Hi there!

I am level 25 and I strongly rely on heavy armor, blocking and one-handed swords. Conquering the fort is absolutely impossible, there must be hundreds of stormcloaks inside. Whenever we get into the keep, it doesn't take long to be driven out again, and if we even manage to get onto the walls, there are still plenty of stormcloaks on the towers and keep firing.

The main problem is that the Imperial soldiers are just pathetic. They either wear light or medium armor, no heavy armor. They don't even have shields - I haven't seen a single legion soldier with a shield. It's no surprise they don't stand a chance as soon as a big bulky nord with a two handed axe rushes in, let alone all those archers.

Is something going wrong here? It looks like the Empire only sent archers, where is the glorious heavy infantry from the days of Morrowind and Oblivion? Stormcloaks fight will all possible types of equipment, all Imperials just have a bow and a short sword.

They don't need to send anyone but the Dovahkiin.

As the sky was darkened with arrows, the Dovahkiin quickly died at their feet since the 'Deflect Arrows' perk was borked

And the sky was darned with arrows, but Dovahkiin didn't mind because he had hit the armour cap.

As the sky was darkened with Stormcloaks arrows, the Dovakhiin shouted to call the Storm.
In five seconds everyone was dead, even the imperials....

Just "Fus ro dah" them into oblivion! xD

I want to see a 'and the sky darkened with arrows - Dovahkiin did X' meme.

I'm still trying to capture the fort -

My most effective way to stay alive for more than a minute is to approach from the backside (from Riften, not Shor's Stone), wait until they're all bashing each others heads, and the try to breach through a side entrance and hope noone notices. Then quickly climb up a tower and then wait on the stairs. As soon as an archer comes down, they usually focus the main gates of the keep and don't notice me. Stab, stab, stab, then dispose of the corpse and wait for the next one.
But after a while, the usually find out, wait with close combat weapons drawn, call for help and I'm pretty much dead. Seriously, they must be breeding in there - The whole fort hosts dozens, if not hundreds of people.

Heh. Heh. I got through all the fort scenarios by using Call Dragon. They don't pay much attention to me when several tons of flying lizard are breathing fire on them...

Well it is war afterall.

When I take forts with the imperials, I (playing as a mage with no armor) charge up the battlements why the imperials distract the soldiers on the ground. Take out the archers as they come and then clean up the rest with the imperials once they're taken care of.

Edit: gotta love iOS autocorrect

when i did this quest a ton of the stormcloaks outside were bunched together. Fus Ro Dah put them all down long enough to thin the herd.

On my playthrough, i approached from Shor's Stone and a dragon spawned, killing all of my imperial crew. Luckily it drew out a fair amount of the Stormcloaks and I just picked them off wtih my bow after dealing with the dragon.

If you're having trouble, you can try and lower the difficulty, or perhaps smith or find some altered gear that beefs up your block & one-handed. You could also pick off a few, run off and attempt a stealth re-take at night.

It took me a few tries as well.

Good luck!

Dovahkiin => Sturn Bah Qo (Storm Call)

Draw them out one by one, your only chance. Use your Flame Atronach, keep re-casting it to confuse the enemy.

I had Erik the Slayer as Follower ( steel plate- superior) and a staff that summoned a Dremora ( flame Atronach would work). My summon dragon shout isn't working, he never attacks anything. My char is a battle mage, but up close In mixed company he doesn't use offensive spells, just sword...which was Imperial 1h smithed to superior ( I can't remember if I had the shock enchant on it when I did that fort or not) Wearing Blades Armor ( superior ) Only other enchant was a neckless of health ( 24 points )

But I did get him to high ground and have him fling fire ball's at stormcloaks, as long as their were no Imperials around them. Then into the mix with a sword.

Im pretty sure stormcloaks only wear light armor but archers of all types are annoying, especially at high difficulty...you really need to strategize and use all your skills and shouts. I suggest taking out archers first so you can focus on fighting without taking an arrow to the ass and dont be afraid to use the legion as meat shields

Are you kidding? You can win those battles by just hiding behind a corner and letting the Death Count go to zero. Everyone respawns until the battle is over so you really don't even have to be there.

It may be a bug. I only remember there being like a dozen enemy up at one time, and they would respawn as they were killed. Maybe your respawns got borked so they all came at once?

I play on master at lv 20 and i dont remember this fight was difficult. In fact it is one of the easiest. Have you tried killing those archers from the back ? Thats what i did.

tactics...tactics...

And i strongly recommend you to bring a mage that does AOE damage.
Always Heal. If you cant survive, keep healing and get out of the way.
Or you can tone the difficulty down. This fight should be easy, not sure what you did.

*one of the many reasons why the dovahkiin should be a sneaky archer instead of a walking steel holding an IRON sword*

That is how I did it. Until I remembered I could summon a Dragon...

This is news to me...i practically walked through every fort even as my "dagger-only" assassin. It is actually the most enjoyable part of the game since you get a nearly limitless amount of fodder t cut down

sigh.. lower the difficulty

Thank you, sounds like a brilliant idea. I wonder why noone has mentioned it.

Both Stomrcloack and imperial soldiers respawn. Just wait long enough in a corner and the battle will solve out by itself. I never took an active role in the battles, just fendin off the rando soldier charging me.