A Case Study of the Perfect Siege of Ath 1697

The art of siege warfare was perfected in the 17th century. Bastion forts had never been sturdier and more complex while the methods of attack became ever more standardized and increasingly effective. To be sure, sieges remained extremely diverse, but now there was a consistent thread running through them, culminating in an almost infallible method created by Sébastien Le Prestre de VaubanSebastien Le Prestre de Vauban. The great French engineer of Louis XIV demonstrated his masterful siege craft in the siege of Ath in 1697. It was considered “[…] not so much a siege as an idealized version of one.” This is quite convenient for us, because it saves us the trouble of re-constructing a typical 17th century siege in the way we’ve covered medieval and 16th century siege craft. For a better overview, we are going to structure this as an 11-Step guide. So, let’s look at the siege of Ath, a masterful example of how to lay siege in the age of Louis XIV.
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