How to Lay Siege to a Medieval Fortress:
Bring food. LOTS of it.
Wait.
(However, it's apparently easier to do it the fast way. Food storage in the field was quite difficult, and supply lines are vulnerable.)
Bring food. LOTS of it.
Wait.
(However, it's apparently easier to do it the fast way. Food storage in the field was quite difficult, and supply lines are vulnerable.)
Or, if you're referring to gunpowder/cannon tactics - those are the reason for medieval-style fortifications falling out of favor, 1500 CE-ish.
But as always, money can break any castle wall. But lobbing putrefied meat into wells, waiting out their stores, and so forth work.
However if was a city or sometimes a large town, the calculus changes because the payoff was much higher. Also it may not have always been possible to wait the defenders out - because of relief armies and the troops getting restless and possibly deserting. An example in the "medevial" period (lets say ~1050-1453) where walls were directly attacked would be Jerusalem
Also the movement from square towers to round ones, once again as a defense for sapping, and displacing the tower from the wall or keep in order to be able to flank assaulters attempting an escalade.
The mastery of stone fortifications made walls nearly impregnable to breaches until cannons were developed, and even by then it was a dodgy proposiiton. For instance at Constantinople in 1453 the Turks had huge cannon which could damage the walls, yet it was not the reason the city fell. The defenders were able to repair the walls before the cannon could reload for a second shot. The reason Constantinople fell was a side gate was left open (either intentionally or accidentally) which allowed the Turks to pour through. There were alot of incidents like this such as the defenders of the Krak de Chevaliers (in modern day Syria) being duped into believing their commander had ordered their surrender
I thought the move to round towers was due to the increased effectiveness of canon.