Why build Fortresses?

[Endoperez]

rsolow said:
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.

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.

[rsolow]

Endoperez said:
In the case you missed it: building a fort will allow you to recruit most of your national units as well.

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

[Endoperez]

I thought it might be that.

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.

[Shovah32]

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

[Nerfix]

That's awesome. Reminds me of my three star heroic strenght Thunder Bow + Boots of Strenght + Bear Talisman Storm General in Dominions: PPP.

[Gandalf Parker]

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