Spreading armies around...

[Keebs2674]

I'd like to ask people's opinions on a tactic I've observed other players using from time to time. I'll use the "Classic" map as an example. In the situation I've noticed, let's say a player holds North America with 51 armies. He, instead of deploying 15 armies on each his borders with his opponents (i.e. Mexico City, Anchorage and Montreal) and leaving one army on all the interior territories, will place an even number of armies on all his territories or at least leave three armies on each of the interior territories and put the rest on the borders.

I can imagine various strategic reasons for doing this (preferring to be in a defensive position rather than offensive, not wanting to appear threatening his neighbors, hoping to mask his strength, etc) but is there a mathematical reason for doing it as far as rolling the dice go? Is it actually harder for an opponent as far as the odds of the dice go to kill 51 armies if instead of having 15 on each border and one in each interior territory he has 3 armies on the interior territories and just leaves 11 armies on each border (or some other ratio)?

Again, I'm not interested in strategic reasons for doing this other than if anyone knows if there's actually better odds when it comes to the dice for doing this?

Thanks.

[squishyg]

since the dice rolls are 3 vs. 2, i would guess that mathematically you're in a better defensive position if you have 2 (or more) defending rather than 1. since your opponent would have to go through that more than once (in your example) it would give you a stronger defense.

[jrl332005]

yes it would give you a better chance at defence for keeping as many territories as possible, but if you own a continent than it is not a great stratigy because you want to keep that continent for the next turn.

[firsal901]

i do the same.

it boggs down enemy troops when they attack
(unless they have fantastic dice)

so before they attack theyll think twice and if they do
they wont even reach New York(unless they hack the dice)

i consider this 3/5

[danes]

spreading your troops around gives a higher # of 3v2 rolls and a lower # of 3v1 rolls for someone to take you out. With unlimited reinforcement you can always shift back to more aggressive positioning later. Simplest example, 2 territories, 4 troops. with 2+2, opponent must roll 3v2, if they win, 3v2 again. With 3+1, if opponent wins roll 1 (vs the 3 armies), they have two 3v1 rolls left to take you out.

[WorldCup4James]

Yes, I'd agree it's a defensive strategy...the fact that you can always roll two dice when your border is invaded is very effective defense. The problem is that you can't attack with a full force, which is why I tend to keep 90%+ troops on my border. Of course, over time the attack is favored, so once the big force is put down, the rest of the continent is lost. It depends a lot on the situation I think.
Like on Europe in the Classic Map, it's often good to leave troops in the interior territories, as Europe is invaded often because it's in the middle of things a lot of times.