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So multiple threads folks had mentioned how they never use forts, and in the succesion game, even berated me for wasting worker turns building them.
But in my own experience, forts are such a beutiful tool to use. The AI will almost always use numerical supperiority to attempt to overwhelm your forces. As well as chase your military down instead of taking a more dirrect approach towards a city. The AIs know they have numerical supperiority and if they can destroy your forces, you cannot stop them.
So the object of course, is to inflict more damage to them they can inflict on you. In most games I play, that means using every advantage available, as even 10 to 1 losses in my favor could leave my military gravely depleted.
So in my current game, Terra/techtonics map gave me a European start. I used my all powerful praetorians to expand east to the urals, at the expense of Zara's game score. This left me with a very defensible border every where except the northern "Novgorad" area, where I did not control the passes. Cyrus controled the northern most pass with a city of his own covering it. Wich gave him easy entry and required the bulk of my military to counter.
So after numerouse scuffles where i was struggling to not loose land, I had finally gained what i hoped to be a military advantage that i could finally leverage into a reversal, and finaly close that path. I had infantry and Machine guns.
And again war came, in the form of another 100 unit SoD, full of 50+ cavalry and various other units attacking in the north. I had 25 - 30 units max to counter it. And my "reserves" held the southern forts. So when a second force tried to push through the fort line, I was of course wary, as i was pushed to the limit in the north.
The perfect fort, wooded hills, grant a 100% defense bonus on top of the unit promotions (woodsman and/or city defenders). The 4 defenders, 2 MGs and 2 Infantry, destroyed 22 enemy units in a single turn with zero losses. It was enough to make Cyrus ask for peace even before I had destroyed his northern force.
There is of course no other way prior to Nukes, for so few units to destroy so many units in 1 single turn. So the point is of course, if you don't use forts now. Perhaps you should start. My pass forts had been attacked countless times in this game. Often they would push through, however now lacking the siege equipment they would have needed to pose an actual threat to a city.
Even with less perfect fortable points, the AI will attack any units it comes into contact with. So simply posting forts on hills or behind rivers in likely invasion routes can make 3 or 4 cheap defensive units break up or even destroy possible real threats.
But in my own experience, forts are such a beutiful tool to use. The AI will almost always use numerical supperiority to attempt to overwhelm your forces. As well as chase your military down instead of taking a more dirrect approach towards a city. The AIs know they have numerical supperiority and if they can destroy your forces, you cannot stop them.
So the object of course, is to inflict more damage to them they can inflict on you. In most games I play, that means using every advantage available, as even 10 to 1 losses in my favor could leave my military gravely depleted.
So in my current game, Terra/techtonics map gave me a European start. I used my all powerful praetorians to expand east to the urals, at the expense of Zara's game score. This left me with a very defensible border every where except the northern "Novgorad" area, where I did not control the passes. Cyrus controled the northern most pass with a city of his own covering it. Wich gave him easy entry and required the bulk of my military to counter.
So after numerouse scuffles where i was struggling to not loose land, I had finally gained what i hoped to be a military advantage that i could finally leverage into a reversal, and finaly close that path. I had infantry and Machine guns.
And again war came, in the form of another 100 unit SoD, full of 50+ cavalry and various other units attacking in the north. I had 25 - 30 units max to counter it. And my "reserves" held the southern forts. So when a second force tried to push through the fort line, I was of course wary, as i was pushed to the limit in the north.
The perfect fort, wooded hills, grant a 100% defense bonus on top of the unit promotions (woodsman and/or city defenders). The 4 defenders, 2 MGs and 2 Infantry, destroyed 22 enemy units in a single turn with zero losses. It was enough to make Cyrus ask for peace even before I had destroyed his northern force.
There is of course no other way prior to Nukes, for so few units to destroy so many units in 1 single turn. So the point is of course, if you don't use forts now. Perhaps you should start. My pass forts had been attacked countless times in this game. Often they would push through, however now lacking the siege equipment they would have needed to pose an actual threat to a city.
Even with less perfect fortable points, the AI will attack any units it comes into contact with. So simply posting forts on hills or behind rivers in likely invasion routes can make 3 or 4 cheap defensive units break up or even destroy possible real threats.
Mountain passes make forts a winning strategy.
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