Clash of Clans v.s Siege Warfare

Lately I've been playing a lot of Clash of Clans on my iphone. If you don't know what Clash of Clans is, its a mobile app game where you build a castle-like structure and build an army and try to destroy an opponent's castle. This game is fictional however since it contains giants, wizards, goblins and men with hammers riding warthogs just to name a few. But while playing the game I noticed some very small similarities between actual siege warfare and the game.

One thing both the game and actual thing have in common is the overall objective. That objective being breach the walls of the enemy castle. By breaching the walls, the invaders can steal gold and other goodies to be used to fund the building of armies and such. The only other thing the game and the actual thing have in common is how you breach the walls. In the game, the player can breach enemy walls by the use of sappers with explosives. The sappers (called wall breakers in the game), run towards the wall with a bomb and then it explodes and they blow a hole in the wall.  Although an actual sapper would not run at a wall with a live explosive, the idea is still the same. During an actual siege of a real castle, the job of the sapper was to find a weak point in the enemy walls and exploit it in order to either destroy the wall or allow the rest of the army to enter the castle. Sappers would damage or destroy the walls with explosives, and mining equipment.

After that there isn't much similarities. My strategy for breaching a wall and taking down a castle in Clash of Clans is to use giants and wall breakers to breach the walls. Then use barbarians, archers, and wizards to destroy the base from the inside. The goals of Clash of Clans also differs from actual siege warfare. Clash of Clans is very attack only based where siege warfare could last for weeks or months depending on the circumstances. During an actual siege of a castle, the attacking army would use siege engines such as battering rams, trebuchets, and belfries. These engines are specially made to breach defenses such as fortress walls.The attacking army could also use different kinds of warfare such as biological warfare. This was done by launching the diseased bodies of deceased animals and people over the walls. This could intern make the enemy sick and die. Biological warfare isn't possible in Clash of Clans unfortunately.

After examining any kind of similarities between Clash of Clans or actual siege warfare, the results have been mixed. On one hand they are somewhat similar in their ultimate goals. That ultimate goal in this case was to "take" the castle by breaching its defenses. However, actual siege warfare and Clash of Clans have little in common. The biggest and obvious of them being Clash of Clans is a work of fiction. Also siege engines are not used in Clash of Clans unlike the actual event where siege engines are the main staple of siege warfare. Although Clash of Clans is fictional, it is however less dangerous to human life.

Work Cited

http://www.medievalwarfare.info

http://www.gamezebo.com/2012/08/06/clash-clans-walkthrough-cheats-strategy-guide/