question about forts

[dewback]

Now that there is no ZOC in civ 4. How does everyone here use forts? Since they exert no control over the adjacent tiles they don't seem to be that useful anymore except for the rare bottleneck that is one tile wide. Building a row of of forts is costly and impractical... any ideas?

[johnmcd]

They are in fact pretty pointless.

Some desperate attempts in this thread to explain scenarios where they might be useful, but the fact they are principally scenarios rather than general guides is telling.

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144269

[dewback]

That is a shame. It would be nice to see this improved in a future patch of expantion pack, as forts can have some real defensive value but not much in there current state. It is a real blow to those of us who prefer peaceful games.

[Alkis2]

Furthermore if you build a fort on a forested hill the forest goes away. In essense you lose rather than gain in defense.

[Saurus]

Originally posted by dewback
That is a shame. It would be nice to see this improved in a future patch of expantion pack, as forts can have some real defensive value but not much in there current state. It is a real blow to those of us who prefer peaceful games.

I think this exactly is WHY the forts are so useless.
With decent bonuses and SOC they would provide a lot of strategic depth and make defending easier - the problem is that this strategic depth would hurt the A.I witch is dependent on "brute force" strategies.
If the A.I could be thought how to properly use and counter forts then the matter would be different.
But I don't believe any progress in this field will ever happen ... not even in an expansion pack as teaching the A.I a completely new and different way of waging war would probably be both difficult and time consuming.

[MattPilot]

Download Bhruics Realfort mod.. its da bomb!!

[Yosho]

(shrug) If there's a bare hill, along the edge of my borders, but which none of my cities can work, I'll sometimes build a fort on it if I've got an extra worker. Why not? It usually dosn't ever end up doing anything anyway, but once in a while it'll be useful.

[Hauptman]

Yes I installed realfort... and NOW I USE THEM!

Its not overpowering, the best reason to use them is the retreat bonus they give. Actually use them to attack OUT of not as much for defense... You know, kind of like the real thing.

Someone else post the realfort link, Imma lazy/tired sob.


Edit ps: BTW if you have a 1 or 2 tile bottleneck, By all means fort it. even with regular forts. This will MAKE THE AIs FIND ANOTHER WAY AROUND!!!! As in use ships instead wich limits the numbers of invaders.

[dewback]

So what exactly does realfort do and where do I find it?

[Hauptman]

HERE!!! in the creation and files, buried on page 3.

[dewback]

Thanks for that! I will give it a try.

[dewback]

Ok I must have done something wrong. I installed the files as described in the thread... This should be installed in your "My Documents\My Games\Civilization 4\CustomAssets" folder

Then I started a new game and I dont see any difference from before... forts still provide as a mere 25% in fort defense bonus as listed on the screen rather that the 50% when I hover over them with the mouse. I have never used a mod in a civilization game before so please explain what I need to do to get it working.