Do people actually use forts?

Do they have a ZOC where enemy units can't pass by them? I haven't been able to test since installing BTS.
 
Their canal ability is useful, and I'll often bridge isthmuses where possible. Also handy for what I term "icebreaker stations". If one end of your continent is embedded in the ice cap it can be a serious nuisance for navigation. However you can use forts to bypass any amount of ice , since they'll all be coastal, albeit icebound. I recently had a game where I needed a chain of seven forts along the north edge of my continent to be able to circumnavigate it. It's not as if you're likely to be building much else of relevance on snow.

As a defensive position I find they are rarely useful. Canal forts can occasionally double as a bottleneck fort, but they are hardly ever relevant in that capacity. Forts seem almost a liability in other locations in your territory.
 
Try a map with more mountains (Highlands, etc). Quite often it just takes a couple forts to fill in the gaps in long mountain range. You can then get an AI to spend most of the game throwing troops at a chokepoint to no gain.
 
I'v used forts once in an ice/tundra city as a canal for my workboats. One fish resource was not accessible, due to ice caps covering my port and shore. I had to make a four fort canal along the coastline to bypass the ice caps and could hook up the fish.:)

I never had this idea, in my last game i couldn't use the crab up north.

Normally I use them for locks and early Wells
 
Seeing as I donʻt have BTS, I consider forts generally useless and donʻt build them. :P

Ah i see, i was wondering why people like forts for this and that. I can assume they were made useful again in the expansion, which i do not have as yet.

Forts were very useful in civ 2 and 3 but i found them of little use in civ 4... as i mentioned before, because of colateral damage.

And yes forts do remove forrest (and everything else along with the kitchen sink) which is an exceedingly dumb idea since forest gives 50% defensive bonus.
 
Yeah on any map with medium/small islands forts are amazing for allowing your navy to more quickly respond to threats. Bypassing what would have been 2 turns of needless circumnavigation for your ship is just nice. Means you can concentrate your forces saving you hammers.

Do barbs really go for the forts? I always thought they we're attracted to cities and workers... They never attack guys fortified on hills...
 
Yeah on any map with medium/small islands forts are amazing for allowing your navy to more quickly respond to threats. Bypassing what would have been 2 turns of needless circumnavigation for your ship is just nice. Means you can concentrate your forces saving you hammers.

Do barbs really go for the forts? I always thought they we're attracted to cities and workers... They never attack guys fortified on hills...

Barbarians will wander towards your cities then attack the weakest/most valuable targets they see. If you put the defender further out so that the Barbarian has no other target in its line of sight, then it will atack the defender unit.

Also Barbarians will sometimes 'lock on' to a target from a distance that is revealed by another Barbarian. In this case they become quite determined to 'run past' any defenders they encounter on the way. 'when you got the hots for whats in the box/tile' lol
 
In BTS, forts don't get rid of forest or jungle.
 
i use forts to build canals and stack up bombers and other planes in preparation for an invasion or to protect border resources.
 
I suppose in Civ4 regular they are kind of useless but I always put a couple in my territory as collecting points for my offensive army(closer to the border) and further back into my empire I put a few more as collecting points for my extra defensive units.
 
I'v used forts once in an ice/tundra city as a canal for my workboats. One fish resource was not accessible, due to ice caps covering my port and shore. I had to make a four fort canal along the coastline to bypass the ice caps and could hook up the fish.:)

Interesting use of Forts, I would never have thought of that. That would also end those Ice blockades you sometimes get on maps, where you can't sail past the poles but have to go all the way around the continent.
 
I usually use forts to make canals, and occasional airbases. My automated workers use them to connect resources, I don't know why they do it and don't use the regular improvement (Pasture, mine.. etc) which usually takes less time to build.:confused:
 
I usually use forts to make canals, and occasional airbases. My automated workers use them to connect resources, I don't know why they do it and don't use the regular improvement (Pasture, mine.. etc) which usually takes less time to build.:confused:

They only build forts if the resource is outside your cities bfc. They are still are connected to your cities(with a road).
 
They only build forts if the resource is outside your cities bfc. They are still are connected to your cities(with a road).

Yes, I know they are connected, but AFAIK the resources could be connected with an improvement that takes less time to build.
 
Yes, I know they are connected, but AFAIK the resources could be connected with an improvement that takes less time to build.

Well the idea is that you stick a unit in them to protect the resource. With spies going around sabotaging your resources, that's not such a bad idea.
 
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