Holding the Breach

Once a breach has been opened in a wall, or once a gate has been bashed down, the garrison must find some way to defend the gap. There are other methods in addition to packing it with troops ordered to “hold the breach.”

First, assuming they have the time, the defenders can throw up an earth rampart (assuming they haven’t done so earlier). This is basically the same activity as digging trenches, and follows the rules described under “Offensive Tactics.” For example, 10 figures representing human troops could raise an earth rampart 16’ high and 50’ long in one day.

If manpower or time were in short supply, the garrison could try to block the breach with rubble, empty barrels, broken wagons…literally anything they could lay their hands on. While not as effective as an earthen rampart, blockades like this would qualify as “obstacles”, costing 4” of movement allowance to cross, and lending defenders a -1 or -2 benefit to AR. Blockades of this type would typically be able to withstand 10 hits.

Magic can also be invaluable. The wizard spell ((wall of fire)) will remain in effect as long as the caster maintains concentration--and escapes being hit in combat--and is very effective in closing a breach. Slightly less effective, but still useful, is the ((wall of thorns)), particularly since the caster doesn’t have to maintain concentration. In a full AD&D game campaign, the list of useful spells is greatly enlarged, to include more wall spells, glyphs, symbols, and many others. Illusions might also do the trick, if the attackers can be made to believe that there’s another wall behind the one they’ve just breached, or that they haven’t really breached the wall at all.

Given enough time, the garrison could repair the breached wall (or at least construct a smaller wall in its place). Use the construction rules earlier in this book to calculate time and requirements for this work. Note that, during a siege, it’s very unlikely that the garrison will be given the time to do any real construction as defined in the section on castle construction, so all of the figures given here are assumed to be for makeshift structures.