Anyone use forts?

[kelemvor]

Remember Civ 2 where they were very useful for peacetime defense? Remember the good ole days when you could have a fort on top of a farm and still get usable production out of it?

I haven't built a fort yet in Civ 5 in my 100 or so hours of gameplay.

 

[Tavelon]

I'll use them in of three instances:

1. At a chokepoint as said above.
2. A ring of forts around my capital. If I play in a setting with constant war and aggressive AI, having a ring of forts around your capital basically makes it impossible to take, but this only happens in a specific style of gameplay.
3. This is my most often contender, along my frontier. If I'm playing against a really powerful enemy military, every tile that borders him I'll build a fort, basically making a massive wall that's really hard to break through. Then, once I go on the counter attack, I destroy the forts and replace with other improvements and then build forts on the new frontlines. This only works if you have an army of workers to support your conquests, but it's highly effective as:
A. If your advance is beaten back, you have a strong barrier to halt the enemy.
B. If you have to halt, you aren't in a vulnerable position.
C. It constantly gives you a military edge.
D. It looks REALLY cool.

 

[Slynky333]

Never build them. The way I see it, if I lose it, then I will have to fight my own way back through it to regain my land. So I don't bother any more.

 

[ShaggyCan]

I very rarely build them, and when I have I found I never used them. Like Patton, I don't believe in a static defense. When attacked I tend to let the computer into my territory so I can flank him and use my cities extra attack.

 

[MARDUK80]

Most players play at a level where an AI's invading force never really is a threat. If defensive combat were harder, I could definitely see a use for them. It also hurts that fortified units don't exert a zone of control, so there's little incentive to attack a fort unless it's at a chokepoint.

True. This should be changed and fortified units, at least, units in forts exert zone of control.

According the 275 patch release notes enemies will target units defending in a citadel. Has anybody noticed if they also target forts now?

I build them quite often and never seen ai enemy target them. So guess it's a bug(?)
Forts need to be revamped, perhaps; Forts can be upgraded to Canals (one land tile) and Forts produce +1 culture after dicovery of Flight. This would make to much more interesting and worth to build (not just in choke points).