Forts

[Bumson]

Have you ever built a fort and had to defend it against an attack? What is it like and what is the best strategy to defend/attack?

Also, if you build a fort, do enemy factions tend to go around the fort or take another route to their destination?

[clandestino]

It's like when you defend city just without arrow towers and you can't get your units on the walls and gate brakes wery easy. Actualy best way to defend it is to take you army outside and wage battle on open field. If enemie's army is stronger they will siege your fort for sure, but if you have considerable force in it they will sometimes try to go around.

[Dantino]

I don't think the forts are very useful in the game. I'll use them on choke points and the enemy will often siege it and wait it out a lot.

for me building a fort is the same as building your own tomb.

[Swagger]

not the wooden ones


but the stone ones can be very usefull

[NobleNick]

Moved to Battle Planning.

[jo the greek]

If forts were better made u could put your troops on the walls or just shoot threw the walls they could be devastating.
But still can be usefull u just put some low quality troops in and and with the
right position u can cause him trouble.
First u cause him causalities which in different area u wouldnt able to do and after he capture it u seize it so u trapp him in.
It works.

[clandestino]

I rely wery much on forts. I build them on river crosses and mountain passes. They can't hold enemy for long but sometimes that one turn gives you the time to bring more troops to endangered settlement or to train new ones. Forts saved me for hundred of times.

[Wheelchair]

Forts are useful, Defensively and economically

Defensively
Build them on chokepoints(rivers,Mountain passes) with a general and station 1 Militia within so that it will not disappear. When an enemy attacks your fort, he will need at wait atleast 1 turn, which he usually waits like 3 or 4 turns. This will give you enough time to reposition and prepare for an attack.

Economically
Obviously forts protect cities which is an economic advantage, but what you can also do is build a fort on a trade recourse and station 20 merchants inside.

Preferably build the fort on slaves or Ivory, and mass produce merchants and send them over, your general does not need to stay within the fort to make the merchants effective.

The Trade-Fort is such an effective way of income its really noticeable, at one point, I had 20 merchants in the fort and I was recieving 14000 Florins a turn from merchant trade, also; your merchants grow in skill and your money will continue to go up.

VERY EFFECTIVE.

If you say forts are useless, your silly!

[cankles]

I have several forts and they never get attacked. And they are at heavily used choke points.

[SaintOfTheSword]

I build the forts after bridges or narrow passes. And yes, when the computer eventually attacks me, the fort is the first target. As for defending it, you don't. You will definitely lose it if the computer seriously is making an offensive. Some ideas are: 1. putting huscarls or other heavy infantry, against a vast army of spearmen or militia (preferably without heavy cavalry which complicates things). They can take many spearmen to the grave before the inevitable loss. I stopped a full milanese stack of spear militia with two units of huscarls once, and most of them were killed when he decided to use the general's bodyguards into the fight. 2. placing 2-3 units of cheap pike militia inside. At the gate they can do work, especially if the AI decides to use the general's bodyguards to 'clean things up'. But generally you can just buy time with the forts, which is good enough though, it gives you the chance to prepare an army and meet the invaders in open battle. Another good option is that you make a fort in the land of another faction, leave troops inside, and wait until he takes the armies away from his capital. If you also have one siege machine or good spy, you can take the city before he knows, and if the troops were heavy infantry and archers you can hold the city you took very easily against attempts to retake. Forts are very handy in fact.

[Sokar Rostau]

I use Forts as supply lines from Castles to Cities and into enemy territory. Each one is the exact distance an infantry unit can travel. I keep a Spy in most of them and they act as Watchtowers in enemy territory. The Forts keep my armies with a constant supply of fresh troops and allows me to send troops back for retraining without having to turn the entire army around (well... usually) meaning any unit that takes more than 25% losses is free to return for retraining at any time. Doing this also helps prevent those valuable gold chevroned units from deserting when they are returning to castles for retraining unescorted by a General.

I have, however, had Allies attack forts in the mountains. I once had a French army, clearly on it's way to fight HRE, stand near my fort in the mountains above Milan for about 10 turns, they then attacked and killed the one unit garrison and then begged me for peace next turn.

[EncryptedToast]

I use Forts as supply lines from Castles to Cities and into enemy territory. Each one is the exact distance an infantry unit can travel. I keep a Spy in most of them and they act as Watchtowers in enemy territory. The Forts keep my armies with a constant supply of fresh troops and allows me to send troops back for retraining without having to turn the entire army around (well... usually) meaning any unit that takes more than 25% losses is free to return for retraining at any time. Doing this also helps prevent those valuable gold chevroned units from deserting when they are returning to castles for retraining unescorted by a General.

That is a fantastic idea! Never occurred to me to use forts as a way of keeping those idiots from deserting on the way back to retrain.

[clandestino]

I have, however, had Allies attack forts in the mountains. I once had a French army, clearly on it's way to fight HRE, stand near my fort in the mountains above Milan for about 10 turns, they then attacked and killed the one unit garrison and then begged me for peace next turn.

Yes that's common thing, when I see it preparing I just move unit out of fort and let the allies pass. You should always do it when you play as Byzantium and your fort blockes way to a crusading army cause they will attack you for sure.

[Bogus]

Staff a fort with a few soldiers and let the towers decimate the AI
This thread is 3 years old but if anybody's reading, I've found a hilarious tactic to wreck awesome losses on the AI using forts. This works great on Britannia - I'm using it right now in as Scotland against the Irish. Here's what you do. Ever capture a city and have a few cards with less than 10 soldiers in them? Take one or two of those cards and stack them in the nearest fort. The AI, when it comes to attack your city, will stop at the fort first and seige it, allowing you to reinforce at your prized city or castle. When the AI actually attacks the fort, don't auto-resolve; fight the battle on the map and put your pitiful forces on the walls so that you can get the maximum towers active, and then watch as hundreds of the AI forces get slaughtered by the tower archers. I recently "lost" a fort defending with 6 guys. The enemy lost 138! I consider that a victory!!! That's a 23:1 ratio - I dare you to get that ratio in any other setting.

One might be concerned that the few troops you station in this fort will rebel - 1) use troops less likely to rebel (i.e. don't use mercs) 2) if 6 troops rebel against you, who cares???

As a challenge - what's the highest enemy kill to friendly kill ratio you've ever gotten?

-Bogus

[Aeratus]

As a challenge - what's the highest enemy kill to friendly kill ratio you've ever gotten?

If you lose 0 men, the ratio would be infinity, which I'm sure you can get in setups such as musketeers vs. pikemen.

[HMS England]

Staff a fort with a few soldiers and let the towers decimate the AI
This thread is 3 years old but if anybody's reading, I've found a hilarious tactic to wreck awesome losses on the AI using forts. This works great on Britannia - I'm using it right now in as Scotland against the Irish. Here's what you do. Ever capture a city and have a few cards with less than 10 soldiers in them? Take one or two of those cards and stack them in the nearest fort. The AI, when it comes to attack your city, will stop at the fort first and seige it, allowing you to reinforce at your prized city or castle. When the AI actually attacks the fort, don't auto-resolve; fight the battle on the map and put your pitiful forces on the walls so that you can get the maximum towers active, and then watch as hundreds of the AI forces get slaughtered by the tower archers. I recently "lost" a fort defending with 6 guys. The enemy lost 138! I consider that a victory!!! That's a 23:1 ratio - I dare you to get that ratio in any other setting.

One might be concerned that the few troops you station in this fort will rebel - 1) use troops less likely to rebel (i.e. don't use mercs) 2) if 6 troops rebel against you, who cares???

As a challenge - what's the highest enemy kill to friendly kill ratio you've ever gotten?

-Bogus

Pretty odd for a first post, and welcome. The highest ratio I ever got was 0:1000 which I just tore the enemy to pieces on hard/medium with retinue longbowmen. Also, I admire your strategy to win with no casualties but in a total war game that objective is hardly achievable. Back then the value of a life was next to none so winning with numbers isn't necessarily out of the question, but atleast try to win with few casualties.