City gates opening inwards or outwards?

I'm making a game based on Deuteronomy 20:16-20
https://iidb.org/threads/controversial-upcoming-game-brutal-bible-bloodbaths.28143

This is the start of verse 20 in the CEV:

You may need wood to make ladders and towers to help you get over the walls and capture the town

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So what I want to do is have city walls blocking access and shut city gates. Then you build a ladder and get over the walls and unlock the gates.

Copilot said this:

Historically, city gates typically opened inward towards the city. This inward-opening design had several advantages:

Defense: Inward-opening gates were harder for attackers to break down since they would push against the city's walls and additional fortifications.

Control: City defenders could more easily close the gates quickly in times of emergency or attack.

Space: This design minimized the amount of space needed outside the gates, allowing more room for city defenses and making it harder for attackers to gather in large numbers right outside the walls.

Inward-opening gates were a strategic choice to enhance the city's security and control.

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I thought it would be better for the city gates to open outwards. That way you could have it push against something if outsiders tried to force the gates inwards.

Is copilot confused?

Copilot is more right. If you are pushing gates closed in a hurry, your pushers want to be inside said gates. Not getting trapped outside.

The red arrows show the two gates opening outwards. There is an optional thing in the centre to stop the gates being pushed inwards from the outside. I thought it would be harder for the invaders to pull the gates open. Battering rams involve trying to force the gates inwards...

Politesse said:

Copilot is more right. If you are pushing gates closed in a hurry, your pushers want to be inside said gates. Not getting trapped outside.

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"Control: City defenders could more easily close the gates quickly in times of emergency or attack."

Ok I see...

Though I think in the game when you unlock the gates from the inside it is easier to have them move away from you.

excreationist said:

The red arrows show the two gates opening outwards. There is an optional thing in the centre to stop the gates being pushed inwards from the outside. I thought it would be harder for the invaders to pull the gates open. Battering rams involve trying to force the gates inwards...
View attachment 48871

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That's why you shore it up with wooden bars and palisades if the whole thing is becoming a seige. Note that if a ram bends the doors in and they're supposed to bend in, it might be an easier repair afterward than if the door is utterly wrecked.

I suggest looking through some of the contemporary depictions of sieges and battles in the ancient Near East. They were interesting affairs, very different from the Medieval-influenced way they are portrayed in the movies. The depiction of the Siege of Lachish that is displayed at the British Museum is jaw-dropping.

Politesse said:

The depiction of the Siege of Lachish that is displayed at the British Museum is jaw-dropping.

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Rather ironic though that it is a relief, even though there wasn't a relief...

Politesse said:

I suggest looking through some of the contemporary depictions of sieges and battles in the ancient Near East. They were interesting affairs, very different from the Medieval-influenced way they are portrayed in the movies. The depiction of the Siege of Lachish that is displayed at the British Museum is jaw-dropping.

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I can only see reliefs... I find them hard to tell what's going on.

BTW the NIRV version of Deut 20:20 was interesting - "...You can build war machines out of their wood. You can use them until you capture the city you are fighting against"

I originally thought the machines were catapults or something.


Other translations talk about "siege-works" and "bulwarks".

Siegeworks to the Biblical writers were ramps, ladders, and covered battering rams. The wars of Assyria and Babylonia sometimes left behind wholly abandoned cities, with the siege works just left there such that you can walk up the ramps they built to the city walls this very day.

The catapult was a 5th century innovation. They were never used by the ancient Hebrews, but they were certainly used at them in later times, as the Greeks and Romans gradually destroyed their world. And other such mechanical wonders. Last year, an archaeological site review for a planned gas station and mini-mart stumbled across a field of hundreds of ballista stones left behind from the Bar-Kochba Revolt, which Titus had used to crack Jerusalem's outer walls and enter the city.

@Politesse
Hi I was wondering if this kind of thing has a name? (I want to force the player to chop it so that they can push the gate from the other side)

Maybe a horizontal bar is more normal? (with kind of hooks to the sides of the gates?) Maybe I could have both?

That's a buttress.

I am working on a platform that is a bit lower than the top of the city walls. I was planning on putting a kind of upside down buttress below the platforms. So it is meant to be from the Old Testament (Deut 20:17 - Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites) but it can be a made up style...


I was wondering if there is some way of learning about some of the basics like that... (could be partly Middle Ages out of interest?) Note the stairs are so big because it is a bit like Minecraft.