Many Small Stacks vs. one SoD

[God]

In war do you prefer to have 1 large SoD (Stack of Doom) or do you have many small stacks attacking a bunch of cities at the same time???

I usually have alot of smaller stacks because it means alot of cities knocked out on fewer turns, but then there are some disadvantages to it.

If for some reason one city is loaded with defenders then your small stack will get thrashed. Also if the AI counterattacks it could probably easily knock out those weakened smaller stacks.

With a big stack you are certain to have alot of healthy units.

 

[DaSilva]

In my current game as the Persians my land was to the north of the Romans peninsula. They had 4 small towns in a row at the top (very early in game this), so i sent stacks of 3 immortals to the borders of each town then declared war.

Immortals had no trouble with the defending spearman and warriors (peninsula was all jungle and romans hadnt linked their iron yet). They just worked their way down until the penisula was cleared only stopping in a captured city to regain hp but it didnt stop the invasion cause of multiple stacks.

I think with one SoD then the enemy could work its way round you taking back its cities and even getting to your own territory so I find it better to go with multiple stacks.

 

[Sir Yelof]

Generally the big stack is best for the reasons you mention. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, such as:

- When splitting up your stacks will cut off access from the nearest city , preventing reinforcements from entering the city
- When splitting up your stacks and covering the roads will blockade the city from luxury resources, sending the city into disorder or at least curtailing production

Generally, I figure that if I have enough defensive units to spread around to cover the offensive units (e.g., pikemen to cover the horsemen/archers), and I can get a tactical advantage on the map, I split...

--Yelof

 

[cracker]

The entire Stack-of-Doom process is a direct offshoot of ineffective implementation of bombardment engagement rules combined with the infinite knowledge that the AI has of every unit at every location on the map. (I know, i can here you saying "here he goes again").

If the bombardment engagements were not just a cheap modified recycle of the head to head slugfest, then the effectiveness of bombardment engagements would go way up with the experience level of the bombarding units combined with number of possible targets to get hit in a single square. If the bombardment effectiveness were tailored to the level of about 2 full sized armies or 10 to 15 units per tile, then we would see some much more realistic and strategically enjoyable campaigns.

Since one unit in the stack holds up the proverbial Red Umbrella of inifite bombardment protection, all the other units cluster about in defense and that is just exactly the opposite of what should occur (I think it was General Stillwell's orders at Pearl harbor that commanded all the airplanes to be clustered in the center of the runways so they could easily be defended.)

The infinite map knowledge of the AI also leads directly to the SoD prevailence.

If you or I were going to attack a civ, we would need at least a SoD surrounded by one or two S^3OD (Slightly Smaller Stacks of Doom) just to have some knowledge of the surrounding troop dispositions and potential counterattacks etc.) Since the AI knows where everything is all the time, then there is no requirement to fan out and find the critical engagement in the way the Napoleonic field armies were forced to maneuvre.

Another factor of this infinite map knowledge that forces us to keep our troops spread out, is the miraculous ability of the AIs to use satelite technology in the BCs to detect which one of our 42 cities is undefended so they can barf up a single swordsman from a galley and force us to redirect attcking forces to another task. You and I could never possibly choose the weakest 1 city out of all the other cities that an AI my have to offer even if we had gazillion samolians in the bank to investigate every individual city in every turn.

A further bug that forces the humans to use more of a fan out approach is the resource disconnect bug that still exists in captured territory and prevents access to some luxuries and railroad construction until the next turn after territory is captured. A single SoD could decimate a civ in just a turn or two if strategic thinking could be applied with stacks of combat workers and resource reconnection.

A final factor that I think drives me to using multiple stacks of attackers is the differences in mobility and attack factors. I usually have multiple stacks of artillery and infantry moving toward a couple of key objectives while a have a major attack force that leapfrogs across these strongpoints. Except when you reach the Mech Inf level, there is usually enough of a performance difference between the A-D-and-B units to force you to incorporate them all in your strategy. A stack of Musketmen and cannon, that gets joined by a stack of cavalry or cossacks at the moment before attack is very effective. I do keep counterattacking units with each defensive attack stack just for cleanup and counterattack purposes.

 

[Selous]

well my theory ... and the post above confirm it ....

i use the 1 SoD ... usually ... but i dont use artillary and i make all my attacking forces fast units ... so i HAVE to make a break through on the turn i attack or all is lost, and i have to continue to follow up after the attack quickly before the enemy can organise a proper counter attack ... generally i dont even worry about defencive units ... just cop the megre counters that the enemy can throw at me on the chin .... this is why i loooovee the japaneese with their samuri unit ... being 4/4/2 .... they are great on the attack and can defend better than any unit at that time ... and WELL into the future

sometimes .... i will use 2 stacks and attack from 2 different directions at once ... with the smaller force attacking first ... then 2 turns or so later ... in with my main force from a different direction ... but i feel like cheating as the AI is retarted to this kind of attack and has no idea what to do (which is kinda realistic i suppose)

but i can see ... if u are into artillary ... and slow moving forces ... then multiple stacks put into well defencable positions and kill the enemy by slow death would work very well also .... with this tactic u couldnt use 1 SoD as u wont be able to cause the maximum amount of damage to the enemys empire

damn i wish u could have artillary duels like in real life .... and in alpha centuri .... it would make having artillary sooo important!!!

 

[Tough guy]

i personally like go in with many SoD-s with 10 artillery, 20 tanks, knights or cavalry and 5 defensive units in each

 

[costanza]

I personally like 2 different sets of units. This works well late in the game, but early on when movement is slower, I usually go with several main stacks and a "stream" of reinforcements coming behind.

The AI does get confused as to how it should deal with 2 sets also. But it will almost always send a counter-attack into your territory, even if you are going through their cities. Evidently, the AI isn't that smart combat-wise, but does have some pretty big brass.