Liberating Forts

Latest update by CMBF on Dec 12th 2012

On the Frontier Region, in Boston, and New York as you explore these maps you will encounter enemy-held forts that are encircled by large red no-fly zones that, when you enter them, trigger the instant aggro of any enemy that has line-of-sight to you. Basically each of these seven Forts needs to be “liberated” by you by completing a set of three basic tasks, which are:

• Kill the Fort Captain


• Blow up the Fort's Powder Store[


• Lower the Fort's Flag

The above tasks pretty much must be done in order – though you can blow up the Powder Store before you kill the Fort Captain, you just cannot lower the flag before you have blown up the Powder Store and killed the Captain.

While there are secret stealth-action entrances for most of these forts, that approach is only really necessary if you wanted to try to take the fort by stealth. Taking it by force is almost always more satisfying, since you get to do battle with groups of soldiers and school them on what hand-to-hand combat really is...

The easiest approach to liberating a fort is to just walk in the front door – in this case that means front gate – killing any enemy that you encounter. Once inside you seek out and kill the Captain and his henchmen, then go to the marker for the Powder Store, open it and throw in a lit oil lamp and then run like hell (you get an 8-second timer) so you are not in the blast area when that thing goes up!

After that you can either clear out the enemy by killing them all or, simply lower the flag at the flag pole, which has the effect of surrendering the fort, at which point you get a very satisfying CS of the British troops that previously ruled the fort being lead out as POW's by the Continental Troops (the guys in the Blue Uniforms) who have now taken over the fort.

After a brief delay you will see a new Marker on the regional map that identifies that fort as “Fort (Liberated) and makes it a fast-travel spot for you.

Interestingly the occupants of the fort (the Continentals) still show up as Red (Enemy) dots on your radar map – but unless you do something that aggros them they will not attack you. Chasing after a courier in the fort WILL aggro them, just so you know.

Taking over (liberating) the seven forts in the game is part of a Challenge Group as well as being required to get 100% completion of the game, and there may be other related ticks on some lists, I am not entirely certain just what else is affected by it. The fact that it adds that spot as a fast-travel marker for you is justification enough to liberate that fort though.

Another bonus related to liberating the forts is that with each one liberated you reduce the total taxes in trade for that region, and each of the forts contains a Treasure Chest with $7500 – a tasty amount when you consider all of the expenses you are going to have in buying maps, upgrading your ship, and the like...