Skyrim:Battle for Whiterun (Stormcloaks)

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Take Whiterun in the name of the Stormcloaks. Quest Giver: Ulfric Stormcloak Location(s): Windhelm, Whiterun Prerequisite Quest: Message to Whiterun Next Quest: Liberation of Skyrim Reward: Leveled enchanted weapon; title of "Ice-Veins" ID: CWSiegeObj

The Stormcloaks begin their advance on the city of Whiterun.

Quick Walkthrough

1. Get your orders from Ulfric.
2. Meet the Stormcloaks preparing for the attack.
3. Storm Whiterun.
4. Defeat Jarl Balgruuf the Greater.

Detailed Walkthrough

Making it to the Gates

The Whiterun guard have stationed themselves atop the walls in order to defend the city...

After finishing the previous quest, Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak will tell you that you are going to help take Whiterun. Report to Galmar Stone-Fist for orders, who will direct you to meet him outside the city.

Head to the Whiterun Military Camp, southwest of Whiterun, and you will notice that the besieging of Whiterun has already begun. Head to where Galmar is briefing the men on the attack and listen in. He will say your destination is the drawbridge that has been raised to keep the attackers out.

Once the rallying of the troops is done, charge in with Galmar and the troops. Don't worry too much about killing all the Imperials, as more spawn. When you reach the first set of wooden barricades is also when you meet the first enemies. Breaking through the barricades is easy. Hit them a few times with a weapon and they break. Your journal will then tell you to lower the drawbridge. Move up the path to the small wooden bridge with the stone walls to your side, head up there, and go up the walkway. You will see two drawbridge levers over the drawbridge. Pull one. The bridge will fall, and the soldiers will run into the city.

Inside the City

...which is quickly overwhelmed by the Stormcloaks.

Head into the city. Your destination now is Dragonsreach (It may be safer to stay with Galmar and the soldiers). Several barriers block the entrance to the plains district, which are destroyed after 3 blows from any weapon (power attacks make no difference). Upon entering Dragonsreach, three soldiers will charge at you, but they will die easily. Continue up the stairs, where Balgruuf will shout about not letting you take the city without fighting back. Then he, three guards, and his Housecarl, Irileth, will attack you. Kill the soldiers. After the jarl is reduced to 25% health, he will stop the fight and surrender.

Vignar Gray-Mane will approach the jarl and they will have a short conversation. Galmar will stop the conversation after a while, Vignar will walk off after a few more words and Balgruuf will address you for a minute. With Balgruuf stepping down, Vignar takes the throne as the new Jarl of Whiterun. The quest will end there and the next quest, Liberation of Skyrim, will begin.

When you return to Ulfric Stormcloak in Windhelm, he commends you for the victory and rewards you with an enchanted leveled weapon and gives you the title "Ice-Veins".

Notes

• The Whiterun Guards faced in this battle are significantly lower level than those normally patrolling the city.
• Bodies will quite often disappear during this quest - this is intentional to reduce lag and is not a bug.
• After the battle, if you have an outstanding bounty in the Whiterun Hold, it will be erased.
• This quest, Battle for Whiterun (Imperial), Battle for Solitude, and Battle for Windhelm are all different radiant versions of the same quest.
• From here on, Stormcloak Soldiers will take over as guards of the Whiterun Hold, though Whiterun Guards will continue to patrol Riverwood. Whether this is intentional or not is unknown.
• Taking the carriage directly to Whiterun automatically skips the objective to "Break through the Enemy Barricade".
• After getting your orders at the Whiterun Military camp, you can head straight to Windhelm. The battle will be won in your absence, but Ulfric Stormcloak will be disappointed that you ran away.

Bugs

• After defeating the Jarl and getting him to surrender, the quest pointer may continue to point to him, but no interaction is possible and the quest does not update.
  • Striking the Jarl and then paying off the bounty may fix this.
• The doors to Jorrvaskr and the Underforge will become locked during this mission, and may not unlock after it's completed. Since the doors require an unavailable key, this renders the buildings (as well as the Companions inside) inaccessible to the player.
  • PC users can unlock the doors using the unlock console command; 360/PS3 users are advised to complete the remaining Civil War missions (the doors should be unlocked after finishing "The Liberation of Skyrim"). It has also been reported that fast-traveling to any town then back to Whiterun may sometimes resolve the issue, and that the doors can eventually unlock after an undetermined amount of time (possibly after one of the game's periodic "cleanup" phases).
• You may not be able to break barricades as a werewolf. ^?
• Aela the Huntress may disappear if she is your wife at the time. She may come back eventually after you have moved on to the next quest, Liberation of Skyrim. ^?
• The Stormcloak soldiers might attack your follower(s). It is advised to order any followers to wait outside the gates before entering. ^?
• Receiving the quest update "force Jarl Balgruuf the Greater to surrender" may cause the game to crash upon entering Whiterun or, if the city is entered beforehand, the game may crash immediately upon receiving it. ^?
• Killing Whiterun guards, rather than the Imperial soldiers, will cause you to incur a bounty, although it returns to zero after the battle.

Quest Stages

Battle for Whiterun (CWSiegeObj)
Stage	Finishes Quest	Journal Entry
1		Ulfric Stormcloak has ordered me to join Galmar Stone-Fist in taking the city of Whiterun.
8999
9000		We have taken the city of Whiterun. Proving the righteousness of our cause and the fierceness of our warriors.
9999

 

Notes

• Any text displayed in angle brackets (e.g., <Alias=LocationHold>) is dynamically set by the Radiant Quest system, and will be filled in with the appropriate word(s) when seen in game.
• Not all Journal Entries may appear in your journal; which entries appear and which entries do not depends on the manner in which the quest is done.
• Stages are not always in order of progress. This is usually the case with quests that have multiple possible outcomes or quests where certain tasks may be done in any order. Some stages may therefore repeat objectives seen in other stages.
• If an entry is marked as "Finishes Quest" it means the quest disappears from the Active Quest list, but you may still receive new entries for that quest.
• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to advance through the quest by entering setstage CWSiegeObj stage, where stage is the number of the stage you wish to complete. It is not possible to un-complete (i.e. go back) quest stages, but it is possible to clear all stages of the quest using resetquest CWSiegeObj.

Objectives

Only the objectives that are possibly relevant to this radiant version of the quest are shown.

• <Alias=General>: Galmar Stone-Fist
• <Alias=City>: Whiterun
• <Alias=Jarl>: Jarl Balgruuf the Greater

Index	Objective
1000	Get your Orders from <Alias=General>
1005	Break through the Enemy Barricade
1015	Follow <Alias=General>
1020	Open the Exterior Gate
1030	Open the Drawbridge
1050	Enter <Alias=City>
1060	Break through the First Barricade
1070	Break through the Second Barricade
1080	Break through the Final Barricade
1200	Force Jarl <Alias=Jarl> to surrender
1210	Accept Jarl <Alias=Jarl>'s surrender

Notes

• On the PC, it is possible to use the console to complete displayed objectives by entering SetObjectiveCompleted CWSiegeObj index 1, where index is the index number of the objective given in the table above.