Sieges and Siege-craft

Sieges in the ancient and medieval worlds were on quite different scales. 10,000 men can do things differently from 500.
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This video's subject was chosen by Jack Sargeant, the winner of the DeepArt art competition a couple of weeks ago. The topic is a large one, but I hope I gave it a decent enough shot.
Castle illustration by Mathew Nielsen.
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Lindybeige: a channel of archaeology, ancient and medieval warfare, rants, swing dance, travelogues, evolution, and whatever else occurs to me to make.
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[@egeerdem8272]

"The Lads in the Castle" would be a great title for a sitcom

[@andrew12bravo21]

Luv it...or "the Children Chained in the Dungeon"

[@craigmurphy1204]

This week, Gerald holds off a siege by the French, whilst Rupert encounters a messy problem in the latrine pits. What a kerfuffle.

[@craigmurphy1204]

Pilot episode titled "Dost thou calleth me a lyre?" or something

[@theonlybass8947]

@@craigmurphy1204 come back next week to find out who stole Paul’s bodkin!

[@mickey4125]

@@craigmurphy1204 BOOM

[@ThZuao]

How to get rid of a castle: Beat it with a sword until it catches fire. Then it collapses.

[@EyeOfEld]

But once you become imperialistic, it is just easier to use trebuchets and bombards.

[@KorKhan89]

+EyeOfEld Nah, nothing sets fire to a castle better than a cluster of good old fashioned siege rams, particularly if you're the Mongols.

[@EyeOfEld]

Rams are pretty good in castle, but they are exposed to enemy infantry. I prefer to sit back at a distance and batter it down from relative safety.

[@spartankongcountry6799]

@@EyeOfEld My petards would like to speak with you.

[@indorilnerevar3161]

I was about to like but it's on 666 so I won't break it

[@euchale]

Wait, are you telling me that Age of Empires lied to me and foot soldiers were not actually attacking walls with their swords?

[@beaconrider]

Age of Empires has swords that can cut stone.

[@frostboomba1462]

of course they didn't attack with their swords, they used their spears.

[@maybeitsgone5081]

So they didn't just fire a crap lot of arrows at walls either :O

[@SprayedToTheBone2]

Maybe theres a lost piece of history and medieval nights made their longswords like katanas and AOE got it right.

[@euchale]

iyke ewnaho Do you mean Spandaus using Katanas as their bayonet?

[@stephenm.stouter2238]

A katana could easily cut through castle walls, and then you could mow down the men inside with a spandau.

[@williamchurchill203]

A piece of Lindybeige just died

[@elias549]

+William Churchill Why? Seems reasonable enough in my opinion.

[@williamchurchill203]

I don't really know. I think he'd say something about japan being on the other side of the world and time periods but that stuff doesn't make sense to me

[@willek1335]

> ...with a spandau. Too soon.

[@AvianSavara]

Which piece, though? I'm rather curious.

[@danielbat9887]

God dammit jack, you had the chance to pick fire arrows!

[@lindybeige]

Soon!

[@hebl47]

Do flaming thrown pommels instead!

[@MrPulversson]

+Hebl von Heblowitz or flaming spandaus!

[@bashkillszombies]

Jack is going to a special level of hell where he will have fire arrows shot into his arse for eternity.

[@bashkillszombies]

That's as silly as throwing a good spear at your enemy and calling it a pilum and using a short sword instead!

[@fakjbf3129]

Siege of Tyre, that time Alexander the Great turned an island into a peninsula

[@DetectiveMekova]

YES! One of my favorite stories! He literally moved the Earth. Imagine the mythos and stories that must've spawned from that on the Persian side: "The Great Alexander conquered Tyre by commanding the Earth itself to form a bridge"

[@Kinghassz]

Im originally from a village right next to Tyre

[@arte0021]

How did he do it?

[@moluccas3699]

Yeah, how did he do it?

[@saadalvi4320]

A fellow Gondorian

[@ColonyChap]

Thanks Lloyd, now if I get thrown into the bowels of history and inexplicably put in command of a large army, I'll be ready for the task at hand.

[@Divaad95]

or if anyone ever makes a competent medieval RTS/RPG

[@ColonyChap]

Now that's just illogical.

[@klobiforpresident2254]

Divaad95 That's easy. Just take Rome I and add Spandaus. Or make it the MG-34 for extra brownie points*. *Not exchangeable for brownies, no refunds.

[@xTheRealKestrelx]

Did you have a dream you were a "Time Commander" ?

[@louiscyfer6944]

not really. lindy is clueless about this stuff and he is just talking out of his ass. you might want to get your info from actual experts.

[@TN-xx4ih]

The sad feeling you get when a Lindybeige video ends

[@bashkillszombies]

I agree! Although this was a nice length for a change no more 3 minute bollocks! I could watch him for hours though! It's karmic - Stefan Molyneux and co release 3-4 2 hour videos a day, then Lloyd releases 30 minutes a week. :'(

[@TN-xx4ih]

Yh. Hes so brilliant! 😄👌

[@sarahblack6118]

Don't remind me that it's inevitably coming.

[@runertje550]

420th like, enjoy it.

[@TN-xx4ih]

@@runertje550 thank you trooper

[@davidredway5459]

3,584 Spartans to change an oil lamp? Don't be ridiculous, Spartans will fight in the shade!

[@pepperspray7386]

Could listen to classic sieges all day.

[@siffonzebra4981]

I think i would even spend money for a audiobook by him on that topic. (as with multiple other topics :P)

[@FridayBiology]

Agreed though, maybe points about small and large regional sieges :3

[@RollerMihke]

I would gladly spend money for that.

[@TurkishRepublicanX]

siege of constantinople lol

[@RolfHartmann]

Of course sieges never happened in Japan since they had katanas capable of cutting straight through stone walls ;-)

[@Erectoralporicy]

***paper walls

[@Milamberinx]

The Japanese would simply have agreed that it would have been rude to overcome the walls.

[@Leto_0]

The real battles were taking place deep in the forests between ninjas with superpowers

[@Macto5]

Or they just set the whole place on fire like Hirata Estate...

[@yevheniishyshko7961]

Considering that very few of Japanese castles actually used stone as their primary ingridient, okay.

[@isaweesaw]

Spandau jokes on Lindybeige are like pommel jokes on Skallagrim

[@MadBrainBox]

Yes.I wish people would be a little more creative with these things.

[@BoarhideGaming]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's become a meme. Great.

[@piwiator]

Just remove the barrel from your Spandau and throw it at your enemy to end him rightly

[@minihjalte]

Ah but that would be easier with a bren, as he stated in his video on why the british gun was superior.

[@BoarhideGaming]

minihjalte Don't call me spandau fanboy, but that was just one of the many things Lindy got wrong yet preferred to call critics "fanboys". The MG-42 in fact had an extremely easy and quick way to change barrels, without ever touching the hot barrel. So no need for gloves, even

[@jollygrapefruit786]

Now im imagining a hilarious sitcom about two groups of people, one group building the ramp and the other building the wall, having a casual chat about it with each other while doing so.

[@stephencrompton4352]

can you do a video on Monty pythons search for the holy grail?

[@michaeldepaor6844]

Yes!!

[@headrockbeats]

I hope he does it in a helmet, because that makes him look exactly like Graham Chapman ^_^

[@12345678900987659101]

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

[@stephencrompton4352]

flyingkoopa45 haha

[@jmalmsten]

+flyingkoopa45 not at all... they could be carried.

[@Aegox]

You should have a topic on medieval or ancient Naval warfare.

[@georgea.567]

yes

[@tkdfighter8]

I am very interested in that, too.

[@the_rover1]

+1

[@NonDeUn]

Lots of bloody rowing about...

[@alistairthompson8311]

There's an idea.

[@alexanderleeart]

you made all of this sound so straightforward, now I want to go conquer a city

[@owenmckee4053]

Instead of a ramp, why didn't the attackers just build a spandau?

[@highestqualitypigiron]

because the superior amazing craftsmanship is lost on them

[@garedtuttle3649]

sounds like the spandau is a meme for lloyd, like pommels for skallagrim xD

[@howdoilogin]

Not enough katanas to make one.

[@Ankobi1]

Is this going to become the equivalent of Pommel Throwing for Skallagrim?

[@stefanb6539]

They also could follow lindys example and just call everyone who disagrees with them fanboys. That would sure help a lot.

[@notimportant4268]

Some quick math... assume: wall is 100 foot long by 70 ft wide. Ramp is at a 30 degree angle, difficult to climb, but sufficient if you're a determined soldier with lots of other soldiers and a commanding officer behind you. The ramp's volume would be 424,000-ish cubic feet. 10k dudes each carrying 12 baskets of earth (one at a time..) is 120k baskets... how big is a basket? I don't know... but, 1 cubic foot of earth can weigh 70 lbs in a dry arid climate to 110 lbs if it rains a lot and there's lots of stones in it (english countryside?)... That's not too difficult for a soldier to carry... 12 of these in a 12 hour day=1 an hour? sure, no problem! Finish early, and there's the local peasantry to aggressively "netflix and chill" with... 424,000 cubic feet needed/120,000 cubic feet moved a day, is about 3.5 days till completion... make the ramp wider (because assume a dude with a shield and spear needs a 3 foot wide area in order to stagger up an incline... at 100 feet, you get 30ish dudes to a rank... wider ramp=longer ranks = more men fighting at once...) make the angle shallower, therefore longer to maintain a tighter, more impressive marching formation... and maybe the men don't want to carry quite so heavy baskets, so they don't fill them quite so full of dirt, or they "spill" some dirt carrying it over to dump it... add MORE dirt because a perfect wedge of dirt will collapse to the sides, and because walking all over the dirt during construction is going to compact it... and english rain might wash some away (that would be...exciting... to march on the next day?) you can probably see that it might take a week-ish to finish... unless they finish their load for the day, and then, the NEXT 10k dudes rotate onto dirt duty... maintain a continuous rotation and you've got yourself a battle-ready dirt ramp in a few days. Lloyd's estimates check out!

[@zedex1226]

The more time you spend building your ramp the hungrier, sicklier, and weaker the opponents you have to fight when you go over the top. Might as well build a big plush ramp in that case.

[@phinhager6509]

They don't, because such a narrow earthen ramp won't be stable.

[@Philly_Jump_Over_The_Fence]

Carrying baskets is a little inefficient. Lots of ropes, wheels and a railing system.

[@Luculencia]

@@Philly_Jump_Over_The_Fence also don't forget they had horses and mules to pull carts full of earth.

[@karthanok6859]

yesss MATHS!

[@socialist-strong]

I see people suggesting outrageous picks. Sure, these would have been hilarious, but by picking a subject that Lindy is enthralled by but hasn't talked about yet, you pave the way for further videos on this subject. Bravo!

[@Hobbyrepubliken]

MOAR SIEGE TALK! (please)

[@drakgrotta]

agree

[@egrif]

Hear hear!

[@Zulikas69]

agree

[@ironman8257]

Yep,about siege machines

[@MrKingoffire]

agree

[@necronsplayer]

Plataean siege defense: Just troll 'em the whole time.

[@tiaandeswardt7741]

MG 42 could've won a siege singlehandedly.

[@Smelly192]

An African MG42 or a European one? And what if the attackers had katanas?

[@Aegox]

...

[@zuto96]

maybe if u had enough ammo, but they would probably retreat anyway in fear of the MG-42's horrifying sound

[@Altrantis]

While this is meant as a silly thing, yes, it actually could have, actually.

[@PrivateSlacker]

Have you ever actually used a spandau to break a medieval siege from men with stabby spears? Then you are not a sufficient expert to know.

[@akumabito2008]

Dumb question perhaps, but what exactly was the point of a castle as a defensive structure? In pop culture, when an attacking army wants to take an area - they go straight for the castle. Conquer the castle, conquer the surrounding land. Now if the defenders are stuck inside a castle, would it not make more sense to leave behind a small army just to make sure they remain contained, and then ignore the castle completely and just take the land?

[@miffification]

not dumb at all. always thought about it. perhaps its just a pain in the neck to keep an army there. and perhaps its better to take a castle rather than construct one. keep in mind that reinforcements can come and attack the siegers if they take too long. and then they will stand no chance.

[@Smroadgi1]

.

[@pincopallino6765]

And that's excatly what they did! Why should you spend time attacking a castle if you can easily pillage the sorrounding villages? Castle weren't usually sieged because: 1) most of the times they were strategically useless 2) hard to take if your army isn't that big 3) their garrison was too small to be a threat even if they sortie out 4) most of the things that you need (provisions, materials, animals ...) aren't in the castle.... they're in the sorrounding and unprotecded land!

[@lasse5294]

That is on of the problems with a Castle. Sun Zu wrote in the Art of War that in order to gain land you just ignore the castles and go around them. If the army in the castle want to defend their country they have to come out.

[@pincopallino6765]

So the role of the castle was to save the lifes of the people inside of it (usually only the lord and his soldiers) and it worked well because an enemy army usually doesn't want to waste time and would ignore you focusing on the land

[@cpob2013]

well, off to go play total war

[@the_rover1]

Rome, medieval, japan or napoleon?

[@MrAwesomemonster]

Warhammer

[@cpob2013]

ZiSt1989 rome II actually

[@TheAmbientWarrior]

Mount & Blade for me. Agger? No, everybody run up the same ladder! That's clearly the best strategy to take this massively fortified castle.

[@caelodevorago608]

Everyone! Stay down at the bottom of the ladder, shooting uselessly at the defenders while our leader runs up... Alone... With a spear

[@morqwal]

Thank you so much, Lindybeige. No one talks about sieges. Everyone talks about battles. If you and other KZbin aficionados talked about sieges, we viewers interested in writing, drawing, and representing the ancient and middle ages could do a better job. :)

[@lomax343]

I'm glad you emphasise the smallness of castle garrisons in the mediaeval period. As an example of this, there is a surviving record of the manpower strength of Criccieth Castle in Wales, circa 1285: the Constable had thirty men at his disposal - ten crossbowmen, an armourer, a carpenter, a mason, a smith, a chaplain and fifteen others. This appears to have been typical.

[@FaenWszystkoZajete]

I'm not an expert but I think so. We have to remember that making chain or other armor is not so easy.

[@arytisaari]

+Joshua normal smiths didn't make armour and weapons that was armourers job

[@moukidelmar]

+Joshua the armorer not only made the armor but also made sure it fight right and was sometimes the garrisons quartermaster as well, dispensing armor and gear as needed. He would also make repairs, if the damage was severe enough, though generally, men were responsible for their own kit. Smiths were metal workers and oversaw the construction of caltrops, chains, iron banding, horse shoes and showing of horses and so on. It was their job to manufacture and repair anything made of metal. During the medieval period this was a fairly cast field, so there were specialist smiths to make armor, weapons, guns and so on. Basically, an armorer might be an armor smith, but they were not a blacksmith

[@lomax343]

The above answers are broadly correct, though it is likely that the duties of such a small garrison were divided up according to what was practical and convenient, rather than by job title. It is also likely that one of the armourer's jobs was to function as a mediaeval fore-runner to a drill sergeant.

[@kster809]

I'm enjoying this trend of giving random advice at the end of your videos, Lloyd!

[@SolusBatty]

Fav part :D

[@theflyingfokker5249]

Its genuinely fascinating how much effort goes into beseriging a city, it's hard to imagine tens of thousands of people in one place doing such a thing as building the equipment, let alone the incredible amount of time it all takes.

[@7000_Skeletons]

Noooo Jack what have you done!? That was our only chance to see the video on fire arrows and you blew it!

[@edi9892]

Many overlook the problem of logistics in Sieges: Imagine that you besiege a city in the middle of the desert with 10 000 men that need food and water for maybe 1 year and your supply lines are getting ambushed all the time... Thats why many tried to assault castles immediatly. Doing this they either made it in before the defense is ready, or they lose a lot of mouths to feed and possibly get a better picture of the weak-spots of the fortifications. A famous example would be Carcassonne, where they sent their mercenaries first so that they wouldn't need to pay them later.

[@GunFunZS]

would be?

[@Lionbug]

We here in Würzburg tell the tale of 30 knights holding Castle marienberg against 30.000 smallfolk

[@keithlarsen7557]

30,000 smallfolk? What's a smallfolk?

[@AZ25231]

+Keith Larsen peasants

[@Tairneanach]

Hobbits. There were plenty in medieval Germany.

[@khorps4756]

well yeah but so were there dwarves

[@Lionbug]

I can´t help but feel like I´m being ridiculed for my english ;-;

[@WoWroguefan]

So what about the common depiction of a siege tower being rolled up to the wall, a drawbridge lowered and men stormed the wall? How common was this?

[@lindybeige]

If the tower were on an agger, then it wouldn't have to be very tall, and could compensate for any heightening of the wall.

[@WoWroguefan]

And how many siege towers were used without an agger, built as high as the wall?

[@TheSecondVersion]

"One man on a wall is worth 10 beneath it." - Tywin Lannister

[@breadman2983]

"people dropping rocks on us and this is just awful" Mordhau in a nutshell

[@phantomjoker5]

I love videos on sieges

[@saltofpetra-4502]

Yes. Can't wait for a part 2!

[@christiannipales9937]

what stands out most is your passion for all of what you talk about! that's what I keep coming back for! keep it coming!

[@6StacksOnFeastEUW]

Jack you should have picked topic Spandau vs Katana

[@Aegox]

Goddamn it.

[@Kelberwitzi]

Would love a Lindybeige podcast.

[@iseeyou1312]

When the Romans besieged Carthage in 149BC, the Carthaginians decided that their main line of defence would be to use spandaus on their walls, and spent the previous two summers stockpiling spandau ammunition. When the Romans attacked, they were pinned down for several hours, however, the city quickly used up all their ammunition due to the rapid rate of fire. Miraculously, when the Romans picked themselves up from the dirt, not a single soldier had been hit, allowing them to easily take the city.

[@Dontdoxme9268]

these comments aren't funny.

[@oswaldchai9865]

where did you get this from?

[@maxsrbczv]

+Oswald Chai lol

[@conorbuckman340]

+Oswald Chai his last video

[@benderrodriquez]

+Julian Blow That's because you blow.

[@Phrikeares]

This is perfect, i really want to see more about Sieges!

[@zeroqp]

I looked up the story about the defense led by Lady Mary Bankes, and according to Wikipedia, her force did not hold on to the castle. Up to the point of the quote, it pretty much agreed with what you said: "In 1646 (the siege began in 1643), one of her officers, Colonel Pitman, betrayed her by leading a party of Parliamentarians into the castle via a sally gate. The Parliamentarians under the command of a Colonel Bingham reversed their jackets and were mistaken for Royalists. As a result she was forced to surrender the castle. However, because she showed such courage she was allowed to keep the keys of the castle, which are now held at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset. The castle was slighted the same year it was captured by the orders of the House of Commons."

[@alexmetherell2277]

Slighted?

[@zeroqp]

Alex Metherell It means to raze or destroy a fort.

[@chrisnorton4382]

Slighted means partially destroy a castle, either a wall or a tower, so it is no longer viable defensibly, not necessarily destroying the whole building. Parts could still be left inhabitable.

[@crunchyeater]

Please, Lloyd. A single Spandautana will take down any fortification.

[@welshy4638]

only works if dual wielded by a VIKING!!!

[@GrimFaceHunter]

But it has to be a berserker.

[@SuperKittenator]

+Blitz Krieg or his studded leather

[@Correctrix]

Quick quick... must add more dank memezzz... ...end that fortification rightly!

[@Tengila]

This is getting far too dank, people. Get out of the sewer!

[@weltgeist2604]

Really? I'm pretty sure the Goths brung some Spandau's when they sacked Rome, that got the wall down in no time, that's because it is perfect in every conceivable way.

[@AlexanderTrefz]

It was an outstanding weapon in it's field, as proven by the fact that it is still manufactured basically unchanged and used by multiple militaries across the world. It has a different purpose and is in fact an entirely different class of weapon than the Bren. So you can stop your underinformed snobbyness now.

[@chaza1001]

I bet they could have sacked it faster if they brought some Bren guns instead

[@Aples888]

Yes they used the spandau's as drills holding it a meter in front of the wall

[@Jazzlur]

He was joking, so i'm pretty sure your the snobby one trying to impress everyone with your spandau knowledge.

[@SordoBjorn]

+Alexander Trefz. It's being used today, because it's a great weapon in a war where you already have the upper hand (like most wars western countries have fought since WWII) but if there's another world war, i think they'd be used for as long as the built up ammunition reserves would last, and then they'd soon swap over to something more efficient a similar example is the way military airplanes are designed: look at the wing shape of most pre-WWII fighters and you see a lot of straight lines, and angles... during the war the british traded it in for the now iconic leaf-shape of the spitfire, the germans did not. both sides went through a roughly similar number of well trained (as in prepared before the war started i.e. not in a hurry) pilots but because of their sticking to peace-time designs the germans seemed to suffer more from this than the british. soon after the war wing shapes quickly returned to their angular form just in time for their use on the new jet fighters.

[@conorbuckman340]

See what would be the greatest siege weapon would simply be a large force of men throwing their pommels over the walls the end their enemies rightly, of course the defenders would return fire with a spandau in which case the attackers would have to take cover until the enemy used up all their ammunition as they had kicked out most of the civilians that had the ammunition attached to their belts..

[@cynkel7661]

you are a tactical genius

[@elperronimo]

they would bring in tactical bushes to hide behind in case the defenders start firing the spandaus

[@Mantis47]

If only the attackers had a group of men armed with katanas they would've been able to parry every single bullet from the spandau with them.

[@Lowco5]

Well if you have katanas just cut trough the fortifications with them.

[@joshuastarkloff9602]

Could you do a video on sieges during the age of gunpowder?

[@seanmadson8524]

Indeed, I imagine gunpowder changed the way sieges were performed even before the average soldier was armed with a gun, it would be interesting to hear about. In addition to that, it might also be interesting to hear about some unique siege engines that didn't see long or widespread use. Something along the lines of a crazy invention that didn't catch on, I assume there were just as many bizarre siege engines as there were bizarre personal weapons.

[@joshuastarkloff9602]

Sean Madson That could also work.

[@spleen5527]

Cannons forced Armies to be bigger. No longer could you hold out in your castle/fortress. You had to meet the enemy on the field.

[@seanmadson8524]

King Steve While I understand and agree that the invention of cannons greatly reduced the safety of the old styles of castles/fortresses, there still were fortresses and bunkers of sorts that people used as cover, and buildings serving such a purpose still exist today. It might be interesting to see the trial-and-error evolution of the castle/fort into what in modern times would most likely be a bomb shelter, or at least it might be interesting to me.

[@jonathan-hz4cc]

+King Steve Actually no, after cannons became common to use in sieges, forts were built differently, look up 'trace italienne'. It became harder for cannons to destroy the walls and forts themselves were armed with cannons.

[@Rasgonras]

Wow, so much lindybeige. I love it!

[@oceandark3044]

This is what I love about history. All the epic sword clashes, arrows, ladders, et al, gets shown not just in films, but in songs dating back to the period. It seems so glorious. Then, you get to the history and what Lindy found to be most important about sieges was a competitive building exercise between a wall and an earthen ramp. The history of sieges is competitive infrastructure improvement! When you see construction along the highway, just thing... these men used to be warriors....

[@DrSardonicus]

Yeah ok totally agree however, you entirely miss the point of Hollywood film. I'll give you a hint; truth is not important. They're meant to be fanciful stories of grand tales. I'll gladly pay a stupid amount of money to watch the shear absurdism of Lord of the Rings epic sieges before any version of your bore fest where we watch men digging holes for ten years. Wow. Thrilling mate. Please show more your version of an interesting 2 hour movie on sieges and let's see how many people would pay to see men digging for years. Let's match it to the LotR and see who wins ey chump?

[@oceandark3044]

***** Reign it back, man, I wasn't saying entertainment would be better if it was historically accurate. In fact, I said that even in the time it was current, entertainment didn't highlight historically accurate siege warfare. In fact, I think it's ironically hilarious how benign siege warfare must have been. "Bring your dirt, dump it on the hill, crack open a beer." Imagine the guy joining the army for fame, glory, and to see the world, and he ends up hauling dirt to a hill. I'm sure the "Thrilling, mate." comment is exactly what they were thinking.

[@MrDawnRise]

Lindybeige, appreciate all the content. Loving it!

[@thetuna8099]

I started watching this and just couldnt turn it off.. well done sir!

[@ManDuderGuy]

I love the little bits of practical advice at the end ;)

[@adamlee2550]

That signing off had me laughing so hard, love your channel and I appreciate everything you do to illuminate the past!

[@jazeroth322]

Found the channel a few nights ago and I’m loving the deep dive into each topic. Merry Xmas good sir

[@s.rolphsen174]

I would love a series on this sort of topic. A weekly video on ancient warfare, or something similar, would be nice.

[@Serjo777]

Lindy we need more siege videos! Much, much more! This was incredibly interesting to listen to. It would also be awesome if they were much longer ^^

[@jeffsmusics]

This was great, the way you present information is truly top notch.

[@UnixTehPwn]

YES! A new Lindybeige video! Love it, looking forward for more siege talk!

[@Lidrien]

I loved this video and I would like to request a part 2.

[@sugarfrosted2005]

"As always, don't feed chocolate to dogs." What? I mean it's true, but What?

[@rjfaber1991]

Haven't you noticed? The last couple of videos have all had a completely irrelevant piece of trivia at the end of it. I personally find them hilarious, but as humour is largely subjective, you're of course free to disagree.

[@clarkliberty1110]

Chocolate is toxic to dogs,like arsenic to people.

[@rjfaber1991]

Clark Liberty To be honest, chocolate is toxic to humans as well. It's just that our livers have evolved to break it down very quickly, something dogs cannot do.

[@skipfred]

@@rjfaber1991 Which means it's nontoxic. At least in the sense that most people use that word.

[@BlinEd1]

Your videos are actually my favourite!

[@Farseer1995]

I do love a new video from Lindybeige, especially when it's about seiges. Made my day.

[@erikgranqvist3680]

Here in Sweden, we had massive armys in the medieval time. There were litterarly hundreds of thousand men in any one army. Albeit, they were very small and disguised themselves as big blokes, cramping in about ten thouseand men in one piece of shining armour.

[@hazzmati]

wrong

[@keithlarsen7557]

Medieval man powered mech suites... FUND IT!

[@RingxWorld]

Completely wrong

[@keithlarsen7557]

People with no sense of humour...

[@erikgranqvist3680]

hazzmati what do you mean wrong? You cant prove it! The men were about 1" high, and weighed in at 50 lbs per man. That made a suit of armour just about the heaviest thing in the universe, when they cramped in those ten of thousands of men in one suit!

[@FunpocalypseMetal]

OMG! This guy is uploading daily now! It's great!

[@lindybeige]

This week I'm doing four videos, to make up for the two weeks recently that had only one.

[@ChemoshKamos]

do a video on the siege of platea, please. it sounds interesting.

[@sheldonkeyes8258]

I really enjoyed this topic. It really puts things in perspective. Thank you Lindy!

[@Player_Review]

I'm excited about this vid. Thanks for the topic coverage.

[@ARandomUsernameForMe]

Spandau is excellent in sieges

[@francisbarnett]

Good effort on all the plentiful recent uploads.

[@vitoc8454]

And the channel is now undergoing "Spandau-Gate" or "BrenGate" I think we've declared his version of "throw pommel and end him rightly"

[@JariB.]

+Vito C Unscrew the pommel first willyou? Thén you can go ahead and end them rightly.

[@JariB.]

Hammel Gammel Shhhh, don't tell them that... ;P

[@vitoc8454]

Hammel Gammel A World War was nearly won due to the brutally effective strategies of Field Marshal Erwin Pommel

[@Soy_Uz]

i really appreciate your passion and attention to detail, great channel, thanks for the hours of clever entertainment

[@kleinjahr]

Classic example of a ramp for attacking a fortress, Masada. Apparently the Romans used locals to build it, which does save on troop casualties. There was also a siege during the Gallic wars, where Caesar had built a circumvallation around a fortress. When he heard of another army of Gauls coming to relieve the fortress he built another around that. So it could be argued that the most important weapon of the legionaire was his shovel.

[@CybeargPlays]

Hah! There is a pair of glasses hanging in the wall as art, a jab at the recent prank where some glasses were laid on the floor and mistaken for an art piece.... Nicely done!

[@ElizaberthUndEugen]

these hang these since forever...

[@Scoob505]

I love you Lindy. Can you do something on Irish Gallowglasses and Kerns next? Or the Fianna? Or something on the ancient Gaelic Irish warrior class.

[@admiralgoodboy]

Haatchii but they suck

[@hateoverlove1]

Norman invasion of Ireland would be cool.

[@blackpancake5612]

11:50 I absolutely love these vocal effects and gestures. It makes the video come alive!

[@WildBillCox13]

Well couched and concisely delivered. Good work!

[@Djlawson1000]

Hey Lindy, Ive always noticed that medieval forces were never the size of ancient armies, but m question is why? Why did the raw size of armies get so much smaller than what they used to be?

[@erebus7306]

Well the concept of empires faded after the Roman Empire for a long time. The Holy Roman Empire was more of a feudal system and thus the volunteering/conscription of large amounts of soldiers was now obsolete. Battles were fought with much smaller levies now from dukes. An important thing to note is that the idea of a standing army also was not present for a majority of feudal europe. Without a trained and experienced force you had a variety of poor to decent fighters as your main army, so large and long wars was nearly impossible to conduct. This use of feudal levies would continue for hundreds of years as battles did not need to be fought by so many men to win a war decisively.

[@TomTomTomTom538]

Zoltan Gyongyossy great post, I was also going to comment saying the feudal system put a stop to large armies

[@CraftQueenJr]

Djlawson1000 aa

[@scottdodge6979]

When Rome fell the whole of Europe forgot how to do a ton of things. One of these things was quite possibly the art of drilling large armies. Getting tens of thousands of men to March and fight in unison is incredibly difficult. They're were some trained soldiers but they were generally mercenaries or a noble. Most fights were relatively small and generally took place in one spot.

[@paununs8719]

Span span span span... Lovely Span! Wonderful Span...!

[@bavettesAstartes]

I really enjoy these longer videos.

[@bernarddeboeck8405]

I love the drawning you use of the castle from my home town in Belgium -Ghent : The Dukes Castle or in Flemish : Gravensteen

[@RichCommander]

Would like to see more of this

[@georgeharrold2986]

Now you need to do a video comparing the demographics of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, and explain why ancient armies were so much bigger. :)

[@Moltak111]

Ancient armies were much bigger since the whole of the army was united, during the middle ages each feudal lord would have his own army causing them to be much smaller.

[@TheOhgodineedaname]

Where they? I believe that at Rome's peak around 0.4% of its inhabitants were soldiers, the English army at harfleur would sit closer to 0.6% of the post-plague English population.

[@georgeharrold2986]

Well, as an anecdotal guide, I can list several ancient battles off the top of my head that included over 100,000 participants: Cannae, Raphia, Issus, Plataea, Salamis, and several naval battles in the First Punic War. My knowledge of Medieval history is relatively lacking, but I suspect you'd struggle to find similarly large battles there.

[@cadarn1274]

I'm starting to wonder if a lot of it is just down to ridiculous exaggerations by ancient writers, particularly when they're on about very politically fragmented peoples such as Celtic or Germanic tribes

[@rjfaber1991]

Contrary to popular (particularly American) belief, bigger isn't always better. A soldier is actually a largely useless person in society, and could do much more to advance society if he was a farmer, a sailor, a merchant, a scholar, or whatever else. The only reason you'd ever raise a massive army is because you need to, not because you want to. As Lloyd mentioned, defending a castle or fortified city didn't take a lot of manpower, so why would you bother creating massive standing armies if a few peasant militia are sufficient to defend your territory?

[@royfernley3153]

Richard Holmes in his book, Redcoat, gives a very detailed account of siege etiquette, preparation and execution during the Napoleonic war.

[@C0m3TSw1tch]

I've been thinking and searching for the words for those screens and 'sheds' in the Medieval period. Thanks for sharing.

[@therustler30]

Oh poor Lindybeige, he is under siege of all these Spandauer comments x)

[@JariB.]

The fact that he adressed the people who were "fully pro-German Engineering" as 'fanboys' tells me he'll probably be alright. We could throw sarcastic comments back though...?

[@therustler30]

I didn't see that video before I commented, you're right, that video wasn't great. ._.

[@JariB.]

***** I am not going to judge it. It's not the era/period I'm specialized in. Let alone that I ever actually studied the weapons. Therefor I suppose I am not qualified to judge it. (Though I'll gladly throw back some sarcastic comments to those "fanboys" when they do say something even I find untrue.)

[@Plankensen]

TheRustler dont comment before watching. Makes for silly comments

[@dylanbailey8464]

Please make the random advice at the end of the video a staple of the channel!

[@adm0iii]

As always.

[@timroberts4635]

Your videos & Your knowledge are amazing & quite frankly AWESOME....!! Thank you for making them... I'll keep watching & giving thumbs up....

[@polartechie]

Good topic, great video, FANTASTIC lindy

[@LordBloodpool]

Didn't the Romans build Siege towers out of Spandaus?

[@ImEvan]

Hey Lloyd, is there any chance you could do a video on the battle of Thermopylae? you know, the one that's famous for the 300 spartans? It's probably my favorite story of all time and yet the details I've found about it are kinda all over the place. Deadliest Warrior seems to have skewed some opinions about the spartans as a whole and especially the 300.

[@lindybeige]

No immediate plans, but one day, I don't see why not. It could be combined with a review of 300.

[@jiri4076]

I would really like to watch Lloyd talking about the true story of that battle, good topic

[@jiri4076]

+Catch_Me_If_You_Can Cuz people don't know history

[@arbhall7572]

were they really?

[@SonofSethoitae]

+Priviledgy Shitlord (Rustler of Jimmies) I don't remember the Spartans doing much conquering. They were content to keep to their creepy militarized dystopia and oppress their slaves, not venturing beyond the Pelopenese

[@GoneGamingNL]

I love these videos, Keep it up!

[@Arelak]

I imagine just WATCHING one of these sieges in progress would have been one hell of a sight to see.

[@londiniumarmoury7037]

Lloyd have you ever thought about re doing this video or adding another part, I feel like you could squeeze a lot of good content out of siege warfare. I would watch a 6 hour long Video of non stop Lloyd siege rambling, in fact we demand it, or we will storm your keep.

[@Witw420]

I'm not first, just sad and ready to die

[@Jontman42]

The patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.

[@Akimb0]

The third silence is his.

[@nazzlan]

same...

[@18782.]

why wait. lets all commit sudoku

[@AvianSavara]

OR we could all commit sodomy. And make the zealots really angry. (it rhymes, therefore, I win)

[@Szusty.]

The puzzle at the end of video made me laugh so hard I almost fell of my chair! I wrote a paper on the role of Helots in ancient Sparta when I was studying history and it brought all the memories back. Thank you, kind Sir!

[@oyblech8671]

I'm going through the channel watching videos I failed to watch in the past. this was informative, entertaining, just fucking impressive (I see what you do in every video, Lloyd, and I love my only youtuber who doesn't jumpcut!), topped off with great advise. this is why I came and never left!

[@davidtetard5781]

When Chateau Gailliard was besieged, I think soldiers from the besieging army got through the unguarded latrines at night, opened the gate and voila. Although I have seen many castle latrine holes and none was big enough for a man to go through. Nice story though.

[@lindybeige]

I've read that story. Yuck!

[@Ryansanders80]

sqeeze up the shit pipe or i will SHOVE it up your shit pipe!!

[@rzq100]

What are you on about. My dog loves chocolate. He just had a bar of it. Come here spike! Show them how much you love chocolate. Spike! Spike! Spike? OH GOD NO!

[@kingkwon8002]

That was cringey.

[@jordanjohnston1954]

The lack of editing in your videos is refreshing because that makes your videos more like improv and the knowledge you have on hand (and maybe a script). It works really well for you and your videos. I'm glad I found this channel.

[@voxkoshka]

This is a wonderful video! Precisely the sort I like seeing

[@MrGatonegroish]

2:13 Clarification point: "six-to-nine-thousand men", or "sixty-nine thousand men"? There's quite the gap.

[@jacoblewis3148]

6,000-9,000

[@watdeneuk]

When i saw the castle i was like: Yey! this Brittish guy talking about old stuff again! I like old stuff.

[@Morganottosson]

10/10 clip, my ideas of sieges has now been crumbled and rebuilt but i enjoy learning new things thanks Lindybeige

[@mariebcfhs9491]

sieges are so amazing that they are not only a military effort but also an engineering effort and logistical effort