Creating Watchtowers & Forts

[avery123]

Hi Folks,

I am very new To M2 and I have observed Watchtowers that appear to have been created by other factions.

I have been made aware of the fact that the game includes Watchtowers and Forts.

Can somebody please tell me how I create Watchtowers and Forts please?
Sorry if this sounds a bit basic, but I have had a good look, and can't see how to make them.

Thanks *

[Husar]

You need an army led by a general or just a general. If he is in suitable terrain outside a settlement and selected, you can build them via the building button at the lower right corner, the same button you use to build buildings in settlements.

[avery123]

Thanks Husar,

Much appreciated

[avery123]

Another question...

How do forts differ from watchtowers?
Example - Can you place troops in forts, and if attacked, will a battle be fought with my troops defending this building, on a battle map?

Thanks for reading...

[The Stranger]

watchtowers are statuary buildings that wont leave when built... they provide a large line of sight. you can also conquer a watchtower by conquering the area or standing an army near it. rebels gather around watchtowers. they can only be created in own territory

forts are forts and you can make m everywhere. your army will stay in it, and when attacked you will defend the forts, on the map. they will disband as soon as you end the turn without units in it.

[Von Nanega]

Yes. Forts appear on the battlemap with your troops inside. Generally I do not fight from forts. They make usefull waypoints for travelling armies without generals or holding chokepoints in mountains.

[Kraggenmor]

Another question...

How do forts differ from watchtowers?
Example - Can you place troops in forts, and if attacked, will a battle be fought with my troops defending this building, on a battle map?

Thanks for reading...

Yes.
The for requires an opposing army to beseige it, as they would a settlement. If the enemy army has seige weapons they can use them to hole your fort's walls.

On the battle map your fort is basically just a big walled in square with two gates. No towers or anything fancy. Your archer can shoot over the walls at approaching forces and vice versa.

The primary advantages of a fort are that it limits the number of ways an opposing force can get at you, allowing you to wait for them to commit to assaulting one of the gates letting you pin their leading troops there while you send flanking forces out the other gate.

Forts also essentially nullify any advantage of a cavalry heavy (read: Mongol) army.

A fort placed at the end of a bridge (or other choke point) you don't want being crossed is pure strategic gold.

The disadvantages of a fort are that it limits your ability to move and, if your force is very large, it can be a real pain trying to set them up in the fort pre-battle.

Outside of battle, forts make good waypoints for housing troops on long journeys. Troops in a fort don't rebel so, if you're territory is such that you will have a need to take long ground trips to get to places (like trying to get to Sarkel from anywhere in Russia) you can build a string of forts along a path and keep them minimally manned to give you a place to house troops so they don't go rebel on you.

BTW: Over time I have become a HUGE fan of Watch Towers and I build them often.

[avery123]

Many thanks guys.

This will change the way that I play the game totally.
Especially as I'm playing as the HRE (Germany). I have a lot of areas that need plugging on the campaign map. It seems that everybody wants a peice of me at the moment.

[Ramses II CP]

Forts and watch towers work well in combination at choke points. I personally don't like to fight from inside the actual fort, but I do like to put stacks without a general in there while a watch tower warns me of the approach of an enemy, at which point I can pop them out and plug up the choke point. If the location is just right you can even pull out only some of your units (To minimize the risk of rebellion), place them one space in front of the fort, and leave the rest of your men to be called as reinforcements.

It's best not to fight out of forts mostly because they negate any advantage you might get in terrain, seeing as they almost exclusively wind up planted in the middle of a wide valley or plain on the battle map no matter where they appear to be on the campaign map.

[avery123]

Can anyone show me a good screenshot of their use of forts please?
Either Campaign map, or Battle map.

Thanks

[Zenicetus]

Over time I have become a HUGE fan of Watch Towers and I build them often.

Me too. A single general unit can move around fairly quickly, and keeping him out of settlements building watchtowers (while still close enough to his main army garrisoned there), helps avoid picking up too many of the "lazy sitting in a settlement" bad traits.

[DVX BELLORVM]

Can anyone show me a good screenshot of their use of forts please?
Either Campaign map, or Battle map.

Thanks

This fort is part of my supply line, placed between Constantinopole and Thessalonica...





... and this is how it may look during a siege if the enemy brought his artillery




edit:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

On this screenshot you can see a ring of defensive forts around my capitol Antioch (it's not a greatest screenshot, it was created for some other purpose).
The function of this forts is not to defend the city, but to stop the invading army so I can engage it in the open field. When I built it, I was having a financial problems, earning only a few hundreds FL/turn. Then a crusading army came from nowhere, using it's doubled speed, and besieged Antioch. Since Antioch was my main economic city, I couldn't afford it to be besieged as I would lose it's income. That's why I built the forts around it.
They also proved usefull during the Timurid invasion...

[imnothere]

doesnt the high piety/authority of your king pretty much negate the ability of the unmanned stack to rebelled?

[avery123]

This fort is part of my supply line, placed between Constantinopole and Thessalonica...





... and this is how it may look during a siege if the enemy brought his artillery




edit:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

On this screenshot you can see a ring of defensive forts around my capitol Antioch (it's not a greatest screenshot, it was created for some other purpose).
The function of this forts is not to defend the city, but to stop the invading army so I can engage it in the open field. When I built it, I was having a financial problems, earning only a few hundreds FL/turn. Then a crusading army came from nowhere, using it's doubled speed, and besieged Antioch. Since Antioch was my main economic city, I couldn't afford it to be besieged as I would lose it's income. That's why I built the forts around it.
They also proved usefull during the Timurid invasion...

Hey, many thanks for this...

[phonicsmonkey]

check out my elephant fence

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=88889

[Kraggenmor]

check out my elephant fence

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=88889

AKA Elephence

[lbianc1]

I can't figure out how to build a Stone Fort as Ireland in the Kingdom's expansion.

I'm I blind??

I click the same button as you did in M2TW to build forts and watch towers but all that appears as an option to build is a watch tower...Forts aren't on there and just greyed, there not an option completely.

Anyone else run into this??

[Ferret]

you can never build stone forts, you can only use the ones that are already there

[lbianc1]

Oh man that sucks.

So there's no ability at all to even build a wooden fort then.

[DVX BELLORVM]

So can you build forts in Kingdoms (wooden or whatever)? What's the story with the permanent ones?

I don't have the Kingdoms yet, still waiting for it to come (it takes a bit longer in my country )

[lbianc1]

you can't build forts of any kind in the Britania campaign....at least Ireland can't.

I read somwhere else that Generals CAN build stone forts on the Crusades campaign so I'm gonna try that one out next.

I've played Britania and The Americas so far and like them both.