Is this siege opening for my epic fantasy novel believable?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Brief synopsis of Chapter 1: "Escape from Salidar".

So around ten thousand Gremalkin attack this local village with only 1000 adult population. Gremalkin are half-demon, half-humans which each stand about 1 meter tall. They have reptilian skin and fight with either daggers or bow and arrow. Do you think it's reasonable that a village of 1000 adults could hold a wall for 2 weeks for round trip for backup to arrive to fight the 10,000 Gremalkins?

The book opens on Fall Festival, the day before the attack begins. We are introduced to Brandon Fel, Jonathan Tanner, and Malia Hano. Another man, David Vincent, is added to this party. The four are sent as couriers to the Academy to get backup to fight the Gremalkin army.

The backup is going to be 500 Cavalry and another 1000 Infantrymen, but they don't arrive back to help until Chapter 4, about 80 pages and 14 days later in the story.

What do you think of this basic premise for the opening?

The remainder of book 1 is gathering friends and allies and "Uniting the Kingdoms" so to speak, with a few more battles. I intend to show my martial arts knowledge and knowledge of Medieval warfare and tactics through this book as well, even though it is an epic fantasy novel.

[msc545]

It's all good and well, except I think there needs to be some technical or mystical gimmick that allows a thousand people to fight the ten thousand demons and actually win. It can't just be because they're nice people. Also, the gimmick, be it technical or personal or mystical, has to come with some sort of unpleasant catch that makes it not something that just anybody can use, or something that's particularly comfortable to use. In other words, there has to be a price for using it.

[msc545]

I thought more about this, and here's a lot more detail for you. I hope it's helpful. As a fantasy premise, it works. The main question is whether the siege dynamics feel believable enough that readers stay immersed instead of stopping to do the math.

A village of 1,000 adults holding off 10,000 attackers for two weeks is possible under the right conditions — but only if the story gives strong advantages to the defenders. Without those advantages, most readers will assume the village should be overrun quickly.

Here’s what makes it believable:

Strong fortifications
If this is just a farming village with a wooden fence, it probably falls in hours or days. If it has:

stone walls,
narrow gates,
towers,
trenches,
elevation,
or an old fortress foundation,

then the odds change dramatically.

The Gremalkin are poor siege troops
This is probably the biggest factor. Small, lightly armed attackers with daggers and bows are terrible at storming walls unless they have:

ladders,
siege towers,
sappers,
artillery,
magic,
or overwhelming discipline.

[msc545]

Ten thousand lightly organized raiders can actually struggle against a fortified defense.

Their size matters
At 1 meter tall, the Gremalkin have disadvantages:

harder to climb walls,
shorter reach in melee,
physically weaker,
ladders and scaling become harder,
gates and barricades are proportionally larger obstacles.

That helps your realism considerably.

Food and fear tactics
A siege becomes believable if the Gremalkin are:

raiding,
probing defenses,
trying to starve the village,
setting fires,
attacking at night,
exhausting defenders,

rather than simply charging the walls continuously.

Continuous assaults for 14 days would feel unrealistic. Intermittent assaults and psychological warfare would feel much more believable.

Casualties should matter
The village should be deteriorating:

wounded piling up,
arrows running low,
sleep deprivation,
sections of wall damaged,
civilians helping defend,
internal panic,
funerals,
maybe betrayal or desertion.

If after 14 days everyone is basically fine, readers may stop believing it.

The courier setup is also structurally solid. Sending four younger or mobile protagonists out while the adults remain behind is a classic and effective fantasy opening because it creates:

[msc545]

urgency,
guilt,
travel narrative,
contrast between safety and destruction,
and anticipation of whether they return in time.

The arrival of 500 cavalry and 1,000 infantry also feels about right if:

the defenders are near collapse,
the cavalry are highly trained,
and the relief force attacks the Gremalkin from outside while the village sorties from within.

One thing to consider: 10,000 is a very large number. Readers instinctively compare it to real medieval armies. If the Gremalkin are more like swarming tribal raiders than organized soldiers, you may want to communicate that clearly early on. Otherwise readers may think:
“How does a village survive against an army ten times its size?”

You could also improve plausibility by adding one or more of these:

the village sits on a hill,
there is only one gate,
nearby marshes or forests limit approach,
the Gremalkin hate daylight,
they fear fire,
internal rivalries prevent coordinated assaults,
or the defenders possess a few elite fighters/mages.

Overall:

The premise is strong.
The stakes are clear immediately.
The courier structure is classic fantasy adventure architecture.
The siege can absolutely work if the fortifications and tactical limitations are established clearly.

The biggest thing is making the defense feel costly and desperate rather than comfortable. If readers feel the village is barely surviving hour by hour, they’ll accept the timeline.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Daaaamn dude. You put some thought into your responses. Thanks.

[msc545]

Glad to help. Maybe when the book comes out, I could even manage to get an autographed copy?

[goaded]

No. Not without superior weaponry, like Rorke's Drift, where a force, outnumbered 40 to one, survived and killed 20 men for every defender lost. Guns against spears.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

The Gremalkin are only about 40 iches tall (one meter) and 40 pounds each. A grown man who is trained in the city guard can beat several of them in a fight on even terrain, plus they have a wall. Now not every adult in the city is a trained fighter, but with a wall and some archers you can hold superior numbers long enough to put up a valiant fight.

I think i will have the town be tragically exterminated anyway though. It makes more sense than having them actually win this battle. So the backup will arrive like one day late in the story as I see it, this is the best way to proceed with the book, and make the reader realize, "This shit just got real."

Unlike the Lord of the Rings, the good guys are going to get their butts kicked several times in my stories.

[goaded]

I think they'd be called Kobolds in my 1980's Monster Manual. Good luck with the book.

[AI Opinion]

The premise is fun and very workable, but the numbers feel strained 😅

Ten thousand attackers vs a thousand adults behind a village wall for two weeks is a serious mismatch unless you add strong advantages: very stout fortifications, choke points, terrain like cliffs or marsh, limited approaches, low Gremalkin discipline, supply issues, or magic.

If you justify those on-page, readers will buy it and enjoy your tactics flex 💪📚

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I have a little of all of that already fleshed out in my rough draft. I had planned to have the village leaders flank and assassinate two of the Gremalkin's Captains. There is a magic user as well, but I don't want to give too much information away just yet.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I believe so.