Ever hear of or read about the Maginot Line? That will tell you all you need to know about fixed fortifications.
I worked great for the defenders inside it.
The problem was the germans just went around it.
Everyone always seems to learn the wrong lesson of the Maginot line. The lesson is not that defense positions fail, the lesson is that when attacking an area, don't attack the defense positions!
If the point of the line was to defend the people inside the bunkers then it was a fantastic success. It was so strong and well made that the attackers mostly didn't even attack it!
From a prepping point of view, this is a fantastic success. You want your place to display itself as a hard point so that the meth heads go around it. The Navy seals with an A-10 backup won't care either way.
That might work out fine against a few meth heads. However, against a determined and organized force you may not fair so well. Especially if they have the freedom of maneuver.
Knock off that bunk right there. Someone always says this in an bug in discussion and its moronic. Nobody holds up well against a determined organized force unless they are themselves a determined organized force. Nothing is going to allow a suburban family to take on a platoon of special forces. Nor is a regular household going to come under that kind of determined attack either.
If you are being attacked by a determined organized force you are screwed unless you are also a determined organized force. As has been, always will be the case.
Now, with that nonsense out of the way, back to the subject.
Structured defenses are about
force multiplication. Making it so that your three (or whatever) people that live in your house can fight off a greater number of attackers, or an equal number of better equipped or trained attackers.
From the attackers point of view the name of the game is
concentration of forces...that is, concentrating their superior forces against one part of your defenses and overwhelming your force multipliers in that spot.
The problem with your three person bay window defense is manpower and coverage. Unless you have a bay window on all sides of your place and enough people to fully man each bay, your likely to end up with the attackers going around that side of your building and breaking in somewhere else.
You've concentrated your forces but for defenders thats usually a trap. If you only have three defenders, the last thing you want to do is stick them all in the same place.
You want to place each of them in defilade, a protection position that limits the angles they can take fire from while maximizing the angles they can send fire out.
Especially if they have the freedom of maneuver.
And this is a valid point which is why your home defense system, and yes, it has to be a system, not just one hard point, needs to include area denial measures to control enemy movement.
Remember, your not stopping them with a hard barrier, those are virtually impossible to make, you control movement. ie, barbed wire which an enemy can certainly get through if allowed to work on it, but which will slow or stop rapid movement during combat, allowing your defenders in in defilade to, attack your enemy at places of
your choosing.
Just as an example floor plan/landscaping system, this would be a much better three man defense than a bay window with three people in it.
Area denial can be anything from low shrubbery to concertina wire. Anything that limits movement of attackers while not providing them cover.
Many ways to do this, this diagram is just intended as an idea of how to think about defensive structures for something that could look like a normal house.
: )
