Fort
From AACWWiki
| Terrain and map information | |
|---|---|
| Fort | |
 The various fort icons | |
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| The information in this article applies to the following games: | |
| BOA | yes |
| AACW | yes |
Forts are structures built to help in the defense of regions. The term also covers the entrenchment of units when stationed in a region for some time.
Contents |
Fort level
Forts are considered to be at either one of two levels:
- Level 1
Pre-war forts
- Level 2
Field fortifications (network of trenches and earthworks). Note that Level 5+ trenches (only achievable with artillery) provides some of the benefits of forts, but are not a structure per se. Forts are structures.
A fort can sustain a number of breaches equals to its level before being considered as "breached". It means that to suppress most of the fort advantages, you have to inflict 3+ breaches on field fortifications. The effect of forts on combat are rather extreme, but varies depending of who attacks and who defends (calculated for each element separately). For the exact benefit (expressed in bonus or malus for the ratings for offensive, defensive fire, discipline, protection), the terrains matrix file has all the info (see the "Terrains.xls" file, part of the freely available AACW database).
In short, all infantry and cavalry are highly penalized when attacking a fort. This is particularly true of irregulars. For defence, militia are nearly as good as regular infantry.
Artillery gets a bonus when defending from a fort, and is not much penalized when firing on it. As artillery also enables you to breach a fort (or field fortifications), it will be of a tremendous help when sieging or assaulting them.
Building a fort
The following requirements must be fulfilled in order to build a permanent fort:
- You must have 4 supply wagon elements and 4 artillery elements gathered in a region.
- The elements cannot must have at least 50% strength.
- The units cannot be in a stack led by an inactive general.
- You must have at least 51% military control of the region in question.
- There must be a city (of any level) in the region.
When these conditions are fulfilled, you can use the "build fortification" special order to start construction of the fort.
Trenches
Units automatically entrench when they remain stationary in a region. Incorporating an engineer in the entrenching stack will speed up this process. Note that simply being entrenched won't trigger sieges; the defender must be within a structure (e.g. town or permanent fort) for that to happen.
Destroying a fort
To destroy a fort, you need to have troops in the fort's region and use the "destroy fortification" special order. During the following order resolution phase, the troops will then start tearing the fort down.
Effects of forts
Sieges & storming a fort
Forts (especially level 2 forts) provide significant benefits to the defender. In the process of siege combat, the attacker may be able to breach the fort, significantly reducing its benefits for the defender.
After a siege has been completed, any breaches are repaired automatically, leaving the fort as good as new.
An often overlooked benefit of a fort, besides providing the defender with a defensive bonus, is that it constrains how many regiments can fight at a time quite a lot, thus often negating any numerical advantage the attacker might have. This holds especially true for the first day of battle, since if the defenders don't get relief, the attacker will probably have more fresh units to commit to battle from the second day and onwards.
Effect on supply
Forts (including level 5+ trenches) bordering a river or sea region will stop any enemy supply from passing by.
Forts also generate supply in limited quantities, base rate being 2 general supply per fort level.
Engaging passing units
Forts (including level 5+ trenches) bordering a river or sea region will engage passing enemy fleets, bombarding them, and vice-versa provided the passing fleet is capable of it.
Effect on evasion & detection
A permanent fort will greatly increase the patrol value its controller has in the region (military control of the fort times its level). See how evasion works to get a better picture of the usage of patrol value and evasion value. Forts don't generate detection points, but as they are a structure, they force most of the enemy troops in their region down to a hide value of 1.
Effect on replacements
A land unit in a permanent fort will receive a 10% increase in its replacement rate (halved for Union units).
Effect on movement
A permanent fort will inhibit enemy land movement in its region
