Fortification
Overview
The world of Empire is littered with walled settlements, fortresses, keeps, castles and fortified bridges. These lesser structures may be the target of a quest or skirmish but they are not important for the calculation of army strength present in a territory. Only mighty fortifications are tracked: sturdy castles, networks of carefully positioned forts; great stone walls with sentinel towers.
Fortification Strength
- A starting fortification contributes 3,000 fighting strength to the owning side
- If the fortification is attacked, its contribution is doubled for the purposes of Victory
- If the fortification is attacked, its contribution also inflicts casualties
A campaign fortification is stationary and located in a specific region. Fortifications have a strength, based on the same scale used for Imperial armies. A small campaign fortification has a strength of 3,000 - equivalent to fighting strength of 3,000 raw recruits.
The strength of any fortifications in a territory are added to the strength of the armies present, but only for purposes of determining which side is victorious. Fortifications do not inflict or take casualties unless the orders issued by the generals for the campaign indicate that they are attacking the fortification or the region it defends. The effective fighting strength of a fortification (but not any military unit assigned to support it) is doubled if the region it is in is attacked, for calculating victory, and the fortification will inflict casualties based on its force.
For example, if the campaign is focused on capturing a forest region in Karsk then the presence of a 3,000 strength fortification in a nearby region will be important for determining which side is winning, but will not directly affect casualties. If the orders for the campaign involve trying to assault the fortification, then it inflicts and takes casualties like a campaign army with a fighting strength of 6,000 for the purposes of calculating victory, and 3,000 for the purposes of inflicting casualties.
A fortification is destroyed if its strength falls below 1,000.
Senate Commissions
The Imperial Senate can pass motions to create new campaign fortification or to improve or repair existing ones.
Costs
- Materials: 80 white granite and 20 Thrones.
- Time: 1 year to construct
- Upkeep: 10 Thrones per season.
Improvement
The Imperial Senate can pass a motion to improve the quality of an existing fortification. Improving a fortification takes one year to complete. The fortification must be controlled by the Empire throughout.
- Increasing a fortification from a strength of 3000 to a strength of 6000 requires 120 wains of white granite.
- Increasing a fortification from a strength of 6000 to a strength of 9000 requires 140 wains of white granite.
Further increases in the strength of a campaign fortification follow the same cost increase structure.
Repair
Fortifications are damaged when they are involved in a campaign. The upkeep costs provide for some automatic repair over time, provided the territory is under Imperial control, but the progress is slow. The Senate may pass a motion to pay for emergency repairs.
Automatic Repair
If an Imperial fortification is located in an Imperial controlled territory and is not subject to an attack during that season then it automatically recovers one tenth of its maximum strength every season. Imperial fortifications in territories which are not controlled the Empire or which are attacked during a season are not automatically repaired.
Emergency Repair
The Imperial Senate may pass a motion to authorize the use of additional materials - either white granite or weirwood - to speed up the repair of an Imperial fortification. This represents a concerted effort by the Empire to repair the fortification. Emergency repair, like natural repair, takes a season to complete.
In a single season, the first 30 wains of white granite or weirwood restore 20 strength for each wain allocated. The next 30 wains provide an additional 15 strength each. The next 30 wains provide an additional 10 strength - and so on. In addition to materials, emergency resupply costs 2 crowns per wain. The rate of emergency resupply resets each season so the white granite and weirwood spent in a subsequent season is not affected by earlier actions.
Upkeep
Fortifications require far less money to pay for their upkeep than an Imperial army - but they are still not free. A basic fortification costs 10 Thrones per season. A 6000 strength fortification costs 18 Thrones and a 9000 strength fortification costs 24 Thrones. Stronger fortifications cost proportionately more.
Fortifications are one of the first priorities of the civil service after the armies are paid for. If there is insufficient income in the Imperial treasury to pay for the upkeep of a fortification then it provides no benefits of any kind that season.
Military units
Some wealthy or powerful citizens maintain their own independent military unit. These units can be attached to a fortification to increase its effective strength. This is done by the orders of the military unit’s commander (submitted using the personal resource downtime system).
The experienced and capable troops in a starting military unit provide an advantage out of proportion to their numbers, adding the equivalent of 100 raw recruits to the strength of the fortification they support.
Current Fortifications
There are many lesser fortifications scattered across the Empire, keeps, towers and walled towns. These smaller fortifications are part of the Empire, and form an important protection against bandits and raiders - but they are not large enough to count as fortifications that make a difference for the defence of an entire region or territory against forces the size of an army.