That intro picture is the most beautiful rendition of Minas Tirith I have ever seen, and I am filled with awe every time it pops up on the loading screen in DaC
The Stark Knight Returns In that case, he deserves applause. Would love to see a rendition of that artwork in either DaC or any other total war mod to be honest.
@@SkAnD1NaV1An he's a fine artist. Him, Hildebrant, Alan Lee and John Howe are the GOATs of Middle Earth art. And what I like about them is how much the movies based off of their art. Not on l is their art beautiful, it was also considered the template for everything related to live action versions of Tolkien's work. You can't get any more accurate than this. I don't think the LOTR trilogy can ever be remade. It's at its peak of faithfulness to the source material
Well it is a fortress alright, but imagine living there. Every person in this city must have developed a fantastic butt an a stamina of a horse with all these stairs.
My headcanon is that bulk goods and such are winched up as required. Getting materials and supplies to the upper levels would take way too long otherwise. And employing a pulley system would decrease the amount of manpower you had to dedicate to transport dramatically.
@ Yes and lots of coding for the 1.0, also the ancillaries and traits. But only my ships survived to this day. I made the last alliance mod and helped a lil on the lotr mod for rome on which my last alliance mod was based and after the tatw team had some probs with the coding and lots of delays for the 1.0...meaning besides a big mod team KingKong doing all the coding work alone...I couldnt wait to play this mod any longer...I offered my help to get it to release status. So coding was what I was there to do and those ship models were my goodbye present to KingKong after my task was done and I felt the mod was lacking in that one department. I tell you, those were the days...coding trough the night, when I should have learned or slept for university :D I love what you have done with the submods. Cant imagine playing third age without :)
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@@Presbiter That is awesome! Pleasure to meet you. :) Do you still mod games or did you leave it all behind when you left the TATW team?
A brilliant video, showing the genius and detail a man can put into his ideas via the grace and excellence of a proper storyteller. Galu I think you truly do him justice. (Excellent music as well for the video- sets the scene of a beautiful but proud and strong city.)
Loving these lore videos after finding DaC the mod is so flushed out and even the factions who are more fiction than lore are still good. Can't wait for v5 in time
Just a small abrevation. "Minas" means an encircled settlement with grand walls that has a military purpose: a host can be stationed, trained and formed there. On the other side, "Barad", translated as "tower", means the building itself. Thus, a "minas" contains a "barad" and can become a city, but the heart of it, the center of all the attention, is military. We can find this term even in First Age, where Minas Tirith, aka the Tower of the Guard, is the great fort of Noldor on Sirion river, whereas Barad Eithel was the tower of King Fingolfin in the mouth of Sirion. Minas Anor and Minas Ithil were the great forts of Gondor, having in the middle the city Osgiliath. So, their purpose was military: Minas Ithil watched the pass to Gorgoroth and Minas Anor watched the passes to the fiefdoms, which were integrated by the Gondorian Kings after the fall of Barad-dur, thus protecting the capital Osgiliath either from the west or from the east. Of course, as we all know, the threat from the east, aka Mordor, was always the most important and when Minas Ithil fell and was renamed as Minas Morgul, it was a great blow to the power of Gondor. Finally, I find it interesting that Minas Morgul played exactly the same role it was designed to play from the beginning: a great military fortress, where a host could be stationed, trained and formed. But the Witch King was Numenorian, actually a close relative of the House of Elros, before he became a Nazgul, thus he had all the necessary knowledge to attack Gondor, so it's normal that he used the same methods.
@@arthurdaffos1490 , I have a book by Manolis Parousis on Tolkien's world. I've read it many times (6 or7, I don't remember now...). It's in Greek, of course. It's "The fabulous world of Middle-earth" by Manlois Parousis, edition of Anubis.
Loved the video Galu, always found Gondor to be the most interesting subject when it came to the Third Age. So I would say it's fun to learn more about its most important settlement in the time of the war of the ring.
eh, west rome really had been declining for a couple of centuries before it formally colapsed. Even still, the east had always been more wealthy and urbanized.
@@vainwarlord8361 I have a degree in Classics and another in Byzantine studies... but sure, yeah. If you're quibbling about 'Greater' then WRE had been in long decline and wealth were always often situated in the East. That being said it is a clear // and Arnor is essentially WRE.
@@Esquarious I've studied antiquity at uni as well and read a lot on the subject. I mean I really disagree with that analogy since as we both know Tolkien disaproved of allegory, and even still I don't really think about the kingdoms in exile as the romans of Arda exactly.
@@vainwarlord8361 I thought of putting in that supplement but I didnt want to go there. But since we are: yes, Tolkien hated allegory. Allegory is not taking from history. An allegory is something like 'the ring is the atomic bomb.' Taking from history is for example, that Dwarven and Hebrew are essentially the same language or the //s btwn kinslayings of the elves and the Protestant Reformation. Ultimately, I stand by what I initially wrote.
@@Esquarious well, khuzdul is a semitic language, but the dwarves are not a stand-in for the jews. Sure. I wont press the issue. Tolkien lifts themes, sometimes events, and even whole languages from history, but he certainly doesn't mean to say "the numenorians are romans" or something like that.
I approve of reverting the thumbnails to how they used to be! In fact, since I'm mostly interested in the lore videos, I've only looked in my subscription inbox for videos 1) without numbers in the thumbnail and 2) title begins with "Lore of Middle-earth", so I had mentally filtered out and completely missed the last five lorecasts! Luckily that just means I got several lorecasts to watch now :D
A really good Video, one Thing I remember reading in the Books is, that the first Gate of Minas Tirith was covered in Mithril and was enchanted with Magic to be nearly indestructible ( Thats why Grond and the Magic of the Witchking were needed to break it ) .
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The MIthril came after the war of the ring. At the time of the Siege of Gondor, the gate was of steel and iron but after the victory, Gimli and his dwarves helped rebuild the gate and they used mithril for it then.
nah like Arachir said mithril came after the war. But very likely the gate during the war was a well made one from a great design of old, forged stronger than normal steel and iron. But i think no matter the materials no gate was surviving Grond for long. Maybe one empowered by the true strength of a Maiar or valar.
@@RomanHistoryFan476AD Jeah, I just looked it up in the Book, there is just mentioned that the Gate is out of Iron, nothing more, don`t know where my thought came from ...
Hey bro quick question if you have the time. Why did you remove some of the lore videos? They were the best thing to listen to on my 1 hour commute to and from work/school. I really loved the ramblings, kept my mind off being cut off in Los Angeles traffic. Is there anywhere i can access those old videos? If Patreon i will be more than happy to contribute! Been a silent follower for the past year and a half. Keep up the good work Galu.
Have the previous lore videos been lost? They are not in the lore playlist anymore. Love your Lore videos and use them as inspiration and entertainment when I paint miniatures for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop
There’s some debate as to what Tolkien means when he says Gondor. As Gondor is most certainly the kingdom and Minas Tirith the City however he often says “the city of Gondor” or even the chapter name “siege of Gondor” meaning it could have been more of a thematic choice. Also, the quote is “the most part of the people of Gondor lives within the seven circles of the city: or in the high bales of the mountain borders, or farther south in fair lebbenin...” so it does not state the city itself us the largest percentage of population. Additionally the causeway forts are seconded to and behind the ramas echor, yes connected but separate entities. The passwords are definitely meant for the city walls and not the rammas. Great video however, always looking for your next.
Here's a bit of an off topic as my nodding skills are basically non existent. Is there any way to incorporate Leo.civil.uefs custom settlements into dac or mos?
Pelenor Fields is highly fertile coz of all the bodies rotting there which over the ages have fertilized the ground completely lmao Also I am slightly bummed out that there was no display or even suggestion of the Rammas Echor or 'Outer Wall' in the movies..
Don't know if it's just me but a number of videos have gone missing within the lore play list. Only has from Gindolin part 1 up to this video on Minas Tirith
Hey lol so um I wish I could just PM you but I was just wondering who in 4v is able to build ships. Sorry for commenting on a totally random video but I figured it'd be random regardless of the video I posted it on lmao
It could be argued that the farming of the pellenor fields would have been abandoned by the time we actually see Minas Tirith in detail in the ROTK. It doesn't take very long for unmaintained farm fields to start looking like wild fields.
@@ChiefSmackahoLLC I guess, but it just seemed "off" that a large city didn't have them. Edoras, the same, although Edoras is a village... You see it in a lot of movies, actually e.g. Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. Just walls and dry, barren terrain.
well the ship kings of Gondor reigned in the first millennium of the third age in Gondor. so the guy who built the tower of the city couldn't have been one.
After watching this well put video, I couldn't help but think about Elon Musk and Neuralink. Elon has read these reads books and lives by the principles put forth. On the topic that, in Dune and Foundation, civilizations were salvaged by an advanced human makes me wonder if Elon's push with Neuralink will aid human survival. Although it might not be the true intention, it will be a byproduct of its advancement. This video got my mind on Philosophy mode.
The push towards AI despite the immense amount of fiction (built upon experience) which deals with how disastrous and dystopian an AI future would be, seems just stupid to me.
My favoritt Minas Tirith of Ted Nasmith. Minas Tirith was very giant city and seven floors, is perfect with black wall Ortharm. Very beautiful white and luxury into tolkien vision. But I hate PJ's movie, what Minas Tirith is not perfect why. Minas Tirith low wall without black. Very ugly grey and five floors. Not farmland just dry land. Dislike Gondor soldier armor look like riot police. I don't understand why movie made bad Gondor portray. All people said Gondor is bad portray in movie. I don't think Amazon TV series make cross film, for banned use from weta. When Minas Anor in TV series, I wish see Minas Anor with black wall and farmland.
If it's a fortress then why does it only have one gate? Surely the Numenoreans understand how to defend a fortress, as many people say "two gates are better then one", and you'd think for them being Numenoreans a second gate in front of the original wouldn't be all that too much trouble, given the structure is an attackers worst nightmare that could be held by relatively few men in comparison to its size, but still gates
Well, it doesn't really have one gate, it has 7. I envision the construction of Minas Tirith as working essentially from the top down, with the upper two levels (the ones built above the hill, and seemingly containing all of the most important buildings) being the original "fortress". The other levels below might have initially been built simply as outer defense works for the upper levels (hence having only one switchback path through them). Then, by the time Minas Anor's population had expanded in the late Second and early Third Ages to become a true city and fill all 7 levels, the "power and craft of Numenor" might have "waned in exile" to the point that trying to expand on the nigh-impenetrable lowest wall to build new defenses of equal strength would no longer have been possible.
@@Wolfeson28 Honestly with Minas Tirith being what it is, the first gate, the strongest gate may not of been that important in the long run, Medieval castle design was not at all primitive craft, they were built by well trained and well paid builders who knew what they were doing and built castles dependent on the amount of money they were paid, given this is a city so some things for sake of defence will have to be scrapped but still, the Orcs, Easterlings, Variags and Haradrim have to go through seven gates with Machiculations, Murderholes, hot tar or water, rocks being thrown down, and possibly two steel gates that slam shut when a lever is flung in it's gatehouse, honestly I don't think even the Easterlings or Variags would have the grit, strength, discipline and determination to get through that, hell, there's one castle in Europe with *14* gatehouses! Honestly I think it may have been more tactically sound to either starve them out or just avoid it entirely and have a right old proper party everywhere else
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
That intro picture is the most beautiful rendition of Minas Tirith I have ever seen, and I am filled with awe every time it pops up on the loading screen in DaC
I think it is a rendition by Ted Nasmith
The Stark Knight Returns In that case, he deserves applause. Would love to see a rendition of that artwork in either DaC or any other total war mod to be honest.
@@SkAnD1NaV1An he's a fine artist. Him, Hildebrant, Alan Lee and John Howe are the GOATs of Middle Earth art.
And what I like about them is how much the movies based off of their art. Not on l is their art beautiful, it was also considered the template for everything related to live action versions of Tolkien's work.
You can't get any more accurate than this. I don't think the LOTR trilogy can ever be remade. It's at its peak of faithfulness to the source material
The Stark Knight Returns I truly agree
Sounds like the Pelennor Fields should be classified as High fertility on the map in DaC ;)
Well it is a fortress alright, but imagine living there. Every person in this city must have developed a fantastic butt an a stamina of a horse with all these stairs.
Sounds like the oposite of a problem
She got dat Minas Tirith booty...
My little orc peepee get hard at the thought of those thicc gondorian cheeks
My headcanon is that bulk goods and such are winched up as required. Getting materials and supplies to the upper levels would take way too long otherwise. And employing a pulley system would decrease the amount of manpower you had to dedicate to transport dramatically.
Maybe they had wooden elevators by using scaffolding and powered by horses.
Dont usually comment but great videos man, you deserve more subs
Thank you very much Tydar.
@ Well one more you have now...the one who did big part of the scripts for tatw 1.0 and whos shipmodels sail middleearth to this day :D
@@Presbiter You created the ship models for TATW? :)
@ Yes and lots of coding for the 1.0, also the ancillaries and traits. But only my ships survived to this day.
I made the last alliance mod and helped a lil on the lotr mod for rome on which my last alliance mod was based and after the tatw team had some probs with the coding and lots of delays for the 1.0...meaning besides a big mod team KingKong doing all the coding work alone...I couldnt wait to play this mod any longer...I offered my help to get it to release status.
So coding was what I was there to do and those ship models were my goodbye present to KingKong after my task was done and I felt the mod was lacking in that one department.
I tell you, those were the days...coding trough the night, when I should have learned or slept for university :D
I love what you have done with the submods. Cant imagine playing third age without :)
@@Presbiter That is awesome! Pleasure to meet you. :) Do you still mod games or did you leave it all behind when you left the TATW team?
"...and farewell." is probably what Galu wanted to say at the End :D
A brilliant video, showing the genius and detail a man can put into his ideas via the grace and excellence of a proper storyteller. Galu I think you truly do him justice. (Excellent music as well for the video- sets the scene of a beautiful but proud and strong city.)
Loving these lore videos after finding DaC the mod is so flushed out and even the factions who are more fiction than lore are still good. Can't wait for v5 in time
Just a small abrevation. "Minas" means an encircled settlement with grand walls that has a military purpose: a host can be stationed, trained and formed there. On the other side, "Barad", translated as "tower", means the building itself. Thus, a "minas" contains a "barad" and can become a city, but the heart of it, the center of all the attention, is military. We can find this term even in First Age, where Minas Tirith, aka the Tower of the Guard, is the great fort of Noldor on Sirion river, whereas Barad Eithel was the tower of King Fingolfin in the mouth of Sirion. Minas Anor and Minas Ithil were the great forts of Gondor, having in the middle the city Osgiliath. So, their purpose was military: Minas Ithil watched the pass to Gorgoroth and Minas Anor watched the passes to the fiefdoms, which were integrated by the Gondorian Kings after the fall of Barad-dur, thus protecting the capital Osgiliath either from the west or from the east. Of course, as we all know, the threat from the east, aka Mordor, was always the most important and when Minas Ithil fell and was renamed as Minas Morgul, it was a great blow to the power of Gondor. Finally, I find it interesting that Minas Morgul played exactly the same role it was designed to play from the beginning: a great military fortress, where a host could be stationed, trained and formed. But the Witch King was Numenorian, actually a close relative of the House of Elros, before he became a Nazgul, thus he had all the necessary knowledge to attack Gondor, so it's normal that he used the same methods.
Where did you found these infos on the witch king?
@@arthurdaffos1490 , I have a book by Manolis Parousis on Tolkien's world. I've read it many times (6 or7, I don't remember now...). It's in Greek, of course. It's "The fabulous world of Middle-earth" by Manlois Parousis, edition of Anubis.
Loved the video Galu, always found Gondor to be the most interesting subject when it came to the Third Age. So I would say it's fun to learn more about its most important settlement in the time of the war of the ring.
Depopulation, second capital of a split empire with the greater half fallen, imperial city... Byzantium.
eh, west rome really had been declining for a couple of centuries before it formally colapsed. Even still, the east had always been more wealthy and urbanized.
@@vainwarlord8361 I have a degree in Classics and another in Byzantine studies... but sure, yeah.
If you're quibbling about 'Greater' then WRE had been in long decline and wealth were always often situated in the East. That being said it is a clear // and Arnor is essentially WRE.
@@Esquarious I've studied antiquity at uni as well and read a lot on the subject. I mean I really disagree with that analogy since as we both know Tolkien disaproved of allegory, and even still I don't really think about the kingdoms in exile as the romans of Arda exactly.
@@vainwarlord8361 I thought of putting in that supplement but I didnt want to go there.
But since we are: yes, Tolkien hated allegory. Allegory is not taking from history. An allegory is something like 'the ring is the atomic bomb.' Taking from history is for example, that Dwarven and Hebrew are essentially the same language or the //s btwn kinslayings of the elves and the Protestant Reformation.
Ultimately, I stand by what I initially wrote.
@@Esquarious well, khuzdul is a semitic language, but the dwarves are not a stand-in for the jews.
Sure. I wont press the issue.
Tolkien lifts themes, sometimes events, and even whole languages from history, but he certainly doesn't mean to say "the numenorians are romans" or something like that.
Brilliant upload as always!!
Welcome back, I missed you a lot
There have been many lore videos prior to this one. :P They just had a different thumbnail.
@ *proceeds to frantically check for missed lore videos while silently whispering "I'm an idiot"* xD
Love the lore vids. Keep up the great work!
The LOR vids
Thanks for all these videos mate, I appreciate the effort and love the content
I was so happy to see a new lore video!! Keep up the great work! Love your videos Arachir!
Hell yes, so glad I hadn't passed out yet
Lovely! Just what I needed to study to! Thanks
I approve of reverting the thumbnails to how they used to be! In fact, since I'm mostly interested in the lore videos, I've only looked in my subscription inbox for videos 1) without numbers in the thumbnail and 2) title begins with "Lore of Middle-earth", so I had mentally filtered out and completely missed the last five lorecasts!
Luckily that just means I got several lorecasts to watch now :D
I really enjoy these lore videos. Thanks!
A really good Video, one Thing I remember reading in the Books is, that the first Gate of Minas Tirith was covered in Mithril and was enchanted with Magic to be nearly indestructible ( Thats why Grond and the Magic of the Witchking were needed to break it ) .
The MIthril came after the war of the ring. At the time of the Siege of Gondor, the gate was of steel and iron but after the victory, Gimli and his dwarves helped rebuild the gate and they used mithril for it then.
nah like Arachir said mithril came after the war. But very likely the gate during the war was a well made one from a great design of old, forged stronger than normal steel and iron. But i think no matter the materials no gate was surviving Grond for long. Maybe one empowered by the true strength of a Maiar or valar.
@@RomanHistoryFan476AD Jeah, I just looked it up in the Book, there is just mentioned that the Gate is out of Iron, nothing more, don`t know where my thought came from ...
Hey bro quick question if you have the time. Why did you remove some of the lore videos? They were the best thing to listen to on my 1 hour commute to and from work/school. I really loved the ramblings, kept my mind off being cut off in Los Angeles traffic. Is there anywhere i can access those old videos? If Patreon i will be more than happy to contribute! Been a silent follower for the past year and a half. Keep up the good work Galu.
Have the previous lore videos been lost? They are not in the lore playlist anymore. Love your Lore videos and use them as inspiration and entertainment when I paint miniatures for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop
Is Gondolin bigger than Minas Tirrith?
There’s some debate as to what Tolkien means when he says Gondor. As Gondor is most certainly the kingdom and Minas Tirith the City however he often says “the city of Gondor” or even the chapter name “siege of Gondor” meaning it could have been more of a thematic choice. Also, the quote is “the most part of the people of Gondor lives within the seven circles of the city: or in the high bales of the mountain borders, or farther south in fair lebbenin...” so it does not state the city itself us the largest percentage of population.
Additionally the causeway forts are seconded to and behind the ramas echor, yes connected but separate entities.
The passwords are definitely meant for the city walls and not the rammas.
Great video however, always looking for your next.
Here's a bit of an off topic as my nodding skills are basically non existent. Is there any way to incorporate Leo.civil.uefs custom settlements into dac or mos?
Pelenor Fields is highly fertile coz of all the bodies rotting there which over the ages have fertilized the ground completely lmao Also I am slightly bummed out that there was no display or even suggestion of the Rammas Echor or 'Outer Wall' in the movies..
Don't know if it's just me but a number of videos have gone missing within the lore play list. Only has from Gindolin part 1 up to this video on Minas Tirith
I removed them from the list.
How many levels was Mordor able to take over in Minas Tirith before losing the battle?
5? i think. maybe 4
@@Ilovemunchlax1 no its 1
In the movie, 3 levels or 2 and a half I believe. In the book... none
None
Excellent
Dam I wouldn’t like to go up against the fountain guard
Shad Brooks of Shadobersity reviewed Minas Tiras' defenses and found them to be realistic.
2:10 All of them at once I suppose...
Actually Mont Sant Michel is 510 feet to the very top of the Angel on the church roof so it would be nearly double the height of the MSM
Hey lol so um I wish I could just PM you but I was just wondering who in 4v is able to build ships. Sorry for commenting on a totally random video but I figured it'd be random regardless of the video I posted it on lmao
Wow, Mongoliangot mentioned #greetingsfromMongolia
Where the hell are all the farmlands, at least in the movie?
It could be argued that the farming of the pellenor fields would have been abandoned by the time we actually see Minas Tirith in detail in the ROTK. It doesn't take very long for unmaintained farm fields to start looking like wild fields.
@@ChiefSmackahoLLC I guess, but it just seemed "off" that a large city didn't have them. Edoras, the same, although Edoras is a village...
You see it in a lot of movies, actually e.g. Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven. Just walls and dry, barren terrain.
well the ship kings of Gondor reigned in the first millennium of the third age in Gondor. so the guy who built the tower of the city couldn't have been one.
After watching this well put video, I couldn't help but think about Elon Musk and Neuralink. Elon has read these reads books and lives by the principles put forth. On the topic that, in Dune and Foundation, civilizations were salvaged by an advanced human makes me wonder if Elon's push with Neuralink will aid human survival. Although it might not be the true intention, it will be a byproduct of its advancement. This video got my mind on Philosophy mode.
The push towards AI despite the immense amount of fiction (built upon experience) which deals with how disastrous and dystopian an AI future would be, seems just stupid to me.
I still can't get the 3rd age working
Gandalf the White tell us your problems
@@andrewmiffitt7973 he clearly has no power here
@@GeneralNotSteve *slow clap*
Love thid
My favoritt Minas Tirith of Ted Nasmith. Minas Tirith was very giant city and seven floors, is perfect with black wall Ortharm. Very beautiful white and luxury into tolkien vision.
But I hate PJ's movie, what Minas Tirith is not perfect why. Minas Tirith low wall without black. Very ugly grey and five floors. Not farmland just dry land. Dislike Gondor soldier armor look like riot police.
I don't understand why movie made bad Gondor portray. All people said Gondor is bad portray in movie.
I don't think Amazon TV series make cross film, for banned use from weta. When Minas Anor in TV series, I wish see Minas Anor with black wall and farmland.
If it's a fortress then why does it only have one gate? Surely the Numenoreans understand how to defend a fortress, as many people say "two gates are better then one", and you'd think for them being Numenoreans a second gate in front of the original wouldn't be all that too much trouble, given the structure is an attackers worst nightmare that could be held by relatively few men in comparison to its size, but still gates
You'd have to ask Tolkien.
Roman Woolner Because The Lord of The Rings is set in an epic fictional fantasy world and not in an archeological digsite.
Well, it doesn't really have one gate, it has 7. I envision the construction of Minas Tirith as working essentially from the top down, with the upper two levels (the ones built above the hill, and seemingly containing all of the most important buildings) being the original "fortress". The other levels below might have initially been built simply as outer defense works for the upper levels (hence having only one switchback path through them). Then, by the time Minas Anor's population had expanded in the late Second and early Third Ages to become a true city and fill all 7 levels, the "power and craft of Numenor" might have "waned in exile" to the point that trying to expand on the nigh-impenetrable lowest wall to build new defenses of equal strength would no longer have been possible.
@ I have enough time on my hands, already have the deer skull and some candles, all I need now is followers, goat's blood and a virgin
@@Wolfeson28 Honestly with Minas Tirith being what it is, the first gate, the strongest gate may not of been that important in the long run, Medieval castle design was not at all primitive craft, they were built by well trained and well paid builders who knew what they were doing and built castles dependent on the amount of money they were paid, given this is a city so some things for sake of defence will have to be scrapped but still, the Orcs, Easterlings, Variags and Haradrim have to go through seven gates with Machiculations, Murderholes, hot tar or water, rocks being thrown down, and possibly two steel gates that slam shut when a lever is flung in it's gatehouse, honestly I don't think even the Easterlings or Variags would have the grit, strength, discipline and determination to get through that, hell, there's one castle in Europe with *14* gatehouses! Honestly I think it may have been more tactically sound to either starve them out or just avoid it entirely and have a right old proper party everywhere else