Counter-laddering and ladders fortifications is allowed.
Each ladders cost money, and there is a limit on how many ladders you can have in a specific strategus battle (I think its something like 70?), so it is really only useful to protect/fortify a handful of places or tighten up a small area (like at Chalbek Castle where most of the latest complaints were made, where defenders retreated into the towering inner keep and managed to win by time) or any other creative ideas one can have
More than halfway up in the air is too vague a rule to be set in stone; if a rule must be made it must be something easy to monitor, like : no ladders from x floor level to the same floor level (must always be placed to reach a higher storey). This would buff up the attackers a bit and would not be too hard to manage (except at the beginning when people need to learn a new habit).
i agree on easy, so lets say
no ladders for defenders at all, that way also the problem with 50% gear for defenders should be balanced as defenders can't hold every time due to creative laddering.
They build stairs and walls and intersections and shit right into the castles, the ladders to interconnect are nice , but not by those who planed out the castles intended.
You want ladders for villages, everything below Medium for village defenses.
There easy.
And while you mentioned Chalback, well there is Slezkh Castle i was thinking of.
In Slezkh it was mostly because of the firing angles which denied many otherwise suitable tactics,
in Chalback the defender ladders denied us "laddering at all", this is by definition grieving. Well and the firing angles ... going up the stairs, while directly behind you in the air, fucking ranged has a great time shooting you in the back while the wind is blowing around their arses ... [sarcasm]great work defenders you really outsmarted us there[/sarcasm]
Another easy rule?
How about, dont put ladder over the walls as defenders.