Each location on a Kohan map has different defensive and offensive properties. It has a particular type of terrain, is found near other types of terrain, and is certain distance from other spots on the map. As such, some locations are fundamentally better than others for different purposes.

Defense is about preventing the enemy from damaging or capturing your cities and from destroying units in need of repair or which are currently building. As such, a defender must evaluate the various advantages of locations on the map and find the best spot to position his forces. Each spot on the map must be evaluated to consider the following characteristics:

A. Accessibility
B. Basic Defensive Capability
C. Interdiction
D. Potential

Locations must also be evaluated for their ability to increase the strength of a defense. Good locations are ones in which defending units receive a natural defensive bonus, can be allowed to entrench and which are protected from being surrounded by the enemy.  The fact that such locations by their nature tend to decrease the offensive accessibility of your own cities makes such locations often the best place for a sound defense.

In general, look for areas where rivers and mountains require the enemy to go through a small area. This helps reduce the ability of the enemy to flank and surround your units, a problem faced by defending forces that are usually inferior in size to the attackers. A defense should concentrate forces in these areas, buttressing them with outposts and making use of any available forests, jungles or deserts. Clear terrain is the worst basic defensive terrain and such areas should be strengthened with outposts if at all possible. Consideration for repair under attack should be made. If forced to engage such a naturally strong defensive location, a wise attacker will attempt to maintain contact for as long as is possible in order to prevent the repair of the defending units and make a critical breach.

Often such natural areas will not be available, in which case the defense must still attempt to reduce offensive accessibility by the placement of forces in areas that complicate the movement of enemy troops towards the defended locations. Placing forces in the center of the map, or along a likely attack corridor is natural and sound strategy. In such open areas, the goal is not so much as to restrict the attack as it is to punish the attack once it is mounted by cutting off retreat and forcing the attacker into a difficult position. In such cases, look for solid defensive ground and plant your forces appropriately, all the while understanding that the enemy will naturally attempt to go around if you at all possible.

Though mentioned a bit above, locations are picked not only upon their own basic defensive effectiveness but also upon the ability of such locations to interdict enemy movement. Units placed in such areas will exert a ZOC that the enemy will have to either bypass or stop. If the enemy is unable to bypass the ZOC then the defensive setup is particularly useful. Some locations allow for the quick movement of troops to intercept companies that slip in to attack and raid. In general, the farther from the center of the map you get the harder it is to interdict, while the center typically has high defensive accessibility. Note that the shape of the terrain may very well change the 'center' to something other than the physical center of the map, but the principle remains.

Interdiction can take several forms, but the basic idea is to lower the enemy's ability to get his forces to your cities. Outposts, with their basic toughness and low cost are very good at creating a ZOC that will disrupt the enemy attack. The weakness of an outpost is that an outpost can't move, so proper interdiction requires finding the enemy and interposing your own forces between his companies and your cities. Even inferior defensive forces often serve highly important interdiction duties. This is a strong benefit of units such as footmen, which are cheap and mobile but aren't terribly powerful. They provide knowledge as to the location of the enemy and exert as ZOC that slows down any attack.

Interdiction locations are places on the map that either act as a bottleneck to the movement of enemy forces (in which case mobility is not at a premium and outposts and slow troops are valuable), or locations that allow units to quickly move to the threatened spot to protect the city (in which case mobility is a key requirement). Typically these are locations are near the front of the battle line, usually near the center but not in a place that a diversionary force can tie down the entire interdicting force.

The lack of ability to interdict is a clear sign that the terrain is not good for defense. If the team lacks an effective interdiction capacity, then the defensive strategy is unlikely to succeed, and the team should make adjustments appropriately.

The final characteristic of a defensive location is its capacity to allow offensive operations. In addition to evaluating your own offensive and defensive accessibility, a location should be judged the offensive and defensive accessibility of enemy cities wherever such information is available (scouting is very useful for this work). Players should strongly avoid being forced into defensive positions from which attack is impossible or extremely difficult. Strong defensive areas that are poor offensive locations are better left the duty of slowing down the enemy.

A defensive location has high potential if it facilitates an offensive against the enemy. These can either be a location so easy to defend with small forces that an attack can be mounted somewhere else, or an area that naturally leads to an attack of its own. Players should strongly avoid placing themselves in defensive locations that disallow attack. If forced into the complete defensive then players should attempt to find locations that provide a killing zone that traps attacking units so the defender can counterattack as soon as is practical. If the defense has no potential to mount offensive operations, then the team should strongly consider changing the defense or resigning.

Defense in Kohan involves the positioning of forces in the best possible defensive locations. The more trouble the enemy has to go to get to a location, the better it is defended.  If the enemy is completely unable to reach the location due to the interposing of ZOCs, then the area is
relatively safe until the ZOCs are removed. Not all locations on the map are equally good for the same type of defensive operation. The edges of the battlefield are less likely to be attacked with heavy forces but at the same time are harder to reinforce once attacked. Defensive operations in these areas need to focus heavily on stopping or slowing the enemy down, and any forces placed in this area will be unable to quickly support action in other locations.  Strong static defenses are extremely useful in these areas and the forces will typically be smaller. If the enemy commits heavily to attacking a flank he will be weak somewhere else (provided the enemy lead is not too great). Additionally, the collapse of the flank is problematic but the forces in this area are a long way from everything else and will take some time to reach your other bases. The opposite applies to the center, where all forces can both easily attack and defend, and a collapse of the center is often catastrophic since it becomes difficult to interdict all the possible directions of attack. At the core of any defensive setup is the idea that an offense will be necessary to complete the defense.