Entrenchment

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Entrenchment
The blue horizontal bar is the Entrenchment interface. The bar shows the defense modifier depending on the amount of entrenchment.

Entrenchment is a military tactic that involves a ground division (excluding navy and air) maintaining a static position for a certain period of time to yield additional defense bonuses, reducing the damage delivered by enemy units towards the entrenched division.

When a ground division remains static, their entrenchment bar will automatically begin increasing until it reaches the maximum threshold, taking around 14 seconds. However, if the division moves upon entrenching, the entrenchment bar, along with the defensive bonuses, will completely nullify until the division returns to a static position.

Some external factors can influence the speed and the defense bonus surrounding entrenchment, specifically doctrines, terrain, biomes, operations, fortifications, and traits.

Modifiers

Entrenchment will only increase defense over the entrenched division, mitigating the damage delivered by enemy units. For instances, defense can also be viewed as HP (health percentage), as 100K (100,000) fully entrenched infantry on Mountainous terrain are 4x stronger, acting as 400,000 troops, or 100K fully entrenched infantry on Jungle would be 3.25x stronger, acting as 325,000 troops. Additionally, some modifiers can exclusively increase the speed of which the entrenchment bar grows, without affecting the defense modifier.

The maximum base entrenchment defense modifier is 1.25x, and the time required to maximize the entrenchment bar is 14 seconds. This applies to flat lands (no terrain), no biomes (excluding Arid), or any other external entrenchment modifiers.

Entrenchment Modifiers Chart
Terrain Terrain Maximum Defense Modifier Entrenchment Speed Flat 1.25x 0x Hilly 1.7x 0x Semi-Mountainous 2.75x 0x Mountainous 4x 0x
Biomes Biome Maximum Defense Modifier Entrenchment Speed No Biome or Arid 1.25x 0x Mild Winter 1.4x 0x Severe Winter 1.63x 0x Arctic 1.75x 0x Jungle 3.25x 0x
Military Doctrines Doctrine Branch Defense Modifier Boost Entrenchment Speed Static Lines Static Lines 1.25x 0x Downfall Initiative Massed Attack 0x 1.25x
Military Operations Operation Defense Modifier Boost Entrenchment Speed Elastic Defense 0% +35% Maginot Theory +50% 0% Lightning Offensive 0% -50%
Extra Modifiers The Unyielding trait for specifically ground/army military leaders increases both the entrenchment speed and the defense modifier at a randomized percent. Fortifications inherently multiplies by attack and defense modifiers by 2x, in which the multiplier will stack on the entrenchment's defense modifier. For example, to determine the total defense modifier of the Mountainous terrain applied to a fort, you must calculate the following: 4 x 2 = 8. Meaning, a fully entrenched division stationed on a mountainous fortified city will have their base defense multiplier quadrupled to 8x.

Usage

Entrenchment Exploitation

With a strategic playstyle, one can exploit the terrain or biome, such as Mountainous, Jungle, Severe Winter, and more, to reap additional entrenchment defense bonuses to effectively repel or weaken an invasion against the aggressor, who will probably charge at the entrenched divisions, not realizing that the entrenched troops are 6x stronger, providing a major foothold in the war.

Entrenchment presents a unique and realistic gameplay element, shifting the focus of wars from numbers of troops to strategic utilization.

Countering

Since entrenchment is an extremely powerful tactic, the enemy deploying a large number of troops entrenched in a strategically important city, especially in challenging terrain and biomes, can make it nearly impossible to dislodge the garrison and win the siege by attacking it directly without any external support.

In such situations where direct attacks are proved futile, the use of artillery, attackers, bombers, fighters, aircraft carriers, battleships, destroyers, and, to a lesser extent, frigates, can actively weaken the entrenched division. This forces the defenders to continually replenish their forces, leading to increased war exhaustion due to losses, or they may be compelled to move their division away from the bombardment zone. This action breaks their entrenchment, nullifying their defensive bonuses, or they might suffer from attrition, especially in harsh geographic terrain.

If the enemy deploys artillery to counter-bombard your forces, several solutions can be used. This includes having a greater number of artillery units to surpass their bombardment damage (or acquiring modifiers that increase artillery damage), upgrading artillery range through technology to outgrow their bombardment radius, or utilizing attack aircraft and ships. However destroyers and frigates are vulnerable to artillery, so other types of ships, such as battleships within close-range and aircraft carriers positioned from afar, should be considered for this purpose.

AI Luring

Visit main article: AI Luring
A common strategy that involves capturing a city within the range of AI home guards, then waiting a few seconds to automatically attract the AI home guards toward your entrenched division at the captured city. This tactic provides a significant advantage, reducing the damage from enemy forces and effectively eliminating the home guards faster.