The upcoming fall patch will introduce some changes. The idea behind some of the changes might be to make not so useful game mechanics more beneficial. One of those will target the usefulness of pillaging, which will grant 25 HP to wounded units. Even more, it is promised that the AI will know to use this new feature!
There are discussions about the consequences of this change. One of them might be that – in order to protect the own improvements - battles will tend to happen more on the open battle field rather than just boil down to sieges against city-fortified ranged units. If this is really the case, it would be a very welcome change, in my opinion.
In this context, I want to put the following idea up for discussion:
What about making forts more useful by giving them a range attack?
Forts – I almost never build them, right now! They consume the space for a much more useful tile improvement, as farms or mines. They are useless without fortified units. They are (more or less) useful only when defending, but don’t help (too much), when the attacker simply decides to bypass them.
Now, if battles in the open field will be more important after the patch, wouldn’t it be nice to have a tile improvement that is actually worth building and helpful when the realm is being invaded by a sinister foe?
So, why don’t give forts some actual impact? In detail, I am thinking of something like this:
Range attack: with a range of 1
Strength: era-depended. Could be equivalent to corresponding siege-weapons; classic: 8 (= catapult), medieval: 14 (= trebuchet); renaissance 20 (= canon), …
This will be less powerful than the era's range-attack units (against other units) and therefore hopefully not overpowered.
Upkeep: Yes! After roads/railroads, forts should be the second tile-improvement with upkeep. The upkeep should be moderate, though, as immobile forts are less useful than mobile units, 1 or 2 gpt should be fine at the beginning, eventually with an increase when progressing in the timeline.
Visualization/handle: a target cross, just like cities, but no “right-side notification”. Forts with valid targets could be part of the “units-to-move-queue”, though.
Of course, the great general’s citadel is indirectly depreciated by this buff.
This could be overcome by granting the citadel a direct attack, too (in addition to it's current passive damage ability). It might even be a little bit stronger than that of the “standard” fort or citadels might have a range of 2 rather than just 1.
What do you think about this proposal?
Could it add an interesting tactical layer to CiV? Would it be overpowered or maybe useless? Could it change your habits of building (or not building) forts in your games?
There are discussions about the consequences of this change. One of them might be that – in order to protect the own improvements - battles will tend to happen more on the open battle field rather than just boil down to sieges against city-fortified ranged units. If this is really the case, it would be a very welcome change, in my opinion.
In this context, I want to put the following idea up for discussion:
What about making forts more useful by giving them a range attack?
Forts – I almost never build them, right now! They consume the space for a much more useful tile improvement, as farms or mines. They are useless without fortified units. They are (more or less) useful only when defending, but don’t help (too much), when the attacker simply decides to bypass them.
Now, if battles in the open field will be more important after the patch, wouldn’t it be nice to have a tile improvement that is actually worth building and helpful when the realm is being invaded by a sinister foe?
So, why don’t give forts some actual impact? In detail, I am thinking of something like this:
Range attack: with a range of 1
Strength: era-depended. Could be equivalent to corresponding siege-weapons; classic: 8 (= catapult), medieval: 14 (= trebuchet); renaissance 20 (= canon), …
This will be less powerful than the era's range-attack units (against other units) and therefore hopefully not overpowered.
Upkeep: Yes! After roads/railroads, forts should be the second tile-improvement with upkeep. The upkeep should be moderate, though, as immobile forts are less useful than mobile units, 1 or 2 gpt should be fine at the beginning, eventually with an increase when progressing in the timeline.
Visualization/handle: a target cross, just like cities, but no “right-side notification”. Forts with valid targets could be part of the “units-to-move-queue”, though.
Of course, the great general’s citadel is indirectly depreciated by this buff.
This could be overcome by granting the citadel a direct attack, too (in addition to it's current passive damage ability). It might even be a little bit stronger than that of the “standard” fort or citadels might have a range of 2 rather than just 1.
What do you think about this proposal?
Could it add an interesting tactical layer to CiV? Would it be overpowered or maybe useless? Could it change your habits of building (or not building) forts in your games?