Early defense?

[jguy100]

What do you use early on for defense? I used to just build towers, but I have recently switched to building foot archers/light infantry instead. Barracks units are more mobile, but they die easier and take up part of your population limit. Towers are stronger, but they don't aren't too great on the whole "go here to attack that unit" thing. Lazy towers, never moving where I tell them to.

 

[Takhisis]

Just build an army and attack their lands, that should draw them off. I sometimes send a couple of scouts as decoys, the Ai just sends everyone after them.

 

[LLXerxes]

Towers near the places I want to defend, Archers behind the heavy infantry, then hide away some cavalry and sick them on the attackers.

 

[Winner372]

wen defendin, build archers, slingers and heavy cavalry. have a fort next to your city, garrison siege equipmnt in your city and reasearch some attrition and militia. If your army dies, build some militia to kill the rest of there army off, while buildin more troops

 

[Norseman2]

I either rush, defend, or boom. If I defend, I play with the Russians and I keep light cavalry, generals, and scouts around. The light cav can take out their supply wagons and then their army will drop rapidly. Done properly, one player can easily hold off the enemy team until nukes and bombers come along. If I boom, then I plan on having someone else defend me, or the rest of my team rushing. If I rush, then I don't put anything into defense. Once the enemy team is definitely losing, I might scatter some towers or forts to defend against raids.

 

[silver 2039]

I defend as long as I need to, to build up and then I attack. I just use my forces in choke points with trees and mountains around cities, with a copule of towers and maybe 1 fort thrown it.

 

[pushka]

I always start out with a few towers and a few troops as defence while I build up my city. Once in other ages, I start adding in the Forts and getting better units. The Cossacks are exceptionally good in defence, because they'll just go racing down for the kill! I'll probably have about four or five Forts, not mostly for defence but also to increase the size of my territory. They're pretty strong at forcing back enemy territory, and with the free attrition upgrades the Russians have, it comes in handy.

I also quickly try and build the Terra Cotta Army so I can get a load of free troops to help in early defence. Position a few around you're cities and it works just fine. And if they get killed by the enemy, they just keep coming back for free!

 

[Elite]

Just like Takhisis said, the best defense is a good offense.