Does anyone build Forts?

[Monkeyfinger]

I build them every game but only in very small numbers (enough that all my first few cities are covered by the time they're citadels.) What option does that fall under? It could be interpreted as "always" or "rarely".

 

[Emptiness]

Think of the question as "How often do you build one or more forts in a game?", and your answer is "Always". The question isn't about the quantity of forts built in each game.

 

[EverNoob]

Yeah Emptiness is correct. It's not a question of quantity. If you only build 1 fort every game, it would be under "Always". My understanding is that nobody spams forts, except the AI

 

[Calavente]

That's not how it works. Enemies won't accidentally attack hidden units on forts. If you have Nox Noctis and you don't Reveal the units on your forts then your enemies will walk right through them.

snif too bad

 

[blacknight]

In my humble opinion forts need most (or all) of the following before they before they will be a valuable element of the game:

- AI should never build them next to cities.
- Automated workers should never build them at all.
- They should give units in the same space a 70% offensive withdraw chance (to represent harrying raids behind the lines).
- They should give a small amount of culture.

 

[JonathanStrange]

Whenever I consider building a fort in Fall From Heaven 2, I think of R. E. Howards' Beyond the Black River, in particular, the ending:

Spoiler :

"I came along the road, behind their main force, and I know none followed me from the fort. I sneaked through their lines and got into the town. You brought the settlers through all right, but their women and children got into Velitrium just ahead of those painted devils. If the youth Balthus and old Slasher hadn't held them up awhile, they'd have butchered every woman and child in Conajohara. I passed the place where Balthus and the dog made their last stand. They were lying amid a heap of dead Picts--I counted seven, brained by his ax, or disemboweled by the dog's fangs, and there were others in the road with arrows sticking in them. Gods, what a fight that must have been!"

"He was a man," said Conan. "I drink to his shade, and to the shade of the dog, who knew no fear." He quaffed part of the wine, then emptied the rest upon the floor, with a curious heathen gesture, and smashed the goblet. "The heads of ten Picts shall pay for his, and seven heads for the dog, who was a better warrior than many a man."

And the forester, staring into the moody, smoldering blue eyes, knew the barbaric oath would be kept.

"They'll not rebuild the fort?"

"No; Conajohara is lost to Aquilonia. The frontier has been pushed back. Thunder River will be the new border."

The woodsman sighed and stared at his calloused hand, worn from contact with ax-haft and sword-hilt. Conan reached his long arm for the wine-jug. The forester stared at him, comparing him with the men about them, the men who had died along the lost river, comparing him with those other wild men over that river. Conan did not seem aware of his gaze.

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind," the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. "Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."

THE END

Just substitute pyre zombies for Picts, Doviello for Cimmerian, JonathanStrange ( )for Balthus, etc.


Full story, fyi, at Beyond the Black River

 

[Furin]

I build forts in remote locations which I will not settle soon for two reasons. The visibility bonus keeps the barbarians away and the fortification bonus helps capturing bears/griffo(i)ns that come close to the hunter or scout stationed there. Also if you are close to a neighbor and you don't want to wage war against him, you can build forts at chokepoints and redirect the endless waves of barbarians right into his lands, as they will still try to reach your lands, but must go through his territory to do so. Your neighbor will then be busy fighting these barbarians all the time while you can focus your attention somewhere else. Sometimes your workers will be idle anyway, be it because you cannot build anything or the area which is improvable is too dangerous at the moment, so you might aswell build a fort in the meantime.

I think it would be worth a shot to make the commerce income of a castle (fully grown fort) the same as the commerce income of a town, or even an enclave, but permit the building of a fort next to another one, similar to the lanun pirate cove mechanics. Like that the AI and the automated workers could build forts wherever they want, it would not hurt them as much as right now.

 

[Ribusprissin]

You can build forts outside of your territory?

 

[Emptiness]

I think it would be worth a shot to make the commerce income of a castle (fully grown fort) the same as the commerce income of a town, or even an enclave, but permit the building of a fort next to another one, similar to the lanun pirate cove mechanics. Like that the AI and the automated workers could build forts wherever they want, it would not hurt them as much as right now.

(I assume you mean "... prohibit the building of a fort next to another one, ...".)

It is balanced to allow increased tile defense at the cost of tile bonuses; removing that cost is potentially unbalancing. A small bonus (no more than 1 & 1 ) might be okay for a Citadel. Making them on par with a town or enclave is much too much. The purpose of a fortification needs to remain defense, and adding tile bonuses to them will risk making them superior to other improvements (thus diluting their purpose by encouraging players to build them for the bonus).

Limiting the placement of forts would help reduce this problem, but would also remove the possibility of using multiple forts in a chain to close off a chokepoint wider than one tile. That is a useful function of fortifications, and I'd hate to see it removed just to give fortifications a commerce bonus. I believe that someone suggested changing Automated Workers to never build fortifications; I think that is a better solution for AI fort spam than giving forts some bonus and pretending that the AI is smart to build them everywhere.

You can build forts outside of your territory?

Yes.

 

[Furin]

Yes, sorry, I meant prohibit not permit

 

[kidcarson]

I usually only build forts next to my capital and holy cities, unless a checkpoint pops up.
Also, while my current game is only on patch "t" ancient towers are not upgrading into castles anymore.

 

[Kyroshill]

You can build forts outside of your territory?

Yup.... best part is that they upgrade as if they were being worked.... meaning they'll soon become citadels : )

 

[arcticnightwolf]

forts are cool especially in Orbis modmod, where they make plot, where they are, yours ... (and later thay can have 3x3 "culture" field) ... then is fort on chokepoint true pain in a** ...

 

[deadliver]

Yeah I noticed that in Orbi, very annoying for my plans of expansion! Got me into a war early with the Clan...lousy fort made me lose too!