Outposts, Radar Towers, Fortifications

[btaft]

I am a relative newbie but am well on my way to winning my first Monarch Game

Does anyone typically use Outposts or Radar Towers. I have not seen much point in putting them to use so long as I have my cities well defended to begin with.

Along these lines does anyone typically use fortifications/barriers along a broad border or are they only used at choke points or not at all.

I thought maybe they play a larger role in the upper difficulty levels.

Regards,

Brett

 

[IbnSina]

No, they don't seem very useful. In the upper difficulty levels the games are usually more or less over before they become available, and are so dynamic that such fixed fortifications are a waste of time.

 

[danz]

In the WW2 conquest, I've used radar towers to great effect. Expecting a major battle around Bangkok while playing as the Commonwealth, I sacrificed a slave worker to build a radar tower. For the next four or five turns the Commonwealth traded attacks and counterattacks with Japan. Friendly ground forces were boosted by the bonus granted by the tower, which essentially made regular infantry fight like an elite Japanese division or a combat engineer, and made light tanks fight like medium armor.

So radar towers are not strategically important, but they are a tactical tool that can be used for force preservation much like proper use of terrain. In close, modern-era wars, they can make a big difference. Same goes for fortresses, except that fortresses only help defenders on one tile and take much longer to build. A radar tower only takes the sacrifice of one slave worker and has a much larger area of effect.

 

[norwegianviking]

I've never built a radar tower, what exactly is it suppose to do (I'm not a newb, just never found a perpose for them)?

 

[AA-battery]

Same here. I am interested in these "Radio towers".

 

[Tomoyo]

I've never built a radar tower, what exactly is it suppose to do (I'm not a newb, just never found a perpose for them)?

I suppose that it is used to make invading the AI harder.

 

[danz]

A radar tower increases the strength of friendly units in a two-tile radius. It costs one worker (domestic or slave) and is built instantly. It can be destroyed using bombardment or by an enemy unit that tramples through the area, like any other terrain improvement. If you anticipate a lot of combat in an area, building it is a no-brainer. Don't confuse it with a lookout post, however. Those things are available much earlier and have the same build costs, but only give you one tile of extra visibility, which is rarely worth anything.

 

[AA-battery]

Thanks Danz.

 

[kingpenguin]

I sometimes use outposts, but they're still fairly useless. I'm sure the radar tower can do some good if you're stuck on the defense for a while, though.

 

[Turner]

Outposts are fairly useless, as said. To be useful, you need to put them on a mountain top near (like, a tile or two) your border. But early in the game, when they're more useful, they generally go away (like colonies) when your culture borders are expanding.

I had a useful outpost once. Butt up against another civ I was at war with. I put an outpost on a mountain top and was able to see quite far into the next city. But that didn't make any difference once I took the city.

Radar towers can be useful, I do tend to use those. But you have to make sure they're right next to the tile you want to defend, otherwise the bonus from them can be missed. Like if you're on the second tile, attacking the third. No bonus for that...

 

[Charles 22]

One thing for sure is that if you make a radar tower for a city you just conquered, expecting the inevitable counter-attack and awaiting building walls, they can be very worthwhile, that is, assuming that you'll protect the radar tower too. I can't say I've ever done it in that situation, but considering the age where you could build those things, they're an even better idea if you think that you're may times invading a civ which has railroad to that city. I'd rather defend the city by that means instead of razing the countryside of the railroad to slow attacks (and I would rarely do that either).

 

[danz]

Yep, if you're expecting the enemy's entire army to come at you, it's not a bad idea to sacrifice a slave worker in order to save a stack of your best troops

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

The AI loves to build radar towers once it discovers Advanced Flight, and will build one near every city, and station a unit on top to defend it. I often find myself making strategic penetrations deep into enemy territory just so I can get to and destroy these towers, then wheel about and attack the enemy from the rear. It makes a big difference when you are attacking a metropolis stacked full of Mech Infantry, especially if the city is on a hill (shudder).

When you bombard, the Radar Tower is the LAST improvement to go, and this tactic will cost you lots of artillery missions and bomber strikes. I find it's better to assault the radar tower tile directly, softening up the unit above beforehand with a couple of bomber runs.

 

[danz]

Yep, and being such a pain to remove shows exactly how powerful they are! It's too bad they can't be captured. I would love to use the enemy's own infrastructure to increase the strength of my troops when fighting against them

 

[AA-battery]

I think they probably should be capturable, like your opponent's fortresses.

 

[Abaddon]

now that would give them more playability!

 

[The Last Conformist]

I don't find much use for Radar Towers - I simply rarely find myself on the defense so late in the game.

I never ever built an Outpost, and never felt a need to.

 

[MrRats]

Yeah, outposts are too early for me, and RTs are too late.

 

[warpstorm]

If the game goes that long (most don't) I build Radar Towers all over the place. They are great on offense and defense.

If there is a logical place for it I will build fortifications. The map has to give me some lovin' for it though.

 

[Abaddon]

how about colonys... does anyone bother with them?