Watchtowers & forts - any thoughts, experiences, or tips?

[Aenlic]

As someone noted above, watchtowers make great rebel magnets. Rebel armies seem to like standing around watchtowers. Makes them easier to find when you go rebel hunting.

[Somebody Else]

Watchtowers - great - can see stuff, and attract rebels. No reason not to build them pretty much whereever and whenever.

Also, watchtowers occasionally feature on the battlemap - kind of a handy defensive position, without the negative of being trapped in a fort.

Forts - not a particularly useful long term defence in my opinion - handy as early warning for an attack, as some mentioned. I assume the worst of my neighbours anyway, and always have armies capable of fending most anything off in my border settlements. If I don't have an army like that in one of my border settlements, it's because it's about to become an interior settlement, as the garrison toddles off to take the next one.

One occasion when a fort was handy... Marching on Moscow with a large contingent of artillery and melee infantry. Planning to assault as soon as I got there. A few Russian cavalry heavy armies were bimbling about the area. So I built a fort. Was duly besieged. Sallied and merrily pelted the enemy horsemen from within my walls with no fear of retaliation.

[Kobal2fr]

I tend to build as many watchtowers I can afford . Along my borders, along each and every road (brigands around the country side only cause devastation and can be ignored if need be, but when they're on roads they cut down trade, so I need to know when, where and how many there are ASAP), right next to cities (saves on spy upkeep), on the shores to watch pirates...

I also usually make them redundant too, i.e. two watchtowers 2-3 squares apart, so when the first is captured by brigands/enemies, the other is still operational.


Forts... Never used them. Did armies even bother with palissades and fortified camps when on the move anymore, in the Middle-Ages, when there were castles pretty much everywhere ? It was my impression that only the Romans did, and that they did so more to keep the men busy than anything... I'm probably wrong though