siegecraft
Warfare against fortifications
Siegecraft is the art and techniques of besieging fortified places—the military knowledge required to surround, starve out, or break through defensive walls.
The term covers everything from positioning artillery to digging approach trenches to undermining foundations.
The general's siegecraft proved decisive at the fortress.
The word appears in historical and fantasy contexts more than modern military discussions.
Sealing off a place
- encirclementSurrounding enemy forces completely
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
- attritionGradual reduction through loss
- contravallationFortification encircling besieged position
investment · bombardment · parley · capitulation · surrender · terms · negotiation · feint
Siege by ladders
- breachBreaking of agreement
- stormingAttacking with force
- sappingGradually draining vitality
- miningExtracting earth's resources
sappers · miners · undermining · sortie · sally · enfilade · ladders · breaching
blockade
Sealing off a place
- encirclementSurrounding enemy forces completely
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
- attritionGradual reduction through loss
contravallation · investment · bombardment · parley · capitulation · surrender · terms · negotiation · feint · diversion
escalade
Siege by ladders
mining · sappers · miners · undermining · sortie · sally · enfilade · ladders · breaching · demolition
rampart
Fortified defensive wall
- bastionFortified defensive position
- parapetLow wall at edge
- battlementToothed fortress wall crown
barbican · gatehouse · keep · citadel · moat · turret · embrasure · loophole · crenellation · portcullis
medieval
Of the Middle Ages
- ByzantineOf Constantinople's civilization
- CrusadesMedieval wars for Jerusalem
- HellenisticOf post-Alexander Greek civilization
antiquity · Roman · Assyrian · Ottoman · Vauban · Masada · Constantinople · Syracuse · Acre · Orleans
- fortificationsfort, fortress, fortresses, citadel, citadels
- military trainingfield manual, drill instructor, training manual, combat drills, drilling
siegecraftpitched battle
Intense preplanned military confrontation
mobile warfare · guerrilla warfare · blitzkrieg · naval warfare · hit-and-run tactics
craft, witchcraft, siege, craftsman, crafts, spacecraft, craftsmanship, besiege, handicraft