Is Fortress Defense really possibler without using low point?

[TYhermyte]

So...  I am just over 50K points.  Nice L7 Fortress packed with Elite Archers.  The problem?

500 Trebuchets can reduce that Fortress pretty quick, even on a boxed mountain.  And they only cost 30 points a piece.  So 500*30=15K Points.

Heavy Cavalry is 300 points per 1000. Hvy. Swords and Elite Archers are the same for 2000.   So 900 points for 1K/2K/2K.

So a 24K point army could be 500 Trebs, 10K HC, 20K HS, and 20K EA.

I could build that myself and still easily be within striking range of where I am now.  Crack my own fort like an egg.

So.. to defend a Fortress do I need a large Field Army outside it?  That gets really expensive.  My impression was that Fortresses should be able to stand on their own to some degree, but I am thinking not.  With the way Fortress prices go up Geometrically (2x the strength for 4x the price) and Armies are linear just makes that impossible after a point.  A L8 Fortress is about 15K Points.  No.. more like 20K since it is base cost not the reduced price.  That means that an extra 40K points worth of Troops can now attack you.  And 1500 trebs will shatter even a L8 Fortress.  At least so says the Battle Calc.

Thoughts?  Am I missing a key point somewhere?

[Radooo]

But if you keep some archers inside, it would be more difficult. And to break a fort 8 you need a lot of army ...and many players lose their big armies

[TYhermyte]

Filled with Elite Archers.  The Trebs drop the walls so fast that they only get a get about 7 rounds of fire in.  And then they are easy meat.  Drop the Archers and add in some other troops they can bring few Trebs and a whole stack of Archers and bleed the Garrison.

Fill a L7 fort with whatever mix of units that you want and it still seems to get crushed easily by a 20-25K point Army.

[stud]

but u are forgetting field army, boxed prov., and prov terrain. also if u just put few k archers in the field, they will reduce attackers moral by 7 right in the beginning ('cause elite archers shoot be4 others, so enemy loses more troops than u in that round)

[TYhermyte]

Interesting idea.  They will have more, but adding 1K EA's to teh Field Army could make a difference.  It really becomes all about Morale doesn't it?  Get the fight down to that 40 Morale range where the risk of retreat is too high for them to want to attack.

[Radooo]

Yes, of course, it's all about morale. In 7 rounds, your morale will be with 35 less. And if he starts with 85 morale, with some archers on field (200 are enough if attacker doesn't have any archer), he will finish the battle with about 45 morale, so there are chances that he will lose. And you don't need to fill the fort with archers. Sometimes they are useless.

[stud]

i like them in big numbers in fort. they kill so good sometimes i wipe out entire army with archers, be4 he even destroys the fort, so he loses the battle with 64 moral

[numpty]

IMO the answer to your question is no, only low points.  there is no such thing as a big enough army in Imperia, just opponents unwilling enough to decimate that army to acheive glory...