When to attack

[Stone Mill]

One critical aspect not clearly addressed in the PRINCIPLES OF WAR is the political aspect.

Before taking any decisive action, ensure you have the buy-in from as many allies as possible. Control the political spin. If not, your direction and concentration of forces may result in exposing yourself to a current "ally," who may find that an attack against you now looks appealing. Also, players may view you as a warmonger and potential threat and act to defend the weaker player.

It is Very important to control politics when playing with humans. In the blink of an eye, all of your advantages may become moot when all of the sudden, you are faced with a 2-front war that you are not prepared to manage.

[Zarix]

An early attack is good only if the enemy doesn't have mines. Frying a homeworld with a single planety napalm ship is very cost effective. Early attacks are waste of time if the enemy has already built some defences.

A middle game attack is more difficult. You have to have mine sweepers so if you fail more is lost than in an early attack.

The right time to attack is different in every game. If you have the most powerful ships then any time is good. If you think that you will lose a ship to ship combat, attack when the enemy ships are away from their planets. The best advice that I can give is to attack when enemy has pants down and run away really fast.

[TerranC]

*I have the English and Korean Versions of Art of war, if anybody is interested.*

you attack when you believe that:

Your enemy is primitive than you
Your enemy is only focusing one system at a time
You have a fully functional supply/support line

[Wardad]

Originally posted by Zoompet:
Hmmm, this is getting a little far a field.

I guess what I was driving is which is better an early, middle or late game attack. Why, do people think they need a certain tech item, an economy of X size, a fleet of Y size, etc.

This is in particular reference to human players.

Mines do stall an early game war. An early war will delay your expansion. But maybe you shouldn't advance too far in a PBW game. You don't want your race or colonies captured.
An early war can also give some advantages. Like a captured race that breathes a different atmosphere. Likewise taking another colonizing tech by ship capture or surrender will be a big advantage. If your happeness type is bloodthirsty: a phony, drawn out, but victorious war can make your population jubilant and bonus your production.

[Stone Mill]

Objective

What is it that you hope to accomplish with your attack?

Is it for the sheer fun of your bloodthirsty race? If not, it's best to have a strategy behind it.

Pre-emptive Attack: Attacking with the purpose of eliminating a threat. An enemy is massing troops at your border, and you have the ability to strike with an advantage with a high probability of winning. Outcome of the battle is reducting enemy's ability to wage war. See Offensive.

Attack with the purpose of gaining and HOLDING ground. If you overextend and do not establish adaquate security, your new gains are vulnerable. If this is your purpose, go big or stay home. See Mass.

Attack to distract / divert enemy forces away from a primary target. See Economy of Force.

Attack to disrupt the enemy's economy and reduce his ability to wage war. Burn planets, cause riots, reduce his production and maintenance capabilities. Important!!!

Defensive Attack: Counterattack to stop an enemy threat. In this case, delay as much as possible until you can compile a fleet that will win or severly damage the attacking force. Until then, accept planet losses while you form up at a point to your advantage. Don't waste your forces by sending them in piecemeal. Waiting one more turn for a few critical ships to join your counterattack may make the difference.

Attack when the advantage is yours. This means when your economy can support it, and when you have better forces.

Attack rather than defend. You must prepare for war from turn 1, and the eventuality that you will be at war with everyone (unless your game has different parameters). This means that you will have the dirty job of backstabbing many people. But don't feel bad about it. They were eventually going to do it to you. The way SEIV is built, the advantage always goes to the attacker (if he/she is a good player). If you are attacked by a player while you are building your economy and expanding, your attacker is smart. You should do the same, and take advantage of opportunity. See Surprise.

Timing
Early game wars just stink. Avoid them whenever possible. They stunt your economic growth and expansion.

Mid-game wars are tolerable with the conditions noted above. But the absolute best position to be in is to not be at war while you are expanding/growing. When your planets/systems are developed, your economy is strong (minus the resource loss from treaties you will break). Attack when there is no where else to expand but at the expense of the enemy.

Late game war is the prime place to be. This means you have built up and avioded conflict through successful political action, while letting the other players bash themselves to bits as much as possible. You have underplayed your true hand (Eastern philosophy) and now you are ready to reveal and execute it. At this point you have a solid change for winning the game.

[Puke]

holding ground should not always be your goal. the Russian army (until the end of WWII) held the doctrine that anywhere they marched became Russian soil. Thus, they fought to the man and bullet defending their positions. This wasnt always a good thing.

If you are fighting to destroy an enemy, and cripple their ability to make war - rather than to gain territory and bolster your industrial base - then you may not need to wory about holding ground. The defender must hold ground, but you can raid systems, destroy colonies, then pull out. sometimes you cant afford to hold worlds, but you can afford to continue an offensive untill you can recolonize them later.

Other times, holding teritory is crucial, because you need their production, or their resupply depots, or need them to slow down a counter attack.

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by Puke:
The defender must hold ground, but you can raid systems, destroy colonies, then pull out. sometimes you cant afford to hold worlds, but you can afford to continue an offensive untill you can recolonize them later.

Very true. I'm playing a TDM Modpack game. I'm the Ukra-Tal, and the Aquilaeians took an instant dislike to me. Same atmosphere. I've got my core systems fortified, and I raided their territory, conquering two systems and then losing them again, twice. At the same time I've gained, lost and now regained two fringe systems. And so it goes.

They are a dying race. I will let them be. I must prepare for the coming storm. The Vikings refuse all treatys, and the Cue Cappa and Albion have dreadnoughts everywhere. I don't have the mineral resources for master computer ships. Yet.

[ October 12, 2002, 00:12: Message edited by: Arkcon ]