Brickshelf: Ulmaris Castle

[El Bucanero]

What a wonderful castle! I wish I had something like that...

Where can I get me a "LEGO Construction area" board like the one in the first picture in the first post?

[Capn Kirk 911]

holy schnitzer, tha..tha..THAT'S amazing*ahem*, I mean that cool! :-$

[Jacob C.]

Nice thread!

So now I'm wondering, what is the MOST effect type of Fortress to have,

The most effective type of fortress is one that is self-sufficient.

I suppose having a well, gardens, and small farms within castle walls would be a huge +, since you wouldn't have to worry about resupplying food stocks during a siege.

Though it would probably be illogical to build castle walls around huge slates of farm land since it would use up a ton of resources.

A castle next to the water, like Ulmaris, would be great since you would have an abundance of fish to pluck out of the sea. (assuming that's a lake or sea and not just a moat)

A concentric design is always better since you have multiple rings of walls to get through.

Circular or polygonal towers are always better than squares, since square towers have blind spots at the corners.

Moats and glacis are great for keeping attackers at a distance from the walls.

Well hidden sally ports are also good to have for escape and launching raids against the sieging force.

So a list for the most effective fortress would look like this:

-Self-sufficient

-Concentric

-Circular or polygonal towers

-Moat and glacis

-Hidden sally ports

There are probably many other things to add to the list as well.

My favorite concentric castle/fortress would be Krak Des Chevaliers:

http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/faculty/cwillett...ia/pics/m74.jpg

http://classes.bnf.fr/idrisi/pedago/images/3_25a.jpg

http://www.dickemauern.de/krak/plan.jpg

[blueandwhite]

I think it is funny how a MOC castle discussion turns into a discourse on the history of Europe at or near the time castles were built.

As it should be X-D .

I still think this castle is a big lumpy gray thing that would be less defensible than one built on a hill. I also prefer fantasy (moderate) castles to real life fortifications knowing that their is no romance in real war nor do castles have any real protection after the introducement of cannons.

Allthough I never responded to this when first posted, I feel abliged to do so now as my next major castle MOC just happens to be a concentric castle. I think alot of people have continued to overlook the obvious benefits of a concentric design; the most significant being that it is not terrain-specific. A castle on a hill is a wonderful thing... if you have a hill. A concentric castle is a wonderful thing everywhere else.

As for cannons... well, they don't really have much to do with a medieval fortress that predates them by several hundred years. I'm not sure that a fantasy castle would fair any better when faced with cannon fire (saving for some sort of fantastical plot device).

As a medieval castle, Ulmaris works well. It has a nice shape, and is nicely built. It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but it doesn't make it any less imposing. For me, this is a castle I never get tired of looking at.

Later.