Star Fort (ETW building)
| Star Fort | |
|---|---|
| Category: | Fort |
| Level: | 2 |
| Turns to build: | 5 |
| Building cost: | 6000 |
| |
| Requires | |
 Artillery Fort | |
A star fort is an enormous system of bastions and defensive positions with interlocking fields of fire: an intimidating obstacle to any attacker!
In the Medieval period, castles had relied on high walls to make them impregnable and to give them a sense of overwhelming grandeur – part of their purpose was simply to intimidate lesser men. With the advent of gunpowder artillery, a different defensive scheme was required. Fortifications sank into the ground, protected by enormously thick walls, deep counterscarps and a sloping bank or glacis that would, hopefully, cause cannon shots to ricochet over the defences rather than penetrate.
Passive defence, however, is not enough. The layout of projecting bastions in a star fort creates interlocking fields of flanking fire to destroy attackers as they approach over the sloping glacis. In theory, no attacker should reach the wall without coming under sustained and murderous attack from the defenders. The star shape evolved so that no part of the defences would be “blind” to fire from somewhere within the fort. The whole structure is, in fact, one massive killing zone for artillery weapons and defensive musketry.
Historically, the most notable creator of star forts was the French military engineering genius, Marshall Vauban (1633-1707); his name is virtually synonymous with the design. His defences at Verdun were still in use during the battle there in 1916 during the First World War.