A Treatise on Imperial Fortresses

[Zema]

Recently i've been pondering the way imperial fortifications look. All sources show imperial forts as castles, long, vertical walls with crenellations.

Now considering that the empire has been using cannons for hundreths of years, and using these on each other, these sort of fortifications are largely useless, construction evolution would have let to a different design, i'd say star forts:



I quote from wikipedia:

A star fort or trace italienne is a fortification in the style that evolved during the age of black powder, when cannons came to dominate the battlefield, and was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy. Passive ring-shaped (enceinte) fortifications of the medieval era proved vulnerable to damage or destruction by cannon-fire, when it could be directed from outside against a perpendicular masonry wall. In contrast, the star fortress was a very flat structure composed of many triangular bastions, specifically designed to cover each other, and a ditch.
[...] In the nineteenth century, the development of the explosive shell changed the nature of defensive fortifications.

Seeing as though the explosive shell is not yet existent in FB (we have mortars, but not explosive shell firing cannons) I feel msot forts in the empire would not be the castle most of us recognize, but a star design.

I'd love to hear all your thoughts on this!

As such, i've begun researching a small starfort with a single house on it, something which was also common, so i got a nice bit of scenery for my Marienburgers.

[forumjayz]

Nice stuff Zema and I agree that thisstyle of building would fit fantasy constructions a whole lot beter then the Straight forward Castles. Looking forward to your take on the small fortress.

Cheers CJ

p.s. Repstar

[SlayerofAsmodean]

Yeah but keep in mind most of the enemies of the empire don't have cannons.

They do fight eachother a lot though. Maybe in one of the inner provinces...

[Lister_ST.Clair]

Right about other races not having cannons (except for Dwarf-kin who we are sworn to help). Does the Empire really fight each other all that much anymore? I thought things have been pretty peaceful since the time of three emperors, except for maybe a brief and violent foray into the moot! It seems to me that many electors would opt for a classic style of castle, maybe even one that just looked good.

Marienburg though is a different story, they're waiting on the day the empire takes back the wasteland and have the money to test out crazy new fort designs.

Of course it's easy to see a maverick elector or general with a couple imperial engineers egging him on building a star fort.

[wilddragon]

Where is that picture you posted from? is it from the United States?

[The Paint Monkey]

Where is that picture you posted from? is it from the United States?

I think it might be Spandau, north of Berlin. Although looking at the countryside, I'm not certain. There's forts like this all over the german states and in to Holland.

[Zutta]

Could be suitable for castles on the border with Brettonia. Those trebuchets would make as much of a mess of perpendicular walls as cannons would. The star formation would be ideal deployed against them - not to mention the Knights would get really bored.

[Raland]

From Wikipedia

Bourtange (53°1′N 7°11′E / 53.017°N 7.183°E / 53.017; 7.183 (http://stable.toolserver.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Bourtange&params=53_1_N_7_11_E_type:city(267))Coordinates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_coordinate_system): 53°1′N 7°11′E / 53.017°N 7.183°E / 53.017; 7.183 (http://stable.toolserver.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=Bourtange&params=53_1_N_7_11_E_type:city(267))) is a star fort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fort) and village in the Westerwolde (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Westerwolde&action=edit&redlink=1) region of the Dutch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands) province of Groningen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_(province)). It is a part of the municipality of Vlagtwedde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlagtwedde), and lies about 32 km northeast of Emmen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmen,_Netherlands).
The fortifications (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortification) were initially built during the Eighty Years' War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Revolt) (c. 1568–1648) when William I of Orange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent) wanted to control the only road between Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany) and the city of Groningen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_(city)) which was controlled by the Spaniards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain). This road followed a sandy ridge (tange) through the marshes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh).
Later, around 1594 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1594), Bourtange became part of the fortifications on the border between the northern provinces (Groningen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen_(province)), Friesland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friesland), Drenthe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drenthe)) and Germany.
Bourtange was a separate municipality until 1822, when it was merged with Vlagtwedde (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlagtwedde).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourtange#cite_note-0)
In 1851 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1851) the fort was given up and Bourtange became a normal village.
Around 1960 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960) living conditions in the village deteriorated and it was decided that Bourtange would be rebuilt to its state of 1742 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1742). Today it is an open air museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum).
In 2001, the town of Bourtange had 267 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 0.21 km², and contained 133 residences.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourtange#cite_note-CBS-1) The statistical area "Bourtange", which also can include the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 530.[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourtange#cite_note-CBS2-2)

[Zema]

Good points, orks would just swarm easily over those walls, so indeed perhaps internal forts and on the bretonnian border!

As to the internal fighting, i believe it's still very common, but in the way wars where fought in the 17th century: mainly during the spring, summer and early autumn, and far from a total war, most of the population will feel little off the war apart perhaps from high taxation.

And yeah, it's Bourtange, in the dutch province of Groningen, the land is still filled with forts like this.