Attrition / Softening them up

[GodwinW]

Something I do not see any streamers/youtubers so far use (not that I have watched everything), nor see it come up in discussions here (for example on the use of infantry) is taking advantage of readiness reduction through direct combat (artillery is of course used to lower enemy positions before a direct attack).

Now, defensive troops get less of a readiness penalty than attackers, but if I understand correctly it can still be very much worth it to send a few infantry (sacrifices) in before the main army attacks.

The defenders will defend against 1 or 2 attacks that round, losing readiness, and then move your main army in with way better odds.

Is this not done a lot for a reason I'm not aware of?

[diamondspider]

I don't do it because I don't want to lose troops, especially experienced ones. Also, I've noticed that the better the overall odds, the more efficient attacks are. So splitting it up like this goes against that. Finally, my leaders die more often in close odds battles and rarely in good odds ones. So that is a lot of reasons.

Don't forget that if your unit just gets crushed and gets no hits in (on attack you usually can't hit anything for 2 rounds while the defender can), that won't reduce their readiness much or at all.

[WeaverofBrokenThreads]

It is not feasible to do with infantry unless you have a high casualty tolerance rating, or stratagems that do not allow retreat.

[Jdane]

Plus you could end up giving the opposition easy XP and Morale points. Possibly too little to shift the balance of the following main effort, but it's more the principle of the thing. [:D]