Fully maintained forts and army tradition--does fort level matter?

[humblehome]

Does a level 2 fort give the same amount of army tradition as a level 3 fort, or do the higher level forts give more army tradition when fully maintained? Also, does "fully maintained" mean that it has a full garrison, or is it "fully maintained" as soon as you check the box to start paying full maintenance?

[pmpdadypenguinmn]

Higher level forts give more army tradition. In my experience it's best to keep forts for defense and not worry too much about the army tradition gain. Keep the forts you need for defensive purposes fully upgraded so you get all of the benefits and the ones you simply do not need, delete. A lvl 2 fort is a ducat a month each. 3 of those is another army stack you can have, which is more valuable.

"fully maintained" means just that. It's now turned on. If it was turned off, even for a second, the garrison goes to zero. Turning it back on adds a few hundred garrison each month. It can take a long time to get it up to full garrison, so if you plan on going to war and that particular fort is important, turn it on at least a year in advance so it has time to garrison. When it's turned off it's cost is halved but doesn't provide any army tradition and has no one defending it.

To get the full army tradition you need the max level fort for your tech level, 1 per 50 development. So if you have 500 dev, you need 10 fully upgraded and maintained forts. Which is really expensive and as I said, not worth min/maxing the tradition gain.

For me in the early game I usually delete most of my forts except for the ones that are of vital importance, like the capitol and any that are guarding a vital chokepoint. A good offense is the best defense.

That being said sometimes your nation is in a funky spot, like Kilwa. Long and snaky. In that game I forted everything because without fail a 2 stack would get behind me and seige up everything

[tonypa]

The forts, at max, have +1 Army Tradition per Year. It is not worth the trouble trying to "maintain" forts only partly just for Tradition.

As said above, if you are poor, delete forts you do not need at the center of country and leave only those at border (mountain) and mothball when not in war. If you are rich, leave more forts around and do not mothball them. In the end, your fort level or mainenance level will not play big role on your Army Tradition.

[Omniconda]

1 current max lvl fort per 50 dev you own is the cap
lower lvl forts provide half of that so you would need 1 lower lvl fort per 25 dev.