Fortifications

[unmerged(9347)]

i agree with what a lot of people are saying about forts backfiring with revolts however i think a lot of you are only seeing forts as a defence.
It is true that the odd well placed nasty fort will lure the AI into costly and fruitless assaults...which is nice...and even nicer when you get a tasty counterattack on his weakened troops.

Forts can be used offensively, just as in real life. The number of troops a prov can support without attrition rises a lot when a fort is built. This is great for a well planned attack when you want to mass a large force, especially when you know there will be heavy opposition.

you can stage right on the border a siege force or 2 and lots of covering cav to thrust deep into enemy territory to pick off his troops as they try to form up into bigger groups. the enemy wont know what hit him

Needless to say you should only build offensive forts in provs that you can trust although rebel forts are a hell of a lot easier to assault so dont worry be happy

lastly if the war doesnt go quite as planned you have a good position to fall - behind - build up again and re-attack

 

[unmerged(5664)]

Originally posted by Clitus
Forts can be used offensively, just as in real life. The number of troops a prov can support without attrition rises a lot when a fort is built. This is great for a well planned attack when you want to mass a large force, especially when you know there will be heavy opposition.

you can stage right on the border a siege force or 2 and lots of covering cav to thrust deep into enemy territory to pick off his troops as they try to form up into bigger groups. the enemy wont know what hit him

Typically my borders aren't static enough for this strategy. What might be a border province at one point becomes the inner heartland after a while...

BarristerBoy

 

[unmerged(8097)]

I build level one forts in almost every city almost immediately. I hate the feeling of 1k rebel cavalry running about my interior taking city after unfortified city. Yes, I should keep a handy rebel-killing force, but they can't be everywhere.

Then I build higher level forts in provinces that I deem "permanent border" locations, such as a religious/cultural boundary that I don't plan to cross. For example, if I'm Mongol/Sunni I may target other Sunni provinces and keep my Orthodox border static. In that case, I wait for nationalism to subside (as mentioned above) and then increase the forts on that border. If I someday cross that "permanent border", I feel that I have gotten many years of benefits from those increased forts by then.

 

[Mowers]

Enough of these mundane how to defeat the AI tips and tricks- as if anyone needed help defeating the AI. From my MP experience, about 700 years of 5 player plus games, fortifications are critical for one very good reason.

Real players are very good at dealing knock out blows. Normally there will be no more than a couple of large battles that will decide the campaign, one side will lose his leaders and field army and be forced on the defensive. At this point the losing side can only survive total defeat if he can do one of two things both of which depend heavily on the fortification levels within his country. The fortification levels within his country will buy him time, either to force war exhaustion in the opposing country or to buy enough time to allow other players to intervene on his behalf as the Balance of Power begins to tilt. Either of these incidents will allow the losing player to buy an honourable peace at the cost of a few provinces instead of total defeat. Fortifications are effectively a way of staying in the game.

An additional reason is to stop raiding and looting. Real players with small groups of cavalry can cut your income and burn large numbers of trade posts before you can finally catch them dealing out economic damage way beyond their actual cost.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by bmoores

An additional reason is to stop raiding and looting. Real players with small groups of cavalry can cut your income and burn large numbers of trade posts before you can finally catch them dealing out economic damage way beyond their actual cost.

And how does having a fort prevent that? You cannot put a fort in a TP, provences are looted when the # of total troops exceeds the capacity of the Provence which is lower for the enemy, putting a Fort increases the Troop capacity for a provence but also adds a garrision when the enemy is in the provence.

 

[kurtbrian]

you need more troops to enter the province and pillage, and that will mean less troops elsewhere

 

[Matt_the_king]

well for me it depands on the country im playing and my plans for that game... it realy only go up to level 3 forts and thats it but if i find areas that are always under siege ill build the fort higher up. In one of my old games i built level 5 and 6 forts in all of my hungrian lands as the ottomans because austria would also take the level 3 forts in a few months. But in MP it depands also on who im playing. If i know them then instead of forts ill take troops to defend.

 

[unmerged(9341)]

After watching a combined Russian/Austrian Army of 100 march up and take 2 of my maximum fortresses in 2 months, I gave up on them. Of course I had assaulted enough of their level 3 and 4 ones to get a favorable peace. When I can defeat them on the battlefield with superior troops, I go that way. The forts are too expensive if they can still assault and take them in less than a month.