Forts

[SupplyWagon]

I have tried defending and assaulting forts in custom battles before sending my army to do it in campaign, to see what changed from vanilla version. On a plus side, I see that the spidermen approach no longer works - with greatly improved wall cannons and fragile infantry morale, four militia units can hold the fort against full stack of line inf. Another good thing is that there are no blind spots in the corners of the fort anymore (in vanilla I could destroy a fort with a single cannon unit facing a corner, where it was out of fort cannons arc of fire).

One thing I don't like is how easily fort cannons destroy any artillery units that attempt to bombard the fort. I get that in real life one had to spend weeks building trenches to give cover to siege artillery, but we can't simulate this in game - so at least heavy artillery should be able to compete with fort cannons and create a breach. Instead, I had the artillery fort demolish four units of artillery before they managed to inflict any damage to the walls.

Am I missing something (using wrong type of artillery perhaps) or are forts supposed to have such advantage over field guns?

[Mjarr]

I suspect it might be hardcoded issue or fort gun accuracy and\or spread is too high (could be deliberate too). In ER counterbattery fire is also somewhat over-effective which influences the issue a bit, and I hope there will be some alterations in the next version (whenever that might be).

One way to work around it is to study the terrain in detail before beginning the battle, and find a spot where you can park infantry in such fashion it is behind reasonable cover from artillery fire and move artillery within moderate proximity. It also depends on how many defenders there are at the fort and whatnot, but assuming you can find a good angle the defenders will aim at your infantry instead artillery, and if the spot is good you should be able to breach the walls with minimal unnecessary casualties. It is not entirely foolproof though and may require up to 2-3 sacrificial lambs to stand under artillery fire over time depending on terrain (and bit of luck) before the first breach.

[SupplyWagon]

After some more testing, I finally realized what I've been doing wrong: using light (shorter ranged) artillery pieces. With properly positioned mortars and 24-pounders, it is easy to damage walls enough for infantry to be able to safely approach the fort. I must say I really like it - while we can't have proper sieging tactics simulated in game, forts serve their function well: they are impervious to an army without heavy artillery, so they require player to take time bringing up these slow and scarce units or wait for defenders to starve.

It would be ideal if AI could be also set to prefer sieging fort instead of assaulting (because they'll still try to use spidermen, which in realistic setting is suicide), but I imagine this is probably hardcoded.

[JaM]

yup, AI behavior is totally hardcoded and impossible to influence anyhow.. (oh, and yes - simple rule is - Siege arty > Fort arty > Field Arty , at least in range)