One Large Stack or Several Smaller Stacks

[marquo]

One could lump 20 multiple units and leaders into one large stack in region A with a power of 1000, or 4 smaller stacks a power of 300 per stack for an aggregate of 1200 in the same single region A. If attacked, can one stack be singled out, or will all of the stacks join together on the defense?

One large stack = 1000
4 smaller stacks = 1200

I assume it is advantageous to split up the larger stack into smaller ones to maximize defense (2 leaders/stack) but is this correct???


Thanks

[loki100]

There is a risk that a larger enemy force will target one of your smaller ones, and in that case it could take catastrophic damage. There is a stack selection algorithm that determines which stacks engage.

On the other hand, unless you have no choice, never build a stack with a -35% CP. At this level not only do you have lots of maluses to deal with but your rate of fire drops by 1. So its likely your enemy will fire more often than you do.

[Ol' Choctaw]

The trouble with this idea is that somehow smaller or separate stacks are targeted in some battles.

I have had the AI target a smaller stack and ignore a large army in a region.

In a few of my own attacks I have somehow destroyed a garrison and taken a town while not fighting a larger force.

I know that it is being looked into but I don’t think it is fixed just yet.

Also it has always been a bit problematic because of frontage. Some parts of a force will fight and others don’t, so losses are not spread evenly across all of those smaller stacks.

Usually what I have found is that this method always seems to work well when I attack the AI but not as well when the AI attacks me. You may end up losing a whole stack even if you win.

[Ace]

Difficult to answer, and both answers could be correct. I usually keep them in one stack because you are on the safe side. This is what happens if you are spreading your stacks:

- for every stack a roll is made each day whether they will engage in combat, that is why combat is often not initiated on day 1
- if you have 10 stacks in a region, several stacks will surely not participate in combat - they have not unified command, their commander failed to react to the situation,etc. Stacks with inactive leaders tend to do that more than other stacks
- so it can happen that only your small stacks participated in combat while large stack did not, it can lead to disaster
- there is one exception, if the combat is taking place in mountains, swamps, forts, you can spread your stacks to lower CP penalty while each stack still is big enough to fill combat frontage.