Assyrians multiplied assault points to overstretch thin defender coverage across the perimeter.
Evidence
Assyrian siege strategy applied overwhelming force to many parts of the fortress at the same time. By spreading the defending troops thinly, forcing them to cover multiple attack points simultaneously, the Assyrians dramatically increased the odds that one of their assaults would succeed. But assaulting fortress walls required planning and preparation. The tools needed for successful siegecraft were so big they had to be constructed on-site, and this could require many months of labor. In addition to foot soldiers and charioteers, Assyrian armies brought with them thousands of engineers, trained builders skilled at erecting temporary fortifications around their encampments and at building the towers and tunnels needed to overthrow heavily defended fortresses. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 479
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Assyrian siege towers countered wall elevations by matching defender height and battering walls. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 480
Related
- Assyrian siege towers countered wall elevations by matching defender height and battering walls. (similarity 0.92)
- Siege equipment grew enormous, with towers pushed by thousands of men (similarity 0.87)
- Pushing siege weapons to longer range only drove artillery growth (similarity 0.84)
- Siege artillery evolved to exploit the fragility of fortress wall corners (similarity 0.83)
- Bombers evolved like castles, adding all-around defenses against attackers (similarity 0.80)
- Ancient siege warfare succeeded only for the richest armies due to enormous logistical costs. (similarity 0.80)
- Breached fortifications restore numerical advantage to massed attackers in termite warfare (similarity 0.79)
- Human fortifications and artillery evolve via the same arms-race logic as animal weapons (similarity 0.78)
- City fortification walls evolved progressively from palisades to layered battlement systems by 1500 BCE. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Assyrian siege towers countered wall elevations by matching defender height and battering walls.
#corroborates(0.35) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 480