Forts - what good are they?

X

xoduz

Chieftain
Joined
Nov 23, 2005
Messages
3
I'm trying to figure out what good forts are - I've built a few, and put some defensive units coupled with some attacking units (for attacking damaged units etc) in them - but the AI civs just pass right by my forts. :sad:

They would be a lot more useful if they had a little of the civ 1 feature where you couldn't move "alongside" enemy units, so if you built a fort in a strategically decent position, the enemy would have to go THROUGH the fort, and not just stroll along next to it while waving their hands to my defenders on their way to my cities.

Or let them pass by the forts, but have a chance of taking damage while doing so, to simulate being attacked by the fort when they move next to it. *shrug*

Edit: And the defensive bonus you get from forts is laughable. You get better from any forest/jungle, and equal from any hill. You can't build them around mines/terrain improvements either. :(
 
I agree, there are some drawbacks to forts that make their use very highly specialized ... a little *too* specialized, imho.

There have been several threads discussing this already, but essentially without a Zone of Control, you need to cluster multiple forts together to really provide any form of blockade. I don't like this and I don't agree with it.

Without that, you essentially need a 1 tile bottleneck for forts to come into their own, otherwise the enemy will walk past you.

Likewise, the inability to put forts *ON* resources, limits their usefullness again.

In the latest Firaxis poll, I requested both that Forts could be put on Resources *and* that they had a zone of control.

In the meantime .......

There is a RealFort mod that is worth looking at, or grab Exavier's Composite mod, which includes the RealFort mod.

And there are some instances - albeit rare - in which forts can be useful. Two forts side by side to block a slightly wider bottleneck, or on a hill near an enemies border, which will force them to either come through the fort or a flat - defenseless - tile next to the fort. With the right units in it, you can strike out at the enemy on the plains or defend in the fort on the hill when they attack.

Granted, it's *rare* that I build one, and I wish they were more useful, but once in a blue moon a nice little bottleneck on my borders is the perfect place to put one.
 
Forts are pretty lousy. Aside from wanting them on resources, it would also be nice if the units stationed to defend my towns could do so from forts instead of just being helped out by some old guy with a guestbook.
 
It will be good if one can put fort on a resource tile, i.e. iron, and be still be able to use that resource. Certainly it will make it harder for "pillage and run" operation.
 
I gotta agree also. If forts could be built over resources that are already improved I would definately build them. As it is now, I haven't built a single one. Forts are about as useful as the Military Advisor screen.
 
Hey, I call a cheap shot- the Military Advisor Screen is useful!

It's not pretty, or funny, but it's useful!
 
Military Advisor Screen is useful!! Especially if you accidently 'lost' an unit, or want to see where you hid that Great Person again. Forts on the other hand.....
 
Never used a fort after reading up on them.
The only use I can see is to build the fort in opposition territory and let them attack (never tried it though). But then again my attacks are hard and fast so don't need the fort.
 
Forts are awesome, actually. Here's how.

There have been several threads such as "counters to axemen", "raiding elephants", "what good are pikemen", etc. Basically the gist is that you can turtle up and the enemy can't really be successful in knocking you out of your city, but he sure can hurt you by pillaging your towns.

What if you don't have to come out of your city. What if your spearmen or whatever are sitting in a fort several tiles outside your cities. The enemy comes by, sure, they ignore your fort. However, they're sitting right next to it as they march toward your city. Chances are you don't even have to leave the fort to attack their stack and kill most of it off.

Wodan
 
If your workers are idle you can get them to build a string of forts along your frontier. Kinda like a replacement 'Great Wall' but with no benefits whatsoever.

ahem...
 
Forts??? :lol: :smoke:

Sometimes I really wonder whether they test all the features of a game...recently played this AW game where I did have a bottleneck and planted a town right onto it. That was great stuff to keep the AI at bay. Next thing I knew , I discovered an iron source right outside the city but on the 'AI side' of the bottleneck.
Here I was thinking, for once a fort would be useful, so i fought my way to mine the iron, then wanted to plant a fort on it to defend it. Bingo, the fort would destroy the mine. Can you believe such nonsense, that really made my day...
If you have improvements, please make them useful...and not give us some half baked stuff really.
 
I remember using forts quite a lot in Civ1 - very useful, I'm pretty sure you could build over forests etc, and the bonus was quite good - maybe even 50%?
Haven't built one yet in CivIV even for fun... 25% is not really high enough, and as everyone else has pointed out, if you can't create decent chokepoints or defend resources... what's the point?
 
xoduz said:
I'm trying to figure out what good forts are - I've built a few, and put some defensive units coupled with some attacking units (for attacking damaged units etc) in them - but the AI civs just pass right by my forts. :sad:

They would be a lot more useful if they had a little of the civ 1 feature where you couldn't move "alongside" enemy units, so if you built a fort in a strategically decent position, the enemy would have to go THROUGH the fort, and not just stroll along next to it while waving their hands to my defenders on their way to my cities.

Or let them pass by the forts, but have a chance of taking damage while doing so, to simulate being attacked by the fort when they move next to it. *shrug*

Edit: And the defensive bonus you get from forts is laughable. You get better from any forest/jungle, and equal from any hill. You can't build them around mines/terrain improvements either. :(
Click to expand...

Check out the mod in my sig they make forts actually worthwhile to build;).
 
I build forts in areas where my cities can't grow on, mostly deserts, jungles and mountainous terrian. They may not be much when the AI doesn't attack them but it does give me enough infomation to cobble together a defensive army.
 
Forts are good at wasting your worker's time. Do not build them unless you have a military chokepoint. Build walls instead.
 
henrycccc said:
Forts are good at wasting your worker's time. Do not build them unless you have a military chokepoint. Build walls instead.
Click to expand...

When the enemy blows up my pastures and catapult the dead cows over the walls, what good are they?
 
I like the idea of the fort as an "outpost" for my military. I put them near the edges of my territory every few spaces strictly as defence from pillaging. Especially cities that have a high cultural value, there are usually several squares between the city and the edge of your territory. Having a fort out there saves a turn or two of getting your units out there to stave off an attack.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Predator145
Early Modern Coastal Defense Forts
Replies
0
Views
398
Predator145
Predator145
T
deity vox populi, all AIs attacking at once with already gatlings in 1500, anyone experienced with iroquois warfare?
Replies
16
Views
1K
tramwajg
T
F
The perfect army
Replies
5
Views
2K
Fins
F
Predator145
Early Modern Fortifications
Replies
2
Views
838
Predator145
Predator145
Tekamthi
  • Locked
[DLL] (7-NS) defend against Citadel placement exploits using forts
Replies
13
Views
957
Recursive
Recursive
Back
Top Bottom