I want to add two reasons for the many forts, as they have not yet been mentioned. The extra defensive bonus is not the main reason for building forts.
1. Pillaging an own modernization needs military units and time, and the units are often easy target for the attacker. Building a second modernization is possible by sacrificing a worker.
Moreover I can prepare this without loosing the existing modernization too early. The long duration of the war allowed me to pre-build forts almost everywhere. Keeping the cottages as long as possible was very important. The war with Mjmd+GCK kills all my trade routes to other continents...
2. The forts on coastal can be used to speed up unit movements. At least for GCK's second attack, it was critical that units could be moved quickly enough to the capital. (A few turns before Mjmd's triremes reached the sea before my capital.)
If I remember correctly it was something like:
I moved a galley from 'Aralkum-2-2' into the city and a second ship grabbed an unit from 'Aralkum-2'.
The above screenshot clearly shows that the war was really long. Otherwise I would never hat enough time to build so many forts
Please note also my research objective: Horseback Riding. My early play was focused on getting this tech by oracle. Just because I missed to increase the 'field of view' slider before logging in I missed the position of the horses.
It is still unclear for me if selection Monarchy was the better. Probably none of my neighbors would be surprised by horse archers. On the other hand I never got the tactical opportunities of two-movers.
1. Pillaging an own modernization needs military units and time, and the units are often easy target for the attacker. Building a second modernization is possible by sacrificing a worker.
Moreover I can prepare this without loosing the existing modernization too early. The long duration of the war allowed me to pre-build forts almost everywhere. Keeping the cottages as long as possible was very important. The war with Mjmd+GCK kills all my trade routes to other continents...
2. The forts on coastal can be used to speed up unit movements. At least for GCK's second attack, it was critical that units could be moved quickly enough to the capital. (A few turns before Mjmd's triremes reached the sea before my capital.)
If I remember correctly it was something like:
I moved a galley from 'Aralkum-2-2' into the city and a second ship grabbed an unit from 'Aralkum-2'.
The above screenshot clearly shows that the war was really long. Otherwise I would never hat enough time to build so many forts
Please note also my research objective: Horseback Riding. My early play was focused on getting this tech by oracle. Just because I missed to increase the 'field of view' slider before logging in I missed the position of the horses.
It is still unclear for me if selection Monarchy was the better. Probably none of my neighbors would be surprised by horse archers. On the other hand I never got the tactical opportunities of two-movers.