"Lord Baranar I was thinking about the stategy and I propose this:
We need more archers. Everyone must be prepared to fght with bows. We can give yours soldiers some archery lessons. Some of us can teach them.
Everyone must be on the walls shooting arrows or throwing spears and rocks, Ten of our soldiers shall be prepared to defend the gate, the others on the wall in gate's side will help these ones when the orcs force it. And we must barricade the gate now. Soon or later it will be their primary target.
And beside the gate's barricade I propose to built a wall around it - inside the walls ofc - Even a small fortification can help us to fight when the orcs destroy the gate. It will be a bad surprise for them when they think they are in, but with a new all surrounding them, and with our soldiers on it shotting or throwing. Like construct a rock square with no more than 4 meters shall be enough. In 24 hours working day and night it about 50 men. I think it is possible - 30 meters of wall, even a wood barricade, wit 4 meters high and space for soldiers on it.
Now, we must carry with us all the spears, bows and arrows, rocks and everythingh we can trhw to the walls."
(Is it possible? Have we 48 hours to do it? Can we teach the soldiers to use a bow? It is better just wait 😖 . By the way after this talk I will go to the weaponery to change my bow for a composite bow, and I will carry my shield and long sword. The double-handed and the bow and arrows will be on my back, the two spears I will put on the wllas floor near me - I feel like Rambo 🤨 )
"Both parts of your plan seem a bit hard Lord Corlindel, First training people to handle weapons takes a long time and a lot of practice to do it right. Tho we could prolly launch a few folleys in the mass.
The second part to construct a wall depends on the materials at hand, I dont think Lord Baranar has the supplies needed for it, maybe a bit more of a rudimentairy form of fortification can be used."
(Even wood it would be useful to built something like that. I have no idea what we can do. How Ush said if they force the gate we are condemned, That could be a solution. I saw it in some books, when the army sieging a fortress was forcing a waal or the gate, the defenders built a new wall inside to welcome the attackers.
I have a comic of Prince Valiant - by Harold Foster - where this kind of thing is done. If had a scanner here I would post a pic)
Even if you had the expertise to build such a thing- and Baranar's engineers are all too ill- you have not the wood.
"My fighting men are infantry, not archers," says Baranar. "And we will need such men to hold their attack points by force; we can spare no more."
The gatehouse will, of course, be heavily defended. It is a gateHOUSE, not just a gate, so it is already double defended- if they get through the outer door they have to go through a killing zone before they reach the inner door.
"But the Orcs will seek to divert our defenders by escalading the walls. Escalade is very hard if we defend the battlements, but that takes men FROM the gatehouse defence."
Basically, the defences you have are impressive and designed to hold off just such an offence, and without siege weaponry the Orcs would have little chance- certainly without heavy casualties they cannot afford- but your problem is resorcing exactly what you defend and when.