Coastal fortifications

[smacktoward]

Is there any point to building them?

Or, to phrase the question a little differently: are there any situations where you'd be better off spending a given amount of time and money building/improving coastal fortifications than you would be spending the same amount of time and money improving your battle fleet?

[Deleted]

Even though the price has been reduced, and I do appreciate that, building a dozen fortifications still seems to be a big waste of money, when you could build a few more cruisers for the same price.
The only thing that would make fortifications useful to my mind would be a further reduction to upkeep cost.

I usually build a bunch of forts on a coastline I can't defend properly, but it makes no difference to the strategic situation, and their presence in tactical battles doesn't seem to matter, because most fights take place away from the coasts.

To be honest, lately I've just stopped building forts, they don't really seem to have a purpose.

[klavohunter]

I tend to build a single 4" or 5" battery on most of my colonies, just in case that helps ward off enemy invasion.

My attempts at seriously using coastal guns as Mediterranean powers has not been as helpful as I would've liked, so I stopped making them. Occasionally I feel the urge to build some 5" guns to make life hell for enemy DD/CL in coastal raids, but.... it just never seems worth it.

[Deleted]

I'm going to test out fortification on my next game as the USA. I have 27 forts under construction (6 and 8 inch guns) at many bases in remote areas; Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay, Panama, Guam, and the Philippines. I'll keep track of how often they come into play, and whether or not having them helps is any situations.

[RNRobert]

When I acquire a new colony, I will build a fort (with 6" to 8" guns) to provide a modicum of defense, but other than that, I don't really bother.

[oldpop2000]

Apr 15, 2016 5:47:52 GMT -6 RNRobert said:

When I acquire a new colony, I will build a fort (with 6" to 8" guns) to provide a modicum of defense, but other than that, I don't really bother.

I usually don't bother building new forts, but I wish we could upgrade the guns in the old ones, which is what actually happened. I think longer ranged guns like 10 in. or 12 in. might be useful in repelling bombardment raids since most of those targets are near coastal forts. They could contribute to protection of merchants that sail close to the coast.

[director]

I do fortify my possessions like Hawaii or Djibouti or Tsingdao. Usually one battery of 4" is enough but for a critical port I'll add several 4", an 8" and maybe something bigger if I'm bored and have money LOL.

In my Byzantium game the Austrian player built a lot of forts, and in the narrow waters around his ports he got good service from them.

You can't upgun forts but you can scrap the old one and build anew. It doesn't save much on maintenance, but you can do it.

[vensalir]

Playing as Italy, the couple of forts I had along the coast of Liguria were very useful in repelling French destroyer raids on my coastal merchants. I would use my own destroyer squadrons to force the enemy ships to get close to the coast, where my 5" and 6" batteries could hit them.

[tbr]

I have modded coastal fortifications to be considerably more dangerous and cheaper. That is both for strategic and tactical balance as the AI builds lots of them. I have the large turreted batteries at the level of maintenace cost of a late game DD and the smaller batteries accordingly cheaper. All batteries receive quality 1 guns and increased elevation regardless of tech level and a higher ammo count. With boni to hit chance and rate of fire they become really deadly.

[fredsanford]

Wouldn't it be an infuriating pop-up to get the "boss wants you to build x 12" coastal batteries"?

Just saying.


Also, I like the deadly batteries mod idea. Since they are stationary and have pre-plotted fire capability, IMO shore batteries should be better than the equivalent guns on a ship.

[tbr]

Apr 16, 2016 11:41:29 GMT -6 fredsanford said:

Wouldn't it be an infuriating pop-up to get the "boss wants you to build x 12" coastal batteries"?

Just saying.


Also, I like the deadly batteries mod idea. Since they are stationary and have pre-plotted fire capability, IMO shore batteries should be better than the equivalent guns on a ship.

OK, here is a link. This replaces the coastal battery files in the Data/IDes folder. Do not forget to backup. Maintenance cost severely reduced, 20% bonus on rate of fire and 150% bonus on accuracy of coastal batteries, all batteries have quality 1 guns and increased elevation. They start with central rangefinders and get the better firecontrol through technology progress. Dangerous in early game they become deadly in mid- to late game.

www.dropbox.com/s/uuzgtvujnmtb1dj/rtw-coastal-batteries.7z?dl=0

[fredsanford]

Thanks!

[Deleted]

Apr 15, 2016 8:15:46 GMT -6 oldpop2000 said:

Apr 15, 2016 5:47:52 GMT -6 RNRobert said:

When I acquire a new colony, I will build a fort (with 6" to 8" guns) to provide a modicum of defense, but other than that, I don't really bother.

I usually don't bother building new forts, but I wish we could upgrade the guns in the old ones, which is what actually happened. I think longer ranged guns like 10 in. or 12 in. might be useful in repelling bombardment raids since most of those targets are near coastal forts. They could contribute to protection of merchants that sail close to the coast.

That's a really good idea. Upgrading guns, and having forts reduce the 'Coastal Patrol' requirement would be a neat addition.

[flyingtoaster]

Do coastal batteries add minefields? I think that's the case, and if so it gives me a bit more incentive to build them.

[oldpop2000]

Apr 26, 2016 11:34:36 GMT -6 flyingtoaster said:

Do coastal batteries add minefields? I think that's the case, and if so it gives me a bit more incentive to build them.

I don't know but that is a good question. It would be nice but maybe too complex to allow for a complete harbor fortification, submarine net and minefield creation. I guess we can call it a harbor fortification variable that as research on larger guns, mines etc. you could continue to upgrade the harbors. I don't know how effective they are, but in my years of study, after the Age of Sail they did not really stop anyone. Generally, you simply invade in a non-fortified area and destroyed them from behind. It might be interesting to see how this might play out. It might reduce the need for certain types of ships.