besides merchants, whats the point of forts?

[Callahan9119]

seems when i place them in choke points the enemy can just walk past them, maybe an error on my part? i noticed this same thing in rtw...so i never really use them, but got around to asking this to myself today during my portugal campaign

[RoadKill]

Well first of all you can use them like watch towers, although the range of view is still very little you can place them in enemey territory, for example in my current campaign as denmark, I place a bunch of forts around Venice which i planned to seige, to 1) store my troops for a while 2) If venice decides to attack me I can be inside a wall. Well thats just wut i use forts for, and oh they look cool in battle

[Quillan]

A fort garrisoned by a military unit has a 1 square zone of control, just like an army does. They can march past it, but only in a certain manner. If you place it in a good choke point, the enemy can't go around without hitting that ZOC. At that point they stop. The next turn, they can move normally, but if they enter another square of the ZOC they stop again. In a 3 square wide pass, it will take them 4 turns to bypass the fort, 1 to move next to it, 2 more turns to move 1 square at a time past it, then the final turn to escape the ZOC and keep moving. You'll have bought time this way. If they attack it, they have to lay siege to the fort and either assault it after building rams (assuming they have no artillery) or starve it out, which takes 3 turns.

If you use a 1 unit army, you have to worry about it revolting, plus they can just slam into it and either make you retreat or slaughter it. Neither one slows them down.

[Callahan9119]

if i use it in a very tight mountain pass, how much time does this buy me? in turns?

[Quillan]

It buys you however long it takes the enemy army to either take the fort or move around it. If the army is large and has artillery it may buy you nothing, because they could assault the fort directly. However, in most cases it will buy you at least 2 turns.

[Lorenzo_H]

could someone explain how merchants + forts work? Do you simply build a fort (over a resource) and stuff it with merchants?

[vonsch]

Yep. Make sure it's the right spot by putting the general there, then having the merchant join him. The merc should be earning. If so, build the fort. You can then move the general off. The merchant will keep the fort in place. You can drop additional merchants into it up to the agent limit.

[TevashSzat]

It isn't that good to have a large army inside a fort and then be assaulted since the fort is very small and you start off with your whole army crammed into this tiny space with little to no space to manuver giving the attacker a great advantage

[Razor1952]

seems when i place them in choke points the enemy can just walk past them, maybe an error on my part? i noticed this same thing in rtw...so i never really use them, but got around to asking this to myself today during my portugal campaign
I use forts a lot, they allow me to keep minimal garrisons and use mobile quick response cavalry army to cover lots of territory. And yes placing forts can be a pain, I usually try close to a bridge.

Btw don't place a good army close to an attacked fort, wait till the fort has been taken, often the bad guys will garrison the fort for one turn allowing you to trap them there and annihilate them.

[The Teacher]

Forts - use them as they are priceless:

1) Buys you time, they take one turn to get in contact then on turn to assualt and defeat. If the enemy is attacking a reasonable sized castle thats bought me time to train up a good force, normaly an additional 260 troops.

2) Allows a place to dump reserves, I use this when Im about to create an massive army put the extra men in the forts ready to go. Why? well if you leave the troops in the plain without a character they are prone to go rebel or even worse join the other side. Owch :(

Have fun :)

[Callahan9119]

i was getting mad at seeing armies just move past them instead of being forced to attack, i would never put an even semi large troop number in that wood pile of death, i just fill them with some peasants as a tripwire when my eyes are busy elsewhere


thanks all for the tips

[Skott]

Alot of times a faction that is neutral to you will wonder thru your territory. If they are coming thru a mountain pass for example the fort usually stops them cold. You could use a army instead but the fort keeps a small army from going rebel. I've even seen armies at war with me stop at a fort and wont go past nor attack it. The AI gets dumbfounded alot in this game.

[adembroski]

I generally use forts as staging areas before major invasions, or alternating between them and watch towers, as a simulated "Hadrian's Wall". They are a great way to make an artificial choke point when you are dealing with a superior army and you've got some solid defensive units. Don't expect to hold the fort, use it to whittle down that big stack before you can get some reinforcements in to put them away.

[pike master]

its a good place to store a generaless army to keep it from rebelling.

[Skyline Pete]

Everyone talks of rebelling armies......I've never had even 3 unit armies rebel on VH/VH.

[Lorenzo_H]

Well it happened to me quite recently - and I was very surprised.

[Callahan9119]

i havnt seen it yet either, but i dont usually have any armies withou generals walking around, unless they are going to join his force, and i never have them walk too far alone for fear of ambushes

[Spajus]

They're invaluable for dealing with Mongols & Timurids, if you're fighting in Yerevan. In Mountainous terrain like that, I was able to protect access to the city by building forts in all the mountain passes, 1 unit in each.

In this way, I was able to concentrate on the main thrust of the Mongols & Timurids (The mongols had been wandering round for 40 turns, then as soon as Timur turns up, they decided to attack me at the same time)

Meanwhile, I was 100% sure that I would have a few extra turns if:

1 - a stray stack decided to try to flank me
2 - the Byzantines decided they'd like to stick the knife in

Very useful.