Attacking or Defending ?

[Dauntless07]

This is not exactly looking into long term strategy, but when in doubt tactically remember it is ALWAYS more advantageous to attack with three when possible; as illustrated below...

Probabilities of winning a dice roll.
______________________________________Attacker
_____________________________|one die | two dice | three dice
Defender one die | Attacker wins | 41.67%_ | 57.87% | 65.97%
_______________| Defender wins | 58.33% | 42.13% | 34.03%
________two dice | Attacker wins | 25.46% | 22.76% | 37.17%
_______________| Defender wins | 74.54% | 44.83% | 29.26%
_______________| Both win one_ | _n/a__ | 32.41% | 33.58%

[Trephining]

It depends on the number of players in the game if I want to take a card first turn or not.

If there are 6 players, then earning a set and cashing first (for the lowly 4 armies) isn't necessarily bad. Because the sets increase...4,6,8,10,12,15, and the seventh is 20. So if you cash for 4, right then you reduce your cards, which eliminates you as a desirable player to eliminate. You also increase your armies somewhat, again making you less desirable to eliminate because there is more risk involved. It also place you in line to get that seventh set when it is far more likely to start the cascade of eliminations.

[MarshalNey]

This is not exactly looking into long term strategy, but when in doubt tactically remember it is ALWAYS more advantageous to attack with three when possible; as illustrated below...

Probabilities of winning a dice roll.
______________________________________Attacker
_____________________________|one die | two dice | three dice
Defender one die | Attacker wins | 41.67%_ | 57.87% | 65.97%
_______________| Defender wins | 58.33% | 42.13% | 34.03%
________two dice | Attacker wins | 25.46% | 22.76% | 37.17%
_______________| Defender wins | 74.54% | 44.83% | 29.26%
_______________| Both win one_ | _n/a__ | 32.41% | 33.58%

I think you made a typo in the 3rd row. Obviously the odds of winning will go up from 25.46% for the Attacker vs. a Defender with 2 dice. Perhaps you meant 32.76% instead of 22.76%. Or, more likely, the odds of winning with 1 die on the attacker vs. 2 die on the defense is lower than 25.46%.

Otherwise, though, a sound analysis for players operating on a tactical level.

The morale of the story, fellow conquerors, is that attacking 1 defending troop with 4 or more troops has a sizeable advantage to the attacker (no surprise there), but also that attacking 2 defending troops with 4 or more troops still gives a slight advantage to the attacker.

To go extend the analysis, the larger the troops stacks involved, the more pronounced the attacker's advantage becomes. So, a 6 vs. 6 attack is less likely to succeed than a 10 vs. 10 attack, and so forth.

On the flip side, you should also note however that 2 troops are much stronger than just 1 troop. In fact, it's nearly proportional (double). After that, however, the defender will get diminishing returns when defending against comparable numbers. So 2 is the golden number for defending.

And 4 is the golden number for attacking.

Those are the minimums you'll need for a decent chance of victory.

[darrens99]

An excellent question, and knowing when to attack and when to defend is what separates a good player from the newbs. Its impossible to give a step by step strategy as the answer because its different for every game type and different eventualities within a game but I can give a few tips I find important.

defence is particularly important at the start of a game, limit yourself to taking 1 region a turn, don't attack with less than three dice even if it means turning down a card. dont spread yourself thin getting a region bonus, those with bonuses are envied therefore it is important having a region you cant defend.

in escalating, cards are important for winning, but id rather have 0 cards and 20 troops than 5 cards and 5 troops. good players will be looking at stealing cards, you need to be the hunter not the hunted

Always know what your opponents are doing, if your opponents are attacking each other there is no need to join in, let them lose troops while you sit back and stock pile troops.

The best time to attack is when you can take someone out in 1 and they have 3+ cards, think about it a dead opponent cant have revenge.

If your playing a match with lots of people and 1 player starts to get powerful try and read the other players they will probably be worried as well and there is a good chance they will do your job for you. The beauty about playing cc is a players can go from top to bottom in the blink of an eye (well a 24hr turn anyway) having said that if a player gets to equal the region/troops of every others added together you should definitely go all out

to conclude the best way to win is to be able to read your opponents, in war strategist always gone on about knowing thy enemy and even on this dice game its important

[darth emperor]

well also is good in escalating attack in the first turn,and when you get a set(with 3 or 4 spoils) stop the attack 1 or 2 turns...because in case you get weak you'll be able to cash...sometimes happens you dont attack the first turn and then you dont have enough spoils...but of course maybe after 4 cards you dont get a set...so would be a trouble ,also happens that if you do that...you finaly for wathever reason decided to attack...well that depends on how is the opponent and sometimes is worth to attack and get the 5th spoils first...

[Donald Fung]

Escalating: don't worry about attacking at start. unless you are in a big game with 5-8 players and you are last or almost last to go, you should not attack your first turn because getting 4 troops is almost nothing. However, once the troop amount gets big, you should always try to attack each turn to maximize your trades.
Flat Rate: always attack each turn, especially at start. Getting 10 troops on your 3rd turn will almost ensure you a win.
No Spoils: attack only when necessary (break a bonus, take a bonus) since you get no benefit from attacking randomly.