History Main / ImpromptuFortress

* VideoGame/StateOfDecay: Every single safehouse, along with NPC enclaves, is a completely improvised fortification made out of regular places. You start with the Church of the Ascension in Spencer's Mill, which has the advantage of being walled (but the wall isn't too high nor impenetrable) and kinda on the side of the town, making it safer due to the distance, but the game outright demands to find a new spot to move and fortify, as the church is at the capacity limit and not really that safe. Choices include: other houses with walls around them, truck depos, fair grounds, secluded farms and even a Mexican restaurant. All of those places are nowhere truly safe and secured, not to mention resembling an actual fortress (well, The Alamo restaurant does, but that's merely the appearance), but they are the closest things in the whole Trumbull Valley. On top of that, every single house can (and some ''must be'') fortified on a fly, by boarding the windows and calling backup via radio.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* In {{Literature/Discworld}}'s ''[[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld Night Watch]]'', in an homage/parody of ''Literature/LesMiserables'', the city is in chaos due to military action against LaResistance. The city (both regular citizens and members of LaResistance) have put up defensive barricades to keep out soldiers. It comes to Watchman Fred Colon's attention that, despite the military propaganda to the contrary, the violent chaos seems to be ''outside'' the barricades, rather than inside. When his superior, Sergent Sam Vimes, returns, Vimes finds that his men have extended and fortified the barricades to engulf most of the city.
--> '''Colon:''' Supposing the area behind the barricades was bigger than the area in front of the barricades, right? Like, sort of, it had more people in it and more of the city, if you follow me... That'd mean in a manner of speaking we are now in front of the barricades, am I right? Then, as it were, it's not like we're rebellin', is it? 'Cos there's more of us, so the majority can't rebel, it stands to reason. So that makes us the good guys. Obviously we've been the good guys all along, but now it'd be kind of official, right? Like, mathematical? So, we thought we’d push on to Short Street and then we could nip down into Dimwell and up the other side of the river…
--> '''Colon:''' Are we going to get into trouble for this, Sarge?
--> '''Colon:''' You’re looking at me in a funny way, Sarge.
--> '''Colon:''' Sorry, Sarge.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver Nightmare In Silver]]" needing a place to set up a defensive position against the Cybermen in [[AmusementParkOfDoom Hedgewick's World Of Wonders]], Clara selects Nanny Longshoes comedic castle, as whilst its only an amusement park attraction its still a full-sized castle with a moat, and thus their best option.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty1''
** "Pavlov's House" has Sgt. Alexei Ivanovich Voronin reinforce Sgt. Pavlov's squad just outside the titular apartment block, which has since been turned into a makeshift outpost and defensive position. Following a successful attack that wipes out the German forces holding the building, Voronin, Pavlov, and other Soviet soldiers must HoldTheLine against a massive German counterattack.
** The "Berlin" level of the Soviet campaign features the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, as the final German stronghold in Berlin, which is defended by a ragtag unit of Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS soldiers. While the outside area is mostly abandoned, the Germans have fortified the interior and exterior of the building with machine gun nests. In addition, they've also posted a number of immobilized tanks and anti-tank guns around the building in an attempt to hold back the Soviet tidal wave.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty2'' has several examples in all three campaigns.
** The Soviet campaign has several bombed-out apartment blocks, the Stalingrad city hall, and, Most notably, Railroad Station Number 1, turned by both the Germans and Soviets into makeshift defensive positions/supply depots/headquarters, with constant close-quarters fighting and subsequent counteroffensives to capture and hold these positions for good. Ultimately, the Soviets manage to hold all of these positions by the end of the campaign and force the Germans back.
** The British campaign has several North African and French villages turned into defensive positions/headquarters/outposts by both the Germans and British. In addition to these, the Germans have also managed to fortify sections of the Egyptian and Libyan deserts against British tank and infantry attacks, laying minefields, AntiVehicle guns, and machine gun nests in wide areas in between hills and dunes.
** The American campaign has a French hamlet turned by the Germans into a forward headquarters and base for their artillery. During the events of "The Silo", Dog Company of the 2nd Ranger Battalion are tasked with capturing the entire village, and then later holding it against a massive German infantry attack. Later, during the final level, the Germans turn the riverside town of Wallendar into an improvised fortress, placing artillery guns in every block, machine gun emplacements covering every street, and AntiInfantry and AntiVehicle obstacles covering every crossroad.

* {{VideoGame/Valheim}}: A great many buildings built by previous occupants of Valheim still dot the landscape (villages, towers, keeps...), and players are encouraged to use them as bases or at least base camps, especially since many of them still have multiple floors which enemies can't climb. The main difficulty is that they tend to already be occupied with hostiles.

*** The Brotherhood of Steel's bunker used to be a small military depo that got gradually expanded over the years into its current form.

* Wagon forts were historically used to improvise fortifications in areas that offered zero natural protection. Their complexity ranged from a completely improvised "circle of wagons" in the prairie to purpose-built carts that could be chained together and set up as an actual, mobile stockade of sorts. Probably the most famous uses were the [[UsefulNotes/JanZizka Taborites]] during the Hussite Wars (giving the name of such a contraption to Central and Easter Europe), followed by Cossacks tabor and Afrikaaner lager. Sometimes those were set up in fully stationary positions, with earth embankments and gabions - particularly during sieges against actual, purpose-built fortifications.

* ''Film/SeventyOneIntoTheFire'', which is based on a RealLife incident from the Korean Civil War where the P'ohang-dong Girls school is converted into a military checkpoint, with thirty-odd South Korean [[ChildSoldiers teen conscripts]] tasked with defending it from a North Korean attack.

* The Korean film ''Film/SeventyOneIntoTheFire'', which is based on a RealLife incident from the Korean Civil War where the P'ohang-dong Girls school is converted into a military checkpoint, with thirty-odd South Korean [[ChildSoldiers teen conscripts]] tasked with defending it from a North Korean attack.

* ''Fanfic/TheDarkLordsOfNerima'': When the [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Nerima Wrecking Crew]] find themselves in conflict with the [[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Senshi and Dark Kingdom]], and Ranma comes up with his [[ItMakesSenseInContext crazy plan of posing as interdimensional conquerors]], they decide to hole up in Furinken High School as their "evil lair" since they know the layout and can use the home turf advantage.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'': The Catholic priests barricade the doors to the cathedral to prevent Judge Frollo's mooks from violating the sanctity of the church. Quasimodo, Phoebus, and Esmeralda have taken sanctuary in its belltowers and can see the hostile forces attempt to batter through the main doors. Gargoyle adornments that can "vomit" hot oil, plus Parisians upset that the "heart" of Paris is besieged contribute to keeping the mooks out, though Frollo himself manages to find a way inside.

* ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'': TruthInTelevision. The Irish UN peacekeepers set up camp in a derelict compound located in the middle of a barren plain. It is only thanks to Commandant Pat Quinlan's know-how of siegecraft that the compound is transformed into a deadly bulwark that manages -- at least for a time -- to withstand a massive assault of a superior number of better-equipped mercenaries supported by artillery and aircraft.
* ''Film/{{Zulu}}'', taking place during the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift, focuses on a small company's worth of British soldiers turn a modest Swedish mission house-turned-military hospital into a well-fortified outpost that successfully faced off against an assault of approximately 4000 Zulu warriors.
* The climax of ''Film/LAConfidential'' has Exley and White ambushed inside a run-down motel complex. Thinking quickly, they retreat into one of the rooms and punch firing holes into the walls and floors, transforming it into essentially a blockhouse from where they can lay down fire on the attackers in all directions.
* In ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded'', the ''Luftwaffe'' commandos take over a scenic English village, transforming the church into their main base and the adjacent pub and water mill into outposts.
* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Shaun is convinced that [[MyLocal The Winchester pub]] is the best place to hide out during the outbreak.

* In a similar plot to ''The Raid'', ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' places two Mega-City One judges trying to investigate a death at a large housing block, which has a new gang selling [[FantasticDrug Slo-mo]] fortified in the top floors.

* ''Film/LettersFromIwoJima'' is a {{Dramatization}} of the World War II assault by the US Marines against the island of Iwo Jima, based upon letters written by the Japanese defenders that served as an ApocalypticLog. Mount Suribachi in the southwestern part of the island already had a system of caves, and these were expanded into a tunnel network like a human-sized ant colony. From there, Japanese soldiers hunkered down while the American Navy pounded the island with thousands of shells. The tunnels held, but the bigger problems of food shortages, no sanitary sewers, and dysentery proved to be as formidable as the American assault force.
* In the source novel for ''Film/DieHard'' (Roderick Thorp's ''Nothing Lasts Forever''), the protagonist, John Leland, realizes that with the elevators locked out, and the security gates preventing access to the building's stairwells, the Klaxon Oil corporation's headquarters building becomes almost as secure as a medieval castle. Nakatomi Tower becomes this in the film.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver Nightmare In Silver]]" needing a place to set up a defensive position against the Cybermen in [[AmusementParkOfDoom Hedgewick's World Of Wonders]], Clara selects Nanny Longshoes comedic castle, as whilst its only an amusement park attraction its still a full-sized castle with a moat, and thus their best option.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadToRights: Retribution'', the [[SuperCop Grant City Anti-Crime Unit]] set up two separate bases to amass all their forces and technology in anticipation of [[PoliceState their assimilation over Grant City]], one in the ruins of a sports stadium that was abandoned during construction, the other in an abandoned hospital on the neighboring Danvers Island. [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs They also end up taking over the GCPD Precinct]] late in the game, and it's up to [[OneManArmy Jack Slate]] to take GAC down in all of them.
* {{VideoGame/Valheim}}: A great many buildings built by previous occupants of Valheim still dot the landscape (villages, towers, keeps...), and players are encouraged to use them as bases or at least base camps, especially since many of them still have multiple floors which enemies can't climb. The main difficulty is that they tend to already be occupied with hostiles.

* ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorUnderground'': "Last Rites at Monte Cassino" features the Abbey at Monte Cassino, a Catholic monastery located atop the titular mountain turned by the German Army into a mountaintop fortress, complete with roadblocks, machine gun nests, and miles worth of obstacles. Manon Batiste is tasked with liberating several captured American airmen being held in its basement section, as well as destroying the German armor, ammunition, and fuel supplies located within and near the monastery.
* ''VideoGame/HellLetLoose'': On the Stalingrad map, several buildings, which range from small shanties to large apartment blocks like Pavlov's House, are located within or near the various Capture Points on the map. Because of their strategic location, these buildings are often fortified by the forces of either side and must either be held or taken out in order for one side to fully control the Point.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanRiseOfSinTzu'': Downplayed. In the final chapter, it's revealed that the [[TheWarlord Sin Tzu]] has turned Arkham Asylum into his base as "there is little difference between a fortress and a prison." However, Commissioner Gordon notes that the asylum defences were built specifically not just to keep the inmates inside, but also to stop anyone from breaking them out, meaning the GCPD can't storm to retake it and Batman has to infiltrate through the sewers.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'': With whole sections of Gotham hastily walled off to make a massive prison complex, multiple supervillains have taken advantage of this to convert the buildings into their new bases of operations:
** The Joker has taken over the old Sionis Steel Mill (which he stole from Black Mask), taking advantage of the still functioning machinery and forge to build up his defences and set a series of traps.
** Before the events of the game, the Penguin had already converted his club, the Iceberg Lounge into a fortress, when the eviction order came through both the Police and Strange's [[CapeBusters Tyger Guards]] failed to get him out, thus forcing them to build around him. Afterwards, Cobblepot expanded to also incorporate the nearby Cyrus Pinkney Institute for Natural History into his base, taking advantage of the Museum's state-of-the-art security system and installing all his own defences.
** At the start of the game Two-Face is in the process of converting the Solomon Wayne Court House into his base of operations. Following being defeated and breaking free in the DLC he takes advantage of the Penguin's defeat, to take over the Museum and tries to turn this into his new base, before being defeated by Catwoman.
** Having lost his steel mill to the Joker, Black Mask was forced to resort to turning the Sionis Meat Packaging facility into his new base. Following the aftermath of Protocol Ten [[spoiler:and the Joker's demise]], he attempted to take advantage of the chaos to take over, but was foiled by Robin.

* ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'': Since fighting often takes place often in [[UrbanWarfare French and Dutch towns, villages, and cities]], many French and Dutch churches, mansions, farmhouses, and even windmills are turned into vital defensive positions or outposts that must be defended from German counterattacks. The most notable of these is the Cathedral in the middle of Carentan, which Baker and his squad are forced to hold against a large counteroffensive by [[EliteMooks SS mechanized infantry]] and their [[TankGoodness tank support]]. Baker ends up using the bell tower and upper floors as a vantage point for his SniperRifle, while Hartsock, Corrion, and the rest of the squad use the church's outer fences as cover.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty2'' has several examples in all three campaigns.
** The Soviet campaign has several bombed-out apartment blocks, the Stalingrad city hall, and, Most notably, Railroad Station Number 1, turned by both the Germans and Soviets into makeshift defensive positions/supply depots/headquarters, with constant close-quarters fighting and subsequent counteroffensives to capture and hold these positions for good. Ultimately, the Soviets manage to hold all of these positions by the end of the campaign and force the Germans back.
** The British campaign has several North African and French villages turned into defensive positions/headquarters/outposts by both the Germans and British. In addition to these, the Germans have also managed to fortify sections of the Egyptian and Libyan deserts against British tank and infantry attacks, laying minefields, AntiVehicle guns, and machine gun nests in wide areas in between hills and dunes.
** The American campaign has a French hamlet turned by the Germans into a forward headquarters and base for their artillery. During the events of "The Silo", Dog Company of the 2nd Ranger Battalion are tasked with capturing the entire village, and then later holding it against a massive German infantry attack. Later, during the final level, the Germans turn the riverside town of Wallendar into an improvised fortress, placing artillery guns in every block, machine gun emplacements covering every street, and AntiInfantry and AntiVehicle obstacles covering every crossroad.

This is why many characters, real and fictional alike, may be tempted to simply turn the next best place into a stronghold: right here, right now, and for the foreseeable future. It can be done in a natural landmark - be it a hill, a river crossing, or a forest - but one can just as easily fortify a suitable building intended to serve a non-tactical purpose - like a factory, a church, or even a simple farmstead or public square.

Such structures are, naturally, makeshift in nature and borne of an immediate necessity to deter a much stronger enemy. Even if it may not be ideally suited to the desired purpose, it will generally make do in a pinch and is almost certain to cause most would-be siegers at least an undue amount of headache.

* ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'': TruthInTelevision. The Irish UN peacekeepers set up camp in a derelict compound located in the middle of a barren plain. It is only thanks to Commandant Pat Quinlan's know-how of siegecraft that the compound is transformed into a deadly bulwark that manages - at least for a time - to withstand a massive assault of a superior number of better-equipped mercenaries supported by artillery and aircraft.

* In {{Literature/Discworld}}'s ''[[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld Night Watch]]'', in an homage/parody of ''Literature/LesMiserables'', the city is in chaos due to military action against LaResistance. The city (both regular citizens and members of LaResistance) have put up defensive barricades to keep out soldiers. It comes to Watchman Fred Colon's attention that, despite the military propaganda to the contrary, the violent chaos seems to be ''outside'' the barricades, rather than inside. When his superior, Sergent Sam Vimes returns, Vimes finds that his men have extended and fortified the barricades to engulf most of the city.
--> '''Colon''': Supposing the area behind the barricades was bigger than the area in front of the barricades, right? Like, sort of, it had more people in it and more of the city, if you follow me... That’d mean in a manner of speaking we are now in front of the barricades, am I right? Then, as it were, it’s not like we’re rebellin’, is it? ’Cos there’s more of us, so the majority can’t rebel, it stands to reason. So that makes us the good guys. Obviously we’ve been the good guys all along, but now it’d be kind of official, right? Like, mathematical? So, we thought we’d push on to Short Street and then we could nip down into Dimwell and up the other side of the river…
--> '''Colon''': Are we going to get into trouble for this, Sarge?
--> '''Colon''': You’re looking at me in a funny way, Sarge.
--> '''Colon''': Sorry, Sarge.
* ''Literature/TheDefenceOfDuffersDrift'' and its various remakes commit themselves entirely to this trope. In the first iteration alone, advised places to fortify range from river crossings to hillside villages to riverbeds - with varying degrees of success.

** Having lost his steel mill to the Joker, Black Mask was forced to resort to turning the Sionis Meat Packaging facility into his new base. Following the aftermath of Protocol Ten [[spoiler: and the Joker's demise]], he attempted to take advantage of the chaos to take over, but was foiled by Robin.

** At the start of the game Two-Face is in the process of converting the Solomon Wayne Court House into his base of operations. Following being defeated and breaking free in the DCL he takes advantage of the Penguin's defeat, to take over the Museum and tries to turn this into his new base, before being defeated by Catwoman.

We're all familiar with the archetypical castle: Walls, gates, towers, moats. There are plenty of ways of designing a dedicated structure to defend and hold a position, but they share some fundamental drawbacks: They're expensive to build, tricky to maintain, difficult to conceal and, most obviously, impossible to move around as the situation calls for it. Many forts would find themselves encircled, bypassed or abandoned because of it.

This trope is a natural staple of ZombieApocalypse, SurvivalHorror and [[ApocalypseHow apocalyptic fiction in general]], what with the abundance of decaying infrastructure in regions teeming with monsters or marauders. When fighting againstTheEmpire or another sapient, organised force, it generally also falls into the realm of LaResistance, wielding various [[ImprovisedWeapon improvised weapons]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'': Jim Hawkins is scouting the planet for a defensible position when he encounters the nutty robot B.E.N. The robot takes him to his home, which is an egg-shaped promontory with a single entrance overlooking a wide level terrain. Since the entire planet is one huge portal generator, this cannot be a military post; rather, an access hatch in its floor that leads to the vast mechanized interior suggests a service bay. Jim reports back with this discovery of an essentially armored bubble with a perfect field of fire, where Doctor Doppler, Captain Amelia and Morph can make their stand against Silver's pirate band.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'': The Catholic priests barricade the doors to the cathedral to prevent Judge Frollo's mooks from violating the sanctity of the church. Quasimodo, Phoebus and Esmeralda have taken sanctuary in its belltowers, and can see the hostile forces attempt to batter through the main doors. Gargoyle adornments that can "vomit" hot oil, plus Parisians upset that the "heart" of Paris is besieged contribute to keeping the mooks out, though Frollo himself manages to find a way inside.

* ''Film/TheSiegeOfJadotville'': TruthInTelevision. The Irish UN peacekeepers set up camp in a derelict compound located in the middle of a barren plain. It is only thanks to Commandant Pat Quinlan's know-how of siegecraft that the compound is transformed into a deadly bulwark that manages - at least for a time - to withstand a massive assault of a superior number of better equipped mercenaries supported by artillery and aircraft.

* ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'': father and daughter duo Frank and Hannah are holed up at the top of a block of flats, barricading the stairs with shopping carts, and Frank has procured a set of police riot gear to fight the infected off.
* ''Film/TheRaid'' is about police tactical team trying to infiltrate a derelict apartment building that has been made into a fortress by a gang of criminals.
* In a similar plot to ''The Raid'', ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' places two Mega-City One judges trying to investigate a death at a large housing block, which has new gang selling [[FantasticDrug Slo-mo]] fortified in the top floors.

* ''Film/LettersFromIwoJima'' is a {{Dramatization}} of the World War II assault by the US Marines against the island of Iwo Jima, based upon letters written by the Japanese defenders that served as an ApocalypticLog. Mount Suribachi at the southwestern part of the island already had a system of caves, and these were expanded into a tunnel network like a human-sized ant colony. From there, Japanese soldiers hunkered down while the American Navy pounded the island with thousands of shells. The tunnels held, but the bigger problems of food shortages, no sanitary sewers, and dysentery proved to be as formidable as the American assault force.

* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'': "The Battle of five colleges" saw students from different college campuses in Los Angeles using the university buildings as forts, and a handful of rifles from their ROTC offices as weapons to succesfully delay the zombie horde from spreading further in the city.

* ''Series/DadsArmy'': In "The Battle Of Godfrey's cottage" due to a misunderstanding Captain Mainwaring is left believing the invasion has begun, and that the majority of the platoon are out of Warmington-On-Sea. Having only Jones and Frazer (as well as Godfrey as he later discovers) to hand and realising they have no hope of repelling any invasion force on the beaches, they resort to setting up an improvised base at Godfrey's cottage due it being in a key strategic point on the main crossroads out of town, hoping they will be able to at least hold the invading Nazi's off long enough for General HQ to organise a proper counterattack (and them all openly acknowledging they will certainly die in the process). This leads to them setting up the Lewis gun out the living room's window, and resort to using Godfrey's pillows filled with crockery as makeshift sandbags.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver Nightmare In Silver]]" needing a place to set up a defensive position against the Cybermen in [[AmusementParkOfDoom Hedgewick's World Of Wonders]], Clara selects Nanny Longshoes comedic castle, as whilst its only an amusement park attraction its still a full sized castle with a moat, and thus their best option.

* In ''VideoGame/DeadToRights: Retribution'', the [[SuperCop Grant City Anti-Crime Unit]] set up two separate bases to amass all their forces and technology in anticipation for [[PoliceState their assimilation over Grant City]], one in the ruins of a sports stadium that was abandoned during construction, the other in an abandoned hospital on the neighboring Danvers Island. [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs They also end up taking over the GCPD Precinct]] late in the game, and it's up to [[OneManArmy Jack Slate]] to take GAC down in all of them.

* ''VideoGame/HellLetLoose'': On the Stalingrad map, several buildings, which range from small shanties to large apartment block's like Pavlov's House, are located within or near the various Capture Points on the map. Because of their strategic location, these buildings are often fortified by the forces of either side, and must either be held or taken out in order for one side to fully control the Point.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanRiseOfSinTzu'': Downplayed. In the final chapter its revealed that the [[TheWarlord Sin Tzu]] has turned Arkham Asylum into his base as "there is little difference between a fortress and a prison." However, Commissioner Gordon notes that the asylum defences were built specifically not just to keep the inmates inside, but also to stop anyone breaking them out, meaning the GCPD can't storm to retake it and Batman has to infiltrate through the sewers.
* In ''VideoGame/CepheusProtocol'', the player is encouraged to make use of existing civilian structures to build anti-zombie exclusion zones, death funnels, sniper nests or similar. Notable such areas include sports stadiums, fairgrounds, destroyable bridges, sprawling mansions, nature parks and highrise buildings (as well as some ''slightly'' more traditional defensive structures like fenced military bases).

** Before the events of the game, the Penguin had already converted his club, the Iceberg Lounge into a fortress, when the eviction order came through both the Police and Strange's [[CapeBusters Tyger Guards]] failed to get him out, thus forcing them to build around him. Afterwards Cobblepot expanded to also incorporate the nearby Cyrus Pinkney Institute for Natural History into his base, taking advantage of the Museum's state of the art security system and installing all his own defences.

*** Numerous other smaller factions and settlements have fortifed various Boston landmarks to use as homes/bases. For example, Bunker Hill is a walled-off trading settlement set up around the eponymous landmark, a group of robots have fortified the U.S.S. Constitution (including outfitting it with rocket thrusters), the [[UndergroundRailroad Railroad]] has set up their base beneath the historical Old North Church, and many more.

* ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'': Since fighting often takes place often in [[UrbanWarfare French and Dutch towns, villages, and cities]], many French and Dutch churches, mansions, farmhouses, and even windmills are turned into vital defensive positions or outposts that must be defended from German counterattacks. The most notable of these is the Cathedral in the middle of Carentan, which Baker and his squad are forced to hold against a large counteroffensive by [[EliteMooks SS mechanized infantry]] and their [[TankGoodness tank support]]. Baker ends up using the belltower and upper floors as a vantage point for his SniperRifle, while Hartsock, Corrion, and the rest of the squad use the church's outer fences as cover.

** The Soviet campaign has several bombed-out apartment blocks, the Stalingrad city hall, and, Most notably, Railroad Station Number 1, turned by both the Germans and Soviets into makeshift defensive positions/supply depots/headquarters, with constant close-quarters fighting and subsequent counteroffensives to capture and hold these positions for good. Ultimately, the Soviets manage to hold all of these positions by the end of the campaign, and force the Germans back.
** The British campaign has several North African and French villages turned into defensive positions/headquarters/outposts by both the Germans and British. In addition to these, the Germans have also managed to fortify sections of the Egyptian and Libyan deserts against British tank and infantry attacks, laying minefields, AntiVehicle guns, and machine gun nests in wide areas in-between hills and dunes.

* The Haun's Mill massacre during the 1838 Mormon Wars was a tragic example, when the defenders used a blacksmith shop as their refuge. Unfortunately for them, while the thick logs of the walls were certainly bulletproof, there were gaps between the logs large enough to fire a rifle through, turning the building into a deathtrap.

* {{Subverted}} with European [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_church fortress churches]], which typically started off as ordinary churches but were, over decades or centuries, increasingly fortified to act as small-but-proper castles during times of war and upheaval.

* Any [[AncientTomb catacomb]] or civilian TunnelNetwork can, once extensive or deep enough, become nigh-impenetrable to outside enemy threats. Particularly famous cases are the Paris and Odessa catacombs, which saw extensive wartime use as air raid shelters, smuggling routes and, most vitally, resistance strongholds against German occupation.
[[/folder]]

* In the source novel for ''Film/DieHard'' (Roderick Thorp's 'Nothing Lasts Forever''), the protagonist, John Leland, realizes that with the elevators locked out, and the security gates preventing access to the building's stairwells, the Klaxon Oil corporation's headquarters building becomes almost as secure as a medieval castle. Nakatomi Tower becomes this in the film.

** The 1934 siege of [[UsefulNotes/{{Vienna}} Vienna's]] [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Marx-Hof Karl-Marx-Hof]] - [[BigLabyrinthineBuilding to this day the longest continuous housing complex in the world]] - is a weaker example of this trope. While one the one hand, it was constructed to resemble a castle at least superficially, it quickly turned out to be a lousy place to make a last stand. After socialist militiamen barricaded themselves inside the massive complex, the Austrian ''Bundesheer'' bombarded it with blank ammunition, nevertheless causing notable damage to the building's substance. The defenders surrendered before any casualties could be sustained.

* In ''[[Literature/NightWatchDiscworld Night Watch'', in an homage/parody of ''Literature/LesMiserables'', the city is in chaos due to military action against LaResistance. The city (both regular citizens and members of LaResistance) have put up defensive barricades to keep out soldiers. It comes to Watchman Fred Colon's attention that, despite the military propaganda to the contrary, the violent chaos seems to be ''outside'' the barricades, rather than inside. When his superior, Sergent Sam Vimes returns, Vimes finds that his men have extended and fortified the barricades to engulf most of the city.

* In ''Literature/NightWatchDiscworld'', in an homage/parody of ''Literature/LesMiserables'', the city is in chaos due to military action against LaResistance. The city (both regular citizens and members of LaResistance have put up defensive barricades to keep out soldiers. It comes to Watchman Fred Colon's attention that, despite the military propaganda to the contrary, the violent chaos seems to be ''outside'' the barricades, rather than inside. When his superior, Sergent Sam Vimes returns, Vimes finds that his men have extended and fortified the barricades to engulf most of the city.

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!!!Real Life

* Any [[AncientTomb catacomb]] or civilian TunnelNetwork can, once extensive or deep enough, become nigh-impenetrable to outside enemy threats. Particularly famous cases are the Paris and Odessa catacombs, which saw extensive wartime use as air raid shelters, smuggling routes and, most vitally, resistance strongholds against German occupation.