Storm The Gate!

[Pezzer]

OK, here's a scenario.

It is the year 1600 , you are facing a castle on a hilltop, its walls are 50ft high and 10 ft thick, it has a garrison of 200 swordsmen and 150 crossbowmen. The castles foundations are solid stone for 15ft below, it has a 200ft Watch tower on the east side, and foot-thick iron gates on the Western side.

How would you go about conquering this castle?

Try to be historically accurate in technology and no you can't just ammass a huge army of 1,000+ men.

 

[Crowghast]

Hilltop castle, 50ft walls, 10ft thick, garrisoned by 350 men. Foundations of solid stone 15ft deep.

Also has a 200ft Watch tower on the east side, and single foot thick iron gates on the west side.

I assume this single wall goes all the way around the hilltop? Sounds more like an upgraded version of a standard motte & bailey.

I'm going to take the historically accurate route then. An army... no, more like a small unit of a larger army, of around... eight-hundred or more men. (Normal armies were usually in the tens-of-thousands which were broken up into units for easier management. Or something.)

Firstly, I levy the locals into my army, by sword-point if needed, and procure [i\]all[/i] of their resources. Food, timber, metals, whores, whatever. Anything to keep up morale, feed the soldiers and equip them.

After preparing suffiecient siege defenses. I encircle the country-side around the hilltop, cut-off supplies and throw the poorly equipped local peasants at the enemy. I immediately throw them back if they retreat. Should they be persistent in the retreating, I hang them.

I'm not feeding the peasants anyway, and i'm only giving them farm-equipment and easily salvaged siege equipment, so I shouldn't lose substantial resources.

When I run out of peasants, I remain in my same position.

Should the enemy sally forth, they will be forced to do battle running downhill and across a significant expanse of land to meet my own heavily fortified forces and will not have the previous comfort of 50ft walls.

If I am successful, I pillage whatever resources necessary, occupy the castle until reinforcements arrive, and continue onwards.

If that battle happens to sway in the enemies favor (Possible, as my forces will be quite spread thin around the castle) I will order a tacticl retreat.

I can return later however.

The enemy has recently lost [i\]all[/i] of their local peasantry, most of them killew by their protector's own hands no less.

Anyway, I don't think you've explained the specs of the battle enough. This is all based on me guessing outcomes.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Simple Trojan Horse.

Ya I'm unorginal but that is the best I can think of.

 

[Khedive Rex]

What's the weather like? How well fortified is the castle gate? How steep is the hilltop? What condition is the hill top in (rockey? or a grassy knoll type thing?). Any water sources near by? Where are the soldiers getting their food (are the farms inside or outside)? How big is the accompanying village (assuming there is one)? Am I allowed any seige weapons I like? Are they receptive to diplomacy?

 

[Athen]

I hire about 50 expert rangers and assassins who infiltrate the fortress. Their orders are to eliminate all leaders within. Without any leaders at all, and with my men taking down anyone who rises up to lead the group, I will force them to surrender the fortress.

 

[Dramatic Flare]

A group of catapults and about six hundred men. Should take me about a day.
Assuming no moat, I would attack the tower and bring down their height advantage first. The problem is that those walls are about the size and thickness of a city, not a small fort. Maybe twenty foot walls, with six feet in width, is more accurate to the size of the defensive force. That's just me though.
Still, break the tower, and then invade.

 

[Birras]

I consult the lord of the land and offer him a larger, nicer more fertile area with a more defensible castle in exchange for the land he currently presides over. That was simple.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

i believe the accurate statistic was if you could keep a 10-1 advantage you could hold the walls from the enemy. that means starting, you would need 3,500 men to actually attack the castle. You could besiege it with less men, but you probably wouldnt have enough men to fight off any reinforcements.
Anyway, keeping within your guidelines. I would raise an army of about 800 men. Entrench myself around the castle and wait for you to starve. I would kill some wild animals, leave them for a few days for desiese to settle in and launch them into the castle, making many of your men sick and unable to fight. as you are on a hill top, i would also dig beneath the foundations and collapse the walls and tower. Then i would order archers to fire on your crossbow men and send heavy cavalry up the hill and into the breach. ollowing the cavalry, i would use my infantry in a swordsmen in front, pikemen behind formation and attack. When everyone inside is dead, i take what i want, destroy the castle and go back to my own lands and hold a feast to celebrate victory.

 

[curlycrouton]

I stir the local peasants to anger and amass an army of 999.99 men. One of them has a foot missing.

 

[the Tadman]

Go out to the wilderness and befriend local wolves, after years of training them i become the Wolf lord and begin an all out attack.

 

[goatzilla8463]

[HEADING=2]NUKE[/HEADING]

Or maybe you could use a politician. If he can't negotiate, he can always annoy them to death.

 

[the Tadman]

As i sat on a rock on a high hill i came to a thought, that thought gave me a plan. One so dangerous, so insane, so retarded, that it could possibly work. I quickly made my way down the hill, barrel rolling mind you. Good thing the town was close, barrel rolling is tiring on the legs. I approached the gates that protected the town "Holy shit they're big!" I said to myself as i slowly entered the town. The town was bustling at the seems, traders trading at the blink of the eye, shopkeepers selling they're fine good to the people and prostitutes servicing a 30 ft long line of men. I quickly thought through the plan i was about to establish, working out the kinks. "This can't possibly go wrong!" I said to myself once more. I took a deep breath, pulled my arms back and shouted to the town's folk: "I cn pwn al ur asses, u fcking nubs!" They're sight drifted upon me and out of nowhere PITCHFORKS AND SHOTYGUNS!!! I ran and ran to the castle praying my retarded ass plan would work. As i reached the gates, i ended up in a dead end, the people began surrounding me, i was helpless. Suddenly, they began to charge at me. "My plan is working!" I thought to myself as i tried to jump over them, making them crash into the castle gates. But shit hit the fan. I accidentally tripped over and got trampled my angry Germans, and what the hell does "Yah, die Sie jetzt *****!" mean? Anyhoo, the villagers began stabing me with the pitchforks and blasting my toes and fingers with the shotyguns, i was in deep shit. From the immense bleeding (and the six drama classes!) i "passed out", leaving them thinking that they killed me. They cheered and shouted "This ************'s dead!", but they shortly stopped. "WTF do we do now?" "Hey, let's own this castle!" "Fuck yah dawg!" And so they did, the castle erupted with flames and the passing villagers ran out burning and screaming. Barely i could move, i knew i was going to die soon enough. But i gathered all my strength to my arms and slightly lifted them, then i extended my two middle fingers and shouted to the world: "I DID IT BITCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!"

 

[Shapsters]

This actually is a really cool idea if it could be properly explained to the finest detail.

 

[ConstantJoe]

OK, here's a scenario.

It is the year 1600 , you are facing a castle on a hilltop, its walls are 50ft high and 10 ft thick, it has a garrison of 200 swordsmen and 150 crossbowmen. The castles foundations are solid stone for 15ft below, it has a 200ft Watch tower on the east side, and foot-thick iron gates on the Western side.

How would you go about conquering this castle?

Try to be historically accurate in technology and no you can't just ammass a huge army of 1,000+ men.

I do a leggers and run for the hills.

My descendents come back with guns and storm the place.

Problem solved.

 

[Crowghast]

Alright, how about we revise this. One person posts a castle with a set defense and a realistic position in geography. They describe what country it is allied to, and the time period.

Then the next person has to defeat it, with resources and weapons that would be logical accoridng to the time period.

As in: You can't equip peasants with full plate and you can't field an army that could blot out the sun with it's arrows.

That good everyone?

Next poster makes a scenario if so.