Good points, Minstrel. Choke points can be priceless if the terrain provides them.

If it's an Age of Empires type game, the units will often be bloody hard to control (very annoying), and it will probably be necessary to SLOW the game down as much as possible, since the computer can multitask WAY more effectively than you can. It's also vital in those games to secure economic advantages by finding and utilizing valuable resources like...trees, iron ore, gold ore, fresh water, arable land, etc....so scout around, find out where that stuff is and make the best use of it that you can.

Reconaissance, as Minstrel pointed out, is absolutely vital. Lee's lack of it on one campaign led to his defeat at Gettysburg, for instance (a rare mistake by "Mars Robert", who made very few of them).

Here's another tactic that can be helpful in desperate circumstances when you are faced with a much stronger enemy: distract them by leaving behind an expendable unit or two for them to attack or chase, while you retreat the main part of your forces to a safer location. They will hopefully spend some time either destroying the sacrificial unit or chasing it all over the place...and lose track of where the rest of your army is, giving you time to recover and fight again.

Cavalry units are good for distracting enemy forces, because they are hard to catch. Very slow units can also be left behind to fight and die, since they are too slow to get away anyway. Siege engines come to mind for that.

In real life, hope and pray that you never end up in such a unit on the battlefield, needless to say...

The small Greek force blocking the pass at Thermopylae was such a sacrifice unit, buying time with their lives as they delayed the advance of an enormous Persian army. Given the nature of Greek warriors at that time, they did it with full knowledge of their certain death, and with absolute courage...it was an incredible example of patriotic self-sacrifice, perhaps the finest in history. And the Persians ultimately met defeat in that campaign because of it.

- LH