fortesses

[tkarmy]

Do you use them?

right now i'm playing a regent game as the Mayian. THe problem is the inca's and the english keep breaking their peace agreements and coming into my territory... they both have more force than me, but i'm way more tech advanced, i'm tired of war. So i made peace. So i surrounded my borders with knights and muskettes and now i'm building barriers around my whole border. Has anyone ever tried this? is it a good or bad idea?

Thanks

 

[rschissler]

Bad idea. Fortresses are only good if you need to protect a few tiles, such as if the only access for an AI civ is a narrow strip of land.

 

[tjedge1]

I use them to block narrow pieces of land as well as along borders of enemies I can't defeat but won't let up on the wars. Usually then I load them up with artillery and defenders. It works, but is very costly. You'd be better off building an army you can barely afford by shutting down science, and then attacking them and tking as many cities as you can. Then when you are stretched, you attempt to make peace and then see if you can get any of their cities in the trade screen while asking for peace. Sometimes you can pick them apart slowly and eventually be more powerful as well as more advanced. Work on one at a time, and then deal with the other afterwards. If you are worried about them allying against you, bribe theother to attack at the same time as you.

 

[citizen001]

Do you get the effects of a fortress in enemy territory?

 

[StabbingNirvana]

ive done that before, it was one HUGE border too. it also shows you where your borders use to be. then i look back and look at how much ive expanded. and laugh, then cry, then laugh again

 

[tjedge1]

Do you get the effects of a fortress in enemy territory?

Never tried that, but I would assume you would.

 

[Parmenion]

'The Maginot Line' tactic is very useful, especially if you have only a small area to cover, such as a choke-point.
It is so called after the long line of defences built by the French after WWI between France and Germany. It was flawed however as in WWII the Germans simply went around the Maginot Line through the Netherlands and Belgium.
In my current game as the Koreans, I have a line of fortresses (currently manned with two riflemen each) over 20 tiles long that covers two borders - just in case. It might seem like a waste of productivity, but it means I can concentrate on dealing with other enemies without having to fear intrusions from my other borders.

 

[thetrooper]

Do you get the effects of a fortress in enemy territory?

Yes. Enemy territory has effect on movement and healing only.

 

[JoeBas]

'The Maginot Line' tactic is very useful, especially if you have only a small area to cover, such as a choke-point.
It is so called after the long line of defences built by the French after WWI between France and Germany. It was flawed however as in WWII the Germans simply went around the Maginot Line through the Netherlands and Belgium.
In my current game as the Koreans, I have a line of fortresses (currently manned with two riflemen each) over 20 tiles long that covers two borders - just in case. It might seem like a waste of productivity, but it means I can concentrate on dealing with other enemies without having to fear intrusions from my other borders.

Yup, and then 4 or 5 AI bombers take out one of those riflemen-manned forts, and in pours the cavalry...

 

[tjedge1]

Yup, and then 4 or 5 AI bombers take out one of those riflemen-manned forts, and in pours the cavalry...

That's why I man mine with Air Defense when those units are available.

 

[Parmenion]

Originally Posted by JoeBas
"Yup, and then 4 or 5 AI bombers take out one of those riflemen-manned forts, and in pours the cavalry... "


If the 'Maginot Line' of fortresses is bombed by an opponent then they have to declare war on you, thus you get some prior warning that you will be attacked. If the Maginot Line wasn't there the AI troops would waltz through your territory unimpeded and wouldn't have to declare war until they attacked one of your cities or you forced them to do so.
Thus your thin line of fortresses has slowed the enemy attack down and proved it's usefulness in this situation.

The real benefit of a Maginot Line however, is to stop AI units from continually trying to cross your territory to get to someone else. They will do this regardless of how many times you tell them to leave, thus constantly worsening your relationship and eventually declaring war on you.
You also don't want to be in the situation where dozens of AI SoDs are in your territory and they decide to do a RoP rape. The fortresses will stop that from ever happening.

If I had a border with an AI opponent who could afford to have a manned fortress on every border tile, then I would think twice about attacking them, even if I did have enough bombers to do so.

 

[steviejay]

yup, I use them all the time, I find the very useful when trying to prevent an enemy breakthrough on a certain front.

They're also really useful when it comes to funnelling enemy units. The AI won't attack a fortress armed to the teeth if there is a empty stretch of land just south of it, use fortresses and the terrain to your advantage to get the enemy to walk into a killing field and just wipe them out.

In C3C Fortresses are even more useful with the implementation of barracades, which are like a last resort if soemthing goes wrong, they'll prevent the flood of enemy units coming into your lands and give you maybe a turn to react to the threat.

 

[Willem]

My approach is to build Fortresses two squares apart from each other, and two squares away from my border cities. This forces the AI to go through the square in between. When they try to pass, I use bombard units, in each fortress, to wear them down before they reach my city. The AI generally doesn't attack with a unit unless it has perfect health, so even a one hit point loss will turn them around, slowing their attack. Along with offensive units, I can usually break their advance after awhile.

 

[searcheagle]

However, the fortress "free shot" is random. However, the effect would still be to weaken up the attacking force. Also, if you get a little luck with the geography, you can get the good defensive ground: hills, mountains, forests, jungles and force the enemy to go through the open territory.