What is a better strategy:
1. Build fort lvl 8 in my main province (boxed mountains w/forests) and wait for 560 hours and be safe there? or;
2. Build 4-5 additional forts lvl 7 (different terrains) and get bonus production of +10% that next lvl of fort brings to each province, and wait for fort8 for later stages?
Your opinion? - please only experienced players
In my opinion, best is to built Fort 8 when the price for next colonization get higher from the price of Fort 8 - its easy to check... So, you colonize as much provinces as you can and you built Fort7 everywhere, then built Fort 8 at your main province, then keep colonize (if you need) and built Fort 8 at all the other provinces (if you colonize more than 12-13 provinces). Last era i stopped at 16 provinces, all Fort 8.
Very important: Never built Fort 8 before you built all the other buildings you need at that province! If someone siege you, you dont have to repair the Fort just to built Depo...
Its true that if you built Fort 7 you will get 10% boost on production, but also you will have to wait many many months before you get your gold back... I never think about that boost when i built Fort 7...
The only reason to built everywhere Fort 8 is to make things more difficult if someone wants to farm you. It will not be easy for him (or them) to sent 9-10 attacks as with Forts 7... Also it will be less safe for the attacker, cause you can defend easier if you are on-line...
Common mistake is to garrison only paladins inside all Forts 8... i use to garrison at least 1000 EA with the pals... Also i noticed that some players garrison mixed troops... Its only good against "lazy" attackers cause its not easy to count the total number of defenders army
PS. At the end, all depends from your goal... I remember 1 low pointer with Fort 8 at boxed m/f and some light troops inside. With the 3x range rule for attackers, nobody had enough trebs to break him... I think he had 60k-70k net points... not sure anymore.
