Interior Ramparts

When a fortress was attacked, the defenders would often pile earth high against the inside of the wall, making an interior rampart (or “rampire”, in Medieval parlance). This had the dual advantages of reinforcing the wall against impact, and of forming an additional ditch within the castle that the attackers would have to cross (the earth for the rampart had to come from somewhere, after all). The disadvantage--and a significant one, at that-was that this earth applied significant outward pressure against the wall. When the wall was weakened, this pressure would often cause it to collapse outward. The earth would then pour out through the breach, mixing with the rubble and making a hill which was easy for the attackers to walk over.

In game terms, an interior earthen rampart adds 10 hits to the section of wall against which it’s built. When the wall-plus-rampart is reduced to 20 hits remaining (i.e., when the wall is significantly weakened), the weight of the earth starts inflicting damage in addition to any done by the attackers. Each turn after the section of wall reaches this weakened state, roll an AD of 6. The resulting hits are applied to the wall. When a breach is formed (that is, when the section of wall is reduced to zero hits), the earth-and-rubble mixture filling the breach is treated as normal terrain (instead of rough/rocky, as with normal breaches).

The Pisans came up with an improvement to the standard rampart during their conflict with the French in 1500. They preferred an earthen interior rampart that wasn’t in contact with the walls, but was separated from it by a wide ditch. This added no strength to the outer wall (and applied no outward pressure), of course, but when a breach was formed, the attackers would have to enter the breach (rough/rocky terrain), cross the interior ditch (an obstacle, costing 4” to 6” of movement allowance, depending on its depth), and then assault the rampart. During all this, the attackers would probably be taking fire from defenders on the rampart and maybe even on the surviving stretches of outer wall. This interior rampart, usually thrown up in haste, would probably not be revetted and cross-beamed (although in some cases it might), and therefore would be able to survive 40 hits per 30’ section.

This technique became known as the “retirata” or “double Pisan rampart”, and was very successful, even in improvised form. For example, in 1573 the Spanish were besieging the Dutch town of Haarlem. While the Spanish were pounding down the walls, the Dutch demolished a number of houses inside the walls and entrenched the town with ramparts and a large ditch. This made the old wall of the town (what little was left of it by that time) a counterscarp to their new fortification. A Spanish captain was recorded as exclaiming, “Who would believe that we are no further forward than on the first day of the siege!”