Forts

[pgr]

So does the cost of building forts annoy anyone else? 2 supply wagons and 4 cannon units...

Now, I'm not really against there being some kind of cost, but it is a bit absurd that my four cannons are consumed. All it gets me is an empty earthwork (with my cannon barrels acting as trench supports apparently). Wouldn't it make more sense to have the 4 gun units become permanently locked in the fort rather than having them vanish?

And besides, how useful are forts? I get that they greatly increase the patrol value in the region, and they resist (to an extent) assault, but do they in any way help units defending outside the walls? (They seem like expensive little death traps to me...)

[Jim-NC]

There are pros and cons for forts. They can stop an advance cold, but they are death traps to the defenders. They don't help those outside the walls. The cost has been the same since AACW.

1 Division in a fort can hold up 3 divisions for months, but at the cost of being destroyed at some point (the timeline depends on supply issues and breaches, how determined the attacker is to burn up his units, etc.)

[GraniteStater]

So does the cost of building forts annoy anyone else? 2 supply wagons and 4 cannon units...

Now, I'm not really against there being some kind of cost, but it is a bit absurd that my four cannons are consumed. All it gets me is an empty earthwork (with my cannon barrels acting as trench supports apparently). Wouldn't it make more sense to have the 4 gun units become permanently locked in the fort rather than having them vanish?

And besides, how useful are forts? I get that they greatly increase the patrol value in the region, and they resist (to an extent) assault, but do they in any way help units defending outside the walls? (They seem like expensive little death traps to me...)

Build 'em with four 6-lbers.

Then stick 'em at, say, Paducah...

or other highly inconvenient places. They interdict Supply and shoot up passers-by (on rivers, etc.).

Can be extremely annoying. Not an entire strategy, in and of themselves, but as part of a plan, can be useful.