Quote Originally Posted by Didz
@Razanov
Probably not a good idea. The ports would be a serious defensive weakness and given that there are very good reasons for not having level ground in front of a castles walls it would not provide much benefit vis-a-vis the dead ground issue.

Better instead to change the tower armaments from cannon to mortars, with the added option of 'shell shutes' so that bombs could be dropped directly down on the attackers below.
Yup. After the long awaited boiling oil gates in Kingdoms, beware CA : we'll want machicolations !

Of course historically the advent of cannon completed changed the design of fortresses leading eventually to the evolution of 'Star Forts' which reached their most advanced at the time of Marlborough.
Aaaah, the Forts Vauban (named after Louis the XIVth architect who came up with the design)... I can't tell you how much I hate them. When I was a toddler my father would insist on visiting the local one(s) anywhere we travelled... AND THEY'RE ALL THE FRICKIN' SAME STANDARD DESIGN, THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT !

Ahem.

Sorry. I had a traumatizing childhood