Defending a castle from the air

The Game Room
1

As God is my witness, I had no idea where to put this thread. It does have to do with gaming so I’ll put it here and see where it’s moved to.

A roleplaying scenario of mine contains a castle (well, more of a fortified multi-storey bridge). The setting contains a fair number of creatures that can fly, so the castle’s builders would obviously have considered that when building it. I’ve done a few things with it, such as putting locked steel cages around stairwells leading down off the roof and have covered areas with murderholes on the roof.

Anyone got any cool ideas for what else one could do to protect a castle against flyers? We’re not talking dragons, but mainly winged humanoids. Regular armies, just attacking from above.

2

Ballistae, Scorpions, Archers. The key to any aerial defense.

Lots of watch points to watch the sky.

Spellcasters with long range spells for interception. If you’re talking D&D, then first and foremost, Fireball with it’s extremely long range. Then you move down the line. Sound Burst, although short range, is awesome against flyers (stunned = falling). Wands of such spells in the hands of lower level ‘guard’ casters can be a great defense. Storm spells to make flying hazardous. Mist/Fog spells can confound flyers. Illusions can be even better for that if you can cover enough territory, making a solid tower or wall disappear.

smack
Whoops, failed to see the the invisible wall, did we?

3

Standard castles were designed to protect against assaults from people and devices that were confined to the ground. They didn’t have to deal with attacks from the air (thrown objects are something else altogether), and so they’re not really built for it.

If you are faced with a situation where you have winged humamnoids capable of short slow controlled flight, yiou wouldn’t build a castle that looked like a standard castle. You’d build it to defend against that bthreat as well. I wiould imagine that you’d have completely enclosed roofs, possibly strong and heavy domes with loopholes in them – locked staircases be damned. I’d no more put an accessible opening on my roof under those circumstances than I’d put an unguarded door in the side of a standard castle. Any openings (and there’d be some – you have to deal with interlopers, allow for passage on flying envoys, and the like) would be well-protected. There would be no unproptected or “blind” spots, just as in the perimeter of a standard castle. So my roof would bristle with ridges and extensions to “fill in” blind spots, and be fitted with loopholes for firing at the Flying Monkeys (or whatever they are).

4

In addition to the above, string lots of very sharp, very strong wire between every highpoint and the next. Make any attempt to land like flying through an egg slicer.

5

Inevitable:

I disagree with the seige engines, as their rate of fire is too slow. I’d use lots of archers and put a lot of arrows in the air. Also have an air-to-air response team in the fortress; depending on the situation, the defenders may have some personnel (monsterrel?) on 5-minute alert.

6

And a lot of spikes. I mean, there should be virtually no free space to land. Roofs should be steep and there should be a lot of spikes or blades on poles sticking out of every possible place.

Also, everything fireproof. No wooden buildings. Roofs should be constructed in a way that burning oil and other such things would stream down outside walls.

Instead of putting loopholes or whatever they are called in the roof (thus allowing invaders to throw firebombs or even make entrance), rather place several towers with crews of archers, placed so they could cover all roofs and weak points.

ETA - oh, and nets. Lots of nets between towers and high poles.

7

Given that ballista’s were typically built with pivots, I’d think that mounting those on the roof would work quite well against flying monkeys.

8

Banana cannons. To distract the flying monkeys. Maybe a wizard or six with some air elemental spells. To keep other flying primates distracted.

9

Why is a bridge being fortified if there’s so darn many flying creatures around?

Ok, so if there are flying creatures and we’re protecting a bridge anyway, there must be a sizable contingent of non-flying creatures. Don’t neglect this in favor of the new coolness. Personally, if I had those flyers, I easily might try not to conquer the castle from the top but rather provide cover from archers, spellcasters, and other ranged types for my ground army- it’s going to be comparatively easier for a flyer to force defenders to keep their heads down rather than actually assaulting. I think arrow slits, possibly with flameproof shutters (or, though I hate them unbelievably, some big armored Venetian blinds to prevent return fire while reloading) on the front face of the castle will be essential- very difficult to fire into but easy to pepper approaching forces from. However, watch out for incendiaries being thrown into them- flyers could do that easily and your castle may not burn but your defenders might die. Since this is a bridge/castle defense (can you get any luckier?) line your heavy siege equipment (ballistae, catapults, etc) up so they fire along the bridge approach to the castle. They’ll do massive damage to approaching troops who are forced to approach straight and level and all in the same direction. This equipment is probably too heavy, inaccurate, and slow to reload to be effective against flying troops, so don’t even bother. Possible exception- load the catapults with the equivalent of grapeshot; hundreds of small stones or darts. Accuracy is less important that way.

Razor wire spiderwebs, nets, and booby traps on the roof might be very effective. Spellwise, if there’s some kind of summoner or beastmaster around, look to spiders, maybe cats. Bear in mind that flyers do not have to and probably will not attack from the same direction as the ground troops. Troops out on top of walls and towers that might have been safe before are now giant undefended targets. Flying troops are probably not using heavy plate armor due to the drastic decrease in manueverability- light mail or leather at the outside. As such, weaker projectiles might work as well as strong ones. Don’t try to fight them in the air or the open- force them to come inside, to you, where their light armor (and wings, if applicable) are a penalty, not an asset.

Above all, build steep roofs and keep all staircases leading downwards indoors where you can use them safely away from the enemies and they can’t get downwards without fighting you inside.

10

There’s also the popular build-entirely-into-the-mountain Revelstone approach.

11

Well, let’s presume you’re looking at a medieval-type D&D scenario;

Non-magic protection;

Archers and crossbowmen with pavise shields. Since crenellations will be almost useless against enemies who are - presumably - above you, fitting your archers with pavise shields to be strapped over their backs allows them safe havens from which to reload.

Catapults loaded with shredding materials - shale, sharp stones, etc. These will be effective to deny congengrations of enemies and keep them moving.

Ballistae, mysorean-style rocket artillery, crenelation-based lightweight catapults, heavy crossbows and - don’t laugh - fireworks. These serve the function of striking at the enemies who stay at long range in a bombard-fashion.

Magic defenses;

Wizards with all slots used for fireballs, chain lightning and magic missiles. The fireball spell travels too quickly to be avoided and immolates enemies in a great area, the chain lightning jumps from enemy to enemy while the magic missiles can’t be dodged. Prepare wands of these spells for non-sorceric defenders.

Clerics with group-healing type spells. Presumably the enemy will not attack in a melée and as such will rely on bows and speed to do their initial (light) damage. Group healing will keep these wounds patched.

Distractions - like Illusory dragons - can also be effective in keeping the enemy at bays, as can tangling spells like Web and Moss Web. Druids can also be a great help here, with their ability to call natural familiars in the form of seabirds, wasps and so forth.

Structural defences;

The essential thing is to make sure all vital passages are indoors, so one gains an equal footing if the enemy comes inside. Further, the main keep of the castle should be a tall and rounded building without an opportunity for cover from the wall-based archers and with no possibility for top-down entry.

Crenellations on the walls should be interspaced with archery stations in the form of a two-sided wall and roof, so archers can work both ways without their backs being exposed. The walls are interspaced with archery slits and one can keep amunition in them. The entrances of these can be protected with caltrops, netting, barbed wire or firewalls to keep enemy assaillants from skirmishing against them.

Ground melée troops should be kept from congengrating inside the castle grounds until the surface component of the enemy arrives at the walls because of the large potential for aerial bombardment (magical and bomb-based). Healing stations for the group-healing clerics should be clearly denoted and rehearsed. Here one might suggest underground bunkers (not connected with the main keep underground) so that the melée warriors might be protected until they have to defend the walls.
However, martial preparation aside, the most important factor is to drill the troops against such an assault and to devise a step-by-step retreat into the keep proper, in which the enemy troops have to chase you in on foot.

12

Interesting. This makes me think of grapeshot for a cannon which leads me to think of chainshot and grapple shot as two more possibilities.

13

Camouflage netting or somesuch over the entire castle. You don’t want the enemy flying recon to see what you’re doing with your troops, you don’t want the flying enemy attackers to see where you’ve positioned your troops when they’re approaching, and you don’t want the flying enemy attackers to be able to figure out what is a safe landing zone or kill-zone within your castle.

14

Well, a) because there aren’t darn many of them but still enough that you have to think about it, b) because the bridge started out as an ordinary bridge, then got built up, used as a residence and eventually fortified because its residents now had other reasons to defend it than it being a bridge, and c) because I want it to be in the way of my players, none of whom can fly (suckers). I don’t want to overthink it, just add a touch or three. We’re geeks, but we’re also big fans of willing suspension of disbelief.

Wires, spikes and blades are excellent suggestions, thanks. Powerful magic is rare, so it’s not something you plan using or defending against.

I’m thinking about what to do with those stairwells, though. Access points to the roof is needed, but I guess a heavy trapdoor locked from the inside is a better solution than my original one.

15

Is there any place in such a defense for noxious smoke? If you can fill the air above the castle very quickly with smoke, you can make an aerial assault much more difficult. I’m not sure if that could be effective, though.

Daniel

16

Lose the battle. Dig deep next time.

17

Completely agree with the sentiment of building something other than a traditional style castle… but, depending on the magic available, you could go for something like this Castle Defense System that appeared in the DragonQuest campaign I play in.

(First encountered one while on a flying boat… not pretty…)

18

Float balloons filled with flammable gas and short fuses attached. That’s just for fun.

Up top, smudge pots on poles – flying humanoids hate not being able to breathe or see. If your world includes plants that when burned might addle someone, throw 'em on the fire as well.

Be aware of their limitations. I hope your castle has narrow passageways. Humanoids with wings are going to be wide and bulky proportional to their strength, pretty much all of their muscle has to be devoted to beating their wings, and they can’t support much meat and bone elsewhere. They won’t be able to carry much, certainly nothing heavy in the way of weapons, and if they land, they’re a meal in a bucket. They’ll have to stop and feed incredibly frequently, which means your land-based cavalry can stop them just by attacking the enemy’s supply lines. Can you make rain? Practically no naturally flying creature ventures out in a downpour. You can make steam: you may be able to discourage them with incredible humidity.

A good falconer might be able to encourage his birds to harass the larger attackers the way smaller birds, in concert, attack his raptors.

Mostly, just don’t let your opponent get away with pretending that a flying army costs the same as a walking one. They eat more, fight less, carry practically nothing and are useless if forced to defend a fixed position.

I have no idea at all what I’m talking about. I don’t even play these games. But it seemed like a fun question and I hope I haven’t wasted your time.

19

The best way is to have a castle in the air.

20

Call me Mr. Silly… but wouldn’t a flying castle be equally vulnerable to flying troops? :slight_smile:
(While of course being well protected again ground troops).