ES - seige assault strategy

Mark A. Arnold maarnold at gte.net
Mon Mar 20 20:10:14 PST 2000


    1) Surviving the jump. I was speared in mid-air. I was dead before I
even hit the ground. This threw me off balance and spun me around. My
feet touched the ground first, then I landed on my shield. I had really
great boots with extreme ankle support, so I suffered no real injury.
Others were not so lucky. We need to drill this assault with a focus on
stiffening the arms to keep the shield from floating up into the air as
the body descends. We need to build a wall on which to practice.
    I was speared on my weapon side (not shield side), so we need
something more.

    2) Getting half a chance. We need to get the defending spearmen to
back off of the wall. Two palisades mounted on a platform 4 feet off the
ground. An archer behind each palisade -- one shooting while the other
reloads. Two such platforms (that's 4 archers) positioned 20 feet from
the castle wall 45 degrees askew from the target crenulation. Constant
arrow fire while the assault ramp is put into place and up until the
first assaulting shieldman hits the ground. If we set up 4 of these
couplets of platforms (that's 16 archers) the defenders won't know which
crenulation is the true assault objective. Plus, these platforms are
guaranteed to be targets for ballistas, catapults, trebuchet, and
sallies. The assaulting column of shieldman can pick the crenulation
whose cover fire has not been taken out. We might assign a sheildman to
defend each platform from sallies.
    The defending spearmen may put shieldmen in from of them as proof
against the arrows. But that's ok. I would rather charge in against a
shield wall than a porcupine.
    Falcon Rose supplied our ramps this year. Their enthusiasm for
carpentry might be applied to the building of these platforms -- given
the necessary funding and assuming their willingness to train again with
the Authurians. But let's let David get some sleep next year.

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