Question: Defense Dilemma

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:
You generally have 5 options:

1) Blanket the area with armies, each large enough that local defence+army will be enough to defeat
2) Use traps or guessing methods to predict the next move and squash his army with your biggie.
3) Spam the you provinces with castles
4) Use a magical attack spell to jump the defence (the ghost spell seems effective for this)
5) Counterattack, devasting the oponents provinces just as he devastes yours.

Playing catchup is almost never worthwhile.

Disclaimer: I'm certainly no veteran.

Esben have described it well. What he said can be applied to both SP and MP. Since you didn't mention what type of game you are playing, I'll add 2 more options that are very effective for dealing with AI but much less usefull for MP.

6. Passive defence against AI:

"channel" the enemy forces by using your PD and local defenders. The enemy hoard will almost always attack the most weakly defended province (based upon total number of defenders there including PD). By using it you can make them attack specific province, but before they arrive, you can orginize "welcome comette" by moving all your nearby troops into threatened province. (remeber your movement between friendly provinces will happen _before_ enemy's movement).

7. Active defence against AI:
The best defense is a good offence. If you have enough armies, go after enemy's capital. When you'll arrive most of AI's troops will drop whatever they are doing (most likely raiding your countryside) and will run to rescue their besieged capital. Just make sure you have enough forces to withstand their continious attacks and/or can bring more reinforcements when needed.