This is not the traditional how to defend recently captured cities question, but a situation I came across some time ago.
The situation was the following. I was playing PTW emperor game (I haven't won any yet, doing great in monarch) as Scandinavia with standard continents. I was in the western continent with Japanese and Zulus. Me in the south, Japanese in the middle and Zulus at the north. I was doing fine, and planned to start war against the Japanese as soon as I get berseks. A little before launching my attack, a war broke between the Zulus and the Japanese. How convinient, they would have to split their forces. So I began my attack, with a amphibious landing in the backyard of Japan and a main strike from my area. The war went great with the power of berseks, and made peace when Japan had only one city left to get technologies, gold etc.
Here comes the main problem. As the last Japanese cities were in the western side of the continent, my main army was also there. So in the border towns near the Zulus I had only a few troops. Because I had good relations with them, I didn't believe they would attack me (at least not yet). I was producing musketmen in my core cities, but they were far away. After two turns of peace with Japan (Japan and Zulus had signed peace much earlier), those damn Zulus attacked those border cities with massive force. As my army was combination of berserks, pikemen, and musketmen, I didn't have the possibility to counter attack quickly with knights. I lost many cities before I managed to sign peace treaty.
The question is, what should have I done? I was well prepared for the war with the Japanese to stop their Samurai's counter attacks, and had large defensive force to protect my berserks. But it wasn't that large that I could have left many units in those Zulu border cities. Yeah, more defenders in your original attacking force is a simple answer. But if you build your army forever, you might miss a goog chance for a victorious war.
The situation was the following. I was playing PTW emperor game (I haven't won any yet, doing great in monarch) as Scandinavia with standard continents. I was in the western continent with Japanese and Zulus. Me in the south, Japanese in the middle and Zulus at the north. I was doing fine, and planned to start war against the Japanese as soon as I get berseks. A little before launching my attack, a war broke between the Zulus and the Japanese. How convinient, they would have to split their forces. So I began my attack, with a amphibious landing in the backyard of Japan and a main strike from my area. The war went great with the power of berseks, and made peace when Japan had only one city left to get technologies, gold etc.
Here comes the main problem. As the last Japanese cities were in the western side of the continent, my main army was also there. So in the border towns near the Zulus I had only a few troops. Because I had good relations with them, I didn't believe they would attack me (at least not yet). I was producing musketmen in my core cities, but they were far away. After two turns of peace with Japan (Japan and Zulus had signed peace much earlier), those damn Zulus attacked those border cities with massive force. As my army was combination of berserks, pikemen, and musketmen, I didn't have the possibility to counter attack quickly with knights. I lost many cities before I managed to sign peace treaty.
The question is, what should have I done? I was well prepared for the war with the Japanese to stop their Samurai's counter attacks, and had large defensive force to protect my berserks. But it wasn't that large that I could have left many units in those Zulu border cities. Yeah, more defenders in your original attacking force is a simple answer. But if you build your army forever, you might miss a goog chance for a victorious war.
