What's the difference between fortifying and sentrying?

[pi4t]

Title says it all

 

[The Professor]

The obvious difference is that when a unit is on sentry duty, they will be activated if someone else's unit lands in a square adjacent to the sentry. I think you can use the preference screen to determine if it wakes up for anyone's units, or just enemy units.

What I do not know--and would be interested in hearing about--is whether this makes a difference in the unit's defense strength.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

I believe fortifying lasts forever- if you fortify, you stay fortified until the player activates the unit. This adds ?25% defense if attacked.

Sentry keeps your unit immobile and "asleep" until an AI unit comes near, then they activate and can then attack or move. Since they wake up when a unit approaches, I believe it offers no defensive bonus, but I defer to more experienced players.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I think sentry has the same defensive bonus as fortify. It is just that the game wakes them up on your turn proper if contact was made. If I am not entirely mistaken then you can actually observe how a sentried unit that is being attacked returns to the defensive posture after a successful defense.

 

[darski]

I find sentry very useful for Intel. You leave one guy in sensitive spots and you are instantly notified when enemy (i.e. all AI units) approach. With Fortifying, you may not notice an advance.