Forting and Fortwalling
Forting is a way of keeping away enemy forces by blocking his passage using fort's ZoC. Since there are no siege equipments or in WTW, forting is a critical tool to know how to use when hotseating.
The uses of forting are so diverse, that not knowing how to use them is a major disadvantage. In this guide I will teach you how to use forts and how to master the art of fortwalling
Forts: what are they?
Fort is a short term for "fortification" . Forts are essentially a "settlement replica" as they have walls, meaning that they cannot be stormed without either being under siege for at least one turn, attacked with siege equipments (which are not recruitable in WTW mods and submods, other then KORAH but this is illegale in some hotseats) , have their walls opened by spies (which are also unrecruitable in Westeros Hotseat unless you choose to accept a spies guild, but either way they are normally illegale in hotseats anyway) or bribed by diplomats. Forts (and watchtowers) can only be built by generals. Much like castles, towns and armies, the forts are sorrounded from all sides, from all nine directions, with what appears to be 9 "brown circles" . Those brown circles are called Zone of Control, or in short terms ZoC. When an army lands on any of those "brown circles", all of their movement points are stolen from them. Meaning the cannot move, until the next turn when they get fresh movement points
Pic:
Forts: how can you use them?
The combination of unstormable fortifications with the sorrounding ZoC makes the forts an unpassable blockade, for at least one turn. That can be greatly used for your advantage in hotseats. 1 fort creates a 3 square barricade, 2 forts make a 6 square barricade, and so on and so on.... by positioning your forts wisely, you can accomplish a great deal of needs. By using it you can keep away enemy forces from lifting a siege you have made, seperating the forces to destroy them one at a time or slowing down an enemy's arrival until your forces have come to face them. Another major use is making sure that your armies are not attacked on your enemies turn- in hotseats the attacker has a big advantage, and by placing your armies in forts you can make sure that you are the one attacking. Also that way you can try and manuver armies to help you lift the siege, or try to reload your turn in order to get better results.
pics for demonstration how useful forts can be:
1) Maidenpool ready to be besieged
2) Maidenpool unable to be besieged by using fortwall tactic
Forting tips:
1) NEVER, unless you have to and cannot possibly avoid it, (for example, limited spaces to place the forts or lack of movement points) place your forts at a distance of 1 square from one another. Why? two very simple reasons:
Forts, much like castles and towns, can only have armies on the sorrounding ZoC squares reinforce them. Meaning, when you sally out of a fort against your besieger, all the armies (allied or non allied) that aren't on the fort's ZoC will not be able to reinforce in the battle. When two forts are at a 1 square distance from one another, their ZoC overlap. Because of this, an enemy army can be placed within any of the overlapping ZoC squares, as such participating in both battles but seperating the forces from the two forts. Example: you have two stacks and your enemie has two stacks. In order to make sure that the enemie cannot attack your forces on his turn, you fort your two stacks in two forts BUT you make the critical mistake of placing them 1 square from each other. Then, you enemie takes one of his stacks to besiege one of the forts, and another to besiege the other stack. he places both of his stacks in 2 overlapping ZoC squares. On your turn, when you sally out to fight the enemie stacks, you are outnumbered 2:1, as his two stacks are participating in each battle whilst your stacks are only participating in one.
When placing a fort two squares from your other forts, you make a bigger barricade and as such taking more of the enemie's movement points.
2) Try to avoid placing your full armies in forts, because if a situation arises and you are besieged by an army greater then you which you can't defeat, then your entire stacks in insta-gibbed (meaning that your ENTIRE army dies without retreating, along with your generals) . It is better if you for example fort off your army so the enemy armies cannot reach it
3) Try to avoid placing your armies whom are led by +movement points generals inside forts (also castles and towns btw) becasue then the extra movement points go to waste. It is better to fort off your armies instead
4) Most hotseats have a "2 forts per region" rule, to limit fortwalling a bit. Almost all hosteats have a "4 units per fort" rule, to limit fort spamming a bit. Almost every hotseat has different rules, so make sure that you read them closely before joining . Most submods (Enhanced\YB, Fire and Blood, Blackfyre Rebellion), as far as I know, have a "1500 dragons" price tag to every fort, except the King of Rivers and Hills submod in which forts cost 500 dragons.
You have to take all these facts into consideration when you are planning on building a fortwall
5) If you are not sure if your forts will live up to their purpose, you can try playing a hotseat against yourself, and build an exact replica of the situation in your hotseat. Then you could see if your forts take enough movement points from your enemy.
6) Other then the regular siege and storm technique to pass\break a fortwall, your enemy can also use diplomats in order to bribe your forts and break through- which can severely mess up your plans and might at times be the difference between winning or losing a war. So you will need to make sure of the following things:
There are no enemy diplomats in range
That there is a general garrisoning your forts, that makes the forts ~15 times more expensive to bribe and about ~5 times as hard (as in trying to get the fort they are trying to bribe agree to the bribe, even if they have the money) . If you put a general in a fort, pick the one which is the most loyal because they are more expensive and harder to bribe. You also need to know that Faction Leaders and faction heirs are unbribable. Also if you place any type of agent inside a fort (a merchant, diplomat, princess, priest, spy, or assasin) that fort is also unbribale
Make sure that the enemy is either broke or unable to afford the bribes, which are normally very expensive
That if a diplomat is in range that he has low influence- a diplomat with low influence is less likely to succeed in the bribe
If you have no agents\generals available to help protect the fort from being bribe, and an enemy diplomat is in range and there is a danger of a bribe- put as many men as you can inside that fort to make the bribe as expensive as possible. Try putting the most expensive units which are not neccecerily the most useful (as in inside of placing Knights and Armoured Spearmen which are very good in Autoresolve, put cavalry or Longbowmen which are just as expensive if not more and not as useful in Autoresolve)
How to build a fortwall?
Last but not least, comes the question that must be answered. The best way to build a fort wall is this:
1) Why are you building the fort wall? you will have to adjust the fortwall for its purpose. If it's purpose for example is to delay an enemy, is it to seperate two forces, or something else?
2) Now, take a look on the map and imagine that it is divided to squares. (that is how TW campaign map is constructed btw, on squares )
3) check for the best position to place your forts, imagine that the 9 squares sorrounding them are unpassable. Check how wide is the pass you are trying to deny entrance to: do you need to use 1 or 2 or 3 forts?
4) after you have decided how and where to place your forts, pick the general unit and construct them. Then, pic 4 units to enter each of your forts
And just like that, ends the SPECTACULAR guide of how to construct forts and fortwalls by the mighty Uriyaca . Hope this could be of use to you, VERY important should you choose to hotseat
Hotseat starter guide
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Myth
Bookmarks