Fortresses and Production

[Saxon]

Thanks for all the good answers!

I was thinking about how to maximize resources. On some of the big maps, you tend to get fairly large areas which are “safe” behind your lines. Sure, there as spells and sneaking troops who can sometimes get to them, but they are generally safe. Given that building a castle effectively doubles your production, it seemed logical that you would want to build more. These back areas, where you have total control, seemed like a place to put this into effect

This is theoretical, ignores other concerns and assumes unlimited gold, but it seems to me that building a castle in each province will maximize production. Sure, you will not get one super province, but you get a higher total production. You would recruit in every province and in some you will have to wait multiple turns for the high value units to come, but you will produce more units over all.

Of course, in the real world, this would lead to massive micro managing. Also, if you have that much gold, you have probably won the game or should be looking for other, more aggressive uses for it. As such, I will keep my theoretical maximum in my head and focus on getting the more practical “key production provinces” going in the game.

I agree with sfsuphysics, the money is usually better spent on armies and heroes. They are much more versatile and offer lots of nice bonuses. When I played basketball in high school, the coach always said “Offense wins games, defense wins championships.” In Dominions, I feel it is the other way around. Defense is important, but unless you take the fight to the enemy, you are not going to win. My interest in fortresses is to get the best out of them for unit production. Their defensive value is clear, but I needed some help regarding their link to production and, therefore, offense.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by Bossemanden:
EU2 1.07beta, HOI 1.05c/CORE 0.62, Vicky Beta, New to Doms

you are a man of good tastes.


btw CORE is in 0.64, and you should try superAI as the icing on the cake

The reason offense works well in Dominions because your opponent is always playing catch up while you are expanding.

Plus a standing fact if you can siege a capital or fortress for a few rounds and negate it's production while you are sieging them; and then a few turns after because of unrest even if they set a patrol. Gives you an edge.

[Wendigo]

Somehow I disagree with the general feeling that a newbie might get from this thread that 'forts are a bad investment'.

Raiding warfare is an important part of Dominions, and without forts your temples, gem sources & indep mages recruiting spots will fall to your enemies raiders.

They also protect your forces from surprise attacks: I have many times in Dom I launched a magic assault vs a province full of enemy sages & pretty much cut my opponent's research in half in just one battle. Even with Gateway restricted in Dom II this is still possible in the mid game due to cloud trapeze/teleport/faery trod.

Forts provide supply to nearby armies: they will help the early stages of an offensive campaign without need of supply items.

Forts allow for the recruitment of national mages & commanders, for this reason nations like Pythium & Jotunheim should build many of them to use their strength to the fullest.

Finally, forts add to income: a few forts in 100+ income provinces will do more for your income than having invested in Prod3 & Growth3 in Dom II (this has changed from Dom I)

Defending your forts is less of an issue if you can field a mobile force/pretender. With or without forts you will still need to defend your lands anyway, but it's a better deal if you do not lose your gems & temples in addition to your income when under attack.

[aldin]

Wendigo,

I find I WANT to play that way. Taking and holding provinces in an ever expanding sphere of influence. Unfortunately, I find there's a lot of give and take that happens and having forts in provinces you aren't choosing to dedicate the resources to hold means you're creating potential strongholds for an enemy on a sweep through. This diffulty becomes even more pronounced against nations like Pangaea that can "appear" in your rear areas.

Perhaps others have a different experiences though, I am still pretty new at this.

~Aldin

[Wendigo]

I am not saying that you should just turtle forward, if you do that you run the risk of falling behind those that hyperexpand.
What I am saying is that, once borders are more or less set, you either go to war immediately or grow inside your current bounds, otherwise you will stagnate.
The 3 ways you can grow inside your borders in Dom II is via site searching, bloodhunting & building forts.

Regarding armies sneaking far behind your lines, if that happens you have likely done something wrong...sneaking armies are much easier to spot by patrollers/local defense than lone infiltrators.
Even if an army gets to your backyard, you will be much safer if your more valuable provinces are protected with a fort. The forts will give you both time to mount a counterattack, and protect temples & gem sites. Raiders just cannot afford to stay for a couple turns sieging a fort, their strength is usually in staying mobile but they are unlikely to be strong enough to face a serious army, and are vulnerable to magic assasination (kill the commander, and the raiding force is gone).

[ December 26, 2003, 20:25: Message edited by: Wendigo ]