Hey, folks.
We spend the whole game preparing to attack and defend against military attacks from our opponents. We're aware of normal insurgencies and spy actions, and we do what we can to take precautions against them. Sometimes, though, your opponent goes all out to cause you morale problems, either to keep you from reaching the required number of VPs or just because their feelings are hurt that you beat them.
Here are two examples:
1. Using spies to reduce morale in undefended cities. I've done this myself. You probably see it most clearly toward the very end of the game, especially if people are trying to keep one country from getting a solo win. If you're getting up toward 1600 VPs, you've probably got quite a collection of cities, and chances are you don't have troops in all of them. In fact, if you're like most people, you've probably left entire nations/regions without any troops in them. By using spies to reduce the morale in those cities, the enemy can put those cities back down below 35% morale so that cities you haven't even though about in 20 game days now start having Rogue attacks again.
2. The crazy pants-on-fire rabbit run - Some enemies know they they are beat and give up before they're completely beat. They don't think they're giving up, but they're also not trying to stay in the game. All they want at this point is to bother you. So,... they gather up whatever remaining units you have, head to a large area that doesn't matter strategically, and run through all your undefended cities there. They don't claim any of them, because, again, they aren't interested in their own game any longer. They just turn the cities over so that the morale drops and insurgency can possibly spring up again. Now you have to spend time, troops, and resources going back over to that area and getting everything settled down.
Now, ideally, of course, the best defense against all of these things would be to always maintain a substantial defensive force in every city you ever conquer. Let's be real, though; how often does that happen (unless I'm always doing it wrong)? So, does anyone have any other tricks for dealing with these two annoyances? Or, are they just unavoidable inconveniences that come with winning a game?
We spend the whole game preparing to attack and defend against military attacks from our opponents. We're aware of normal insurgencies and spy actions, and we do what we can to take precautions against them. Sometimes, though, your opponent goes all out to cause you morale problems, either to keep you from reaching the required number of VPs or just because their feelings are hurt that you beat them.
Here are two examples:
1. Using spies to reduce morale in undefended cities. I've done this myself. You probably see it most clearly toward the very end of the game, especially if people are trying to keep one country from getting a solo win. If you're getting up toward 1600 VPs, you've probably got quite a collection of cities, and chances are you don't have troops in all of them. In fact, if you're like most people, you've probably left entire nations/regions without any troops in them. By using spies to reduce the morale in those cities, the enemy can put those cities back down below 35% morale so that cities you haven't even though about in 20 game days now start having Rogue attacks again.
2. The crazy pants-on-fire rabbit run - Some enemies know they they are beat and give up before they're completely beat. They don't think they're giving up, but they're also not trying to stay in the game. All they want at this point is to bother you. So,... they gather up whatever remaining units you have, head to a large area that doesn't matter strategically, and run through all your undefended cities there. They don't claim any of them, because, again, they aren't interested in their own game any longer. They just turn the cities over so that the morale drops and insurgency can possibly spring up again. Now you have to spend time, troops, and resources going back over to that area and getting everything settled down.
Now, ideally, of course, the best defense against all of these things would be to always maintain a substantial defensive force in every city you ever conquer. Let's be real, though; how often does that happen (unless I'm always doing it wrong)? So, does anyone have any other tricks for dealing with these two annoyances? Or, are they just unavoidable inconveniences that come with winning a game?