Timeline for General rule to spacing towers on a medieval city wall
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
30 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 13, 2023 at 21:48 | vote | accept | Anonymaton | ||
| Dec 13, 2023 at 21:49 | |||||
| Nov 8, 2023 at 23:25 | review | Close votes | |||
| Nov 12, 2023 at 16:53 | |||||
| Nov 8, 2023 at 14:09 | comment | added | byMaelstromer | Large fortification design was usually done by specialized fortification architects or experienced siege engineers, both being well paid professions with apprentices. Some of those people were of international fame and were hired to do work in different countries (as civilian architects were), however as is the case for most medieval professions few names are known. | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 13:54 | answer | added | Pica | timeline score: 0 | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 13:19 | comment | added | RonJohn | @sphennings there were apprentices for a jillion different trades and professions. Why shouldn't there have been "apprentice" fortification designers (even if they went by another name)? After all, the knowledge had to be transmitted some way to the next generation. | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 12:30 | comment | added | Zibelas | If you dont leave any space between towers, you have now a higher wall | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 8:14 | answer | added | LazyReader | timeline score: 4 | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 6:23 | comment | added | sphennings | @RonJohn Are you sure there were apprentice fortification designers? There were apprentice masons but tower placement is a different skillset than constructing them. | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 4:29 | comment | added | RonJohn | @sphennings there would be general rules because that's how you remember things, and transmit lessons to apprentices. | |
| Nov 7, 2023 at 1:11 | history | reopened |
o.m. JBH Robert Rapplean Ichthys King Monty Wild♦ |
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| Nov 6, 2023 at 19:45 | comment | added | JBH | I agree with @RobertRapplean that the question is functionally clear, but there's no such thing as a perfect question. This one could be improved by indicating a year and a city on Earth to use as a point of reference (technology of year X, city the size of Y). That would have permitted more focused answers, but I don't believe the question has led to vague or unusable answers for the general worldbuilding audience. I believe we should remember that while questions should be specific, they can be too specific, leading to answers useful only to the OP and no one else. | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 18:14 | review | Reopen votes | |||
| Nov 7, 2023 at 1:15 | |||||
| Nov 6, 2023 at 17:18 | history | closed |
sphennings AlexP Joachim SPavel Rhymehouse |
Needs details or clarity | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 16:23 | comment | added | Robert Rapplean | This is a completely clear question. And, yes, there is a general rule. You need to space them such that you have overlapping fields of fire for your archers, so the spacing is determined by the modal range of the bows. | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 14:58 | comment | added | Trevor | Also important to know what weapons are available, including magic if you have it in your fantasy setting | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 14:50 | answer | added | byMaelstromer | timeline score: 23 | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 12:02 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Nov 6, 2023 at 6:22 | answer | added | JBH | timeline score: 20 | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:47 | answer | added | Monty Wild♦ | timeline score: 35 | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:43 | answer | added | Kilisi | timeline score: 8 | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:27 | comment | added | AlexP | P.S. You may want to clarify what you mean by "how spaced out they should be". I understand that you are asking about the distance between the towers. If you mean how much they should project out of the walls, you should make that clear. (And in that case the answer is as much as you can pay for, within reason. The purpose of the towers is to allow your soldiers to shoot missiles at the enemy trying to climb over the walls. The more the tower projects out of the walls, the more soldiers you can have shooting arrows and such at the enemy trying to scale the walls.) | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:21 | comment | added | AlexP | For example, the towers of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople (5th century) were placed about 60 meters (200 feet) apart. The towers of the Aurelian Walls of Rome (3rd century) were placed about 30 meters (100 feet) apart. The walls of Aigues-Mortes (southern France, 13th century) are still standing intact, with towers about 80 meters (260 feet) apart on the average. Please tell us what prior research you did before asking us to do it for you. | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:18 | comment | added | Anonymaton | @sphennings Good to know. I'll keep that in mind | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:15 | comment | added | sphennings | This site has pretty strict standards about the sort of questions we permit. You can learn about that by visiting the help center or taking the tour. As a worldbuilder you can use whatever method you want to determine every aspect of your city's fortifications. In general before asking a question on this site it's good to do your own initial research and ask us for help resolving only the problems you've been unable to solve on your own. | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:09 | review | Close votes | |||
| Nov 6, 2023 at 17:20 | |||||
| Nov 6, 2023 at 2:03 | comment | added | Anonymaton | @sphennings Still working some stuff out, but I was hoping to get a starting point. I'm still working on my research skills. | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 1:51 | comment | added | sphennings | What makes you think that there would be some general rule when the defensive needs, available materials, available funding, geography, existing shape of the city amongst a myriad of other factors that influence design decisions are all highly specific and context dependent? | |
| Nov 6, 2023 at 1:48 | comment | added | CommunityBot | Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. | |
| S Nov 6, 2023 at 1:12 | review | First questions | |||
| Nov 6, 2023 at 1:48 | |||||
| S Nov 6, 2023 at 1:12 | history | asked | Anonymaton | CC BY-SA 4.0 |