Advantages of Defensive Doctrine?

[unmerged(56576)]

What are the advantages of Defensive Doctrine over Offensive Doctrine? I've seen players that prefer to get a bonus in siege value instead the (IMHO much needed ) shock value and troop morale. What is a good strategy to follow using Defensive Doctrine, and how can I avoid battles while besieging enemy provinces?

 

[unmerged(30040)]

IIRC forts cost less also- so you can let the enemy troops bang their heads against your fortification while you breeze through theirs. A little extra siege value actually goes pretty far I've found.

 

[unmerged(17138)]

It's useful very late game when all the other morale bonuses (eg. tech, quality, etc) all get to the maximum limit of 7.00

By that stage you're walking around with artillery everywhere and firepower is far more dominant than shock (especially if you've gone quality and get the +1 fire bonus), so you can afford to go defensive.

As to winning by sieging, the key lies in sieging multiple provinces .. the AI will tend to focus on one province so you'll capture several provinces for each one they capture. (using artillery makes this more certain). If an enemy army attacks your siege, then withdraw immediately. It's important that you have room to manouver of course, so somewhere like Russia is good for this, but Navarra isn't as good.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

What are the advantages of Defensive Doctrine over Offensive Doctrine? I've seen player that prefer to get a bonus in siege value instead the (IMHO much needed ) shock value and troop morale. What is a good strategy to follow using Defensive Doctrine, and how can I avoid battles while besieging enemy provinces?

There are advantages and disadvantages to both strategies.

I usually go defensive (but only after I have adjusted more important sliders).

Reason is, that I try to avoid battles as far as I can. I win my wars by taking control of enemy provinces, and if the enemy has a stronger army, then by besieging MORE provinces than the enemy besieges of mine (the computer tends to put a huge army on one or two enemy provinces).

Advantage: Provinces give warscore without, in the best case, taking any losses (no battles, starting to move only on the 1st of a month to prevent movement attrition). As even minor one-province computercontrolled countries can, by cheating, field a larger army than you could in the same situation, avoiding battles is fine to me
Furthermore especially the early battles with low landtech are very random - even with more men and a bit higher landtech you might still lose.

Disadvantage: The enemy army will at some time loot provinces of yours and you can´t reliably attack the enemy army without risking a decisive defeat. And you have to run away with your army if the enemys army comes for your army - that is a turn-off for many players and I too had to get used to "tactical retreats".

 

[kolmy]

So, what are the slider chages that I have to do to go defensive, but still fight well?

 

[ConjurerDragon]

So, what are the slider chages that I have to do to go defensive, but still fight well?

None. Don´t fight.

 

[unmerged(45766)]

None. Don´t fight.

Or only when you have tremendous advantages, in tech and number.

Offensive is good only if you're facing human players, who know how to keep on a par in the tech race and against whom you need every edge you can get.

But against the AI, it's both really easy to avoid fighting, and you quickly get ahead in tech so that when later you have to battle on the field, the odds are greatly tipped in your favor.

The Siege bonus means that you either have an additional +1 to the siege resolution, on top of any other cannons, or that you can get the same bonus as if you had 10 more cannons per fortress level. No cannons mean your armies are fast and can avoid both attrition due to movement and enemy armies.

 

[unmerged(6159)]

You also get +1 siege value when the enemy beseiges your provinces. This means that a minimal fort takes as long for enemies to beseige as a small fort would if you weren't defensive. Almost as good as a free fort level in every single province (and a fort level that rebels can't capture )

So basically your seiges progress significantly faster, while the enemy sieges progress significantly slower.

And it's not like you're always going to get blown away when you fight. When you have numbers or terrain on your side you'll still win most battles. When everything is even you do tend to be in trouble though. Shock is much less important by land level 40 or so, after that you won't miss it as much.

 

[motiv-8]

I only go defensive on small nations that I need to be a trickster with, ie avoid fighting/steal sieges/simultaneous covering & sieging. For a state like France or Austria I go full offensive/quality and hunt down all enemy armies, destroy them, and follow up with massve assaults on the forts instead of sitting there sieging. Since they're big, rich nations it doesn't hurt me at all to lose a battle or have an army wiped out.

 

[unmerged(56029)]

What are the advantages of Defensive Doctrine over Offensive Doctrine? I've seen players that prefer to get a bonus in siege value instead the (IMHO much needed ) shock value and troop morale. What is a good strategy to follow using Defensive Doctrine, and how can I avoid battles while besieging enemy provinces?

Offensive gets you laid.

 

[unmerged(20077)]

So, what are the slider chages that I have to do to go defensive, but still fight well?

Increase Quality, Land and Aristocracy.