Quote Originally Posted by dej2
Has anyone tried building a fort next to a city?
I presume you mean beside an enemy city. In my experience its a royal pain defending forts. I usually put them in strategic postions -choke points and put a crippled unit or peons in them. I let them get seiged or whatever while I prepare the counter.

One thing I havn't done is put forts on important enemy roads to choke them financially , like blockading ports. That bears consideration.