Forts, zones of control

[ArmyOfPoint5]

Are forts working properly? It seems that the enemy can just waltz through my occupied territory and siege forts that are VERY far behind their means, such as Austria moving into me, late game Italy, and seiging Rome before taking anything else. I know it wasn't placed there by a navy, as I've shattered theirs and blockaded theirs and Hungarys only ports.

[The Immortal]

the ai is a cheeting get when it comes to forts especialy up untill recently they didnt have to maintain forts bordering other nations untill recently the ai has an habit of forgeting it cant walk past ur forts willy nilly so it walks past them sometimes

[Dustpuppy]

Sorta forts are pretty tricky. The AI can walk past one fort onto another fort tile. So if you have two forts back to back that then border another AI, the AI can walk over both forts step into the foreign territory and then go wherever. Similarly if you have a fort with a tile adjacent to an enemy they can walk over your fort and into enemy territory without being stopped. I think that's how it's working anyway.

Worst part is if the AI recaptures a fort your army can get stuck with no path of retreat. Only stackwipes I've ever had outside of fighting the blue menace.

[691neil]

I believe they are being changed in the next patch, but yes currently the AI (and the player) can ignore the ZOC in some circumstances.

[Free Luigi M.]

Yep, AI doesn't follow fort rules.
Thankfully they are being changed in the next patch.

[ArmyOfPoint5]

Bump, because this is annoyingly still relevant. It's happening yet again on another mid/late game playthrough for me.

[tiberiansun371alexw]

How about the old fort system? of course, then forts should only have an upfront fee instead of a maintence since you'll need 1 in ever province.

[ArmyOfPoint5]

Ah no, what I mean is that during wartime, enemy AI are just simply walking past forts, when they should be captured before they are able to move onwards.

[tiberiansun371alexw]

Yeha but in the old system we were all on even grounds.

And to be hoenst, the new system doens't even make sense from a game balence system even witrhout vcheating

[The Immortal]

Originally posted by tiberiansun371alexw:

Yeha but in the old system we were all on even grounds.

And to be hoenst, the new system doens't even make sense from a game balence system even witrhout vcheating

why not?

[Jaridan]

It's a misconception, i also just learned this recently. The AI HAS to follow fort rules. No questions. BUT it has 1 SPECIAL exception :
If there exists a valid path the AI could take, no matter how long, no matter if it had to travel half the globe, if the AI finds such a path (water (for calculation no ships needed) an d mil access included) THEN the AI is allowed to go from A -> B without needing to travel the "long" way and thus "unfairly" waltz through your broderfort.

If you have all borders forted up, including seaacces tiles, then the AI will be forced to siege down your borderforts before being able to advance.

Best way to fort up is o x o o x o
x = fort, o = zoc.

[TheAmberFox]

Reyman's Paradox made a video about this very topic check it out:
https://youtu.be/x3KqmV_9-bA

Even after 250 hours i just found out that there was return provinces and certain cheesy movement rules that made the ai seem to waltz around your forts.

He also made another very detailed analysis on institution spread. Very informative channel i highly reccomend it for even experienced eu4 players

[gekkenhuisje]

Drat, I was just going to mention that video here. Ah well, good to see someone has already brought it here.

[Damedius]

Originally posted by TheAmberFox:

Even after 250 hours i just found out that there was return provinces and certain cheesy movement rules that made the ai seem to waltz around your forts.

Seem?

They actually do waltz through your forts at times.