<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>mbreese</author><text>This seems to discuss roads and cities… not stairs in a tower. If the direction of the stairs was so important, why isn’t that mentioned?&lt;p&gt;Either is was very obvious to the authors (so not included), or not thought to be an important factor.</text><parent_chain><item><author>stult</author><text>&amp;gt; Of course the only way to win would be by pushing your enemy back down the stairs and then with whoever is left above you, retake the entire castle.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Yeah, that’s unlikely to work out.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Frankly, if you find yourself in this position the castle is probably already lost.&lt;p&gt;This argument directly contradicts the instructions of Vegetius, whose &lt;i&gt;De Re Militari&lt;/i&gt; was *the* definitive military manual of the Middle Ages. Specifically, in book 4, he writes,&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Innumerable instances are to be met with where the enemy were entirely cut in pieces, even after they had penetrated the body of the place: this certainly will happen, if the besieged continue in possession of the ramparts, towers, and highest parts of the city... The sole resource after a place is forced, either by day or night, is however to secure the ramparts, towers, and all the highest places, and to dispute every inch of ground with the enemy as they advance through the streets.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s hard to overstate how important Vegetius was to Medieval strategists, who treated his work practically as gospel and would generally try to follow its recommendations to the letter. So I seriously doubt any medieval strategist would have viewed the only conduit to the critical and decisive high ground positions as tactically irrelevant.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Medieval staircases were not built going clockwise for the defender&apos;s advantage</title><url>https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2023/10/09/medieval-staircases-were-not-built-going-clockwise-for-the-defenders-advantage/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>Tao3300</author><text>Vegetius, pray tell what the scrying glass saith of yon fortification level?</text><parent_chain><item><author>stult</author><text>&amp;gt; Of course the only way to win would be by pushing your enemy back down the stairs and then with whoever is left above you, retake the entire castle.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Yeah, that’s unlikely to work out.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Frankly, if you find yourself in this position the castle is probably already lost.&lt;p&gt;This argument directly contradicts the instructions of Vegetius, whose &lt;i&gt;De Re Militari&lt;/i&gt; was *the* definitive military manual of the Middle Ages. Specifically, in book 4, he writes,&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Innumerable instances are to be met with where the enemy were entirely cut in pieces, even after they had penetrated the body of the place: this certainly will happen, if the besieged continue in possession of the ramparts, towers, and highest parts of the city... The sole resource after a place is forced, either by day or night, is however to secure the ramparts, towers, and all the highest places, and to dispute every inch of ground with the enemy as they advance through the streets.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s hard to overstate how important Vegetius was to Medieval strategists, who treated his work practically as gospel and would generally try to follow its recommendations to the letter. So I seriously doubt any medieval strategist would have viewed the only conduit to the critical and decisive high ground positions as tactically irrelevant.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Medieval staircases were not built going clockwise for the defender&apos;s advantage</title><url>https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2023/10/09/medieval-staircases-were-not-built-going-clockwise-for-the-defenders-advantage/</url></story>