Fort (Chronicles)

This article is about the building in Chronicles. For other uses, see Fort.

Fort
Building
Information
Introduced in	Chronicles
Type	Military Defensive structure
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Classical Age
Population	20
Use	Train unique units and Palintonons Research unique technologies and some other technologies Attack enemies
Special ability	Cannot be converted Can garrison both foot units and mounted units
Construction
Stone	650
Build time	200 seconds
Statistics
Size	4×4 tiles
Hit points	4,800
Garrison	20
Pierce attack	11 (x5)
Attack bonuses	+2 vs Spearman (main projectile) +1 vs Camel (secondary projectiles) +11 vs Ship (secondary projectiles) +11 vs Fishing Ship (secondary projectiles) +11 vs Stone defense (secondary projectiles)
Reload time	2
Range	8
Minimum range	1
Accuracy	100%
Projectile speed	7
Melee armor	8
Pierce armor	11
Armor classes	Building (+8) Standard building Castle
Line of Sight	11

“	Used to train and upgrade your unique unit, build Palintonons, and research technologies. Automatically attacks enemies within range. Units can garrison inside for protection. Ranged Units and Villagers provide additional projectiles. Provides 20 population, Cannot be converted by enemy Priestesses.	”
—In-game description

The Fort is a defensive structure and military building in Chronicles that becomes available once the Classical Age is reached. It is an important building in later stages of the game, through being a powerful fortification and by providing access to unique technologies, unique units, and Palintonons.

Forts also support 20 population and cannot be converted.

When playing Regicide games, each player starts with an additional Fort near their Town Center, and Treason is available instead of Spies.

It is identical to the Castle in Age of Empires II.

Tactics and placement

The Fort is the most versatile defensive building in the game. Its combination of high damage output and incredible durability makes it the center of a player's defense, as it can deter almost any unit from approaching it. Its high garrison space also aids it in this regard, making raiding nigh impossible around a Fort. As great as it is in a player's base, it is just as effective at securing a strategic position on the map, whether it be a chokepoint, contested resource (such as the gold pile on Gold Rush), or the area outside of an opponent's base.

A more offensive use of a Fort is a Castle drop, which involves placing Forts near or in the enemy's base, a daunting task given the Fort's offensive presence. However, the Fort's very long build time (200 seconds) makes this very risky. This is also compounded with another major weakness of the Fort: its cost. 650 stone is a very heavy price; even losing one Fort can be a major setback.

Like Castles for Age of Empires II civilizations, building a Fort instantly unlocks advancing to the Imperial Age, without requiring any other Classical Age buildings.

Long-ranged siege units are the greatest threat for Forts. Fortunately, the Fort can create Palintonons, granting a great counter to enemy Palintonons and Forts. This dynamic can lead to "Trebuchet Wars" when two Forts of opposing sides are close to each other, where each side tries to amass Palintonons to take down the other side's Palintonons and Forts.

If running for a Relic or Wonder victory, Forts can become very useful to build up the defense of the Wonder or the Temples holding Relics, but the support of other structures such as walls and towers is also required. The player must also have sufficient numbers of troops (especially cavalry) to counter enemy siege units. In Regicide games, the Fort is a safe (yet obvious) place for the King.

Attack and range damage

An empty Fort is able to fire five arrows at a time, with a base damage of 11 each. Garrisoning either Villagers or archers adds additional arrows to the Fort's fire, up to maximum of 21. One base arrow and 20 additional arrows are fired. The Fort inherently already has 4 "power" which is listed in the attack with parenthesis. Not all garrisoned units add the same number of arrows, and their value is generally dependent on two factors: attack and Rate of Fire. The more damage output the garrisoned units have, the higher the number of arrows fired.

Further statistics

Strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Ships, archers, Priestess, frail melee units
Weak vs.	Battering Ram, / Palintonon, Leviathan
Conditional matchups	Massed heavy melee units in the Imperial Age

Technologies
Hit points	Masonry (+10%) Architecture (+10%) Hoardings (+21%)
Attack	Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Flaming Arrows (+1) Lighthouse (+4 against ship and Fishing Ship)
Range	Fletching (+1) Bodkin Arrow (+1) Bracer (+1) Murder Holes (eliminates minimum range)
Accuracy	Target Practice (track moving targets)
Armor	Masonry (+1/+1, +3 building armor) Architecture (+1/+1, +3 building armor)
Line of Sight	Town Watch (+4) Town Patrol (+4)
Build speed	Treadmill Crane (+20%)
Work rate	Conscription (+33%)
Healing	Herbal Medicine (garrisoned units heal 6x faster)
Ability	Peloponnesian League (generate 45 gold per minute, Spartans only)

Building-specific technologies (Puru only)
Hit points	Defensive Emplacement (+1,500)
Attack	Offensive Emplacement (+3)
Range	Offensive Emplacement (+1)
Armor	Defensive Emplacement (+2/+2)

Team bonuses
Other	Georgians (repairing costs -25%)

Civilization bonuses

• Thracians: +15% work rate for miners and lumberjacks in a range of 8 tiles; serve as a dropsite for gold and wood. Can be built on any elevation.

Trainable units and technologies

Clicking on the icon leads to the corresponding page.

Blue: Units

Green: Technologies

Purple: Unique units

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Availability grid

The following table shows the availability of Fort technologies for every civilization.

	= Available
	= Unavailable

Civilization
Achaemenids
Athenians
Macedonians
Puru
Spartans
Thracians

Design

Athenian

The Athenian Fort has a Compluvium central structure.

Persian

The Persian Fort seems to be a composite of several structures in Persepolis rather than a specific building. The overall silhouette of the building with its four towers seems to resemble certain reconstructions of what the Gate of All Nations might have looked like, such as this one by the French archaeologist Jean-Claude Golvin.

The entrance has a bent axis approach which is common in Achaemenid buildings, originating from post-Ubaid Sumerian temples. The exterior entrance facade contains a relief of Persian and Mede guards under a Faravahar as seen in the eastern stairway of the Audience Hall of Darius. This relief is flanked by reliefs of a lion attacking a bull as seen in the Gate of All Nations, Apadana Palace, and several other structures. The wall in the entry staircase showcases the Assyrian Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal relief rather than its Persian interpretation. The banners on the top of the facade display the Achaemenid symbol, the Shahbaz bird. The friezes at the top and sides of the Fort contain lions in a similar style to the Ishtar Gate. After ascending the bent axis, the doorway is flanked by two Assyrian style Lamassu, as seen in the interior side of the Gate of All Nations.

Spartan

The Spartan Fort appears to be loosely inspired by the Macedonian fortress from the video game 0 AD with its overhanging corner turrets and overall layout.

Macedonian

The Macedonian Fort resembles the Chimarru tower.

Thracian

The Thracian Fort seems to be based on reconstructions seen in The Fortifications Of The Early Hellenistic Thracian City Of Seuthopolis: Breaking The Mold. It also has friezes from the entrance of the Sveshtari tomb, as well as a relief from the sarcophagus and pelte shields identical to those carried by the Rhomphaia Warrior.

Puru

The Puru Fort resembles the Mauryan fortress from the video game 0 AD which itself appears to be based on a reconstruction of the city walls of Kusinagara by Percy Brown.

Trivia

• The building icon shows the Athenian Fort with an additional tower on top not present on the in-game model.
• There is an unfinished Athenian Fort model in the game files that was not implemented in the game. Its model was loosely based on the Acropolis sanctuary complete with a smaller Athena Promachos.
• Despite being an equivalent of the Castle introduced in an expansion to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the Fort did not have unique design for every civilization, but for every architecture set, unlike the Castles in all other expansions except The Last Khans, which was bundled with the base game. Since update 158041, this is no longer the case, with each Chronicles civilization having a unique Fort.

Gallery

The Fort model for the Achaemenids

The Fort model unique to the Athenians as of update 158041

The Fort model for the Spartans since update 158041

The Fort model for the Macedonians

The Fort model for the Thracians

The Fort model for the Puru

Unused Fort model intended for the Athenians per its filename