Sirian in Sid Vicious and the Magnificent 7 writes:
Based on that, if you have border cities all the same size and none sit on a hill and/or taking a river and walls into account also, I think you might manage to have most border cities with a veteran defensive unit, while the city you defend has a regular or conscript defender (before you can get multiple elite defenders). The city with defenders could have multiple regular defenders, I think, and units like archers with a defensive free shot and/or artillery type units.
Sirian said:The AI attacks where the tactical odds are the best. IE, where the best defender in the stack has the weakest total (HP * Defense).
Based on that, if you have border cities all the same size and none sit on a hill and/or taking a river and walls into account also, I think you might manage to have most border cities with a veteran defensive unit, while the city you defend has a regular or conscript defender (before you can get multiple elite defenders). The city with defenders could have multiple regular defenders, I think, and units like archers with a defensive free shot and/or artillery type units.