Azmarin

Azmarin was once the second-largest city of the Askaria kingdom. But when the war with the Azurièl kingdom started, it became apparent that Azmarin would be the primary defense against the invalid force. It has since been militarized and very few civilians still call it their home.

The first attack

The war started unprovoked. As the attack was a complete surprise, Azmarin was ill-prepared for a full-on assault. The enemy catapults really did a number on the city walls, but they held for a long time. Many houses within those walls were destroyed and there were a lot of civilian casualties. The walls gave the army of Azmarin time to mobilize and chip away at the enemy through boiling water and archery. Any magic users were notibly absent, emboldening the attackers. The battering ram breached the outermost gate, but it meant that they had to enter the gate house¹, which has a second gate, before they could enter the city proper.
When they pushed the battering ram into the gate house, it started to rain on them in the form of flammable oil. A few men started to run before a sorcerer set the battering ram on fire. The entire interior of the gate house want up in flames.
This was but a small victory for Azmarin as the attack continued for days. The city was surrounded and under regular barrage of catapults. Many attempted to get on top of the wall using ladders, but without much success. At the dawn of day three, the city wall crumbled in one spot, and gave an opening for the attack. The defenders started to retreat to the inner wall, but for many it was too late.
The inner wall was a lot harder to target for the catapults, which gave the defenders a slight adventage. For a while, it was mostly archer vs archer. This was a deliberate attempt of the attackers to see if they'd run out of ammunition and it worked. When the leader of the attack came out, she started to taunt the people on the wall. Several took a shot, but missed. Then she cast a powerful spell and blew down the gate and the melee combat started.
It was a gruesome battle and many Azmarians fell. It's when a group of highly trained, well rested, professional soldiers followed by more reinforcements portalled in, that they finally started to win.

Defensive measures

As Azmarin got rebuilt, they innovated on their defensive capabilities. The inner wall was upgraded to include a gate tower. The gate tower of the outer wall was moved to a location further away from the one of the inner wall. This of course gives them more opportunity to hit the enemy from the inner wall. In front of the walls, ditches were added to make it nearly ineffective to use ladders. This also gave them the opportunity to install drawbridges to prevent battering rams from easily reaching the doors in the first place.
The gate towers themselves were greatly optimized. In case they would get breached, they installed a form or sprinkler system for the flammable oil. The holes used for fire were updated too. Instead of a simplisic hole, it's now a half-cone shaped slit to spread the fire out and point it downwards. This to increase the initial surface area of the fire and decrease the chances of counter-attack. To prevent those who dared to enter from escaping, portcullises were installed. Those metal spiked gates also closed the gate tower again, making it even harder to break through again.
Balista's were installed on top of all the walls and inside the wall towers. Trebuchets were installed between the outer and inner walls, to counter-attack catapults. Elaborate swivel mechanics were used to improve aim.

Present day

These defenses have stood the test of time. Never has the inner wall been breached again. But as the war continued for decades, into over a century, keeping these defences maintained and replacing damaged equipment has severly hit Askaria's treasury.
Many of the defenses are now in disarray. Like broken swivels that make balista's or trebuchets inoperable. Or walls that are in dire need of repairs. Even the equipment of the army stationed there is in bad shape, with damaged armor and old weapons being the norm, rather than the exception.
It's the Order of Perseverance that's filling the void left by proper financing. They're their to ensure Azmarin won't fall to the enemy, at the very least.

Type

City