ground.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Eyrie is advantageous in that it can keep a larger garrison relative to size than a place like WF. It is smaller but has built-in barracks and can fit 500 people aside, despite having a granary the size of WF.

A larger garrison does indeed enable a sortie, but, once again, we are picking a defensive position. A sortie, in my mind, isn't going to be in the cards unless I know an outside force is coming to relieve me, a la Battle of the Camps and Blackwood.

You need to threaten the besieger with a possible sortie. That way he needs a sizeable sieging force in place, creating the supply problems forcing him to abandon the siege in time.

Apart from the odd "burn stuff" sortie.

Nobody has mentioned the geographic advantage of Winterfell. The North is remote and stretches for hundreds of miles in any direction from WF. There is very little possibility your attackers can escape/resupply/get reinforced. This does mean your besiegers will have a win-or-die attitude as they can't just pick up and leave whenever they want aka the Mace Tyrell special. I actually prefer that, though. Give me desperate men who have to attack me over an enemy who has the option to be patient.

I did :cheers:

[Trucbidule]

I think I would go with either Storm's End or Qarth.

Like others said, Storm's End has huge walls, is almost Melisandre-proof, and you have a chance of getting onions.

But Qarth has triple walls, each one taller than the previous one, which have never been stormed; it is surrounded by the Red Waste (the Garden of Bones...) so while your enemies die of starvation, dehydration and exposure, you can watch them safely from atop the walls :p

Also, everyone in Qarth (well, except for the slaves) is obscenely rich and there must be lots of supplies due to a vast commercial activity.

You can also use the slaves as a garrison (I'm sure they have a few Unsullied somewhere in the city)

Lastly, a naval blockade would be extremely hard to maintain, as one would have to block the Jade Gates. The whole world would come to the Qartheen's rescue just to gain access to the Jade Sea (and they must already have lots of allies from trade).

But the main problem is that, aside from Daenerys, I honestly don't know who would want to attack Qarth.

[HTN02]

Ghost Hill. the dornish desert will make the besieging troops dwindle fast, while you can be resupplied from sea. House toland is a pretty mayor house, so the castle should be strong enough.

[Stannis's Lawyer]

Ghost Hill. the dornish desert will make the besieging troops dwindle fast, while you can be resupplied from sea. House toland is a pretty mayor house, so the castle should be strong enough.

There is no desert around Ghost Hill.

[Ser Meryn Frey]

Winterfell during winter. Obviously untakeable if you have loyal men protecting it, and and a long siege will be won by the protecting force, since the army sieging will be starving before the defending one.

I'm not sure about summer. Storm's End and The Eyrie comes to mind.

[Capt Captain]

Bloody Gates and moat Cailin if I'm not surrounded. Storms End, Winterfell, Pyke and Dragonstone (in order, if I am 'surrounded')

[Kyll.Ing.]

I agree with the guy who said the Twins. Impossible to encircle due to the big river, and it's the only crossing point for miles and miles around. You need to cordinate separate forces coming from each side of the river to take it, and in a pinch the defenders could theoretically destroy the bridge, diminishing its strategical value (meaning that your enemy wouldn't bother to throw his men at the walls, because he'll get nothing from taking it).

Besides, given the size of the Trident, poisoning the water supply would be futile. You'd need to dump an enormous amount of pollutants in the water upstream to make it undrinkable. Though, the latrines of a besieging army might do the trick...

Riverrun is also quite decent. As Robb proved, it's very easy to relieve, even if the besiegers outnumber the relieving army.

[Rhaegar the Dragon Prince]

I'd choose the Eyrie. Solely for the fact that it has never been taken.

[aryagonnakill#2]

I'm going to have to say the WF or the Dreadfort. I say this because the only reason I can think of that house Bolton is still around is that its almost impossible to maintain a siege during winter time in the north, that means you gotta storm it while the weathers good, and that seems like a loosing prospect for either castle. There are also Dornish castles build around the only water holes within 100 miles, those would be excellent castles to defend.

[Trigger Warning]

It's special circumstances that have led to the Boltons and Stan meeting at Winterfell during a blizzard.

I doubt that an army would sit down to besiege Winterfell out of campaign season in an ASOIAF winter, or even march up there in the first place.

[Lord Lannister]

The Twins. It can only be taken by a Huge Forces, because you must take both Towers. Renly had the biggest force in Westeros, and he would have problems taking it.

Robb's main objection to attacking the Twins wasn't that it was too fortified, but it would take too long.

But I'll throw a different answer out there and say King's Landing. Tyrion managed to nearly hold back Stannis with a skeleton force. With an appropriate garrison the city would seem to require an insanely massive force to take.

[Dream Wind]

Robb's main objection to attacking the Twins wasn't that it was too fortified, but it would take too long.

But I'll throw a different answer out there and say King's Landing. Tyrion managed to nearly hold back Stannis with a skeleton force. With an appropriate garrison the city would seem to require an insanely massive force to take.

Kings landing is not a castle but a city technically, red keep would be the castle , and I dont think it is that tough to take over

[Balerion the one eared cat]

Winterfell because:

double curtain wall

glass houses to grow food

hot springs give us an advantage in winter and enemies a disadvantage

allegedly need a small number of people to defend it

at the start of AGOT it has Ser Rodrik and Maester Luwin for wise counsel and strategy

Northmen are hardened and used to difficult conditions

If I'm only being attacked from the North, I choose Castle Black because... Wall.