BlitzkreigComin:
The cost of initiative comes in several parts.
1. If you forward build, those villies aren't gathering - at home your builders can go back to resources. You've got the economic edge right there.
2. If you don't forward build, you have to build up your military in advance so those resources can't get re-invested in your econ. Also your reinforcements are far, while the defender's are close by so he'll tend to have greater numbers even while training at the same rate.
3. Military units tend to cost more than defensive units. If you're fighting someone's defensive units, you're losing resources faster than he is - even assuming you lose the same amount of units. That means your stockpiles will deplete faster, so you'll run out of resources for military long before he will.
Also there may be a slight misunderstanding here. I agree it's usually best not to stay defensive, but I find it's often advantageous to be defensive for the first few fights and only attack once your opponent spent his stockpiles fighting your counter-units.For example, if you know someone will bowman rush, it can be advantageous to keep your forwards at home for a bit and use slingers to fend off his bowmen, and take out his forward buildings+villies - then you attack him, because he can't hurt you anymore and probably can't defend very well either.The key to that of course, is to be ready before the attack. That means being in the right age, the right units researched, and the buildings to make enough of them on short notice.
So basically with a good defense you attack not his villies, but his resources directly - without leaving home! I guess I'm not exactly disagreeing with the quote 'the best defence is a good offence'... I'm just insisting that it has to be a good offense, and sometimes when you just can't mount a really good offence (like when both sides are about equal), you're better off with a good defence and letting your opponent be the one to waste his resources, attacking only but always when you can do so effectively.Caesar_Constintine:
It's important to attack too, as soon as you know your opponent can't defend. That can mean attacking first - but only if your opponent can't defend effectively.
Also a handful of units can be enough to do the economic damage, you don't need to send 50 CAs. 4 camels and a scout dumped from a transport will kill his villies very nicely if he has no army, and it's only a small loss if he does have one.
Phill Phree:
Exactly, a good defense is a trap. It has to be ready in advance, but the advantage is on the defender because of time and resource considerations.
If you must hit first, the the 'hit hard' part is very important. An rush that gets destroyed before getting to the enemy villies is a defeat. A rush that costs more to kill villies than it costs to replace them (plus the lost productivity in the meantime) is also a defeat. Only a rush that kills more villies than its own cost is a victory.