Defensive Units

[adrianj]

I spend most of my games playing Monarch level, hoping to move up soon, although I like to have a go at the GOTMs regardless of their difficulty (usually playing the conquest version). I often prefer a builder strategy like winning by culture or spaceship.

I see in many other posts that you should build more offensive than defensive units, I guess because a) the AI thinks your more powerful and is less likely to attack, and b) you can take out enemy stacks as soon as they cross your borders.

My question(s) is (are): what use are the defensive units? Do I need one in every city? Especially for a peaceful government like Republic or Democracy? Even when my core is nowhere near my borders, I still feel vulnerable if there are no units there.

Thanks

 

[-Fate-]

Defensive units defend things. It just happens that many things don't need defending. Some things that do include artillery, airfields, offensive units, and border cities.

I feel vulnerable if my core is empty too, so I put a few useless defensive units there, one in each city, unless I'm actually trying to win the game or something.

 

[vmxa]

Well at Monarch you probably do not need any defenders, except at border towns and hot spots. If you are in republic, having a spear in a town does nothing for you.

If you are in a form of government that has MP's, then you can get that effect. In that case use a junk unit.

 

[vorlon_mi]

A small number of defensive units can be used to bring along
with your stacks of bombard units (cats, cannons, artillery; trebuchets in C3C).
All of the bombard units are single-move units, so the best offensive
units ( horsemen/knights/cavalry, tanks) can outrun them.

The previous posts have good advice: only defend what needs defending.
- Border towns near an enemy
- Coastal towns where the AI might land a unit or two (literally )
- Stacks of bombard units that are reachable by a horse-riding enemy
in one turn

In your core, you can have a small strike force of offensive units,
which will zoom out over the roads or rails to destroy any invaders.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

What you need to do if you aren't going to put defenders in your core citites is
A) make sure you aren't vulnerable to sea invasion
B) never sign ROP
C) throw people out the instant they trespass.
It's a crust defense, like a crab - the crust does you no good if you let people in...

 

[drakdan]

Defensive units have their purposes. Border cities, Military Police, chokepoints, lone mountains, dropping them behind enemy lines and pillaging, etc. One nice thing about them is that the AI will rarely attack a few defenders even if they have a SoD that could beat them. I'm using this right now to hold off France, which in my current game is my equal and has terrain stretching wide and touching almost all of my terrain (we're formed like an = sign).