Bruma, from reasons said also remember that guard captain, he kicked some daedra ass.

Then comes skingrad for reasons said before and because Hissildur is a darn vampire, you don't mess with dracu-.... I mean Hissildur.

Anvils on the bottom of a hill haha. Just bring in a catapult or two and its toast. Id take the DB in Cheydinhal over the Thieves Guild in Anvil anyday.

Whats with all the doubt for the ruler of Bravil? He may be a terrible leader but he'd probably do well in battle, after all wasnt he the grand champion of the arena or something

Agreed....not to mention that most of the town is Nord....That's a lot of aggression in one place.

Actually, all the reasons you listed are poor in terms of the town's setting. Being so far from neighbors, having only one entrance and exit, among other things, sort of remind me of what happened at Dunkirk in WWII....IDK, just a thought.

Yes you're most likely right, but I think historically Coastal ports tend to fall to superior naval forces than land based seiges.
Before the great wars that is and the invention of blitzkrieg style tactics.
Really though I don't think any city not even the IC is truely the strongest, as everyone of them is liable to invasion of one sort or another it seems.

Also of note is the fact that most seige engines would have to be shipped in due to the lack of trees.



Just to prove my point ( sorry Rainman nothing personal intended )..

Cheydinhal is ringed by hills and mountain ranges, due to the being on the far side of access to the IC is isolated from all its neighbours.
Bruma is closest on a direct path, which however is more of a pilgrims track in most cases, and goes through mountainous bandit / nord, ogre, daedra, and minotour territory.
Its surround by cave systems is run by an inefficent goverment, the landscape suggests to me to be prime seige potential with trees, good ground and high vantage points.
The Dark brotherhood is a small group dealing in hired kills with no personnal loyalty to the county let alone the country.
Supplies, spying and infomation is not in its preserve, even if they did not just torch their HQ and cut.
Finally there is absolutly nowhere to run to if the walls fall, the castle is about the only place and is quite exposed itself being looked down on from all sides.

I voted for Bruma.

Anyone who has spent any time wandering around in the Jerall Mountains will have noticed that the passes are steep and the roads narrow. An army would have a terrible time getting there from anywhere. In addition, the city is arranged on a hillside, so that even if the walls to the east or south were breached, the defenders could retreat to the high ground in front of the castle, and set up multiple defensive positions.

The city is also protected on the north side by the Blades' fortress, which would expose a besieging army to attack from behind and above.

The main problem, though, is that any invader would have a long difficult trek to that location from any point of supply. That's not the case for most of the other cities, which can be approached fairly closely by water, or which have ample sources of food nearby, which an army could plunder.

In time, any walled city will fall to a siege. Supply line is critical for any invading army.

No idea but the problem is his son is a skooma addict and he probably is too haha. Skooma may help for like one duel but not in a huge battle.
Nothing personal taken macdocmayhem, this topic is meant to spark conversation and it has.
I'd give Skingrad, Imperial City and Chorrol the leg up magic wise since they have Janus Hassildor with Destruction Mages, High Chancellor Ocato with Arch Mage Traven and the Arcane University, and Conjuration Mage's respectively. I doubt the Anvil Restoration Mage's could do much, they can't even deal with a rogue mage killing travelers on their own....

Thanks Rainman, you've got a great point about the IC mages, that combinded with its split city design and high plentiful towers.

You reminded me of a book ingame about a lecture on which school of magic is the best ( sorry four books ), one about Illusion and vampires, one about alteration and army movement found in a guild hall.
One about mysticism and and protection, the other in the arcane university about a lecture...
Personally if I had to choose which school as commander to use restoration would be at the top, healing, resist elements / magic, absorb health / magic / fatigue / skill / attributes, fortify all the above.
Your army would be a constant well protected force, ever fit and rested imo.

Lol you got me with that insiped rogue mage though.
However Hassildor + burning pitch or daylight exposure caused by seige engines = a crispy fried count, in need of Vlad von Carstien' s ring.

Even with Sun Damage though, I'm sure Hassildor would be able to do more good than any of the other Counts and Countesses of Tamriel. High Chancellor Ocato is the greatest of all rulers obviously since he is the Imperial Battlemage and he isn't a wimp either. This gives me an idea...

Actually the elf guy said a grat monster invaded the city meaning, mehrunes dagon invaded kvatch

If Mehruness Dagon himself did invade Kvatch, then everyone would be dead. Mehrunes Dagon would not have left Kvatch without making sure Martin was dead.

Sorry the monster was...
Damn forgot no spoilers allowed, but you see see it later at another city.

Kvatch before the siege would be pretty strong. On top of a plateau with near straight vertical walls and with only one narrow path leading up. That road would be a choke point where you'd think the guard would be able to hold back invaders pretty easily.

Ya. The problem is we don't know how the inside of Kvatch looks or how powerful the Count and the Guards are. Or what kind of Fighters/Mage's Guild presence they had.

I really don't see Bruma as being a srong city. Yes, it's full of Nords, but that would only go so far. http://images.uesp.net//8/8b/OB-Map-Bruma-ann.jpg If an enemy staged attacks on the north and east gates (points 1 and 13), that would naturally draw defenders to those locations. If the enemy then sent the bulk of it's force through Bruma Caverns to emerge from Jearl's house (point 22 in the southwest section), the invaders could swarm through the city and attack the defenders from behind. Or they could bypass the defenders completely and just take the castle. Once they had the castle and/or Countess Narina Carvain in their clutches, the battle would be over. Granted, this assumes the enemy is aware of the secret access, but it's still a plausible scenario. Even the Blades wouldn't be much help then. Plus, their job is to protect the Emperor, not the nearby town. Bruma? Burned (if I was leading the attack).

I don't think Skingrad is very good either. True, the Count is a very powerful vampire, but what's he going to do during the day? Stay indoors to avoid being harmed by the sun? Yeah, that's helpful. :laugh: And what's he going to do at night if 20+ mages start firing Turn Undead spells at him? Sure, he could resist that from one mage, maybe even as many as five (possibly even fifteen), but not twenty plus. And an invader could place catapults and trebuchets on the hill that overlooks Skingrad and blast away non stop until there's nothing left. Any soldiers sent out to attack the siege engines could be easily dispatched by a few well positioned marksman and spell casters. Spell casters could also fire wide area Frenzy spells into the town so the soldiers would be too busy fighting each other (and the very citizens they're supposed to protect) to even attempt a counterattack. Sure, Skingrad has a bunch of mages skilled in Destruction, but what happens to them when the invaders have their own mages start casting those Frenzy spells? They go after each other, the other citizens and the soldiers. What happens to them when the invaders have their own mages start casting wide are Silence spells? They become about as useful as food to a skeleton. Skingrad? Skinned and gutted (if I was leading the attack).

Turn Undead doesn't affect vampires last time I checked. Frenzy would destroy any city not just Skingrad. I'm pretty sure Janus Hassildor in the sun is better than any of the other counts and countesses period.

Everyone has good points, skingrad is not a good choice like everyone said you have to hill plus in thoughs days there is the seige-towers (Comparing to our mid-evil times) and if maybe?they knew Roman tactics,like the battle ramp or there sheild tactics, skingrad would not have much chance defending on a 360 area basis, (kvatch has a major chance BUT the ONE weakness i have found OUT it the worst way to loose a battle of everything else) the opposing enemy could easily destroy Kvatch IF they starved them, all they would have to do is make sure no food, nor,perserves make it to the castle while staying alive themselves from other enemy's and then storm the gates while kvatch has no stength to lift a sword( If anyone gets my point)

All of the cities share that particular vulnerability. Since the OP asked which is strongest it still has to be Kvatch. One hopes that the other cities would come to Kvatch's aid if they were besieged for any length of time so the strength is really about buying time. If the victims of Genghis Kahn had been able to unify against him he would not have been able to sweep across Eastern Europe like a swarm of Locusts. It was only his recall by his Emperor that saved Europe from annihilation.

Skingrad

Well the IC for all reasons posted is the toughest city and most defensible.

There are heavy plate armor clad guards trained in melee and marksmanship and two guards at every entry point and exit on either side to all districts plus guard towers, the arcane university plus its battlemages, the legion depot and its garrison... and the elite guard for the palace.

Unlike the other cities the legion depot's garrison gives them the ability to go fourth and meet the enemy head on, or do a commando raid in the middle of the night.

Addeed a bit latter: For the sake of answering the OP's question I'd say skingrad, followed by anvil because they still have the seaport unless access could be cutoff. So besieging could be hard if they were going to starve them out with ships bringing in supplies.

Kvatch because of the reasons stated above. Bruma comes at a close second. Why? Well lets see, who would be invading Bruma? Skyrim? No, Bruma is a Nord Town. So the remaining people would not have much experience with the snowy weather and the guards and people living up there, who are used to the cold, could easily dispatch a very large amount of people.

Kvatch. That was part of the point of the storyline: the strong, unified city on a hill with only 1 entrance got trounced.

I thought it was more that its the city with Martin Septim in it that has a Chapel to Akatosh, the strongest of the Nine.

That was a bonus for Mehrunes Dagon. The fact that the most defensible city in Cyrodiil fell overnight with few survivors (some of them almost mad with fear) would be a huge source of terror for everyone in the land (that is, if mudcrabs weren't so fierce). That kind of terror could only aid the Mythic Dawn.