Is their only one Citadel?

[Roman Legion]

Is their only one Citadel on Earth? Or there is one in each populated content?

 

[Mahalis]

They're all over the place. I think there may be one in each City, though that could be entirely wrong.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

It's genrally thought there is one in each city, as mentioned above.

 

[Mesz]

Half of the stuff that happens or has happened in the HL universe we dont know about because Valve tend to just tell us what goes on DURING the game. We were lucky to know about the Seven Hour War. I wouldnt expect Valve to have released something like that in their game

 

[Narvi]

There's more than one Citadel. We don't know where they are. That's it.

 

[pomegranate]

I doubt there's one in every city. Considering the military capacity of a single citadel, I think a citadel for every one of the thousands of cities in the world would be overkill.

 

[Mesz]

I doubt there's one in every city. Considering the military capacity of a single citadel, I think a citadel for every one of the thousands of cities in the world would be overkill.

Good point. We have to remember the Combine's soldiers are made from the decreasing population of humans so yeah a citadel in every city would just be a waste of materials and time as there'd be nobody to occupy half of them

 

[Jintor]

I estimate 30 or so cities.

At a guess.

 

[Asknoone]

The Combine don't control 'every city' on Earth; they simply control those they deployed Citadels in. Which is, as Jintor said, about 30 or so. Bearing in mind we can probably bring that number down to about 20-25, as some will have been lost to Xenian wildlife.

 

[xirow]

I doubt there's one in every city. Considering the military capacity of a single citadel, I think a citadel for every one of the thousands of cities in the world would be overkill.

There aren`t thousands of cities anymore. The Combine (and Xenian wildlife) have probably destroyed most of them.

 

[Mesz]

The Combine don't control 'every city' on Earth; they simply control those they deployed Citadels in. Which is, as Jintor said, about 30 or so. Bearing in mind we can probably bring that number down to about 20-25, as some will have been lost to Xenian wildlife.

I doubt Xenian wildlife could take down one city with full protection. Then again City 17 is the capital of the Combine Empire on Earth so other cities may not be so well protected. And whos to say there's a citadel in every city the combine control.....if there is then i doubt that the city could have been taken.......either that or the remaining Combine are just holed up in the Citadels since the humans in the city have perished to the Xenian wildlife.

 

[kupocake]

It is explicitly said that there are multiple Citadels in Episode One. Dr Kliener says 'The destructive pulse forced a damper on the entire network of linked Citadel reactors'.

I doubt Xenian wildlife could take down one city with full protection.

So do I. The whole point of the pre-combine period is that humanity sought refuge in the urban areas, they therefore must be somewhat defendable. Perhaps some of the technologies protecting City 17 were actually invented by Human scientists? (Breen rose to power that way?) After all, unless we are to believe that the Combine softens up worlds by sending in Xenians to group people together in comfort (which would be unpopular after the 'no combine on Xen' days, though it's certainly a principle they've used in Ravenholm / St Olga), the combine may have in fact never encountered such an urbanised world beforehand.

One Citadel would not have been enough to conquer the earth, but they wouldn't have needed thousands either. Whether the Citadels actually stay in place during occupation is another matter. Regardless, I think an individual citadel could protect somewhere between 100-1000 miles of combine territory (depending on geography / population density). There may be different classes of Citadel for larger or smaller cities: when a small European city has a citadel as large as we've already seen, perhaps one in a true Megalopolis would be absolutely f**k-off huge... or perhaps such centres have multiple citadels (which may be why the resistance have grown up in City 17 and Breen has decided to lend his own support there: it's the most vulnerable Citadel on earth and thus the best to try out destruction techniques on).

(Going off on one, in my mind City 25 is London. It would just be ironic if the city ended up epitomised by its bastard orbital Motorway.)

 

[Mesz]

heheheheh yeah and City 14 is Cardiff, the citadel is probably 10 ft tall. You can imagine what NY's citadel looks like though......wow. Although i reckon NY was destroyed during the 7 hours war as it probably was the biggest target for the Combine.

So we know now that there ARE multiple citadels, we're just unsure as to how many and what decides whether they are built in certain cities or just all of them. Maybe there are other cities like Ravenholm that are completely controlled by humans, i highly doubt there was only one city on Earth that was completely controlled by humans and now its gone. I'm gonna take a guess at there being a huge rebel base in the Arctic because even today under human rule the Arctic isn't as widely recognised as the rest of the world. I'm gonna suggest another rebel base somewhere in the Middle Eastern rural areas and America may have some too. Britain is too small of a country and our rural areas are too easy to traverse whereas in Africa or Asia you have deserts and mountains etc.

 

[kupocake]

Although i reckon NY was destroyed during the 7 hours war as it probably was the biggest target for the Combine.

People often like to suppose that the US cities would be targeted and destroyed. Personally, I think they watch too much Independence day or something. The 'Biggest Target' as an area that must be obliterated for victory, wouldn't be an urban area. I wouldn't put the combine above roughing up the cities (one of the few facts we know about the 7 hour war is that the UN building in NYC was attacked, though if a newspaper is able to show evidence of that and publish it, perhaps that's also evidence that the city still stands?), but total obliteration serves no goal. It's obvious that they wanted to enslave the human race: 7 hours is not only a very short time to attest military superiority, it's also a very short time from going from 'kill all humans' to 'exploit all humans'.

Maybe there are other cities like Ravenholm that are completely controlled by humans, i highly doubt there was only one city on Earth that was completely controlled by humans and now its gone.

Well, Ravenholm was a Small Town and not a city, but I see your point. It's a very real possibility that there exist entire resistance cities. In City 17, the existence of these cities never comes to light simply because the Combine won't recognise their existence, or at least, they won't go around telling the oppressed masses that there are safe refuges out there. The impression a unified combine ruled earth is one gleaned through the player's experience of Combine Propaganda.

I'm gonna take a guess at there being a huge rebel base in the Arctic because even today under human rule the Arctic isn't as widely recognised as the rest of the world.

A pretty safe guess, though the size may be smaller than you're thinking. Some of the earliest story materials speak of not only a underwater, arctic base (Kraken), but I believe that one of the short stories even talks about a battle in the arctic between Combine and Rebels (though this may have been the air-exchange. Can't remember.) The resurrection of this plot element is almost certain now that Mossman appears in Episode One in a base that uses a 'arctic' texture set. Antarctica is also a possibility, though perhaps a bit too remote (useful to stage attacks on South Africa and Australia at best)

 

[Asknoone]

I doubt Xenian wildlife could take down one city with full protection.

It really depends on the location. As it is, there isn't much of a mankind left, and the cities act as deportation centres; gradually shipping the human populace to places unknown. It isn't totally implausible to think that a fairly abandoned City could be overrun.

I believe that one of the short stories even talks about a battle in the arctic between Combine and Rebels (though this may have been the air-exchange. Can't remember.)

It was a Combine controlled Weather station if I remember rightly.

 

[Rapstah]

There's at least a City 22, shown at the time-tables in the train station.

If i remember it right. Gotta check it out.

Here's the picture;



We can assume all these are within reasonable range of C17.

What's "CNTC"? Connecticut?

 

[ríomhaire]

Somehow I doubt there would be a train going from Eastern Europe to Connecticut.

 

[kupocake]

CNTC is more likely 'connects' or an abbreviation of a European word for 'Cancelled'. What do SD and ND mean?

Cities 8, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16 are practically certain to be in mainland europe. Looking at a list of the largest urban areas in the world, candidates for these 'cities' include: Moscow, Paris, Dortmund, St Petersberg, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Frankfurt etc.

 

[ríomhaire]

Bear in mind that the City 17 citadel was the only citadel on earth with a tunnelling device

You base this on what?

 

[Rapstah]

Based on what the muttering guy that wanders near that sign says, it could be "No Departure".