So imagine this: you are met with a stack of 16, you have two territories bordering that stack which aren't heavily defended, you are at an income disadvantage of one. What would you do? (Figuratively, imagine Iran is the stack and you own Middle East.)

That is a bad position in that you are in.. ofc It also depends on the income you have. If you have like 1000 vs 1001 income the stack advantage of the opponent nearly disappears. But the lower your income level is the worse your position is.

Actually the best chance you could have is to trade the bonus. Let the opponent in, hope that he overpowers his attack to break that bonus. But as counteraction stack into your opponents main income to equalize the situation. Or search for a bigger bonus to get other income instead. (but that is the worse of the 2 options; the bonus really has to be worth it)

PS If you have absolutely no contact to your opponents income or have any other chance to equalizethe situation, you probably have lost.

Edited 5/21/2022 10:21:20

no... it can be really bad at times.



income disadvantage: 19 me / 31 opp

Edited 5/21/2022 11:22:19

Less armies && income = surrender

What pros do is, that they defend one territory with neral whole income and the other with 3 or 5 (to protect against smaller attacks).
Or they defend neither and build stack behind fog.

Edited 5/21/2022 11:43:29

I actually do that. spend on necessary expansions (one bonus at a time)and then invest all into the stalemate, but when they both have a beginning army advantage and a higher income then that is the question

You surrender

The tip is to not let yourself get into that position

I later reevaluated and found out the root cause is stupid territory picking decisions.

root cause is stupid territory picking decisions

it's never just picks, except at the top level

If the game is close, and i am in such a situation i just keep the opponent busy and expand elsewhere. When i believe i have enough income i fight back strong. Another riskier strategy (that doesnt work against experienced opponents) is to put all your power in one region, and make a very delayed attack on the stack, hoping the opponent tries to split his armies to get both territories and fails. That way you get inside his defence and a way to affect his main income

at this point you're in a lot of trouble, but theres some psychology to these spots, so maybe look at their old ladder games and see how they approached it, some people always hit one spot hard, some people split etc etc