Fortification stance is so powerful!

[SaengsaWang]

I don't know if this is bugged or something but it seem that this stance is so powerful. I can easily wipe out 2 stacks of enemy by my one stack. All you have to do is guard the camp gate well and hold the enemy as best as you can then lead some of your forces out from the camp and attack them from behind. Voila! now the enemy are surrounded!

[prithupaul]

Wait till the enemy brings artillery. I actually eagerly wait for the enemy to go into fortified stance so that I can annihilate them (all my armies usually have 3-4 field artillery units). After I destroy their skirmishers and whoever stands near them with my artillery, I assault all the gates with pikes and grind them to total death.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

I've never even fought a battle in Fortified stance. :|

[Pinkie Pie]

Or me not including the prologue.Fortification is not overpowered, it is just that the ai is not particularly smart.Now cavalry, that is overpowered.

[Rittsy]

Fortified stance is supposed to be. I just lost a battle vs. an inferior number of AI when I attacked their fort. You really shouldn't attack a fort unless you can force them to come to you...unfortunately the AI doesn't always follow this advice.

[Igor85]

I killed 12 full stack high end armies (civil war) with silvershields, elephants,... just by putting pikemen to the camp gate. A little too powerful in my opinion. Maybe it should be possible to throw torches at the walls to destroy them

[RandyRhoads]

Maybe it should be possible to throw torches at the walls to destroy them

Reminded me of AoE 3

[Langer Kerl]

Maybe it should be possible to throw torches at the walls to destroy them

Well, they do take fire damage from arrows and such and can be burned down or wrecked with artillery.

I never had a defensive battle in fortification stance so far, but a few attacking ones. The AI sometimes sends expeditionary forces to enemy territory, then realizes the garrisons are too strong to take, so they just leave their army sitting a short distance behind your border and fortify them. Or, they send armies through allied territory, cancel military access and then stop moving because they do not want to get the diplomatic penalty for doing so without permission. They often fortify then.

I havent seen the AI use fortified stance in really sensibel way, like blocking important passageways. Though that is kinda hard, most passageways lead to the control zone of a city, so just put your army there and guard all of the ways crossing at the city instead of building a fort at just one of those roads.

Regarding the fort itself, I never had too much trouble with them, usually they make things easier for me as the attacker. The AI bunches up, refuses to leave even when under heavy fire (arrows, javelins, ballista balls...) and pikes can simply grind through the units bunched at the "gate". Plus, all fort maps are 100% flat even when the army is located in the woods, mountains or swamps on the campaign map. Very comfortable to fight on.

The pinnacle of absurdity is when you fight eastern horsemen armies who voluntary give up their superior agility and charging power to stand around in a confined wooden square while being encircled.

[M2TWRocks]

If enemy camps in your territory in fortified stance, use agents. They will leave quickly.

[Humble Warrior]

I don't know if this is bugged or something but it seem that this stance is so powerful. I can easily wipe out 2 stacks of enemy by my one stack. All you have to do is guard the camp gate well and hold the enemy as best as you can then lead some of your forces out from the camp and attack them from behind. Voila! now the enemy are surrounded!

If the AI was even basic it would have attacked those other gates as well to prevent you just leading forces from out the camp to surround it.

As we`ve said, siege AI is stupid.

[Fallen Phalangite]

Agreed with OP, it's ridiculous how easy it is to win battles when on the defence, especially if you have a unit that can use flaming ammunition.

The only difficult part is trying to guess which entrance they're going to come through (and therefore, which one to fortify with jagged rocks and fireballs )

[craziii]

isn't that the point of fortified stance? to give the defender a good advantage?

[Maklodes]

Historical perspective and maybe not relevant to game balance, but keep in mind that Hannibal had shown a remarkable ability to wipe out Roman armies on the field, but when Fabius repeatedly built highland encampments a few miles from Hannibal's location and used them as bases to harass Hannibal's foraging parties and such, Hannibal didn't even try to attack Fabius's entrenched army.

[Mr. Battle]

Fortifications should be powerful. Unfortunately, if you have a scorpion in your army, the AI pretty much automatically loses when you assault a fortification. They just sit there and let you rain exploding ammunition on them until you run out of ammo. At the very least, the AI should be good enough to spread out of the fort so that you can't hit multiple units with a single shot. When you attacked a faction with superior cannon firepower in Empire, the AI would at least recognize this and come to you.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

Haha imagine saying the headline in a really Asian accent, like the female Shogun 2 advisor voice:
"Ohhhh foltification stance! Sooooo powelfurrrrrrr!"