Why build Fortresses?
 

I am using the 20% (Nature-10) Nelf Giant Strategy

1. Should I be building province defense as I expand. I am crushing everything in my path with my regenerating giants and haven't seem much use for defense yet.

2. I cannot seem to find any reason to build new fortresses. All I am building are Giants and Giant Commanders. None of the provinces I have conquered have offered me any cool units worth building (except for an occasional priest). But since I am limited to 1 commander per turn per province, resources are usually not a limitting factor so why build the fortresses? My build limits are typically in my home province and I am limitted by only being able to build 4 Holy units and by the amount of gold I have available.

3. Do you bother building some amphibious units in any of the coastal provinces so that you can take over water provinces? So far, I have been ignoring water provinces. Are water provinces every worth the effort??

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

Lots of variables determine whether or not you should build province defense, such as what stage of the game, what opponents, are your opponents human, what neighboring enemies are near the province and so on.
Playing the giants I would advise placing AT LEAST 10 in every province.

This depends on several variables as well. If you're facing human opponents then fortresses can help you hold key bottleneck provinces. If you are playing against computer opponents and examine the graph to discover you are leading in army size and provinces then there's no real need to build fortresses/castles because you can just use the ones you conquer.

I would advise not playing maps with water when playing against computer opponents because most of the computer opponents lack the drive and knowledge of expanding into the water. This results in you gaining an unfair advantage.
If you are playing against human opponents the water provinces are good because they are difficult to access for most units and usually provide access to several other land provinces.

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

...

This works perfectly in Single player, but this strategy have many flaws. Sure N10 Niefels giants are incredibly strong, but good players will counter them (Fatigue, Death bless for afflictions, mass destruction spells).

Also, with only a dominion of 4 many players will see the opportunity to "Dominion-fight" you. I think your ever-figthing giants will get tired rapidly in warms provinces, so a high dominion (minimum 6 if you dont plan to use temples) could be useful I think.

For your questions:

1. It depends on the game. PD helps to "control" where the AI will attack. If you dont encounter challenging AI it's not a big problem. Remember: PD doesnt require upkeep.

2. Your strategy doesn't seem to require many forts. In Single player that's a matter of taste. Where do you spend your money? Just giants? Researching magic (need more fortress) can be a good way to diversify your strategy and to be more able to adapt.

3. That's a weird question.... Build em only if u want to go in water! In SP you play until youre satisfied. So if you just want to conquer land, thats your choice. Are water provinces worthing it? I think it depends on the General's (or God) vision of the game (you!).

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

Well fortresses are usually pointless vrs the ai as you can crush them easily but, they do let you build extra national troops (i like jotun javelin throwers) and mages each turn.

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

In the case you missed it:
building a fort will allow you to recruit most of your national units as well. Only those that units and commanders only available from your capital's magic sites can't be recruited elsewhere. However, Jotun commanders can be very good combatants, and are both sacred and capable of blessing themselves.

If you build a temple to recruit priests, you can build a fortress as well to keep the temple safe. If an enemy takes your province, your temple will be destroyed.

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

Ahhhh...there is the piece of the puzzle I was missing. I can build more of my national giants with a fort.

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

I thought it might be that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

You won't get any Niefel Giants, as those are only available from the capital. Of the other troops:
Jotun Javelinists are nice. Strength of over 20 gives their Javelins wonderful range, and as they are one of the few ranged weapons with which strength is added to damage, they also deal wonderful damage...

Also, some kind of shortbowmen are nice to have. If you have conquered lands from a Deer, Wolf or other tribe, you can also recruit their Shamans if you build a temple and a lab. Unless you have negative magic scale, they are more cost-effective researchers than your giants.

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

Speaking of strong javelins, i had a prophetised jotun scout who got heroic strength. I gave him boots of giant strength and a girdle of might and he, in friendly dominion of 6 had a strength of 50. I later gave him jade armour and an eye of aiming, since i was fighting agartha with lots of ancient ones his 53 damage with 50 range and high precision came in VERY handy http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

That's awesome. Reminds me of my three star heroic strenght Thunder Bow + Boots of Strenght + Bear Talisman Storm General in Dominions: PPP. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Why build Fortresses?
 

Another good point is that for large maps it gives you a front-line location to build giants in.

TIP: In multiplayer games a castle can be used as a way to allow an ally to move thru your territory. It allows you park your army in the castle and allow a friend to take the province and pass thru. With coordination it allows one player to provide a defensive fallback line while the other builds and sends out attack armies