Use Your Forts Properly!!!!

[andrewt]

I've seen some silly ones too (one in the middle of nowhere by an armenian general called Arxes the Mad comes to mind - he stayed there until he died of old age by the way).

Did he get the name before or after he constructed the fort?

[Magraev]

lol well he was living there (under the same name) when I saw it first, so I dunno.

He was in his mid thirties, so potentially he could have lived there for 15 years by that time.

My theory is, that his very madness is what got him exiled. I don't mind telling you, that he had a nasty and somewhat scary look about him too.

Edit: I can just see it:
"Arxes my son, we need this mountainside guarded - It may be in the middle of nowhere, but that is exactly why it's so important"
"Sure daddy-o, but I need my silver hat then"
"Sigh... sure son, take the hat with you"

[sapi]

I'm with Colovian. I'd like to use forts but it would make the game (more unfair) unfair and would lose challenge because the AI never does. Maybe if they started using forts properly I would use them also. I hope CA can improve this AI in patches, they did a decent job doing that with MTW, and the release AI in RTW is at least better than the MTW 1.0 AI, so there's hope.

From what i can see, there is a quirk in the ai which means that they don't use forts until they are a) under attack and b) don't have many towns

[Bob the Insane]

I think that the AI is quite expansionist and therefore never bothers with securing it's lands... I have occasionally seen AI forts so there must be a trigger for them in there somewhere, but what it is I can't even guess at...

It could be a difficulty related thing...

Personally I when playing the Romans I will send a large army deep into the enemy territories to attack their Capital and largest settlements, I will build forts at the end of each movement because it sort of fits with the whole Roman theme....