Concerning a seige...

[forrest_john]

I apologize for the ambiguous title but the heart of the question I shall ask must be explained in full.
In my world, a dieselpunk/fantasy hybrid, I have twelve Vertical Cities, which, as the name rightfully suggests, are miles-wide skyscraper-high structures with a city built at the top. These cities are essential to the story, and are main desires for many of the militant nations. The main forms of transportation between cities, and between the city and ground-level are airships.

So, here is the question, how would a general lay siege to such a city? How would he eliminate the airship transportation routes and how would he enter the city (assuming that there is not enough airships to either swarm/bomb the city or for the population to escape)?

Thank you for reading, I'm new here and this question has been plaguing my mind for some time.

 

[OGone]

Do they just want to kill everything in the city or do they need to capture somebody of importance or the location itself?

If the former, why can't they attack the base of the city rather than the top? Is there a reason they can't attack from ground-level? If they built a siege weapon to threaten the structure holding the city (or planted explosives?) then its inhabitants would be forced to defend the bottom or they'd be falling a long way down... That is if the people attacking have absolutely no morals.

As for the transportation routes couldn't they just hijack the airships using smaller aircraft or build AA guns on the ground?

 

[Saigonnus]

I think you'd know better what capability your general would have, since you should have a working knowledge of what sort of technologies are available.

The first complication is to eliminate the patrolling airships, but one could potentially do that by straight up attacking the toughest group and eliminate them so quickly that the rest retreat to the city.

One obvious thing comes to mind: If they are elevated cities, it would stand to reason that there would be some way down to the valley below without having to rely on the airships. Hidden stairs, elevators or whatever; probably well hidden to be used for an escape route in the event of a siege from above/from the air. All it would take is for the general to find someone who knows of their existence (maybe underground organizations i.e. gangs, traffickers etc) and "buy" the intel. With that, you could keep the airships pinned in the city using a small force of airships blockading the "ports" to keep them from escaping; since it also stands to reason you can't park an airship just anywhere and you'd have special landing areas.

So anyway, you blockaded the ports to keep them from escaping, then you send an elite force in first to "mingle" with the city dwellers (or perhaps the general sent them in weeks before). Since they know where the "exits" are, they can block them once the siege has begun to keep them from escaping that way and allow your own troops to enter unmolested by the armed forces the city has.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

The purpose of a seige is essentially to cut off a town or fortress from supplies and thus starve the inhabitants out. So the question is what resources do the occupants of these cities need and where do they get them from? I'm guessing food comes from the ground, so they need a way to get up and down to the fields.

Your post says that they use airships for this, so the answer becomes block the airship travel. And airships are very vulnerable even if they don't use hydrogen. Simply use long range projectile weapons to hole the gas bags. They don't work too well after that. Now given that the enemy presumably has to surround the cities to stop airship travel to and from them, I'd suggest dirigibles with snipers in them. (Balloons on long ropes to keep them anchored.) Note that snipers might have a range at such a large target or up to half a mile. Unless of course they have aircraft in which case things become a whole lot easier.

Now for the city dwellers, can they get up and down via the mile high structures on which the cities sit? If so those routes will also have to be blocked. So that may mean ground troops as well, but since you've got to have people based on the ground to anchor, raise, lower and reload the balloons that shouldn't be an issue.

One point, snipers can shoot both ways. Using a cordon of balloons is a better option because the balloons are easier and quicker to build. So over time as both sides lose aircraft, I would expect the guys in the city to suffer worse effective losses. But I would still keep the balloons at a sufficient distance from the city that snipers based there could not shoot them down. That way the only thing they have to worry about are armed airships.

As for invading the city, the point of a seige if done well is that you shouldn't have to. If you can starve the occupants out, then you can win without the need for a pitched battle.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Lucas]

I apologize for the ambiguous title but the heart of the question I shall ask must be explained in full.
In my world, a dieselpunk/fantasy hybrid, I have twelve Vertical Cities, which, as the name rightfully suggests, are miles-wide skyscraper-high structures with a city built at the top. These cities are essential to the story, and are main desires for many of the militant nations. The main forms of transportation between cities, and between the city and ground-level are airships.

So, here is the question, how would a general lay siege to such a city? How would he eliminate the airship transportation routes and how would he enter the city (assuming that there is not enough airships to either swarm/bomb the city or for the population to escape)?

Thank you for reading, I'm new here and this question has been plaguing my mind for some time.

If he wants to eliminate the city entirely and not take it, it would be sufficient to attack the skyscraper structure and make it collapse to the ground. It would kill millions of course.