Skyrim:Battle for Solitude

Quick Walkthrough
#Get your orders from Galmar Stone-Fist.
#Go to Solitude and listen to Ulfric Stormcloak's speech.
#Fight your way to Castle Dour.
#Make General Tullius surrender.

Detailed Walkthrough
Assaulting the city
After taking Fort Hraggstad and returning to Galmar Stone-Fist, you will be told to meet Ulfric Stormcloak and help take Solitude. Make your way to the gates to Solitude to hear Ulfric's speech. After the speech, everyone will run into Solitude. Follow them in and fight your way to Castle Dour. If facing problems coping with the Imperial soldiers, it would be a good idea to stick with Ulfric. There will be several wooden barricades littering the city&mdash;three hits or less from a weapon or Destruction spell will break them. The gate to the courtyard will be closed, so you will have to go around the city to get to Castle Dour.

Negotiation at its finest
Once you've had enough fighting, enter Castle Dour. Galmar and Ulfric will appear inside with you. You will be put in a cutscene mode for a few seconds while Ulfric tells Galmar to secure the door. Head through the doorway with Galmar and Ulfric to confront General Tullius and Legate Rikke. A lengthy dialogue commences, and despite Ulfric's pleas that she surrender, Rikke insists on standing her ground and engages in combat. Kill Rikke and beat Tullius into submission.

Once Rikke is dead and Tullius is on the floor, the fighting will stop, and a short conversation will occur. After some talking, Galmar and Ulfric will offer to give you the honor of finishing Tullius.  Choose whether to accept their offer or decline and allow Ulfric to kill the General. If you choose to kill Tullius then Ulfric will give you a leveled sword with which to do the deed.  If you decline then he will reward you with a leveled sword after he kills Tullius.  This will complete the quest and begin the final stage of the Liberation of Skyrim.

Achievements
One achievement is unlocked at the end of this quest:
 

Notes
This quest, Battle for Whiterun (Stormcloaks), Battle for Whiterun (Imperial), and Battle for Windhelm are all different radiant versions of the same quest.
The map marker for Solitude will disappear during the quest, so you will have to fast-travel to Katla's Farm or some other nearby destination and walk from there to the gates of Solitude.
To minimize game lag, bodies disappear soon after they have been killed. 
If you're currently doing the Dark Brotherhood quest Bound Until Death, the Battle for Solitude will be delayed until that quest is complete. Ulfric will stay in his palace, and if spoken to, will tell you, ''"We're ready to march on Solitude, but the Emperor's cousin is getting married! If royal blood was spilt, all of Cyrodiil would be up in arms. We can't afford an all out war with the Empire. So we'll bide our time for now."''
If you complete this quest before finishing the main quest, you can encounter Legate Rikke in the mists of Sovngarde.
Finishing the quest will clear any bounty currently held by the player in the Haafingar Hold.
Contrary to post-quest dialogue indicating that you can raid Imperial Camps to further help the Stormcloaks, the commanders of these camps will still be marked as essential after the quest.
Completing this quest will harm the relationship you have with outspoken Imperial supporters across Skyrim, giving you quite a number of hostile greetings. NPC functionality like trading or quest stages will not be affected though.

Bugs
 
 
 Open the console, click on the door, and type  . The door will be unlocked and you can continue with the quest.
The final confrontation with Legate Rikke and General Tullius is particularly buggy. Reports indicate a number of different things going wrong once you enter Castle Dour with Galmar and Ulfric, including:



Striking Tullius with the Unrelenting Force shout may fix this.
One solution is to go complete the quest The Fallen and then complete 'The Battle for Solitude'.


 
 
 
 
 
 
An easy solution is to fast travel to Windhelm and talk to Ulfric in the Palace of the Kings, where he will offer you to be Thane of Eastmarch. This should reset Solitude back to normal, with Stormcloak soldiers instead of Haafingar guards.

Quest Stages
Only the quest stages and objectives that are possibly relevant to this radiant version of the quest are shown.