Out4Blood & El_Cap's Rise of Nations Strategy



Sunday, January 25, 2004

Forts & Castles -- defensive or border push?
HenWen asks about placement of forts.
When placing a Fortress there are two different uses that both can be effective under different circumstances -- putting it behind a major city to add extra defense if it might be needed in the future, and building it on your borders to further extend borders, control chokepoints, control rare resources.

I generally have been building forts on borders even when booming with a light military, just because I want to put my enemy in a defensive mindset. But I often find myself in situations where I WISH that I had build that fort behind a city to add defensive power. The problem is that when you build your first fort, it is difficult to have good intelligence about the composition and location of your opponent's army because you do not have any spies.

How do the expert players here decide where to place their first fort? If you are not sure what strategy your opponent is planning, and you are an average civ in terms of fort bonuses (i.e., not Roman, or Mayan).
Great question. I used to worry about this a lot. At first I did the border thing, but I often found my pretty castles were major targets. Then I switched to all defensive. Now, I do some of both, but the answer is pretty simple (for me). It depends. If you plan on being the aggressor, and have committed to building lots of military units, then go ahead and push. If you are booming or prefer to be less aggressive, then protect the city and build it behind.


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