[City Unit Enchantment Bonus] +1 For Each Training Level Above 1 at Fortress, To Make Fortress Worth Using On High Essence Tiles.

from Elemental Forums

So each City Unit Enchantment on a particular city that currently does +1 per essence (Aura of Grace, Aura of Might, Aura of Vitality, and Heart of Fire), Fortress Enchantments would add a +1 for each Training Level above 1 for each of these spells on the Fortress when the unit is trained.  This would give a good reason to make a 2 or 3 base essence city into a Fortress, as if you're training level is 3 or 4, that's an extra +2 or +3 to the City Unit Enchantments which boost trained units.  Rather than a high essence city ALWAYS being made a Conclave (boring), what not provide an interesting strategic choice to 1. encourage more building of Fortresses and 2. make it a harder choice between Fortress and Conclave for high essence cities?

PS: Also make sure that Henchmen and Sions either get their level-up choices (by levelling units from L1 upwards) or always starting them at Level 1.  These units lose out a lot if they miss out on Trait Choices, and if a Fortress trains L4 units, these special units would never get a guaranteed path!

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I mostly like the idea. Seems a little complex though, i.e. how do short tooltips explain exactly how that works?

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Maybe HP/Defense/Initiative/Fire Damage Bonus (whichever it is) = essence + (Fortress training level - 1).

Anyway, I'm sure the Stardock team could explain it well.  Having this feature just makes it a much tougher choice between Conclaves and Fortresses for high essence cities.  And really, Fortresses should be the best at training very powerful military units, with or without magic help.

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

The reason I suggested special Essence bonuses for Towns and Fortresses is so that it is no longer an automatic choice of Conclave for primary 2 or 3 essence cities.  Choices when there is no choice are boring.  So why not add this idea for Fortresses, and some kind of Essence ability for Towns?  I think it is a very simple change which would add the possibility of a difficult choice, when a high starting essence city could become a Town, Fortress or Conclave, and they could all be worthwhile and powerful choices for your Kingdom or Empire. ^_^

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Wait... why do you automatically go conclave with high essence? I try to have one high-essence fortress for exactly that reason: so I can crank out good units with those bonus-per-essence enchants.

What am I missing?

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, good point.  I guess I got the wrong idea from that discussion on what people were choosing for their cities.  Though Fortresses were still a little underrepresented as choices I think.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, I never build more than one fortress, but I always build one.  If you check my .982 AAR, Stables is the native fortress, and at the time it became one, it was my most essence rich city.

As for multiple fortresses, at this point, I do not see the necessity. I believe in few, but elite troops, and I'll never have the crystal/iron income to build more than one per turn. (I usually save Gildar before I reach tech milestones, and rush my troops)

If the new release makes arrow fodder indispensable, I still won't need a second fortress, I'll just build chaff wherever. 

And anyway, I don't build troops unless I can build ass kickers, and once I have ass kickers, fortresses become quite plentiful... By turn 142 in the AAR I have two non-native fortresses at 0% unrest.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmm... for my most serious war in the last game, I definitely needed two fortresses to pump out enough units to keep the battle going. When I finally got a third up and running it definitely turned the tide, among other things. I guess it depends on how you do it, but having at least two is nice so that you can keep units coming while one goes "offline" to upgrade it's armory and barracks after you get the next tech. 

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top


actually i started turning my high essence locations into fortresses and my low essence ones into conclave, simply because i don't want to train my units out of conclaves and i need an ideal of 4 essence to crank out fully enchantes crack troops (troops on crack or whipcrack tough, you're call).

You only need one essence to really ge the conclave bonuses going since it's really about the research bonus rather than the enchantments.

conclave ==> research

fortress ==> training

the food one ==> err food, and gold.

 

I'll use a high fortress troop to make damage dealer elites, and a second fortress to make meatshield, or anywhere else to make the meatshields as required.

Since the fortress level bonus doesn't agree well with henchmen, i train my henchmen at a high essence conclave town. I willfully take full advantage of the bug that gives them free accessory bonuses so i can get a big helping of fire/ice damage boost to their range attacks while they level up.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Fortresses are worth building on high essence.  Enchanted Hammer/Obsessions/Heart of Fire/Aura of Grace are all nice boosts that stack with essence.

 

 A good Fortress to me is high production/2+ essence.

 

Towns are for low material

 

Conclaves are high food/1+ essence.