Does anyone ever build forts? I struggle to see the point in them. Do they help at all against raiders when built on coasts?
Forts useful?
- Thread starter Rhone
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Basically it's a little holding that gets sieged first, so it technically would help against raiders--but it won't hold out as long as a castle. They're really meant for two situations: when you're at war with nomads it's the only way to maintain control of their counties with no holdings (short of just leaving an army there), and when you're fighting defensive pagans building a friendly fort helps mitigate the extra attrition in their lands. Usually they aren't really useful outside of those situations.
I build them aganist raiders usually. extra fort defense is useful to gain time before they plunder
They slow down raiders and they're fundamental when fighting defensive pagans and nomads on their own territory.
100% agree with this. Once you build a fort in a unreformed pagan or nomad county, you "lock" that county as occupied for warscore purposes until/if the enemy comes along and destroys the fort. This is definitely worth the 17-19 gold it costs for a fort.
And like others have said, I build them in my own realm as well. Having to siege down a fort before they get to the county capital slows the enemy down, and doesn't give them any warscore if they do siege the fort all the way down.
Apart from the above there are at least three great reasons to build forts.
The first is that the AI is notoriously stupid and will spend a month to siege down a fort even though they might outnumber it by 10 to 1. This can give you heaps of time to get troops to the area to stop the enemy taking the primary holding in the area, which can be a HUGE help if that is your capital. Losing your capital to siege can yield dozens of hostages to the besieger so unless you want to spend hundreds of gold ransoming them never let it happen. Forts can help heaps here.
Second and related to the above, is that forts are relatively quick and cheap to build and can help lock down an area after you have conquered it. If you have had any war go on for any great length of time you will know that pretty soon every sieged and countersieged holding will start to look pretty dang depopulated. You leave a garrison of 30 troops, the enemy shows up and insta-sieges it leaving 20 troops then moves on so you move in and take it back, and so on and so on. Having a fort in the area slows this ping pong down just a tiny bit, again possibly enough to allow you get back and stop the siege or draw the besiegers away and give the holding time to build back up its garrison.
Finally, I like to think of forts as my own medieval Chain Home system of picket radar stations. Often if you have a big realm you will never even know that you are being raided, but if you put forts all over your border (especially on the coasts if you are facing Vikings) then you should get a notification on the pop up tab on the right showing the progress of the siege. As soon as you see any siege pop up simply pause the game and zoom in to find out where the enemy Ju-88s and He-111s (er Vikings or other tribal raiders) are coming from.
Tally Ho !
The first is that the AI is notoriously stupid and will spend a month to siege down a fort even though they might outnumber it by 10 to 1. This can give you heaps of time to get troops to the area to stop the enemy taking the primary holding in the area, which can be a HUGE help if that is your capital. Losing your capital to siege can yield dozens of hostages to the besieger so unless you want to spend hundreds of gold ransoming them never let it happen. Forts can help heaps here.
Second and related to the above, is that forts are relatively quick and cheap to build and can help lock down an area after you have conquered it. If you have had any war go on for any great length of time you will know that pretty soon every sieged and countersieged holding will start to look pretty dang depopulated. You leave a garrison of 30 troops, the enemy shows up and insta-sieges it leaving 20 troops then moves on so you move in and take it back, and so on and so on. Having a fort in the area slows this ping pong down just a tiny bit, again possibly enough to allow you get back and stop the siege or draw the besiegers away and give the holding time to build back up its garrison.
Finally, I like to think of forts as my own medieval Chain Home system of picket radar stations. Often if you have a big realm you will never even know that you are being raided, but if you put forts all over your border (especially on the coasts if you are facing Vikings) then you should get a notification on the pop up tab on the right showing the progress of the siege. As soon as you see any siege pop up simply pause the game and zoom in to find out where the enemy Ju-88s and He-111s (er Vikings or other tribal raiders) are coming from.
Tally Ho !
I started a shattered game on Charlemagne start with all counts to reform hellenism easier but the norse pagans ended up taking over most of Europe while I was messing around in the Mediterranean basin. Building forts in every province became a staple because I was being raided constantly.