Fire and ice(game of throne) books..... the wall-why put in gates?

[Vesayen]

Who has read the fire and ice, aka a game of throne series?

If you have not, leave this thread. This thread will contain spoilers up to and including a storm of swords(DO NOT discuss any of the possible spoilers floating around online, about a feast of crows).

























































OKAY! So we have this massive wall. It is magical and the largest most advanced fortification built in the history of the planet(as far as we know.... westeros seem like the worlds best engineers).

It is HUGE, it is BIG. It is TALL it s LONG.

The purpose of the wall is to keep enemy armies out of westeros. It keeps out the wildlings but its intention was to keep out the others.


SO WHY THE HELL DOES IT HAVE A GATE?

The wall is more then a hundred and fiftey feet thick in some parts. They are not gates as much as they are tunnels. Even then... WHY HAVE THEM AT ALL?

The builders of the wall had no intention or desire for the areas north of the wall. You don't build the largest man made structure on the planet, a wall, if you want the people on the other side getting in, ever.

Why have any weak points? The strength of the rest of the wall is negated by the fact it has gates at all.

People still need to get to the other side but that could be done via an elaborate elevator system..... if they could build the wall(and they used magic to do it) they can work out a pulley system. They do use a pullety system as is to transfer supplies to the top from the westeros side..... why don't they do it to get people to the OTHER side?


Summation: Having gates in the wall, is beyond stupid.

[Boris Godunov]

The pulley system wouldn't be practical for a simple reason: horses.

The Nightwatch did regular sorties out into the north to check on the goings-ons of the wildlings. They wouldn't be able to do that without access tunnels. That would deprive them of advance knowledge of attacks and vital intelligence.

As evidenced in the wildling assault on the wall, they were capable of scaling it at undefended points, disregarding the tunnels.

The tunnels actually prove to be the most useful defense against assault. Mance's army breaks itself trying to storm the tunnels (with some help from Lord Stannis, of course). It's a nice chokepoint.

[Vesayen]

Even if it is a choke point, it is easier to defend them trying to go up the walls.

A man climing a ladder can't fight.


Horses can be carried over in elevator.

[Mercator]

I would think that sending out reconnaissance parties to check up on the area and sending out armies when under attack would be a more feasible use of manpower than trying to man watchtowers on the entire wall and having enough manpower at hand along the entire wall to be able to react to threats.

(I haven't read the books)

[Vesayen]

If the argument is that having a gate means the enemy will attack it, as opposed to forcing them to scale the wall in many places.... that makes no sense-they can still scale the wall in many places if they desite to, gate or no gate.

[Jon Miller]

It allows your army to go forth

which is the best thing to do once theirs gets to a certain size and preparedness

JM
(otherwise you have the same fight.. but also no wall)

[Vesayen]

Why would you want to bring your army out of the best fortification in human history?

I can not think of a scenario where you would want to take your army OUT of the wall to face theirs..... they have to siege the wall, you can just sit there. You also have unlimited(relativley) supply lines as your supply base is behind you.

They don't need to defeat an enemy to achieve their objective, they just need to stop the enemy from passing.

[Bosh]

Why would you want to bring your army out of the best fortification in human history?

Its good to be able to scout to be able to tell what your enemey is up to, especially if they're doing something like building a ****-load of boats to go around the wall with.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Vesayen
I can not think of a scenario where you would want to take your army OUT of the wall to face theirs...

You don't necessarily send your men out to face theirs. What about scouting missions, raids, and other assorted fun stuff?

[Vesayen]

Those can be done using elevators. Horses can fit in elevators.

If the enemy is so close that using an elevator would be dangerous it is unlikley you would want to go out through a gate if you had one.....

[Koyaanisqatsi]

It's difficult to retrieve a large force to the safe side of the wall quickly (if, say, they're being chased by horrible undead) using an elevator...gates can close quickly.

[Vesayen]

Why would you ever have a large force on the other side of the wall?

Leading the men to the fist was a mistake, as became abundantly apparent before and after it was done.

[Ted Striker]

Re: Fire and ice(game of throne) books..... the wall-why put in gates?

Originally posted by Vesayen
It is HUGE, it is BIG. It is TALL it s LONG.

Why, thank you.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Vesayen
Those can be done using elevators. Horses can fit in elevators.

If the enemy is so close that using an elevator would be dangerous it is unlikley you would want to go out through a gate if you had one.....

Elevator is slow, labour intensive, and can easily be observed.

[Dinner]

THIS is the Fire & Ice I remember from my childhood. I believe the VHS tape is still in my parent's garage some where.