Vanilla Fortresses Lack Security

[Adipose]

Ya know, on more than one occasion I've been impressed by the poorly designed nature of vanilla Skyrim/SSE castles and fortresses. Frex, regarding the towers in the wall around Whiterun, they're not designed with firing slits in the body of the tower, so they can't provide flanking fire on besiegers. Also, in regard to those towers, the crenelles are too high and it's, practically speaking, impossible to fire from the top of the towers into a body of attackers. Otoh, the gate towers are better in that regard. However, in regard to the temporary wooden structures leading up to the gate, it's quite simple to flank them by climbing over the rocks.

 

Regarding other fortresses, on more than one occasion I've been able to climb onto the high ground overlooking the fortress and take out all the defenders by the simple expedient of shooting enough arrows down into them that they cease to be a problem. However, many of them will exit the fortress and launch an attack on me, so it's a pretty good idea to have four or five followers to cover your backside while you're using the defenders for target practice.

 

Now, most the the problems didn't become significant until the whole Civil War business was expanded to include laying siege to Whiterun and other places. Why the Designer Gods didn't go back and do a few revisions is beyond me, but there it is.

 

Also, the Imperial Exchequer must've been seriously short of maintenance funds, 'cause I've never seen such a collection of bandit ridden, ruined and deteriorating structures in my life. It's okay for day to day game play, but when it comes to imperial security in Skyrim one really does wonder what the Designer Gods of Bethesda had in mind. Lol! Quick and dirty development with increased profit in mind most likely.