Fortresses and Production

[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 ]