Motte & Bailey Castle 1150. What about a contest?

Hi there,

It's been a while.

I have been exploring some new concepts with ME around castles and medieval history. It has been a lot of historical and archeological searches + video post production + photoshop design to mix ME 3D and 2D so at the moment i have done the videos only in french. The serie consists in 3 episods to cover Motte and Bailey castles: historical context (11th century), barbarians invasions, birth of feodalism, life during medieval times and in the last episod i am still busy finishing: the dungeon and the lord's yard.

Here are some pictures :














The first video episodes are there but again it's only in french.
EPISODE 1. EN FRANCAIS UNIQUEMENT. BIRTH OF THE MOTTE & BAILEY CASTLE

EPISODE 2. EN FRANCAIS UNIQUEMENT. LIFE IN THE

EPISODE 3 VISIT OF THE DUNGEON.
MODEL BASED UPON AN HISTORICAL CHRONIC DESCRIPTION FROM 1150 (in progress)

To be honest i d like to challenge you to go wood and make your own version of a Motte and bailey castle. That would change from stone and i am sure you will find it FUN. This could be a good topic for a contest!

Hope u enjoy the pictures and if u speak french the videos.
Fred
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198022338829/myworkshopfiles/?appid=333950
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/fredericeffe

 

Here is my attempt at something along the lines of a motte and bailey (although the motte needs to be filled with more buildings). No name or lore for it yet, either, and I can't vouch for its practicality.




The main courtyard (currently empty) is overlooked by the battlements along the walls, as well as an upper courtyard with wooden parapets.



A Robanskoy castle's Great Hearth acts as the meeting place of the principle family of the occupying clan. This castle probably belongs to a relatively smaller clan, hence the Great Hearth's relatively small size.


A secondary tower (I'm sure there's a term for it, but I don't know what it is) guards the landing of the drawbridge (should it end up being lowered during an attack). The second floor has windows for archers, and holes in the floor from which to drop rocks or hot tar on anyone who comes through.

 

Hey Sofa,

Great one! I like the system u set to go from the first tower to the main tower The parapet is also very interesting as well as the clan's home (just seen ur Kingdom of Robanska post as well btw cool castle!=
During the carolingian period, in france at least, Francs had as well in many places a circle of big stones on the soil for meetings and important decisions to be made.

You can find it illustrated at the following picture. It's a reconstitution from the 19th century based on a early motte from the 11th century. I took some inspiration of it for the topography though i ll probably try to replicate it as it is along the way.

The size of it is pretty big but most of the buildings are warehouse, silos and granaries. There are probably a few small farms there. I would assume blacksmith to be pretty frequent as well. As most of the buildings in wood have anyway disappeared, the picture below must be token with caution.



Great one, as far as size i find your motte and caste pretty realistic. Looking at the number of mottes being built during this period, many of them having being built in hurry to face permanent invasions and agressions, i tend to believe that most of them were about the size of the one you build, sometimes a bit bigger, but not so much more. I read some of these early castles have being build during a few days time.

Fred

 

I like that wood tower on the hill. Any chance you would let me wreck it with my colossus?