#mylittlepony - #How good are the castles of Equestria at defending against attacks?

How good are the castles of Equestria at defending against attacks?

Castles in the medieval era were more than just homes; they were fortified defenses against enemies in a warlike time. How well would the castles in Equestria handle an onslaught? Here's my amateur opinion:

Castle Friendship

Twilight's castle. Of course, she didn't have much say in the design, what with the castle being magically created by a tree. For that, it has some good points of strength but a few weaknesses.

Its biggest advantage is the fact that most of it is high above ground. An attacking force on foot might breach the door, but then they'd have to climb the stairs through the "trunk" to reach the defenders. That would bottleneck them severely and give the defense a chance to turn them back. While the attackers are still outside, there are plenty of windows to shoot arrows or missile weapons through, and they're good and thin to allow a castle defender to shoot and get into cover.

There are flat areas on the castle which could allow defenders to get out and strike at an opposing force, but only by exposing themselves. Although the one front and center is in an optimal position to drop things on an attacking force coming up the road. They would be a problem for The Pegasus Factor

In medieval battles air attacks wasn't a concern. It would be in Equestria. A force of attacking pegasi would have juicy targets to attack and enter the castle. At that point the trunk would become a bottleneck for the defenders.

Also, the two hills in the front would provide a good place to set up trebuchets and catapults. The one on the left in particular looks like it could reach the landing platform. The crystalline structure of the castle would have to be particularly thick because if the trunk was damaged, a catastrophic failure might occur and the whole thing just collapse.

Overall, I'd give it a 5.5/10 for defense. Build a fence around those hills or level them, and put towers over the flat bits, and it would be a lot stronger.

The Castle of the Two Sisters

Celestia's and Luna's castle is a ruin now, but it once stood deep in the Everfree Forest. I have a number of problems with this and I see several avenues for attack.

One advantage is that it's surrounded on at least two sides by a deep gorge. But the bridges across the gorge are permanent and sturdy, and worse, they're way far away from the castle! If an enemy approached, you'd either have to go out and fight them on the bridge (defeating the point of having a castle), or let them cross and establish themselves right on your doorstep. Then the castle is swept back from the door, meaning that defenders on either side have no chance to strike anyone attacking the entrance. I do like the crenellations down the sides, but all that does is dissuade an attacker from going to the sides and forcing them to keep at the middle, which is what you don't want.

The whole thing is built vertically, making for lots of easy targets for siege engines, which again could be easily brought close to the structure. Defenders in the high towers would not be safe and might succumb to fear.

It's also a sitting duck for a pegasus attack. An attacking force that took the hill with the observatory could use that as a launching and landing area with the castle being completely blind to it. Everything is exposed to the sky for aerial attacks. I'm honestly not surprised this one fell. 2/10.

Canterlot Castle

The current seat of Celestia and Luna that was built after Nightmare Moon was banished. Now this is a well-fortified castle. The mountain stream provides a natural moat, and it's wide enough to obstruct an invading army. Also helpful is that the road to the drawbridge curves. That might not seem like much, but a force marching up that way has to pinch in on the right side and spread out on the left side, and that can weaken a force, especially if they're trying to bring up a battering ram or to build a bridge over the moat.

There's a large gatehouse with a portcullis right after the moat, with towers on either side. The windows on the towers face front, while they should face inward. What you're trying to achieve is a bottleneck to trap the enemy while giving yourself as many opportunities to attack them when they're there. The window above the gatehouse is also useful, especially if there's a grate or open floor above it where hot water or sand (not oil; oil is expensive and useful when under siege) could be dropped on the attackers.

The small meadow to the right of the road worries me, but there's not a whole lot to be done about it.

A true advantage of the castle is that half of it is cantilevered over the side of the mountain (Canterlot…cantilever…there's got to be a pun there). If the castle came under siege from a ground force, the residents could hole up on that side of the castle and be safe from attack. There's simply no way to get any missile from the ground to that side.

It's even fairly well defended against pegasi. All of the towers have covers to hide under, and those covers deflect missile weapons away from defenders.

If you tasked me with trying to take Canterlot Castle from a force holding it, I might try to get a rockslide going on the mountain. But in the first place that necessitates scaling and taking the mountain, which is its own problem, and in the second it looks like the contours of the mountain would direct any falling rocks away from the castle and toward the approach. Even the very land contributes to the defense of this castle. 9.5/10, the princesses should feel quite safe.

Submitted August 08, 2019 at 07:42AM by pjabrony
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