To Garrison or Not?

[Shadzy19]

I play DG and am not really sure about this one , is it wise to keep 1 defender in all cities before everything is RR?
Sure you will have to pay quite a bit of unit upkeep but it seems the AI wont declare so often on you.
I used to disband pretty much all my warriors and my other defensive units from cities not near a coast whenever i got into a republic just to find out i get sneak attacked a few turns after.
Any opinions?

 

[Durkz]

well it's not a good thing just keep units near borders.
They attack you more when your military is weak to them if you are strong to them they will declare rearly

 

[vmxa]

If you are a republic form, then I would not keep troops in every city. It cost too much. Being weak or not is the main cause of them declaring. Later it can be for any reason.

I would be inclined to be having a war with someone anyway, so I need my troops in the front. I want to keep pressure on the AI so they cannot use their bonus to pull away.

If you are in a form that allows MP's, then it may make sense to have garrisons in most cities.

 

[gunkulator]

Garrisoning is somewhat map dependent. In general, once you get to Republic, it's not worth stationing troops in non-border cities, however, if you have a long thin island and your neighbors border you only at one end, it might be wise to keep a few attackers in the rear to guard against ship landings.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

Protecting your lands is normally easier done with fast moving units that with defending units. Fast moving units can take out the attackers rather than wait for them to pillage your lands and scare your workers. Also, using roads, your fast movers can cover a decent land area while the slow defenders are pretty bound to the city they are in.
With fast movers, you need less units, you can prevent pillaging and worker evacuations and when needed, they can be used on offence as well.

If you play agressively, and are constantly producing units everywhere, you really shouldn't need any garrisons at all, the battle is in your opponents territory, and in case something does get near your cities, it should be easy to take it out with the newly produced units that are near or passing by on their way to the battle field.

If you have small chokepoints where heavy attacks can be expected, you can build one defence point there, doesnt have to be in a city, you can even use an unprotected city to lure enemy units to where you can kill them easy.
You can make a defence point with defence units + bombardment units + fast moving attackers to take out the damaged intruders before they retreat if you have a 1 or 2 tile chokepoint. If it is larger, you probably better use offensive units for active defence. If it is not completely closed, the AI will just move on trough your territory, maybe pillaging some things on the way.

If you got to industrial age and everything is railroaded, you need to defend border cities that can be attacked in 1 turn very heavilly. This usually is the case for the cities you just conquered from the enemy. The first turn there is no risk for a culture flip. The next turn, either make sure you have enough units to stop flips, or make sure the city is save from attacks by conquering the next city or pilaging the opponents infrastructure.
When you have railroads, you never need to worry about any other attack than on cities that can be attacked in one turn.

If you have 2 AI's fighting their war on your territory and you suspect one will turn against you, then you need to garison any cities at risk. A combination of defenders and fast movers is best now.