Best Use of Forts?

If I am not mistaken then an Infantry (6/10/1) in a fortress, regardless of terrain, is never attacked by anything below tanks. It's a bit like with armies, maybe not as mobile, but cheaper.

 
I have only used them twice. In the first, I had a one-tile chokepoint that wasn't a good spot for a canal city, so I put a fort there instead. I also used them when I played as Spain in the Napoleon conquest. My north-east flank was protected by the Pyrenees mountains which had two roads running through them to France and the rest of Europe. I put forts there, and they kept me very well protected.
 
I also use forts very rarely. But, in one game I started next to Persia, who were located on a pennisula with a 2 tile mountain chokepoint, and Persia had iron.

It was not an attractive propect to attack Persia, track accross their territory to gain the iron. But, it was obvious that once Persia had filled the penninsula they would come looking for war. So 2 forts were constructed, spears, catapults and archers placed and for years the Immortals were repelled.

I was then able to fight wars on my other borders and eventually steal someone elses iron. So there are times where forts can be useful, but I rarely find come across these occasions.
 
I got a really interesting but perfect fort situation. I will actually post a pic soon.

I took over a city on a foriegn island that had the Knights Templar in it. It generate Crusaders, which can build forts. After taking a few cities, i made peace. I then used the crusaders I started producing to make forts on hills around my cities because I expected another war, and I didn't want the AI fortifying on my hills!

Attacking a strong civ, on a different island is a perfect use for forts. In my case, the 4 cities I took where all size 9+, and fully developed with mines and irrigation. I had to do a little adjusting but it was all done for me. But I also happend to capture 9 workers that had nothing to do now, unless I wanted to ship them back to home. But I didn't, so I just started making barricades where I though battle would come from.
 
Virtual Alex said:
I use tons of them. I put them on hill and mountains with units that have a ZOC attack like Cav, and Arty. They autoattack units that walk buy, even if they are not attacked.
You don't need a unit with ZOC because the fort itself got ZOC.
 
Not sure what you mean. I don't mean one unit will shoot 3 times, I mean 3 seperate units, in different forts will shoot 3 times. Say you place forts like this:

0X0X0
X0X0X
0X0X0

in a narrow pass, granted this is ideal, but if all the Xs are forts with cav+rifleman in them, a unit that wishes to pass through will suffer severe ZOC damage.

I know barricades promise a ZOC for all units inside, but I haven't not seen it happen. Frankly I think it's a bug. Because Pikemen, Musketmen, and Spearmen have never ever taken a pot shot from a barricade in my Civ Career. however armies and cavalry almost always do. So I have got into the habit of occuping my forts with a defensive unit+ cavalry.
 
ZOC only gives you a chance of doing damage. Spears, pikes, and muskets all have low attack values so they are unlikely to damage passing units.

Although it is a little known feature, city walls also grant ZOC.
 
That's because the AI tries to avoid being put in those situations. I had 2 forts at a 3 tile chokepoint (XOX) stacked with defencive units and the AI steared clear of it. They would rather attack my walled city in the mountains that pass through that opening. I know this because when I moved my units out of the forts, the AI's troops would begin to move to the pass. Put the troops back in and they move to attack the city. I had their stacks going back and forth long enough to get some defenders there to counter them (there were a couple of stcks with about 50 units a piece (mostly pikes and Enkidu warriors).
 
Yeah, it is kind of ironic. :lol:
 
Virtual Alex said:
The funniest thing about forts, is how they go from giant castles with moats, to sandbags and barbedwire in the modern age. Haha cracks me up.

The reason forts went from castles to sandbags is the development of artillery. Sandbags are great at absorbing the energy of the shell explosion and also at stopping the fragments. Barbed wire effectively replaces the moat as a way of slowing down an attacker. Add land mines and trip flares to the field of barbed wire, and you have a major obstacle. A unit, properly dug in, with mines and wire out, is 3 times tougher to take than a non-fortified unit. However, reinforced concrete still has it uses, look up Fort Drum at the entrance to Manila Harbor and its performance in the early stages of WW2, or the German fortifications on Omaha Beach for examples. A Japanese log and earth bunker was also a very hard target to knock out.

I have used forts in conjunction with railroads leading into them, with the forts laid out in a staggered line on a chokepoint where I needed some time to build up. With the railroads, I could send reinforcements in as needed from almost anywhere, while still not tying up too many troops. The Indians hit them several times and then gave up, giving me the time for my buildup to hit them.

Thinking of Fort Drum, that might almost qualify as a Small Wonder, as the rest of the world regarded its construction almost with awe, and the Japanese never did manage to silence it for a minute. It kept firing all the way up to the surrender, and could have held out for at least another month or so.
 
Do enemy troops benefit from using your forts ?? I tend to put forts everywhere (playing vanilla civ3), particularly on resources (usually with one unit, to protect the terrain from having it's roads etc blown away), and have often wondered if I'm helping the enemy when they find an empty fort to attack me from ... ???
 
Well, they get no bonus for attacking from a fort, either do you.

But they do get all the same defensive bonuses. The difference is, if a fort is in your culture, they cannot pass through it with fast units. At acts as a blocker. So a tank with 3 move, will move once into a fort and wont be able to move again until next turn. he does however get the defense bonus.
 
Virtual Alex said:
Well, they get no bonus for attacking from a fort, either do you.

But they do get all the same defensive bonuses. The difference is, if a fort is in your culture, they cannot pass through it with fast units. At acts as a blocker. So a tank with 3 move, will move once into a fort and wont be able to move again until next turn. he does however get the defense bonus.

You refer to forts = barricades
not fortresses (?)
 
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