Jamiemaude15
Legionary
posted 04 November 2007 07:19
EDT (US)
6 / 17
Favourite Faction - Brutii.
Defend. Against cavalry, Roman infantry are second best at defending against them. Also i can hire Mercenary Hoplites in Greece whichproves useful in defence.
nikhilm92
Legionary
posted 04 November 2007 08:53
EDT (US)
7 / 17
I normally attack when I get the chance...
Attacking is way more challenging than defending. Attacking also gives you some time to experiment with formations as the enemy will never attack you. But its difficult becuase you have to deal with the entire enemy army at ONCE.
Defending is pretty eassy because the AI makes the first move/attack. And as we all know: AI IS PRETTY STUPID!
This happened many time to me, but whenever the AI attacks...The enemy army seems to have a tough time holding the line...making it easy to breach. I even had a LARGE important battle that could change the entire phase of the game, and the stupid AI sent ONE UNIT AT A TIME to attack...all I had to do i make everyone encircle the unit and destroy it.
But as zakkuknight said, its depends both on what army you have, what army the opponent has, and what is the situtation of the game...like if you simply want to make sure the enemy has great casualities...And you are in debt because of army upkeep...I find it wiser to kill them in battle than dismissing them...
Hope this helped!
Chickan
Legionary
posted 04 November 2007 18:43
EDT (US)
11 / 17
Depends on what I have vs what they have, really.
If I have more archers + more artillery, I defend. That way, I can take out a good number of troops before they reach my front lines. If they walk, they lose more. If they run, they grow more tired. If they get close enough (and charging), I send about one third of my units forward, one third to the left, and one third to the right. I keep one or two units behind to guard the archers/etc. Cavalry will try to sneak back around their army to catch any routing units and/or take out some missile units.
Oh yeah, and I haven't played online yet. xD This isall vs AI.
nikhilm92
Legionary
posted 04 November 2007 19:43
EDT (US)
13 / 17
If a man does not strike first, he will be the first struck
- Athenogoras of Syracuse
LloydBrown
Legionary
posted 05 November 2007 10:21
EDT (US)
14 / 17
Appropriately enough for this forum, the master of taking the initiative was Julius Caesar. Caesar always attacked, even if his camp was attacked at night, even when the strategic mission was defensive, and even if he had insufficient intelligence about his foes.
Because of this, he was able to win many battles lesser generals would have lost. As was mentioned, the attacker sets the tone and pace of the battle. If your enemy has reinforcements, attacking quickly allows you to deal with the army groups individually before they can consolidate their forces.
Attacking is almost always better tactically.
Whether it's more fun is up to you.
MarxII
Legionary
posted 05 November 2007 19:43
EDT (US)
16 / 17
I prefer to move my enemy. Generally this means attacking with something, ideally horse archers, in such a way and at such an angle as will compell the foe to dash himself against a well prepared line. It involves a bit of both, but given a choice, I defend. In many battles I have supposed that all else being equal, the side that has to walk to the battle will be the more tired.
Yusaku Jon III
Legionary
posted 05 November 2007 20:37
EDT (US)
17 / 17
I've found that I prefer defending against armies with heavier infantry or superior numbers, especially on a hill or steep ridge and with plenty of missile units (skirmishers, archers and artillery) on my side. However, if I'm forced to defend on level ground with fewer troops, then it becomes a matter or splitting up my forces and getting part of them around the enemy's ranks to attempt to break up their formation and force them into an trap.
In attacking, I always prefer to find a way to immobilize the opposing infantry before sending any cavalry that I have around to give them an iron enema. Usually, having a skirmisher line soften up the enemy first works as well. However, I would rather attack smaller armies with a big force so as to whittle them down to size and then send my hulking juggernaut at the city that they're defending.