So do you think the patch has evened it up for the defender vs human opponents?

[Guest JAZZA]

In a recent thread just before the patch, people were saying that they mostly lost as the defender.I haven't tried a pbem defending with 1.1 so I was wondering how everyone is going in their pbem/ip games as the defender.

[Snoop]

Its still very hard to be the defender, but It can be done as I have shown many of my attacking opponents.

[Talenn]

I think it is still VERY hard for the defender. This stems partly from the lack of ability to actually 'hold fire' as I stated in another thread. You have to almost 'trick' your troops into actually engaging when you want them to (or even when it is BENEFICIAL for them to).

Also, the ability of attacking units to 'share spotting' make it so that as soon as a defending unit fires it is instantly annihilated if it is LOS of multiple attackers. Of course this isnt as easy a problem to solve (not by a LONG shot) but it contributes to the defender's disadvantage. Again, you can do things to mitigate against it, but the ball is in the defender's court not to make any mistakes IMO and having less control over WHEN they open up often leads to units being exterminated piecemeal.

Given these limitations (and the lack of 'recon' which forces the defender to defend more or less all along the front while the attacker can mass on one side), its VERY tough for the defender. Its certainly not impossible, but it is far more difficult than 1) it is in many other games where people will have cut their teeth and 2) more difficult than it should be IMO. A few simple tweaks to the defender's options for 'hold fire'...ie setting an engagement range etc would go a long way to redressing this.

But there are so many people who are horrified by and paranoid of any proposed changes to the system that I seriously doubt you'll see much in that direction. More than likely a continued refinement of the points allocated to each side will be the method used if the general feeling remains that its not quite balanced yet.

Talenn