Star shaped forts
Deputy Dog has a great post with some awesome pictures of star shaped forts from several different locations in Europe and Asia. Star shaped forts, in contrast to circular or square shapes, allow for unrestricted fields of fire no matter how close to the walls an enemy is.
In a square or circular shaped fort, once the enemy gets too close to the wall, it is very hard to shoot him because the wall itself shields him from the defenders on top. With a star shaped fort, no portion of the wall is ever out of reach of fire from another portion. So even though being close to the wall may shield an enemy from those directly above him, those defenders on the adjacent walls can easily direct their fire at the enemy.
Check out DeputyDog’s post for a lot more pictures: 6 incredible star forts
Thanks for this very good tip and explanation!
I’ll regard it having built my next house
A shocking memory of the bases we built in Viet Nam for our Combined Action Platoons (I squad of Marines and 3 squads of local militia) … it was very effective as a defense with very few people …