Offence vs. Defense in Strategy Games

In this blog post, we decided to tackle an age old debate among strategy war or RPG gamers – which is the best strategy- offence or defense? Depending on the gameplay style, players take the approach which they think will give them victory over their enemies. But, does it completely depend on a player’s preference or is there some sound strategy behind each approach?

Offence is Best

When you enter the world of a strategy war game, online or offline, the first thing on your mind is how you can create the strongest military units. Whichever world you enter, the goal is to dominate it; and what better way to do it then with a large attack force? Players that take the offensive approach don’t pay much attention towards securing their borders or settlements. They believe in the sports metaphor ‘the best offence is a good defense’, so their main objective is to amass an army that will help them destroy all the settlements nearby.

But, there is a huge flaw in this strategy; when players are out carrying out an attack, they leave their base completely unprotected. If someone else has the same idea as them, they can get flanked and lose the game even when they have a huge army.

Defense is Key

On the other side of the equation are players that have a defense first mentality; when they start a strategy war game, their first thought is about securing their base in the best way possible. Instead of building up an attack force, they focus more defensive upgrades and protecting their settlement from external attacks.

The negative side of this approach is that, players often get too defensive and forget about the main goal of the game – which is to defeat your enemies. They spend most of their resources on erecting defensive structures, they get attacked and the structures get destroyed. They spend more resources to build new ones, and the cycle continues. I remember a Red Alert 2 match where both I and my opponent focused primarily on defense and neither one of has had enough offensive power to defeat the other; needless to say, the match dragged on for hours and we had to leave it undecided.

The Perfect Balance

By looking at both the strategies above, you can safely conclude that going with one or the other is not the best approach. So, the best ‘strategic game winning formula’ would be to create a balance between the offence and defense. Secure your base, but don’t forget to build or summon an army. Depending on the game you are playing, you could slightly lean towards one or the other, to conquer your enemies.

So which approach do you think suits 5-Empires best? We believe it is an offensive one; you can let us know what you think by leaving your comments below.